CASE STUDY
Enhancing Workfront Implementation To Automate Financial Billing and Reconciliation
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Cella delivered a custom configuration of Workfront + automated financial billing and reconciliation capabilities to solve client’s highly complex, multi-chargeback billing model.
The results? Greater efficiency. The financial reconciliation and billing process now requires only one person instead of two, and total time spent was reduced from four days to one.
New capabilities extend the overall value and effectiveness of their Workfront solution.
Most companies recognize the greater operational efficiencies that work management systems bring. But, in order to effectively track and maximize ROI, Creative and Marketing Operations teams must understand the cost of performing work at a very granular level—and have the ability to easily reconcile and bill those costs to internal departments.
Our client, an in-house marketing agency for one of the world’s largest manufacturers of construction equipment, needed a project management solution that went beyond the standard out-of-the-box capabilities to include financial tracking and billing reconciliation for their Creative Services team.
The Problem
The client’s Creative Services team made the decision to invest in Workfront as their project management tool, but their vision for a highly complex multi-chargeback billing model was not available within Workfront’s native functionality. The client was handling the process manually, modifying spreadsheets and spending valuable time delivering required reporting. This was in addition to managing work and task assignments.
Meeting their financial tracking and billing reconciliation would require more than just flipping a switch in Workfront. The solution demanded a deep knowledge of the product and custom configuration.
To add to the challenge, the client needed a system that would accommodate a very detailed and layered level of tracking, billing and reporting in order to:
- Reconcile charges back down to the group/department (web, email, print, video, etc.) level against which each creative resource is assigned.
- Support chargebacks that are multi-leveled and multi-charged and, for billing purposes, produce reports that summarize the total charges for each group broken out by project. For example, a single project must be able to deliver chargeback details for the design team for graphics delivery, the video team for edits, and the exhibits team for event contributions.
- Automatically send billing information to another system—and in the format required.
The client was in search of a partner that could help with this sophisticated Workfront configuration and create a custom multi-chargeback billing module to support their Creative Services team.
Cella knows Workfront. We are experts in creative and marketing operations, and lead with a process-first perspective. We were the right partner for the job.
The Solution
Working Together
During an implementation, companies are typically more focused on the basics of their project management tool than on how they can expand its use for their billing reconciliation platform. Still, the latter is a best practice that Cella assists our clients in achieving.
Cella shared a vision with the client of how Workfront could be expanded to meet their complex multi-level chargeback requirements. Then we brought our hands-on experience with the product and deep knowledge of the process to solve their problem.
A Customized Solution
We designed a solution in which the corresponding recovery code (which identifies the organizational department) would track all billable hours and expenses for users on a project-by-project basis, and break them down to report on a level of granularity by business unit, department, etc. This is not an out-of-the box feature in Workfront. But Cella was able to develop a complex configuration of Workfront on the backend, that ultimately made things simple for everyone on the front end.
How We Did It
- Cella created a series of calculated fields whereby the department details to which a user is associated can be pulled into the hours recorded by each user on a specific task.
- This data is then compiled into a billing record and summed with expenses for reporting against the group’s recovery code (department).
- A series of multiple Workfront Fusion scenarios were designed to address all querying possibilities, accounting for any complexity which might be found on a project-by-project basis.
- In all scenarios, the automation completed the necessary action required to fulfill the client’s goal of automatically pulling in user hours and expenses into billing records to deliver the detailed breakouts of chargebacks by department code.
Prior to our automated solution, this process created a great deal of manual work for Project Managers and the financial team. Now, the solution not only tracks all this information automatically, but also accommodates the complexities of the Creative Services team’s needs.
At the end of the day, Cella’s goal is to enable clients to manage this on a go forward basis themselves. We facilitated onboarding and training with a “train the trainer” approach. That way, the client is able to own the rest of the adoption process and operate independently.
Automation helped our client by:
- Freeing up bandwidth for other priorities
- Reducing the potential for human error
- Saving team members’ time
The Results
The client received the solution they needed: a custom-configured project management tool—in which they manage their work and measure operational metrics—now delivers their full and complete financial reconciliation as well.
Greater efficiency:
New capabilities made the process streamlined and automated.
- Process now requires only one person instead of two.
- Total time spent reduced from four days to one.
Cella cut the manpower needed for reconciliation by
and reduced the total amount of time spent by
Rapid adoption:
Client was able to adopt the platform quickly, immediately leveraging its many benefits and expanding use across the team. This was a direct result of Cella’s consulting team hitting all the necessary milestones and reporting requirements, and completing the rollout within the expected timeline.
More effective solution:
Enhanced features extend the overall value of the client’s Workfront investment.