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Using C&P for PR (Public Relations)

We've used C&P at the agency for years as an excellent creative and accounting side tool. I've had much difficulty trying to figure out how to best integrate it into the PR operations. Anyone have advice and counsel to share? I'd love to hear what's working successfully elsewhere.

Misty Young
Vice President
KPS|3 advertising, e-marketing & public relations

My suggestion would be to use an outside payroll service and then just enter each payroll through a journal entry. I have an Excel spreadsheet set up to make the calculations. Payroll services are affordable and well worth it considering they calculate and file all payroll taxes, provide QTD and YTD reports and provide W-2s at the end of the year.

Shannon Asquith
Business Manager
Tackett Barbaria Design Group

We don't do PR, but what makes it so different from creative agency, whereby you could not tailor C&P to fit your needs? I would think you would open a job, assign tasks (perhaps uniquely tailored with germane verbiage for PR), and track staff time against jobs just like any creative job. Right? If you use profit centers or sub-accounts to keep financials detailed by division, accounting shouldn't be an issue. I'm curious about your difficulties, can you be more specific?

Roxanne Cowan
Rutherford Bolen Group Integrated Marketing

We use C&P for PR and it's a little weird but it works. We don't bill by task, we bill by staff, but in order to make the invoices work right I have set up a task for each employee. When they enter their time it defaults to their own task.

Shanny R. Morgenstern
Chief Operating Officer
Morningstar Communications Company

We've created PR specific task codes with corresponding GL accts. Also, if they are a PR and advertising client, we set them up as two separate clients in order to track the financials more easily.

Karen Newman
Strata-G

I agree with Shannon. You really cannot beat the cost benefit of a payroll service such as ADP or Paychex.

Mike Thomas CPA
Controller / CFO
Fuse Advertising

Payroll can be easily entered as a journal entry. You must have accounts set up in your CofA for Gross Payroll (which you can split up into associates and partners, if you need to be more specific), Payroll Taxes, and separate accounts for any adjustment items on employees' paychecks (insurance, IRA, etc.). Open a new journal entry- debit the payroll and payroll taxes accounts, then credit the checking account the net pay comes from, and credit all adjustment accounts to make up the difference between net and gross pay. I hope this helps, if you are referring to payroll. By the way, Flashpoint uses Paychex for our payroll services, and we pay an average of $140/mo. for payroll, taxpay, and end-of-year services for an 8-person company. Worth every penny of it, too!

Mary Toothman
Office Manager
Flashpoint, Inc.

Ditto for us, we also believe that payroll is worth the small expense to have it right, especially with Simple IRA programs and Pre-Tax Expense withholding programs. ADP has been good and creating our Journal Entries are a snap from their reports. At the end of the year with all there is to do, it puts a smile on my face to have those W-2's delivered mid-January!

Jo Bos
Gerry Bos Design, Inc.

We also use an outside payroll service, here in Santa Monica,CA, named Payroll Dept. Plus. They are small group and wonderful to work with. Our process is to book all salaries as overhead first, then book a percentage of their billable time, to COGS, as a separate journal entry. More times than not, I can "clone" a payroll journal entry, if my salaries for a particular payroll period does not change, which saves a lot of time, since they are debiting and crediting the same accounts. I've been using C & P for seven years now and I've found this to be the most successful, but I'm also open to other suggestions too.

Dannielle Hernandez
Business Manager
Baker Designed Communications

We do payroll in house. It can be a pain, but once you get the hang of it, it isn't too bad. We save about $2k-$3k per year this way. I book direct labor salaries directly to the "Direct Labor" account in COGS and administrative salaries directly to "Administrative Salaries" in overhead. I agree, the clone feature is nice!

Barry Owens Controller
MAI Sports, Inc.

We use ADP, and I just derive the journal entries from the payroll hournal and enter them manually. For a company with 16 employees, it doesn't take too much time. Also, we book ALL Production Salaries as Cost of Sales, and all Sales and Account Services Salaries as Selling Expenses. The payroll taxes and benefits are also allocated accordingly. Only Admin is treated as pure Overhead. Hope that helps.

Terry L. Jones, Jr.
Controller
Harvey and Daughters, Inc.

We also use an outside payroll service, here in Santa Monica,CA, named Payroll Dept. Plus. They are small group and wonderful to work with. Our process is to book all salaries as overhead first, then book a percentage of their billable time, to COGS, as a separate journal entry. More times than not, I can "clone" a payroll journal entry, if my salaries for a particular payroll period does not change, which saves a lot of time, since they are debiting and crediting the same accounts. I've been using C & P for seven years now and I've found this to be the most successful, but I'm also open to other suggestions too.

Dannielle Hernandez
Business Manager

We use ADP and are very comfortable with them. It is nice that all taxes are done automatically and I believe it is well worth the cost. This is also a cost you should shop. Other payroll firms will do it cheaper and if anything else ADP will adjust their prices when pushed. One time I did this and the ADP rep said we were on "old" pricing and we got the same services for 20% cheaper. It is not a large savings but every little bit helps and it impresses the boss that you reduced cost with little or no effort.

Bill Scarpa
Backe Communications

We started out using ADP but switched to PAYCHEX after the first nine months. We found that PAYCHEX targets small business and is also an ASO (Administrative Service Organization). For an additional fee they will assist with HR issues including but no limited to, defining job descriptions, they will create a personalized handbook, assist with hiring, termination and review procedures and advise you on your state employment laws.....The payroll side of what they offer has been quite satisfactory. I also have them report all of our payroll taxes as well....

Caitilin Ashley
Ashley & Associates