3 Things You Can Track with Advertising Agency Software

Reports. To be honest, the word gives me the shivers. It conjures up an image of the boss from Office Space leaning over my desk, filling my nostrils with the smell of stale coffee…

Epic shiver.

Reports are not sexy.

Or are they? If you’re a traffic manager who wants to allocate resources smoothly; an accountant who wants to make sure bills get paid; an agency principal who wants to know where your profits are; an account executive who has to tell anxious clients how their money’s being spent, or a designer who wants to know what’s expected of you, then creative agency tracking software can make reports seem pretty exciting after all!

Here’s just some of what you can find out using reports in Function Point, but any good productivity tool you choose should give you similar insights:

1. Who’s Doing What, When

• In Function Point, the “Task / To Dos List” gives you a filterable list of all the work assigned to staff in your system. It shows you when tasks are due, who they’re assigned to, and how close they are to completion. You can also compare the amount of time estimated for tasks to the amount of time actually spent on them.
• The “In / Out Board” in FP shows you where your staff are right now, and any comments they want to make about it. Maybe Sally’s working from home because her apartment is leaking. If anyone wants to know why she’s not at her desk, they can check the “In / Out Board”.
• “Resource Allocation” tells you if anyone has more work than time, and lets you reassign tasks to distribute things more evenly.When you know who’s doing what and when they’re doing it, you can make sure everything is completed with a minimum of stress. You can prevent staff burnout, help people collaborate, and make sure creatives have the time they need to really wow your clients.

2. How Well Your Work is Going

• The “Job List by Client” can show you a list of all the jobs a particular account executive is responsible for. It has information about the status of those jobs, their due dates, and the differences between the amount of time you thought they’d need, and the amount of time they’re actually taking.

When you have a clear picture of the state your jobs are in, you can address issues before they become insurmountable.

3. How Much You’re Really Making

• The FP “Profit Analysis Report” gives you a clear picture of how much money you’re bringing in vs. how much you’re spending. It can tell you which of your clients are giving you profitable work, and which of them you should probably fire.
• The “Gross Revenue Forecast Report” tells you how accurate your invoices are by comparing them with your actual revenue. It also lets you forecast how much revenue you can expect to come in, so you can plan accordingly.

When you know where your money’s coming from and where it’s going, you can make the decisions that will take your agency from good to great. Any tool — of course we naturally think FP is the best —that can allow you to do this will help you get more control over your bottom line.

Reports in creative agency management software are not meant to elicit nightmares about the boss’s voice droning through your answering machine on a Saturday morning. In Function Point, reports can help you keep clients happy, staff inspired, and dollars rolling in.

This article was written by previous Function Point employee, Amanda Truscott.