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!