Marketing & Creative Agencies
How Unpaid AR Becomes a Hidden Loan to Clients Every unpaid invoice on an agency's books represents work that has already been completed, staff who have already been paid to do it, and media or vendor costs that have often already been covered, all funded out of the agency's own cash before the client has...
Why Upfront Payment Is the Fastest Way to Cut DSO Every dollar collected before work begins is a dollar that never shows up on an aging report. It is the only lever in accounts receivable that does not depend on faster follow-up, better invoicing, or a more disciplined reminder cadence, because the collection problem is...
Why Terms on Paper Don't Enforce Themselves A payment term is a legal reference point, not an automatic mechanism. Guidance on Net 30 enforcement notes that terms must appear on both the signed service agreement and the invoice itself to be fully enforceable, since the contract establishes the obligation and the invoice makes the specific...
Why Agency Billing Is Uniquely Prone to Slipping The scale of the problem is larger than most agency owners assume. Ignition's 2025 Agency Pricing and Cash Flow Report, based on a survey of 273 agency leaders across creative, digital, branding, PR, and social media services, found that 97 percent of agencies regularly deal with late...