| By
Marty Pennoni
Media billing can be a nightmare—or it
can be a breeze. Whether it’s air time or print space, the challenge
is the same: get your client’s payment in the bank well before
the vendor invoice is due, and accurately account for advance billings.
Lucky you, Clients & Profits makes it really
easy.
When you generate a media invoice, C&P
recognizes the revenue and automatically makes a media WIP cost entry
to the same period. Then, when the media accrual invoice is posted,
the media WIP cost is subtracted from the period in which it was posted
so costs for the period aren’t overstated. Without this feature,
you will either have some large (and incorrect) P&L swings, or you’ll
be doing a lot of journal entries at the end of each month.
There is a small set-up piece—checking
an accrual box and identifying your media accrual and media cost accounts—but
then you’re ready to roll. The up-front work is done when broadcast
and insertion orders
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are
added, so media billing is easy. Here are some tips to make media billing
even easier:
1) When adding media invoices, use Select/Deselect All if you have a
lot of IOs or BOs and want to bill a lot or a few.
2) The earlier (and more) you can bill, the better.
3) Generate invoices on the fly, the day the insertion or broadcast
order is generated.
4) Don’t wait until month-end.
5) Never play “bank.” Always have client payments before
paying vendors.
Media billing isn’t rocket science, and it doesn’t have
to be hard. Just a few small steps in Clients & Profits can turn
you into a media billing star!
Marty Pennoni is a Clients & Profits consultant. He can be reached
at (517) 896-0781.
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