Author: Accountability Team

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From Certified Accountability ERP Specialist to Customer Experience Lead

At Accountability, our primary mission is to support the financial transformation of the most innovative agencies, while continuously looking for ways to empower and advance women’s leadership in the industry. Earlier this year, we launched a certification program exclusively for women looking to return to the marketing and advertising industry. Each candidate goes through each phase of the agency’s financial workflow while learning the Accountability platform and the company’s implementation process. Upon completion of the program, a candidate becomes part of Accountability’s certified network of implementation and support specialists. Unlike big-box ERPs, Accountability certified specialists are an extension of the Accountability team, ensuring a consistent customer experience.

We caught up with Jennifer Ventrudo, Director of Customer Experience, to learn more about her journey and how Accountability’s ERP Certification program has helped her confidently re-enter the industry after taking some time off to focus on her family.

Tell us a little about yourself. 

I am a mother of two wonderful boys, Vincent, and Luke. Being a mom is one of the best jobs I have ever had and seeing them grow into beautiful human beings gives me such joy. I started in finance as an accountant and got my CPA. Even when I took the time to raise my children, I was very hands-on with my husband’s business, handling all the finances.

Family, ERP Certification, Accountability
Jennifer with her husband and children

What made you decide to return to work?

After taking some time off, I realized I missed working in the industry. I loved helping streamline an agency’s financial operations through creative problem-solving and a best-in-class platform. I’m an accountant by trade but have spent over a decade implementing and supporting financial systems for holding companies, including a stint at Mediaocean, Grey, and Harris. However, I knew it would be challenging to re-enter the workforce after being out for so long. That’s when I heard about Accountability’s ERP certification program. 

Please tell us a little bit about the certification process.  

The certification process covered everything from financial accounting to project management. It was also very flexible, which was important for me since I still cared for my family while completing the program. The program allowed me to brush up on my skills and knowledge to hit the ground running when I returned to work. 

How has the program helped you?  

It has allowed me to hit the ground running and contribute from day one. Additionally, it has given me confidence in my abilities and made me feel like a valuable team member. In addition to having access to the Accountability platform to apply what I’m learning, I also had the opportunity to work on an actual client implementation while I was completing the certification. This hands-on approach was crucial. I’m now running a global implementation and having a great time!

Tell us more about the program

Accountability’s ERP Certification Program was designed to provide our agencies access to our company’s network of ERP specialists. The difference between us and our competition is that the specialists are hired by Accountability as freelancers or full-time employees. The program launched during International Women’s Day was focused on recruiting women who want to transition back into the workforce, so it was a safe space to learn with others who are in the same position.

To learn more about Accountability’s Certification Program, send us an email at info@counta.com and follow us on LinkedIn for an update on the next class.

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#BreaktheBias

Accountability launches program for women returning to the workforce

NEW YORK, March 8, 2022 – Accountability, a leading financial management platform for marketing and advertising agencies, launches a certification program exclusively for women returning to the workforce.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is #BreaktheBias. “It was important to us to take action in creating opportunities for women,” says Joanne Miguel, Chief Product Officer of Accountability. “I know so many brilliant women who took a pause from work and are looking for opportunities to get back into the industry. ” Accountability’s lean organizational structure is buoyed by a network of seasoned industry experts that add value throughout the customer journey. “This allows us to streamline operations without sacrificing expertise and skill. I’m really excited to work with our first group of women who have been accepted into this program.”

Selected participants can complete the certification requirements at their own pace. Once certified, participants join Accountability’s certified network of specialists and have the opportunity to support the financial transformation of innovative marketing and advertising agencies across the globe.

Certified Accountability specialists are carefully vetted and trained to ensure that Accountability clients get a consistent and high-quality experience throughout the customer journey.

If you are interested in getting certified or to learn more about the program, click here.

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.

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Accountability introduces curated network of advisory services and technology providers for agencies

NEW YORK, Nov. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ – Accountability, a leading financial management platform for marketing and advertising agencies, announces the launch of Counta Part™. This network of curated advisory services and customer-driven technology providers enables agencies to implement a best-in-class agency management ecosystem.

Counta Part is an expansion of Accountability’s platform extension program, which integrates other providers’ technology to automate and streamline an agency’s workflow. This program has enabled Accountability customers to define their own technology stack with a solid foundation for their financial operations.

 “Our rebrand at the beginning of the year is more than a new brand identity. We have a focused platform strategy to be a best-of-breed financial management platform,” says Joanne Miguel, Accountability Chief Product Officer.  “In addition to our platform integrations across project management, media finance, and payment automation, our agency customers now have access to a network of curated service providers.”

Accountability customers already have access to a team of domain experts, including agency former CFOs. Counta Part provides agencies with pre-vetted third-party advisory services, fractional CFOs, and outsourced accounting resources.

If you are interested in becoming a Counta Part™ technology or services partner or have questions about the program, contact submit a partnership inquiry or contact info@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 .

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ERP Platform Built Specifically for Marketing and Advertising Agencies

Our President Judd Rubin spoke with Tech Company News about Accountability’s roots, our latest product launch, and upcoming plans to support our commitment to be the foundation of an agency’s financial operations.

Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company? 

Accountability is an ERP platform built specifically for marketing and advertising agencies.  We were founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2008 and officially launched our second headquarters in New York City early this year .  We are the financial management system of record for agencies across 30 countries. 

Any highlights on your recent announcement?  

Our latest product launch encapsulates our core value proposition of centralizing cost data on all client projects and instilling accountability across the entire agency. Our recent product launch, Job Cost Central, is another manifestation of how we can help agencies take insight from a single-source-of-truth to make decisions on tactical tasks like client invoicing, but also more strategic decisions like, “which type of services or projects am I going to sell more of because it has historically proven profitable for my agency.”

Can you give us more insight into your offering?

Finance teams are consumed with the operational burden of closing the books each month – the stuff “to keep the scoreboard up-to-date”. Accountability automates these onerous tasks and centralizes an agency’s data to empower agency leaders to make real-time strategic decisions that drive agency growth. At Accountability, our focus is to provide agencies a platform that can serve as the foundation of their financial operations and enable integrations with their workflow management systems of choice – facilitating collaboration and transparency across client-facing, execution, and finance teams. As hybrid and distributed workforces have increased during this past year, cloud-based solutions, the ability to access tools from anywhere, have been essential for business continuity. Accountability’s ability to integrate with the rest of an agency’s tech platform means more automation, access to actionable data and less redundancies. 

Accountability is a modern ERP platform for agencies

What can we expect from your company in the next 6 months? What are your plans?

Unlike all-in-one ERP platforms, we launched a new platform strategy in the beginning of the year to be the best-of-breed financial management platform for agencies. We have been investing in our integration infrastructure to ensure that our agency clients can design their own tech stack with best-in-class solutions to run their business. We are working on expanding our list of strategic partners in 3 key areas:  resource management, media buying and execution, and payment automation.   

What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?

Accountability was  built by agency CFOs for agencies.  We compete against two ERP categories  (1) Agency-specific but legacy platforms that are hard to use and slow to respond to new requirements and (2) generic , “big box” ERP systems that require costly customization year over year. We’re the best of both: modern and built for agencies.  Accountability clients appreciate a modern, agency-fluent platform, with real-time actionable data.  They are not wasting time and money on customization and workarounds.

For the original interview, see Tech Company News.

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Accountability Launches Job Cost Central

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 .

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Accountability appoints Alci Brea to lead customer success

September  14, 2021 – New York, NY – Accountability, a leading financial management platform for marketing and advertising agencies, today announced the appointment of Alci Brea as Head of Client Services, reporting to the company’s President, Judd Rubin. In this role, Brea will be responsible for scaling Accountability’s customer-centric approach to onboarding and support and will oversee the company’s customer success programs. 

“The industry recognizes the advantage of a modern, agency-specific ERP platform to automate their business and connect with the rest of their tech stack. So we’ve appreciated significant growth, especially in the U.S.  There’s nothing more important to us than our relationship with our agency customers – it’s always been a true partnership. And as we scale, we want to ensure that we have the right team to support the continued success of our clients,” said Judd Rubin. “I’ve known Alci for years and his credentials make him the perfect person to lead this team. We’re thrilled to have him join and  help us support an expanding Accountability footprint.”

Alci Brea has been implementing and supporting enterprise solutions for agencies for over two decades. Brea joins Accountability from Adobe Workfront, where he led relationship & sales efforts for agency holding companies IPG & WPP plus professional services firms PwC & Deloitte.

Prior to Workfront, he was a Strategic Account Director at Mediaocean, responsible for the overall health of agency accounts. He led teams in matching market needs with up-sell opportunities, cross-functional implementations, and customer success for holding companies and independent agencies.

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.  

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Three action items to streamline your month-end close

The first two weeks of the month are eerily quiet. Ask a finance person to meet and the answer is likely “not this week, it’s month-end”.  

Agencies work off a month-end close calendar with key milestones that can start as early as the last week of the current accounting month and last up to 10 days of the following month. While some specifics might vary, “closing the books” involves checking off a list of monotonous tasks. For example: 

  •  Get all client invoices out and record all cash receipts
  •  Clear supplier invoices for payment 
  •  Approve submitted expense claims 
  •  Take up or write-off revenue on a project 
  •  Prepare, approve, and create journal entries
  • Analyze accounts, troubleshoot variances, make adjustments. Repeat.

These tasks could include prerequisite and follow-up sub-tasks turning it into a marathon to get the financial scoreboard right. The agency is an interconnected web of people and processes. This interdependency is demonstrated month after month when the finance team chases after multiple teams to complete their part of the process and manually collates reports to close the books. 

There are three operational efficiencies your agency can adopt today to shorten your close cycle and, more importantly, alleviate the strain and stress on your finance team.

Systematize approvals across teams 

What it is and why it’s important

Systematizing approvals does not mean replacing finance directors with machines. Systematizing this process means that all financial transactions requiring review and sign-off get automatically routed to the right person at the agency. Automated routing and real-time analysis of financial transactions ensure that they’re approved or acted on if follow-ups are needed. Just-in-time adjustments eliminate last-minute corrections that could delay your close or, worse, uncovered after. 

Action item # 1

Activate financial approvals within your ERP to ensure that all transactions – client invoices, vendor invoices, cash receipts, journal entries, and revenue take-ups – are automatically routed for review and sign-off as soon as they occur. 

Learn more about Accountability’s integrated manager approval workflow. 

Instill financial accountability across the agency  

What it is and why it’s important

Agency finance teams have historically been tasked with generating all cost-related reports and sharing them with the account management, production, or media investment teams. While the finance team is still responsible for ensuring the accuracy of an agency’s balance sheet and income statement, high-performing agencies understand that everyone in the organization impacts the bottom line. 

The agency is an interconnected chain of people and processes. A broken link in this accountability chain could delay your month-end close in the short term, but it has a direct impact on your long-term bottom line. 

Action item # 2

Give the “front of the house” access to run their own reports on-demand. What this looks like: 

  • Account managers have the latest revenue data for their clients, can query all open receivables, spot errors in client billing, and quickly analyze variances to budget down to the project level. 
  • Producers can quickly reconcile purchase orders with vendor invoices and have detailed data to direct payment priorities. 
  • The leadership team has an executive dashboard to see the agency’s current financial position, glean trends on profitable projects, and, if they want to, see the underlying financial transactions without waiting a month for reports.

The less time the finance team spends running and packaging reports, the more time they can spend on analysis and strategy.

Learn how Accountability is enabling financial visibility across agencies. 

Let your financial management platform do the heavy lifting

What it is and why it’s important

Month-end activities are arduous to begin with, but agencies face additional complexities, often forcing finance teams to manage the process by cobbling together data from multiple systems. Manual consolidation significantly slows down the process and is prone to error. A best-of-breed financial management platform recognizes the nuances of the agency business and enables efficiencies by integrating with the agency’s tools of choice and automating onerous tasks. 

Action item # 3

Survey your team to assess how much of your month-end and intra-month financial activities are managed within your ERP system. A modern, agency-native financial management platform provides the following and so much more out-of-the box.

  • Automated revenue recognition
  • Dynamically updated work-in-progress summaries to facilitate WIP management by client or project
  • Automated media cost reconciliation 
  • Month-end management ‘reporting packet’ derived directly from the platform because the key dissections required by the agency — office, clients, projects, tasks, departments, employees, vendors — are stored with accounting transactions. 

Incorporating these best practices in your day-to-day process will significantly reduce the backlog of things to do at month-end and give your leadership team real-time visibility into financial data to drive decisioning.

Is your ERP doing the heavy lifting for you? Accountability can help.

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[Webinar] Timing is everything

The biggest headache for agency CFOs in getting reliable numbers to drive organizational decisions revolves around timing. For any given project or campaign, client and vendor transactions are happening at various times. Even the best accountants can generate inaccurate financial statements without a deep understanding of these timing challenges.

Accountability CEO and Chief Architect Terry McMillan and Inspira Marketing CFO Clay Samaroo discuss why it’s futile for agencies to look at their P&L until they get their balance sheets right. Watch our webinar on-demand to gain a deeper understanding of agency WIP (work-in-progress) management and tools that you can use today to ensure that you have accurate financial data when you need it.

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Accountability Launches Agency Finance Master Class Series

March 29, 2021 – New York, NY – Accountability, the leading financial management and ERP platform for marketing and advertising agencies, launched its Agency Finance Master Class series.

Accountability President Judd Rubin explained the driver for this webinar series. “There’s no shortage of webinars and product demos from ERP providers, but we are fortunate to have former agency CFOs and agency workflow experts within Accountability. We are uniquely positioned to address the business and operational challenges that advertising and marketing agencies are focused on. We are excited to partner with agency, ad tech, and mar tech leaders in our network to curate these topics and share best practices that are relevant to the agency.”

Accountability’s Agency Finance Master Class series will cover topics of interest for all agency market segments and feature industry experts. The company launched the series with an educational webinar on agency media finance. Aptly titled Art + Science + Cashflow, the inaugural master class challenges the current media buying equation and highlights the critical role of financial operations in advancing converged media buying. The next set of classes will focus on revenue tools and work-in-progress (WIP) management.  

Accountability will be sharing new classes on its LinkedIn page. Follow the page and save your spot as the company announces new topics.

About Accountability 

Accountability is a global agency 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. It 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 project management and accounting platform to manage their business and gain actionable data to drive growth and transformation. For more information, visit counta.com

Contact: marketing@counta.com