In-House Advertising Agencies Require Unique Software from The Advantage Software Company

There is a growing trend with large companies and corporations across America – In-house advertising agencies of some form are surfacing inside these companies.

Some recent reports show that a staggering 43% of large American companies have some type of in-house advertising agency.  Some in-house is just creative, or media buying, or project management, or a combination of everything.

In-house agencies have different needs than traditional advertising agencies when it comes to job titles, organization, project flow, and management.  So their software needs are different.  Here is where Advantage Software can step in and make a world of difference for In-house agencies.

We know In-House agencies!  Our In-House Agency suite of software products is totally focused on the way that In-House Agencies work.

Advantage Software’s president, Ellen Coulter, will be attending the In-House Agency Forum’s Annual Conference in October!  If you are attending this incredible meeting and would like to meet with Ellen, please contact her by email at ecoulter@gotoadvantage.com or by calling 1-800-841-2078 x414.  Ellen will be at the Advantage Software booth and information table during the show!

Software to Save Your Ad Agency Money & Resources!

The overall goal of the Agency Management System from The Advantage Software Company is to automate and streamline business processes within your agency.

Automation and streamlining of processes in any business can bring many benefits that include:

• Increased productivity and efficiency in every department

• Minimization of errors that cost time and money

• Increased access to management information to aid in making important decisions

• Added value to your clients which makes you more competitive

Advertising agencies often experience difficulties automating departments and bringing them together due to the nature of the business. With the focus on the client, internal procedures are often bypassed in lieu of getting jobs completed. To make things more difficult, systems available (such as Advantage) are constantly changing and growing. It is difficult to keep up. But the agency client also benefits when an agency takes steps to improve internally. Agencies know that they need re-structuring of procedures and further automation when they find themselves completing many tasks manually or more than once.

Before you can make recommendations as to what processes need to be automated and/or modified, it is important to review them in their current state. Review as many of your existing processes as possible and discuss your overall goals for improvement. If automation is in place, determine if the procedures are as efficient as they can be. If automation is lacking, determine if there is an application or feature available in Advantage that will bring significant benefits and will justify making a change.

We would like to talk with you about how our Agency Management System  and our suite of powerful Advantage Software tools can help your agency. Please call us today at (800) 841-2078 or email our Regional Sales Managers: Dominique Lacerte - dlacerte@gotoadvantage.com or Mike McGee - mmcgee@gotoadvantage.com . We look forward to serving your agency needs soon!

Ad Agency Software - How to Handle Freelancers within Advantage Software

Advertising and PR agencies outsource quite a bit of work to freelancers of all types - creative, copy writing, accounting, video taping, production services, etc.  But you have to account for the freelancer's time and cost to give you a total job cost picture.

Our Advantage and Webvantage products from The Advantage Software Company give ad agencies options for easily tracking and recording expenses with your freelancing professionals.

Our first option is fairly straight-forward:  Enter the freelance time to the job through timesheets including a cost rate; post the freelancer’s accounts payable invoice to an operating expense account in accounts payable. The freelance costs will be reported as Direct Service Costs on the Client P&L report.

Our second option for recording freelance time and costs:  Enter the freelance time to the job through timesheets with NO cost rate; post the freelancer’s accounts payable invoice to a non-billable function on the job. The freelance costs will be reported as Direct Expenses on the Client P&L report.

And our third option for recording freelance time and costs:  Post the freelance invoice directly to the job with a markup if applicable. The freelance costs will be reported as a Cost of Sale on the Client P&L report.

We have developed our Advantage and Webvantage products to be entirely flexible for your agency's specific needs and reporting desires.

We invite you to join us for a free tour and online demonstration of our Project Management tools and our suite of powerful Advantage Software tools. Please call us today at (800) 841-2078 or email our Regional Sales Managers: Dominique Lacerte - dlacerte@gotoadvantage.com or Mike McGee -  mmcgee@gotoadvantage.com . We look forward to serving your agency needs soon!

New Ad Agency Accounting Software Gives Ad Agency Billers More Control!

The Advantage Software Company has just released the Beta Version 3.20 of our Webvantage web-based agency management software with some powerful new features that will help increase workflow efficiencies for agency billing professionals!


In Phase II of the Billing Command Center, billing professionals now have a centralized location where they can review, adjust and bill media orders, as well as production jobs. The flexible media selection feature allows billers to select billing information at different levels of granularity, from all orders, to client, client/division, client/division/product, client purchase order, market, campaign, order number or even line number!

Billers can perform a variety of tasks from the Command Center, including income recognition and closing jobs without leaving the screen. By having all the information and tasks in one place, billers will experience a quick learning curve and become more efficient!

We invite you to join us for a free tour and online demonstration of our Billing Command Center and our suite of powerful Advantage Software tools. Please call us today at (800) 841-2078 or email our Regional Sales Managers: Dominique Lacerte - dlacerte@gotoadvantage.com or Mike McGee - mmcgee@gotoadvantage.com . We look forward to serving your agency needs soon!

New Ad Agency Project Management Software Tool Gives Ad Agency Leaders Real-time, Online Dashboards on Agency Progress!

The Advantage Software Company has just released the Beta Version 3.20 of our Webvantage web-based ad agency management software with some powerful new features that will help increase workflow efficiencies and job turnaround times!

The new release underscores Advantage's commitment of pushing real time information to the web by introducing employee utilization dashboards. These new dashboards enable ad agency leaders and other key personnel to view employee productivity, realization (billability) and even client fee analysis by company/office and department at the macro and detail levels from a single, interactive browser-based application.

View things like direct and indirect time, goal vs. actual, direct time by client, billed and adjusted time by client, and much more, all without printing a single report.

“These new features provide information that enables agency leaders to analyze key utilization metrics quickly, through easy-to-read charts and graphs, so that they can adjust staffing or fees accordingly,” said Advantage Software Company President Ellen Coulter.

We invite you to join us for a free tour and online demonstration of our Ad Agency Project Management tools and our suite of powerful Advantage Software tools. Please call us today at (800) 841-2078 or email our Regional Sales Managers: Dominique Lacerte - dlacerte@gotoadvantage.com  or Mike McGee - mmcgee@gotoadvantage.com . We look forward to serving your agency needs soon!

New Ad Agency Project Management Tool Routes Assignments Outside of Your Main Workflow Schedule!

The Advantage Software Company has just released the Beta Version 3.20 of our Webvantage web-based agency management software with some powerful new features that will help increase workflow efficiencies and job turnaround times!


Alert Assignments is a new feature that enables agency project managers to quickly assign and track workflow details outside of the main schedule. You can use Alert Assignments with built-in, user-defined workflow to 'route' tasks and issues automatically to team members.

Project managers can spend more time managing and less time entering data!

Alert Assignments allows you to gain complete visibility into all projects from a single, interactive view. Task and issue routing are automatic based on the state assigned by each team member and the workflow defined.

This feature can be used to track any task or issue that requires routing, accompanying documents or collaboration, including the creative and production processes, contract or RFP participation, and issue tracking on digital or other programming projects.

This slick feature speeds time to market and tracks progress, but eliminates the need to update every interaction in the project management schedule manually. In other words, you get more work done…with fantastic tracking and accountability…in less time!

We invite you to join us for a free tour and online demonstration of our Project Management tools and our suite of powerful Advantage Software tools. Please call us today at (800) 841-2078 or email our Regional Sales Managers: Dominique Lacerte - dlacerte@gotoadvantage.com or Mike McGee - mmcgee@gotoadvantage.com . We look forward to serving your agency needs soon!

Ad Agency Project Management Software Eliminates Multiple Manual Systems

Project management capabilities at your agency help you manage information and communications.  Your clients demand it.  A successful launch and management of a client campaign demands it.  Yet project management is many times an elusive goal that we chase because "we're way too busy."

Now imagine a single source for tracking everything from the creative process to job specifications, work orders, change orders, cost estimates, schedules, events, alertassociated documents and more. View media calendars and schedules online. And, view project and media budgets compared to actuals from a single online desktop object.  Pretty cool, huh!

The Advantage Software Company has developed one of the most flexible and powerful project management software suites that virtually eliminates multiple manual systems and brings important time-saving information to the fingertips of every staff member.

It all starts with our unique Job Jacket templates which you design to go with "your" workflow, based on the type of work being done. From there, add your own creative briefs, job specifications, work orders and changes orders based on your company's specific requirements. Budgets and media are managed along with projects from the browser-based interfaces that allow you to work from anywhere, anytime. Media is full-featured and completely integrated providing streamlined and managed control.

Project Management Key Features:

• Campaigns for tracking individual budgets for both production and media projects.
• The Job Jacket is the central point for all activities. Create your own job "templates" that allow you to open and track jobs based on the type of work being done. Store multiple versions and revisions and access all job-related information from a single screen.
• Job Orders include the creative brief, production specifications, media specifications, work orders, change orders and schedule information on a single report which may be distributed electronically.
• Creative Briefs store the creative instructions in your format for centralized access.
• Job Specifications provide staff members and vendors with detailed specifications about the project.
• Job Versions allow you to track Work Orders or Change Orders as they occur in the workflow process.
• Document Attachments allow you to attach and track documents, files and other digital assets.
• Alerts, topic management and Wiki-type features provide communication and collaboration tools to organize and track information that include your internal and client comments.
• Project Scheduling streamlines the traffic process with dozens of time-saving features designed to automate this important aspect of your business.
• Estimating helps you create more accurate client estimates using advanced features such as vendor pricing sheets; vendor quote/bid requests and estimating based on job history. Track an unlimited number of vendor bids for comprehensive comparison and analysis.
• Purchase Order Tracking enables you to control and track costs assocated with project vendors as well as house vendors. Purchase Order Approval ensures control.

We invite you to join us for a free tour and online demonstration of our Project Management tools and our suite of powerful Advantage Software tools. Please call us today at (800) 841-2078 or email our Regional Sales Managers: Dominique Lacerte - dlacerte@gotoadvantage.com or Mike McGee - mmcgee@gotoadvantage.com . We look forward to serving your agency needs soon!