I’m about to celebrate 20 years at Current360 and we have come a long way from where we were when I first came on board.
We used to fill out daily paper time sheets that then had to be re-entered into a spreadsheet by another person who kept the time for each client job. We called that “double entry.” To think that there are still some agencies today that use this system makes me sad.
You use your time to fill out a paper time sheet for someone else to then enter it into the proper job on a spreadsheet when, for a little over $1 per day per person, you can log on from anywhere, anytime, and fill out your electronic time sheet??? Oh, and it flows right into the job’s Financial Report for an actual amount to date versus the budgeted amount. And, if you are preparing a bill and see that someone seems to have a lot more time than is reasonable on a job, you can click through to their time sheet and see the comments that hopefully jog your memory about the change in direction from the client that necessitated the additional time.
There was also a time when we literally passed notes… made copies of notes from client meetings and placed them in a paper job jacket. Yes, we even paid to have “Client Name,” “Job Number” and “Job Title” printed on these oversized envelopes. We filled these things with hand-written Purchase Orders, copy and art sketches, media recommendations, etc. Even client drawings were placed into this job jacket — you know, the “idea on a napkin” thingy. The job jacket then would follow a job around the agency. Some were so packed the seams were splitting and we would often have to attach a second paper envelope just to contain all the stuff. I worried a lot about fires back then and losing all that information. Recently, we shredded our last round of these dinosaurs and donated the storage totes to a good cause.
Now, when I need to know something about a job, past or present, I look in our system, CurrentTrack®. Within about 30 seconds, I usually find what I am looking for. I can check my budget versus actual, find out where the job is in the workbook schedule and even look at old jobs to better estimate new ones.
The Ad world moves so fast. I’m glad we have a system that actually helps us keep the pace!