Advantage makes Fee Reconciliation a breeze in their latest release of blue!

Retainer Fees, PR Fee, Creative Fee, Social Media Fee, you name it.  Create “Fee Types” for any contract and let Advantage do the rest.  Billing, Reconciliation, Analysis, and Profit reporting are automatic.

Service Fee Types allow for reporting fees billed and time or commissions accumulated by the new ‘service fee type’ category.  The service fee type category can be set strategically on jobs and at other levels to provide for many different types of reporting.  This new feature allows you to bill and track multiple fee types together or separately.

More Information on the Service Fee results grid includes the ability to ‘drill down’ on any job or function to see the fees billed, details, and employees that make up the service fee time postings.   

Also included is a built-in Report Writer.  This means that you can create and edit reports from within the Service Fee Reconciliation module!  The same features you see in the popular Dynamic Report Writer are available here, providing you with more reporting flexibility than ever before. 

Service Fee Reconciliation is available in a beta version of blue, v6.50.09.  Customer feedback is appreciated, as always!  Attend free Webinars this month for more information.  Check out the schedule at www.gotoadvantage.com/portal.

Advantage announces the release of the all new Client Portal for Ad Agencies, Marketing, and Creative companies! www.gotoadvantage.com

 Advantage announces the release of the ‘all new’ Client Portal as part of Webvantage blue for Advertising Agencies, Marketing, and Creative companies!

The Webvantage blue Client Portal allows you to communicate and collaborate with your clients on topics and documents of any type through a web browser.  Information on production projects and media schedules can be shared instantly - no uploading necessary! 

Communicate on work-in-process, create new work requests, and revise existing requests.   A complete history of comments, requests, and decisions made is stored permanently with every project.

Electronically deliver documents such as invoices and estimates to your clients, making life simple and easy for your clients, while saving you time and money.

Brand the Client Portal to go along with your agency’s own theme, or theirs.   You have complete control over the look & feel of the portal!

Security settings allow you to post and collaborate on only the information you want to share.

Identifying Client Portal Users is easy using Client Contacts already established in Advantage

Applications available through the client portal include:

·          -Alerts

·         -Calendar

·         -Media Calendar

·         -Job Jacket including the alerts, documents, creative brief, specifications, job forms, and the project schedule.

Reports available through The Client Portal include:

·         -My Task List

·         -Open Job

·         -Project Summary

·         -Traffic By Day

·         -Traffic By Task

Workspace Objects available through the Client Portal include:

·         -Alerts

·         -Project Viewpoint

·         -My Projects

·         -My Tasks

·         -Project Statistics

Ad Agency Project Management Routines Get Automated with Webvantage Blue Software

Webvantage blue from The Advantage Software Company empowers your agency and business with incredible process automation, team collaboration and team communication tools.  “As we are all challenged with more work and fewer resources, automation of manual processes has become absolutely essential,” said Ellen Coulter, president of The Advantage Software Company.  “Webvantage blue is flexible enough to work the way you do, and replace manual processes that slow you, your agency and your team down.”

Webvantage blue easily helps you automate manual processes in the crucial project management area.  “Our agency and business clients really see enormous benefits with Webvantage blue through our tools like Project Scheduling, the shareable Calendar, and the popular ‘My Tasks’ feature,” says Coulter.  “These tools help our clients stay on track and organized.”

Clients will also find that Webvantage blue will assist them in resource allocation and planning.  Automated alerts will allow agency team members from across the globe electronically communicate and collaborate on all tasks without missing any details.  Webvantage blue maintains everything in a secure, safe, accessible database that is easily administered.

“One of the more popular user benefits that we are hearing about is the unique option of Webvantage blue to actually route assignments through workflow templates that our clients define and customize for their own uses,” adds Coulter.  “The end result yields automated processes that have replaced manual tasks to free up team resources for more valuable collaboration and contribution.”

The Advantage Software team provides full-service implementation, training, customer support and software customization services to help clients implement and transition to Webvantage blue.  For more information on Webvantage blue, please contact The Advantage Software Company at 1-800-841-2078 or visit our blue website at www.whatsblue.com.

Advertising Agency Management Software Introduces New User Features

The Client Portal is in final testing and will be released soon!  The new Client Portal is all new and more capable than before.  Customize login and workspaces for each client and provide access to more applications and information.  Look for Webinar announcements on the new Client Portal soon. 

General Ledger Report Writer with online drill-down to details.  The all new General Ledger Report Writer will provide improved and more flexible financial statement reporting with complete visibility into supporting details without leaving the report preview screen!


Document Comments / Image Markups - A small enhancement to our document manager commenting tool, you’ll be able to add text and comments directly on ‘image’ files.

New Blue Commands / Ask blue!
These new features further automate assignments and take full advantage of events, mobile devices, and communications you use every day.  Imagine tasks being automatically assigned based on the completion of an event like Estimate Approval.  Or, simply Ask Blue to create an Alert, change an Alert Assignment, or even open a Job through your SmartPhone , Tablet, or standard Email message!  Venture outside the walls of the software and partner with blue to get things done.  You’ll hear more about these great new features in upcoming Newsletters and Webinars!

Our new Project Schedule Gantt view will allow you to chain multiple projects together for analyzing and even editing the timeline from a single window!  This new feature will enhance the existing options already available in blue!

Blue feature highlights will be covered in topical webinars by Brian Hess.  You’ll be able to see the calendar of upcoming events on the Users Portal at GoToAdvantage.com/portal.  Be sure to register to attend!
All of these powerful improvements will help your agency manage   resources and increase profits more efficiently.  To arrange your   personal tour of Advantage blue and Webvantage blue, please contact The   Advantage Software Company at 1-800-841-2078 or visit our blue website at www.whatsblue.com.

Ad Agency Business Software Manages with Customized User Menus

“One of our top goals in developing Advantage blue and Webvantage blue was to create user-customized menu options that would personalize their software experience at a much higher level,” said Ellen Coulter, president of The Advantage Software Company.  “Our users told us that they liked the customized and personalized abilities within major software products so that inspired us to develop our blue software around a user’s personalized experience.”

The “home” tab in Advantage blue and Webvantage blue contains all the main menu categories and individual modules organized in sub menus within each category.  “We developed blue to be totally user-friendly and allow for easy on-the-fly customization of menus,” added Coulter.  From the “home” menu, you can create customized menu options:

• Quick Access Toolbar - Appears at the top of the menu from any tab.
• Bubble Bar - Appears at the bottom of the menu from the File tab.
• Navigation Window - Appears as a custom menu within the File tab.

“The ‘file’ tab contains your custom menu and the application window where Advantage modules are displayed,” added Coulter. “The Navigation Window, Quick Access and Bubble Bar options can be hidden or shown using the ribbon options.”

All of these powerful improvements will help your agency manage   resources and increase profits more efficiently.  To arrange your   personal tour of Advantage blue and Webvantage blue, please contact The   Advantage Software Company at 1-800-841-2078 or visit our blue website   at www.whatsblue.com.

Ad Agency Software with Incredible Software Support and Training

When we launched Advantage blue and Webvantage blue packed with new features and functionality, we also invested in our software training, support and technical support.  Each member of our training and support team has deep experience and thorough training with each of our advanced agency software products.  Matter of fact, each member of our training team is a former agency veteran.

Advantage blue and Webvantage blue software and technical support are available 12 hours a day to ensure we address the needs of all our clients, regardless of the time zone. “Live” telephone support is the most common method for providing support, but we also offer email support and a host of other online services. Average resolution time for issues is 40 minutes. Our Client Relations department provides proactive services such as capabilities demos, regular webinars and individual assistance to anyone needing guidance. Our Software and Technical Support departments fully support all areas of the system including installation, questions, enhancement requests, issue resolution and more.

Here are some pre-call prep tips straight from our software support team.

• Screenshots captured of the error when it occurs are invaluable, especially those intermittent, inconsistent errors. Documenting the exact steps to reproduce the error is also very helpful for troubleshooting.
• Where does it hurt - Advantage blue or Webvantage blue or both?  Adassist?  What versions are you on?
• Other software version information is helpful: Operating System (Mac OS X 10.x, Windows XP, Windows 7, etc.), Browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc.), Office 20xx, etc.
• When an IT support tech calls on an Advantage program issue, they often have to take our list of troubleshooting questions, contact the user to ask them the questions, and then get back with us.  It can make for a slow troubleshooting process for everyone involved. Having the user together with the IT support tech when they call often eliminates back and forth and helps us resolve your issue more quickly.
• If you leave a voice mail message on the Support voice mail, please say your name and the name of your agency slowly and clearly. We need all the help we can get.
• It’s helpful if you generate PDF files of your supporting documents that illustrate the issue before calling. For troubleshooting purposes, your rep will often ask for these to be sent to us via email.
• If your initial contact with us is an email, please include the pertinent details in the tips above. Also, it helps to know if you’d prefer to be contacted via phone or email for the follow up.
• For clearing up specific billing issues, the Job Detail Analysis Report v1 or the Media Billing Report from Adassist often help pinpoint the solution.

Our team of knowledgeable and helpful Software Support staff is available to help you from 8:00 am to 7:30 pm EST.  Call us at 1-800-841-2078 and select Option 1 or email your issue to softwaresupport@gotoadvantage.com. We are happy to assist you with all of your questions and support issues for Advantage blue, Webvantage blue and each of our advanced agency business management software products.

Ad Agency Software Improves Business & Agency Project Management

The word is out on the new release of Advantage blue and Webvantage blue and the stellar user reviews are pouring in from agencies across the country that are implementing this powerful version of ad agency business software.

“Advantage blue literally transforms the electronic workspace and provides advanced features based on the feedback of 600 agencies of all types,” said The Advantage Software Company’s president, Ellen Coulter.  “This new release of blue includes new, enhanced and re-written versions of our popular programs using new technologies, all based on requests from our ad agency software users.”

The new product design allows for more fluid and flexible workspaces along with more information placed at your fingertips.  The Advantage blue marketing campaign is derived from the vibrant colors found on the new Desktops and represents the visual and flowing approach to the delivery of information.

So what are new Advantage blue and Webvantage blue users enjoying?

ListenerOutlook 2-way integration - calendar synchronization
Email replies
More alerts - missing time, quote vs. actual
Popup alerts from Advantage to your computer without logging in





Completion of major applications with time-saving features
Billing Command Center - A single application for viewing, processing, billing and closing jobs
Broadcast Media
Payment Manager / Interface with CSI Virtual Credit Card

Standard Comments & Invoice Printing features, including auto-email
All new web interface, desktops and dashboards
Mac and PC menus
Fluid, customizable desktop
Job Status Dashboards and matching reports

New web applications for Account Service staff
Employee project hours forecasting
Intercompany office allocations
Feeds into Client Budgets
Alerts when staff is over-allocated

Project management improvements
Better and faster interface, data entry
Predecessors
Document markups
User defined reporting

Timesheets
Better and faster interface, data entry
Timesheet templates
PTO requests and approvals
Timesheet start and stop times w/stopwatch

All of these powerful improvements will help your agency manage resources and increase profits more efficiently.  To arrange your personal tour of Advantage blue and Webvantage blue, please contact The Advantage Software Company at 1-800-841-2078 or visit our blue website at www.whatsblue.com.