First-of-its-kind project cost portal set to transform client financial management and billing workflow

NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Accountability, a leading financial management platform for marketing and advertising agencies, launched Job Cost Central to streamline project financial analysis and the billing approval workflow. This is an extension of the company’s comprehensive job management module which centralizes and structures all the financial data points on any client project. This first-of-its-kind offering enables agencies to configure views and define their financial approval process to ensure alignment across all teams.

Communication agencies rely heavily on their internal talent and network of partners to deliver committed services, so a holistic view of costs and expenses relative to their clients’ approved budget and billings is vital. Job Cost Central gives agency client teams visibility into every project’s financial health and provides an electronic portal to communicate billing instructions to the finance team.

“All of the financial data points — estimated internal and external costs, all client-approved versions, client billing details, and vendor invoice details – were already accessible in real-time,” said Terry McMillan, Accountability CEO and Chief Architect. “We’ve taken what we had a step further and given our customers a way to dynamically create views of the data to support the way agencies need to review and approve financial transactions related to a client job. We didn’t just want to build a custom reporting or a static workflow tool. We wanted to enable our customers to use insight from their single-source-of-truth so everyone with client revenue responsibility can act on that information.”

Accountability’s Job Cost Central At-A-Glance

“It’s incredible to see the deep understanding of the agency business and speed of innovation within Accountability,” says Dan Zaret, COO/CFO of Spectrum Science Communications. “With Job Cost Central, my team has been able to define focused views, so we can better collaborate with our account teams in keeping our client projects billed correctly and on time. It enforces our desired process without adding work to anyone. It’s also great to see that the Accountability team has thoughtfully incorporated our feedback in the final version. It’s a true partnership.”

The next phase of Job Cost Central will build on the integration with Accountability’s project accounting module and enable users to take immediate action on billing instructions directly from the tool.

For more information on Accountability’s Job Cost Central, contact Joanne Miguel at joanne@counta.com

About Accountability
Accountability is a global financial management platform provider for marketing and advertising agencies. Designed by agency CFOs and launched in 2008, the Accountability platform serves as the foundation of an agency’s financial operations and is interoperable with agency workflow management systems, enabling real-time access to the agency’s financial health. Agencies across 30 countries trust the company’s integrated job management and accounting platform to manage their business and gain actionable data to drive growth and transformation. For more on how Accountability is empowering agencies globally, visit counta.com or contact info@counta.com .

Marketing agencies who have outgrown their accounting tool or the inefficiency of their generic ERP system have a set list of table stake features:

Project Financial Management, Time Tracking, and Billing
PO Management, Expense Reporting, and Accounts Payable
General Ledger/Accounting and Financial Reporting

RFIs or RFPs (Request For Information/Proposal) that often accompany these evaluations are focused on ticking the boxes against commoditized feature sets. When it comes to ERP software, agencies need to go beyond the shiny sales pitch and near-perfect RFP score and ask a question that will ensure an immediate return on your investment.

Focus as a point of differentiation

How often have you been told that a feature request is on the roadmap only to find out it is now sitting in the graveyard list, deprioritized because of other strategic projects that have nothing to do with the marketing and advertising vertical? Once in a while, you are provided a solution that works seamlessly for a retail company but ends up being a clunky workaround for your agency.

When evaluating ERP alternatives, Focus should be a primary criterion. Take a closer look at the Platform and People of your current and prospective ERP solution provider.

Platform

An ERP system falls into one of three buckets.

Generic

Often referred to as “big-box tools,” most generic ERP systems started in the manufacturing and retail verticals. Hence they are not designed to handle the specialized needs of agencies “out of the box.”

This lack of focus translates to costly customization to retrofit a generic tool to support an agency business. Square peg. Round hole. While some agencies have implemented these generic solutions, the true cost of ownership becomes evident in subsequent years. Customization does not end during the implementation phase. The dynamic nature of the advertising business requires continuous innovation, so your tools must adapt. When it comes to generic ERPs, continuous development is required to keep up with an agency’s business — and this comes at a premium.

All-In-One (AIO)

PSA (Professional Services Automation) and agency-native ERP systems should dominate an agency’s evaluation shortlist. PSA tools understand the nuanced needs of a people-based operation and project-based business. Agency-native tools are versed in the challenges that are unique to an agency.

While agency-native AIO tools reduce the customization cost inherent in generic platforms, the all-in-one approach presents a domino of challenges for an agency. All-in-one tools try to be all things to all personas within an agency, but specific job functions require particular tools, so it is not uncommon to have various tools to satisfy the needs of each team within an agency. A prevalent scenario is the adoption of stand-alone project management tools to manage timelines and dynamic resource optimization. The problem: AIO ERP solutions are built to be closed systems and do not integrate well with other tools. Disconnected tools mean disparate data. Disparate data means your agency does not have a single source of truth to inform financial decisions.

Disparate data means your agency does not have a single source of truth to inform financial decisions

Best-of-breed

A best-of-breed platform refers to the leading solution in a specialized category. When it comes to agency-native ERP solutions, a best-of-breed platform provides the most comprehensive functionality focused on solving a challenging problem that all-in-one systems only partially address. A key area is financial management.

A best-of-breed financial management platform is architected to be the single source of truth for an agency’s financials. It is powerful in managing revenue, costs, and profitability at the project level and automates onerous project accounting steps like work-in-progress analysis and WIP balance aging. A best-of-breed financial management platform is interoperable with other best-in-class systems of the agency’s choosing.

People

The size of a company is often confused with a solution provider’s ability to service a customer effectively, but when it comes to niche solutions like agency financial management, quality trumps quantity.

Even the savviest accountants can generate inaccurate financial statements without a deep understanding of challenges unique to agencies. Vet your ERP provider’s domain expertise and sector experience. An agency-native, best-of-breed financial management platform is only as good as the people supporting it.

An agency-native, best-of-breed financial management platform is only as good as the people supporting it.

Look for a long-term partner

Experienced finance and operations leaders can clearly articulate a gap in their technology stack and recognize when their team has outgrown their current tools. With an agency-native financial management platform and domain experts, an agency is not just investing in a system but building a partnership that can support its growth and transformation.

In your next ERP system evaluation, ask what the company’s focus is and carefully vet that the platform and its people are focused on the agency’s business.