Change orders, closing a campaign, and engagements
Change an approved scope with a second approval, and the client's. Close a campaign once it's billed. Group campaigns under engagements you can renew.
5 min readUpdated
Change orders
An approved scope doesn't change by being edited. It changes through a change order: a new version of the scope, proposed by one person and approved by another. The earlier version is kept on the campaign.
- 1
Propose the change
On the campaign, choose Change the scope…, edit the lines, and say what's changing and why.
Campaigns - 2
Someone else approves it
An approver sees what would change and the budget before and after, and clicks Approve the change. Until then the scope stays as it was.
The client's approval
When you propose a change order, turn on Ask the client to approve it in their portal. It then shows at the top of the client's portal page: what's changing, your note, and the budget before and after. They click Approve, or Decline with what they'd like changed, and give their name and email.
- While the client hasn't answered, the change order can't be approved here. The campaign says it's waiting for them.
- Once they approve, someone other than the proposer approves it here, and the scope becomes the next version. The client's approval is kept with that version: who, when and how.
- If they decline, change the proposal and it's asked afresh, or withdraw it.
- If they answer some other way, an email or a signed copy, use Record their answer… and say who told you and how.
Closing a campaign
Close the campaign… works once nothing is left to bill: every item is invoiced or written off, every milestone is delivered, and no draft invoice or change order is waiting. Unpaid invoices don't stop it; they're collected as usual. Reopen… brings it back if a late cost needs passing on.
Engagements
An engagement is the agreement with a client that campaigns sit under: its term, the contract or PO it runs under, an owner, the spend the client agreed to, a markup on costs passed on and negotiated hourly rates. It's optional. Create one with New engagement, then choose it when you start or review a campaign.
Click an engagement's name to open its page: everything sold under it added up (budget, billed, unbilled, scheduled, what's owed, vendor costs and margin), each campaign with the same figures, its invoices, and what was agreed. New campaign under it starts a campaign for that client under that engagement.
Renewing an engagement
From 90 days before an engagement ends, its page and its card show Renew. Renewing makes a new engagement for the term that follows, starting the day after this one ends, with the same contract reference, owner, agreed spend, markup and negotiated rates; change any of them before you confirm. Campaigns under way stay under the engagement they were sold under, and new ones go under the renewal. An engagement is renewed once; each links to the other.
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Related
- Campaigns for agenciesBill a campaign over time against its scopeGive a campaign a scope of fees, retainers, milestones, hours, costs and media, and bill each part as it falls due.
- Campaigns for agenciesBillable items and preparing an invoiceEvery installment, retainer period, cost and media line is an item first. Invoices are made from the items that are ready.
- Campaigns for agenciesMedia: from the insertion order or from vendors' billsBill a campaign's media up front from its insertion order, or at cost as vendors invoice it, with your fee as a percent of net or gross, a flat fee, or tiers.
- Getting startedToday: everything that needs you, in one listOne page for what the back office needs from a person: what's one click, what's yours to decide, and what Autopilot already did.
- Security & adminApproval rules: strict or relaxedSeparate who enters, approves and pays, or let a small team do it all while the audit trail notes each waiver.
Still stuck?
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