Concept has been designed to be used by everyone in your agency. As a Microsoft partner, we've integrated their products seamlessly with our own. And we've made all data compatible with the latest business intelligence tools to help monitor your agency's performance.
So why not take a look at how Concept can boost your agency's performance in any of the following business areas:
- Job Costing; Production; Client Services
Wouldn’t it be reassuring to know you’re in total control of the complete production process - from initial pitch through to final billing? By making this a reality, Concept helps you ensure every job achieves the maximum possible profit. And because it combines so well with Microsoft Office you can immediately access all the financial information for the job as well as relevant Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, images and PowerPoint presentations.
Key features include:
- Estimates and quotations – which you can prepare using your own specified prompts and mark-ups
- Costing – with job activity templates allowing you to prompt, control and monitor margins and mark-ups
- Budgeting - keep continuous track of costs incurred against work in progress
- Job Bags – each containing the client service, production and finance information you need to manage the job efficiently
- Purchasing – transmit faxes or eMails automatically to suppliers as soon as orders are raised
- Time Recording – you can monitor the time spent on each aspect of a job and use this data to measure its profitability on screen
- Job Scheduling – an integrated ‘memo pad’ system prompts you when each activity need to be completed
- Flexible billing – you can produce internal drafts to review client invoices and cost of sales transfer information
Remember: Concept’s flexibility means you don’t have to buy all of these modules at one time. As you expand, the range and scope of your Concept system can grow with you.
- Media Management
Tailor-made for TV, radio and press advertising, Concept’s Media management package gives you all the information you need to analyse buying patterns, review client expenditure and keep an eye on your team’s performance.
Key features include:
- Campaign planning - for TV, radio, and display and classified press advertising
- Media Scheduling – campaign schedules can easily be designed and updated to present to clients
- Media Booking – orders can be raised and revised automatically, and agreements with media suppliers recorded
- Rate cards – rates for each media are maintained and changed as necessary
- Copy Control – by raising copy instructions, you can ensure your Production team hits deadlines
- Voucher Check – routines can be set up with notes to ensure key points are highlighted
- Client Billing – Concept checks invoices from suppliers against media orders, so accurate invoices are sent more quickly
- Special facilities for Recruitment Advertising
- New Business; Contact Management
Winning new business is never easy! Working with our agency clients, we’ve created a powerful database system that makes the task less daunting. It harnesses the very latest technology to co-ordinate your marketing activities while giving you instant access to all the relevant information.
Key features include:
- Prospect company database – with parent companies and groups linked, prospect status flags, analysis by industry sector and unlimited text notes
- Brand information – with details of spend, MEAL category, market analysis and current agency details
- Contact reports – featuring automatic pick-up of names and addresses plus forms tailored specifically for meetings, letters, pitches and telephone calls.
- Accurate targeting – so you always say the right things to the right people at the right time
- Easy key access – to Contact Reporting, Diary, Memo, Word processing and ‘Tell Me’ enquiry systems
- Mailing – record past mailings and builds new lists based on them
- External list updates – update and incorporate information from external bureau systems and list providers
- Financial Accounting
We’ve built our business on personal recommendations from accountants and management consultants. So it’s not surprising that so many of them now use our software to help them control their finances effectively.
But despite being a powerful system that can handle many different users, companies and currencies, Concept Financial Management software is very easy to use. It works beautifully with Concept’s Costing and Media systems and Microsoft Office to give you a powerful and flexible reporting tool. And because it’s so compatible with Crystal Reports and Cognos PowerPlay, it couldn’t be easier to interrogate, report on and present financial data.
Key features include:
Sales Ledger
- Flexible client/prospect database with text windows
- Client billing/draft billing, credit notes, journals, cash
- Credit control text windows
- Optional multi-currency features with exchange gain/loss audit
- Automatic journal numbering, batch totalling and forced audit trail
- Full integration with client invoicing, job costing, nominal ledger, cash book and bank reconciliation
- Detailed or summary aged debtors with due date calculations
- Settlement discounts and bank charges handled
- Easy on-screen cash allocation
- Posting to current and future periods
- Detailed or summary VAT analysis
- Unlimited retention of historic information
- Unlimited breakdown for nominal ledger turnover analysis
- Flexible invoice analysis file for sales analysis
- Full credit limit monitoring
- Dynamic links to Microsoft Office
- Drill to source documents
Purchase Ledger
- Flexible supplier/freelance database with text windows
- Handles supplier and media invoices, credit and debit notes, payments and journals
- Automatic journal numbering, batch totalling and forced audit trails
- Electronic invoice register
- Authorisation module enabling progress of documents to be monitored
- Allows up to 99 supplier classifications, each with different payment terms
- Enables payment by cheque, cash or BACS
- Full archiving facilities allow unlimited online access to historical information
- Automatic payment routines based upon supplier type and terms
- Full multi-currency options
- Detailed or summary aged creditors report
- Posting to past, current or future periods
- Full integration with job costing, nominal ledger and bank reconciliation
- Dynamic links to Microsoft Office
- Drill into purchase orders
Nominal Ledger
- Flexible free form chart of account structure
- Up to four separate charts of account structures, each drilling down to five levels
- Choice of account access by windows, code or description
- Automatic journal numbering and auditing
- Only allows balanced postings either manually or automatically
- Caters for automatic recurring journals and reversals, provisions and accruals
- Current, prior and future period posting
- Maintains total history with full budgeting and comparative reporting
- Interactive enquiry on current or historical data
- Flexible budgeting and forecasting
- Full text windows allows for unlimited text accompanying postings for auditing and management information
- Optional multi-currency bank accounts
- Optional multi-company operation with internal or external consolidation
Fixed Assets
- Multi-company operation
- Depreciation charge by asset, asset group, location or nominal ledger code
- Depreciation charges calculated monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually
- Reducing balance, straight line or asset usage depreciation options
- Provision for local authority or government grants
- Full transactional history provided
- Flexible, comprehensive reporting
Cash Book/Bank Reconciliation
- Allows automatic reconciliation of bank statements
- Document; Image Management
Put in the plainest terms, Concept is an electronic job bag. It not only stores financial information, but all the documents and images that go with the job – and all in one place!
Concept enables you to communicate internally and externally as normal using Microsoft Office. But when you want to create a contact report or a print brief, it does it for you in seconds (and saves it automatically too).
When you generate a document, you can also use this as a ‘trigger’ with result action points. Say you’ve completed a print brief: Concept can automatically eMail the account handler to let them know.
Each job has its own folder that allows you to drag, drop and permanently store any type of still or moving images (including PDFs). And meanwhile, the system will automatically store all incoming and outgoing emails as well as the relevant contact details.
The result? A massive saving of time, effort…. and paper!
- Scheduling and Workflow
Need to create a schedule? Concept can easily oblige. You can do so by using a pre-set template, building one from the estimate or copying one from other jobs. Then later, when someone flags that a task is completed, Concept will update the job schedule instantly for you.
Here are some other ways in which the system can improve your workflow management:
- eMails are generated when jobs start or their status changes
- Warnings are given with timescales or budgets are exceeded
- emails are sent to people when time sheets are not provided
- Purchase orders and estimates can be electronically reviewed and signed off
- Web Publishing and Client Extranet
Visual Concept is an optional module you can use to tell your clients how their job’s progressing via the Internet. All the relevant job and media information is published online with no extra effort on your behalf - simply as a by-product of using the system!
The system also uses the latest Microsoft.Net technology to update information automatically. Here are just some of the things you can do online:
- Open, close and change the status of a job
- Display job schedules highlighting completed and unactioned tasks
- Media and purchase orders
- Budget status
- Invoice details
- PDF and document downloads
- Account details
For your peace of mind, all this is provided using secure client areas with SQL technology. You set the publishing rules, and double confirmation means that no unwanted information appears on the Web.
- Management Reporting
Want to get the true picture of how your business is really performing? Keen to discover if any trends or patterns are forming? Concept provides the management reporting capability that gives you the answers when you want them.
You can choose to gauge and monitor profitability in any of the following ways:
- Employee, team or department
- Job, product or type of work
- Client
- Supplier or type of supplier
- Any other criteria
Equally, you can analyse the time taken over jobs in a whole host of different ways.
Cognos Powerplay
All Concept information is fully compatible with this leading information system, which allows millions of transactions to be ‘sliced and diced’ instantly. Ask it to give you a client’s total print spend over the last five years, or to graph the hours spent servicing a client against monthly income received for the past two years, and you’ll get an immediate, highly accurate answer. And here’s the best news of all: it only takes a couple of hours’ training to master!
Review the benefits of Concept or for more information make an enquiry.
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