Agencies seek fame for their creative work, not for their financial management
As an FMCG client recently discovered, priorities and practicalities dictate that the Finance function in an agency is…
‘It’s in the contract, so it must be happening. Right?’
A major brand discovers that if you don’t look, you could be in for some surprises. As a brand working with an agency,…
‘Audit my agency? Dare I even look?’
With agency relationships, a golden rule is: If you’re not checking, you can’t know what’s actually going on. A large…
‘Sorry, our contract says you can’t see that.’
If there are more words governing audit rights than in the rest of the commercial agreement, it's worth asking why. We…
How accurate are your agency’s time sheets? Do you really know?
We all know that most agencies use time sheets to support the fees charged to their clients. How accurate are they,…
How exactly do marketing agencies make money?
Like many businesses providing services, marketing agencies make money by selling the time of their people. Take a…
Hide and seek: The game of audit clauses in agency contracts
When you’ve audited as many commercial marketing contracts as we have, it would be fair to say that we’ve seen a…
Time to reflect… on 2011
Many of us at this time of year are wondering what the year ahead will bring and New Year’s Day 2012 is no…