Creative Manager Pro, Ad Agency Software and Project Management Groupware for Creative and Design firms, has released version 8.4.3, with 52 enhancements in four key areas, and improved support for Mac OS X 10.4.9.
June 12, 2007
Creative Manager, Inc., (http://www.Creative-Manager.com) , provider of Creative Manager Pro software, has released version 8.4.3 of its flagship product, Creative Manager Pro.
Last month saw Creative Manager Pro improve its Ad Agency software internally and externally. Mainly its Fortune 500 clients, the internal improvements allowed the user to see a graphical representation of the project schedule across the entire firm. And externally, the Ad Agency Software expanded its server base to its Australian and New Zealand clients.
This month, Creative Manager Pro turns toward the list of requests by its growing roster of clients, and adds 52 enhancements in four key areas: Accounting, Project Management, Media and Reporting.
"While our competition is busy watching us, we're busy watching our clients," boasts Ron Ause, Creative Manager's director of marketing. "We Listen! When our clients say that they need something, we're there!"
The list of enhancements spans the gamut. For instance, Campaign budgets now have several new options for tracking actuals to the budget. You can now pull in actual figures by Item, by Project Type or you can specify which budget item each project goes to.
As always with Creative Manager Inc.'s products, no installation or conversion are necessary, and all updates are at no cost to users of Creative Project Manager and Creative Manager Pro. All client logins and vendor logins are always free.
"As simple as it sounds, listening to our clients is what we do best. Our clients continue to give us their requested changes for the Creative Manager Pro system - it's so important to their daily work flow," said Ause.
Creative Manager Pro continues to invest, adding new features that work with Apple's latest Tiger Mac OS X and future Leopard Unix-based Operating System and Microsoft Windows.
When asked about the new upgrade, Ause said, "Our Auto-Updater allows us to deploy updates to our hosted sites, and even to our clients' servers at any time. Have you ever had a software issue that took only a couple of hours to fix? This attention to detail, and the fact that our competitors take months (even years!) to get to their list, has caught the attention of industry, and has helped us grow through word-of-mouth. Like last month's update, this update is also based on user input. Because 'We're Always Listening!'" Ause said.
Details of the latest update are listed below. Project Management Enhancements
- Campaign budgets now have several new options for tracking actuals to the budget. Users can now pull in actual figures by Item, by Project Type or they can specify which budget item each project goes to.
- A new side navigation bar has been added to the flash based screen for Schedule and Grid Time Entry.
- Multi-company users can now export a specification sheet to a text file and then re-import it into a separate company. The system will set up the form and all of its custom fields.
- When using the "MY Tasks" dashboard part to update hours, the system will now default an actual start date for the task when the user enters some hours for a task.
- More fields have been added to almost all of the data sets for clients who have requested specific fields for reports.
- When a client logs into the system to add a project request, if they are part of a company that has a parent company, they will be allowed to select which client to add the request for.
- Users can now elect to see all system messages (the messages we add to the system when you log in about up coming events) in the My Info section of the system.
- The listing pages will now show a grand total for the list on the last page.
- We have added custom fields to the flash based schedule screen. These are selected based on the task type.
Accounting Enhancements
- Users can now add sales tax on advance billing invoices. When the advance bill is applied to the real invoice, the sales tax to the real invoice may be applied as well to reduce the sales tax liability on the invoice.
- Users can now turn unapplied advance billing invoices into credit memos. The system will generate a new credit memo invoice and close out the remaining advance billing amount on the invoice.
- Users can now search for client invoices by project name
- A new custom report data set has been added that allows users to print the details of what has been billed on client invoices.
- An option called "Use Expense Item Class When Generating Vendor Invoices" has been added to the Transaction Preferences. If checked, the Expense Item class will be used on the Vendor Invoice Line rather than the User's class.
- If the Expense Item does not have a class, then it will default back to the User's class.
- Users can now inactivate billing statuses
- Users can now show a total for labor and expenses at the bottom of client invoices as part of the subtotals on the report.
- Users can now specify if tax applied to a billing item so that when doing billing by billing item the system will now default these onto the invoice.
- Users can now group spots and insertions to the order level on client invoices.
- A date range search option has been added when applying a vendor invoice to orders.
Media Enhancements
- The media estimate number will now print on the order
- The deletion of orders is now logged to the system log
- There is now an option to print the traffic section of a broadcast order
- The media discrepancy report can now be grouped to the station level
Reporting Enhancement
- The drill down P&L statement now has a drill down screen when users run the report in Cash Basis format.
- Users can now add unapplied advance billing invoices to client statements
- Users can now age client statements by Invoice Date, Due Date or Posting Date
- The field options on the project cost transaction data set has been expanded
Creative Manager Pro goes beyond costing to offer full Project Management, CRM, Digital Asset Management, billing and accounting, and Extranet capabilities.
Creative Manager Pro (at http://www.Creative-Manager.com), is the only Ad Agency software and Project Management Software for the Creative Design industry, created exclusively for design firms, ad agencies, in-house creative/MarCom departments, and creative service firms. It is a web-based integrated project management software and job tracking solution which streamlines the entire firm, from developing new business, to staffing, managing, and executing projects through to accounting and financial reporting.
Creative Manager Pro is a full-featured, intuitive system which makes project and ad agency management a breeze. Creative Manager Pro supports Customer Relationship Management, Document Management, Shared Calendaring, Accounting and much more. Because it is web-based, there is nothing to install and it can be set up in a very short time. It works with both PC and Macintosh from any location over any connection. It may also be installed locally on the client's own servers. All options include training and support to ensure that clients are up and running quickly.
Among the many features of Creative Manager Pro:
- Graphically view your firm's metrics - manage your firm by the numbers.
- Manage Contacts and Leads
- Create Project Schedules, Calendars and Manage Tasks
- Take your contacts and calendar on the road with iCal, AddressBook & Outlook
- Approve Timesheets, Purchasing, Billing and Budgets
- Review and Approve Artwork Online
- Store and Manage Digital Assets
- Manage and Balance the Books
- Free client and vendor access to streamline workflow.
- Quick startup/import from Clients & Profits, Adman and other systems
- Full-featured CRM (Client Relationship Management)
- Extranet capabilities
- Manage media with an interface to the Strata Media Buying systems
- Charting of important industry metrics and firm statistics
The team members at Creative Manager, Inc. have been leaders in ad agency software and project management software for the creative industry and on the Mac OS for over 26 years. They provide their creative clients with two major offerings: Creative Project Manager and Creative Manager Pro. Both programs work seamlessly with the Mac OS and Windows.
Creative Manager Pro - Ad Agency Software and Project Management Software
