GUARANTEED GREAT IDEAS! Tips from the Clients & Profits experts Some of our best consultants share their tips for putting Clients & Profits to work: Work live "Most production meetings happen in an agency's conference room. Instead of printing a production report, bringing it to the meeting, writing notes all over it, then going back to your desk and trying to read scribbles to update traffic, schedule, and status information afterwards, why not go live?," asks Cindy Westen."Bring a laptop into the meeting and update everything while it's being discussed (most shops have LAN-equipped conference rooms these days for presentations).Then when the production meeting is done&emdash;so are you! Everyone in the agency has up-to-the-minute information when they go back to their desks, ready to work." Track your time "The financially smartest thing to do is keep accurate and current time sheets from all employees. Once, before I implemented Clients & Profits at an agency, they were told by a client that they wouldn't increase the agency's monthly retainer. The client said that the agency should work more efficiently and smarter, and therefore end up with more money in their pockets," says Gunther Maier."A short time after I installed the software and trained the employees, the agency was able to show the client that in fact they worked more on his account and had more projects than when the contract was negotiated. Being able to show the client reports on time spent on their jobs actually helped the agency increase their retainer fee a short time later." Handling tax-exempt clients " On many state sales tax forms and returns, sales to tax-exempt clients such as public entities, charities, etc, must be totaled and reported separately. Here's a way to get monthly data without having to do any calculations," says Marty Pennoni."In the client setup, under Billing Info, enter the words "Tax Exempt" on the County line. When you print a monthly sales tax report, you'll get a separate list of all tax-exempt sales under a heading of "Tax Exempt", as well as a sub-total of those sales."

Q. We now have two offices, Atlanta and Chicago, with about 60 users each. Which version of Clients & Profits should we use?

For high-volume shops with hundreds of users (especially in a multi-site environment) and extremely large databases, the solution is Clients & Profits SQL. It's a "client/server" version of Clients & Profits Pro that uses Oracle8 or Microsoft SQL Server as its back-end database. These systems are more scalable, reliable, and customizable than a non-client/server system like C&P Pro. However, they're more expensive and need an experienced Oracle or SQL Server Database Administrator ("DBA") to install, configure, and maintain.

Q. There are so many reports in Clients & Profits. How can I know which to use?

One word: Report-o-Matic! It's an interactive, searchable web-based database that contains samples of over 350 production, media, billing, and financial reports.

Q. We've recently landed some new clients in distant citites, which means our AEs need to remotely access our database. Which version of Clients & Profits will let us do that?

My Clients & Profits! is a web server add-on for your C&P database that allows anyone with an internet connection&emdash;and the right access privileges, of course&emdash;to access clients, jobs, estimates, creative briefs, POs, and more.

Q. Is Clients & Profits compatible with Windows XP?

Yes.

Q. Is Clients & Profits compatible with Mac OS X?

Yes. All versions of Clients & Profits 5.0 run as a "classic" application using the OS 9 compatibility window in Mac OS X. For earlier versions of Clients & Profits, you'll need a new C&P installer (available only on CD), which replaces your existing C&P folder with the new OS X-compatible version. Everyone who uses C&P for Mac OS X needs the OS X v10.2 upgrade ("Jaguar") or later.

Q. Will Clients & Profits ever be OS X native?

Probably not anytime soon. Making Clients & Profits native requires rewriting the entire application from scratch. As we evaluated OS X in 2001, we had to choose between making it native or working on new (and frequently requested) features like asset management, the meeting maker and sales manager, importing time from Palm handhelds, e-mailing PDFs of estimates and invoices, and more. We extensively tested C&P on OS X and were satisfied with the program's compatibility and performance. So we decided to produce Clients & Profits 5.0 instead by simply releasing an old version as a native application (like Intuit did with QuickBooks Pro 5, for instance). We rewrite Clients & Profits every few years anyway, so it's likely to be native at some time in the future.