New manual broadcast order [in-depth guide] – Workamajig

Overview

Broadcast orders are similar to purchase orders, but are used to place orders for ad spots on various stations. These orders can be entered on a weekly, daily, or summary basis, and include the gross amount and a commission percentage to calculate the net amount. Additionally, BO allow tracking of user-specified dates for each line item.

Each broadcast order must be approved before it is sent to a vendor/station. If you print an unapproved broadcast order, the system will place an unapproved watermark across the page.
Each user is assigned a specific ordering limit which allows them to approve broadcast orders below that dollar amount. If you're purchasing limit is zero, you will not be able to approve any broadcast orders.
As you enter line items into a broadcast order, the system will try and determine if you have the right to approve the order and that dollar limit. If you do not have the right, the system will use the default approver from the Transaction preferences screen. If this person has an approval limit greater than the amount of the BO, the system will automatically assign them as the approver. If this person & the person entering the BO don't have sufficient limits to approve the order, the order will be assigned to no one.
When a broadcast order is assigned to no one for approval, anyone in the company with an approval limit above that of the order will be able to approve it. When the BO is set for approval, everyone with that approval limit will receive an email.
Once the broadcast order is approved, the person entering the order will receive an email back.
Once a broadcast order is approved, you cannot edit it. If you need to edit it, you must unapprove the order first. Doing so will increase the revision number on the order. Once you have completed the order revision, you will need to either approve it yourself or resubmit it for approval.
A vendor invoice can only be applied against approved broadcast orders. Once a vendor invoice is linked to the BO, you will not be able to unapprove the broadcast order. The Vendor invoices tab shows a list of the vendor invoices that have been applied to this BO.

Main input: new broadcast order

Process flow

Once the broadcast order is saved, the rest of the information on the Order info tab is available and the rest of the tabs are available to the user. On save, the user is taken to the Line items tab to enter information. The line items tab of a BO is different from that of an IO or a PO. Based on the flight interval chosen on the header, the lines are generated for the spots. For a daily or weekly flight interval, the spot lines are generated but not for a summary flight interval. The Line items page has three sections as described below under the Line items tab.

Once the spot information is entered, the order must be approved before any vendor invoices can be applied or if the order is to be prebilled. Anyone with a BO purchasing limit greater than or equal to the net amount on the BO can approve it, by default the user who creates the BO will be the approver.

BO approval process

A BO can be approved by anyone with a BO purchasing limit greater than or equal to the net amount on the BO. You can set different approval limits for each person to control the maximum amount that a person can approve. Once a BO is sent for approval, the approver will receive an email, but the creator will only receive an email once it is approved or rejected. A person whose BO limit has been reached cannot approve but still can unapprove a BO.

Once approved, BOs are usually prebilled to the client by clicking on the Prebill order action. Unlike POs and IOs, broadcast orders cannot be prebilled by line. Once the order is prebilled, the invoice can be seen under the Client invoices tab. BO are typically billed from Menu > Billing > Mass billing > Media billing as it allows to bill multiple orders simultaneously.

Prebilling broadcast order

With broadcast orders, it's normal to pre-bill the client for the broadcast after the order has been approved. Following the approval of the order a New action: Prebill order tab will appear at the top of the screen. To prebill an order from this location, you must:

Have the security right to create new invoices
Have a client assigned to the project that appears on the order's header.

Once the Prebill order action is selected, the system will create a single-line invoice that is made up of the entire BO. Once created, this invoice will be viewable via the Client invoices tab of the broadcast order.

NOTE: When using the Action: Prebill order tab, you can only create an invoice for the entire order, not individual spots. If you need to prebill individual spots, Mass billing: Media would be the appropriate method.

Any vendor invoices that have been applied against this BO will show up under the Vendor invoices tab and can be drilled down by clicking on the Pencil icon.

Order info tab

Linked specifications

This allows the users to link in specifications from other projects. Multiple specifications can be attached to the PO to be sent to the vendors. These specifications will be printed on the top of the PO.

Linked specifications are defined under Menu > Admin > System setup > Define specification sheets. The fields can be created on this screen.

Send order copies to

This pop-up window allows you to select several contacts from the selected vendor to send copies of this order. Select the appropriate names from the lookup list and press Add selected users. This will cause the system to print one copy of the order & specification sheets for each person on the list. The person's name will replace the contact name from the order's header on the printout. When the order is printed, there is one copy for each person selected. When emailed, if the person has an email address in the system, they will be sent a notification email.

Address/instructions

Line items

The Line items tab enables the user to enter the item detail information about each ad for which a BO is being placed. Some are defaulted from the header and can be changed on each line. The Line items tab for a broadcast order is slightly different from other order types based on the flight interval selected on the header. The three flight intervals available to the user are 'summary', 'weekly' and 'daily'. The default flight interval is 'summary' (type 3). The Line items tab has three sections, the top left is part of the line or item details, the bottom left is the spot details, all of the data in these two sections make a line. On the right is a summary of each line with the number of spots, program, gross and net amounts. When multiple lines are entered, the information in the top left section can be duplicated by clicking on the copy line button and then changed or entered newly.

Line items tab for a summary flight interval

This is the only interval that will let you change the 'flight dates' for the spots at the line level, also, unlike the other two intervals where the flight dates are set at the header and the lines are generated based on those dates.

Line Items tab for a daily flight interval

For the daily & weekly flight intervals, while the lines are generated for each of the weeks or days, they will only be stored if the number of spots are entered.

Traffic

Spot information can be added to an order to provide a station with information on specific ISCI codes to run on the order and the specific run percentages.

Vendor invoices

Any vendor invoices that have been applied against this BO will show up under the Vendor invoices tab and can be drilled down into by clicking on the Pencil icon.

Client invoices

Once the order is prebilled, the spots cannot be edited anymore and a separate grid with what was billed will show up next to the Spots grid as below. However, another line with the same spot and item information can be copied and worked with. While once the order is prebilled, it cannot be prebilled again unless the previous client invoice is deleted, the general way of billing BOs is by using the Mass billing screen since broadcast orders run for long time periods. The user can also go to the client invoice that this order was prebilled onto and bill the new spots.

NOTE: Client invoices would only appear here if you pre-bill the order. If you bill the vendor invoice instead, you will need to open the vendor invoice to locate the client invoice. The Media discrepancy report will help manage media orders (for both insertion & broadcast) to include: 'order amounts', 'vendor invoice amounts' & 'amounts billed to client'.

Resources

Articles in this section