WORKING SMARTER EVERY
DAY
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Make
Good Madness
What do you
do when a media order needs to be changed, but has
already been billed? The answer is make goods.
Here's what to do when:
The ad
didn't run You've scheduled an ad to run for a
series of days, but the ad schedule was interrupted
(e.g., you've ordered a week's worth of ads, but
the ad only ran 6 days). How to fix this? Find the
media order and add a make good buy for the date
the ad didn't run, entering a negative gross amount
of one day's advertising as a media credit. It will
be appear on the client's next media billing, so
the client ultimately only pays for the days the ad
actually runs..
The
media vendor raised ad rates You've ordered and
pre-billed media for your client, but in the
meantime the vendor raises the ad's rate. And the
media vendor enacts new advertising rates. You need
to change the media order to reflect the new rates,
then charge the client accordingly for their media
buys. Find the media order(s) and add a make good
buy for the difference. It will act as a debit,
ensuring that the media's A/R and A/P
reconcile.
We're
not running that ad anymore The ad campaign has
changed. How do you let the vendor know about the
ad revisions after the media invoice has been sent,
but before all the ads have run their course? Just
add a make good reflecting the new ad's details.
Since the ad's cost didn't change, just reprint the
order for the ad rep.
The
ad ran, but things didn't go as planned Say you
were billed 25% more for a guaranteed position, but
the ad ran somewhere else. Or you ordered color but
the ad ran in black & white by mistake. The
publication offers some sort of compensation (e.g.,
rerun, discount, etc.). Document it by simply
adding a make good to record the vendor's
accommodation.
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By Mary
Peczeli
Media buyers track lots of very important details. They
usually drink lots of coffee and worry about things like
spot placement and materials due dates. And money. (Did we
mention money?)
Media billings can represent the biggest chunk of income for
many agencies. So overlooking even a small ad can get
expensive -- especially when there's no excuse to miss it.
This makes it particularly important that the accounting
department quickly and accurately bill clients for every
spot or ad that runs.
How can media buyers be sure that accounting departments are
not missing any orders that need to be billed? One good way
is if billings are based solely upon information that is
directly entered by buyers.
Since Clients & Profits integrates media with
accounting, it's difficult to simply overlook an unbilled
media order. Unbilled media buys pop up on the Unbilled
Media report, where they're hard to miss. This report lists
every
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unbilled
broadcast, print, outdoor, interactive,
or other media buy by client and order date. Some agencies
use it as a checklist during billing time. "We use the
Unbilled Media report to instantly see which orders have not
yet been billed to clients," says Kelly Ruzich of Fruehling
Communications. "With a billing process this easy, billing
can happen early and often -- as soon as the order is
generated."
Orders entered by the media department
flow automatically to billing, so there's no double-entry
anywhere. And there's no limit to when a media order can be
billed. In fact, a media order can be prebilled as soon as
it is saved and printed. Or, all of a client's unbilled
media buys (including make goods added by the media
department for reruns, errors, etc.) can be billed at one
time on a single media invoice.
It's enough to make the media department rest easy. They may
be so relieved that they'll switch to decaf.
Mary
Peczeli is a senior member of the Clients &
Profits sales team and a media specialist.
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