Expert: Peter Gabany - 7/19/2005

Question
Dear Mr. Gabany,

  For my IGCSE computer coursework project I'm writing a program for an advertising agency. In order to do this, I must, of course know how the general structure of an agency looks like, or more specifically:

  If I, as a client wanted to present a brief to your agency, what would I do first, second, and what happens inside the agency concerning my brief?

  Just in case you need this to answer as thoroughly as possible: here is what my project is about:

  In light of recent business, the Accounts Department of an agency is in chaos. Since the Accounts Department is literally manages every single scrap of information passed between departments, boards and clients, this means that a lot of paperwork goes scurrying about. I want to design a system would would greatly improve records keeping, example: under the entry "Peter Gabany" I would have every e-mail, phone call, fax, memo from or to Mr. Gabany as well as personal information, a scanned copy of his business card, copies of every project we are working, or have worked on and an alerts about project deadlines.

Hope you can help.

-  Emmanuel Quatey.

Answer
Emmanual,

Great question and the answer is not easy but you will want to look at Clients and Profits which is a software program that incorporates nearly all. We use it here. We reveiewed its use for nearly 12 years before commiting to its price tag and maintenance package. There IS trouble with the program from the point of view of the user and bringing new people on board with the system. Aslo, our accounting department does NOT enjoy its use, but for the most part the system is brilliant.

We handle traffic flow to and from account management, creative and finance.

There is a password protect access to the program.

1st there is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) part of the program. All members of our team can place information into the contact manager and have it notify us regarding next to call, follow-up, etc.

2nd, there is a Vendor section. We list media contacts, vendors of external services such as printers, television production, radio production, illustrators, photographers, copywriters and more.

Next is client entry. Each client receives a client number/letter set - i.e.: CC for Coca-Cola. All of the client information is obtained through this number. Address, phone, fax, email and key contact info. Deeper you will have ability to control billing info - billing rates, standard markup, finance charge, payment terms, credit limit, retainer balance, sales tax. This of course dovetails with the CRM system.

Next is Job entry via job ticket. Once a client is set up we wish to assign and track jobs as the go through the agency. The 1st job receives a  job number. In the case of Coca-cola we use CC001 as the 1st job. Here we have the ability of all aspects around the job. Type, Job description. Creative brief, Estimates, Specs, Change orders, Work orders.

Each one of these is granular. Let us start with setting up tasks. Tasks are those common to any job. Account management, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Illustration, Design, Printing, Video, Broadcast Recording, Digital Processes, Photography, Web Services, Couriers, Shipping and many more.

When we move to estimating we assign the appropriate tasks for each job. from there we assign a description for each task and a cost for that task. If it is a 3rd party contract that we have estimated the program allows us to place the cost in and mark-up - submitting same adds the mark-up an places the cost to client on the bottom line. Obviously the estimate will print to a preformatted estimate form.

Then there is an area to apply their time to each job with daily job sheets. Staff assign their specific duty such as design or illustration and record the time spent. There is also a stop watch function that the staff can utilize if they so choose - a muh more acurate recording of time. Time shows up on the Job ticket as work in process and also graphically illustrates how much time is remaining on the job from that that was estimated.

Also as expenses come in for the job you enter the vendor invoices to the program and post them to the general ledger. Cost fall to the job ticket and recorded in the accounting component of the software.

When the job is complete or if you require to send a work in process billing you assign an invoice the job number and all expenses that have been billed - time and expenses - are carried over and reside on a billing review invoice. once one is satisfied with the billing review, they simply post same and an invoice is created. All debits and credits are adjusted in the accounting functions of the program and in the function of the job ticket (for a work in process) the ticket is still active and ready to receive additional hours or expenses to be billed. On the job ticket there is also a function of job status and billing status. Once the job is finished and billing closed off the job can then be closed.

A similar funtion is available for the media components of the program where we plan, book and buy media. We then bill through the same billing/accounts receivable area.

There are far more features that help us maintain the agency in a profit making mode. It has over 300 reports that can be garnered from the functions. for a complete list of these functions please look into the Clients and Profits website.

I hope that this works for you, Please let me know if I can offer any additional help. if you need to call - 905-885-9895

Pete