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Month End

Does anyone have any suggestion on how you do month end that might make it easier? I am the only accounting person and can't get the close done monthly only quarterly. I am not an expert either and I am trying to get tips on how to make it go smoother. We do a lot of prebilling and a lot of it is media prebilling months in advice. Right now I spend hours trying to move the billings and then days trying to match up the A/P invoices to the right month. We are using Classic 3.2. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

Cara Filipiak Veritas Advertising

I'm in exactly the same position as you. Perhaps a user group teleconference or half day meeting might be good, if you find someone really good with similar experience who's doing well now.

Good luck and keep me in mind for a group thing,

Tele Mackin Riley Hayes Advertising

I am in the same sort of position as you and would appreciate it if you would forward on to me any information you might receive in answer to your question. I don't have the media issue that you do, but, feel C&P should provide a step by step sort of instruction or guidelines for weekly, monthly and quarterly management of data.

Good luck to you and thanks for asking this question!

Rachel Hynd Gage Design

I would recommend that you call Donna Lynn Johnson. She is a consultant that I work with and she has done what you do and knows clients and profits. She has an organized way to close month end and then still have time for other things before the next month end happens upon you. Her number is 770-421-7101 and her company name is Crystal Brook. It would be the best money you ever spent.

Tracie Off Fricks/Firestone Advertising CFO

You can get a wonderful audit trail report that will subtotal by job by going to Accounting>GL>File>GL Reports; Choose audit trail, enter your date range (ie 8/1 - 8/31), give it the gl acct # for media sales, the Gl acct number for media costs and tell it to sub-total by job. This will provide you a report that matches the billing with any invoices that have hit the system for the time period selected.

Pam Brosch Hensley Segal Rentschler

I will help how I can. I go thru our marked up vendor costs and vendor costs accounts, item by item, and determine which costs have come in that have not yet been billed, or which costs we have billed the client for, but we haven't yet received a vendor invoice. I then build a spreadsheet with this information. This may not make it easier, or faster, but it is more accurate. My spreadsheet is very specific. It lists the AP#, vendor name, net amount, and the month the cost was received, but not billed. From this I will make g/l entries, auto-reversing, to accrue for any costs not yet received or to remove any costs that haven't yet been billed.

Not sure if this helps, as we only pre-bill most of our media and some TV production. We do use the auto accrual feature in Pro 4.1.

Please let me know if I can be of any other assistance.

Krista Meisinger Anderson Partners

We also do prebilling on media. We are using 4.02 which has a feature in preferences under "accounting" to use the "automatic WIP" feature. What this does is, and I am assuming you cut insertions for publications, the following automatic entries:

1. Invoice client for media placement on a media invoice, the following happens automatically:

Debits - Accounts Receivable Credits - Sales - this is recorded as a sale the month you invoice. Debits - Cost of media Credits - Media Payables (you set this account up in gen ledger)

2. Match media publication invoice to the correct insertion and voucher, the following happens automatically:

Debits - Media payables Credits - Cost of media Debits - Cost of media the exact amount of invoice, should be the same as the original entry, but sometimes is different if the publication invoices a different amount than the insertion Credits - accounts payable

I try to voucher media payables in the month placed, only to keep payables from being overstated. But with the automatic "Wip" the costs match sales anyway.

We verify what we have in "media payables" by running reports after the final vouchering for the month. I do not do any other media until I close. The reports we run are from Purchase order/insertion order reports, PO Reports, Lists, Insertion/status List, dates would be oldest open insertion order to current, do not show description. Do the same for broadcast if you do any broadcast. Then, under snapshots, WIP reports, run unbilled media, and unbilled broadcast if any. Subtract commission from your media reports. Add the balance of the media report to the balance on the insertion order and broadcast order report, this should equal your media payable account.

Hope this helps.

If you do not have the automatic WIP entry, keep all insertions in a book by month of placement(we still do this for convenience for matching). When month end cames, just do dummy invoices in accounts payable for those publications you have not received invoices for yet for the month you are closing. That way costs match sales. When the invoice comes in, just match it with the dummy invoice and edit your dates for payment.

Hope this helps.

Deanna David K Burnap

We called on consultant Helen Jenko (Chicago area--847-359-5248) to help us get set up. The media pre-billing system she set up for us is very simple to use. Hopefully I can explain it so it doesn't sound complicated!

When I make up the bill for the client, I put the costs to "advanced media billing" so it won't appear as income for that month. I make an extra copy of the invoice and put it into my "advanced media billing" folder. Once the vendor invoice comes in, I enter the payable as usual, then I pull out my extra copy of the client invoice, and indicate the gross amount which should now be transferred to our "gross media costs" account. I then put the client invoice back in the "advanced media billing" folder. At the end of the month, after all the vendor bills have been entered as payables and the gross amounts have been recorded on my extra invoices, I go to the general ledger and move the amounts from advanced media billing to gross media costs.

Not only does this method get the income in the appropriate month, it helps us make sure we receive all the vendor bills we are supposed to, and that we are billing the client correctly.

I'd highly recommend you consult with Helen Jenko. She is really easy to work with, and can probably help you streamline your processes.

Good luck!

Nancy Miller Storandt Pann Margolis & Partners

We are using Classic 4.1 and pre-bill some media and printing each month. The way I handle it is to make an auto-reversing journal entry for the net total of ALL pre-billed expenses. I credit an account called "Accrued Expenses," and debit an account called "Pre-billed Expenses." By making it an auto-reversing entry, it will throw a negative in the pre-billed expenses account on the next month's Income statement, so if the vendor invoices come in the next month, they will be cancelled out and won't mess up your totals.

You may need to make additional adjustments if the vendor invoices don't come in until several months later (you might want to consult your accountant about that).

This is actually a really simple way to handle the pre-bills and it makes sure that the Income statement balances correctly each month, since pre-billed invoices don't affect the G/L.

Hope this helps.

Catherine Colangelo The Phillips Agency

We also prebill media (which has its own GL Income Account for the NET media - this saves a lot of calculating) After all invoicing for the month is complete, we make a manual journal entry to accrue the media costs associated with the billings. (This prevents overstating the income.)

(dr) Media Insertion Costs (job cost) (cr) Accrued Media Costs (liability)

When the media A/P bills come in - they are then posted to Accounts Payable in the period as of the invoice date, reclassing the payable-- the media cost has already been booked.

(dr) Accrued Media Costs (cr) A/P

This allows you to record your income/expenses in the correct period with one entry and give you an accurate picture of what you actually have bills for and what additional invoices are expected.

Good Luck

Debbi Ring Stringer