Contract Compliance Audits
‘If one of our agencies is overcharging us, could they all be doing it?’
We are often asked 'is agency A better than agency B when it comes to overcharging?'. The surprising answer: 'how your…
Is the top agency talent working on your business? Or on someone else’s?
When you change the agency's fee structure, how do you know you're still getting the same quality of staff on your…
‘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,…
Trust in commercial relationships
“Trust me, I’m looking after your best interests.” A noble sentiment indeed, but how do you know whether your…
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…
Common contract compliance audit objectives
Why do brands typically carry out contract compliance audits of their marketing agencies? Over the years Financial…