Media Finance
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      2. Media Finance

      Cash-in-advance media workflow (Freewheel)

      Manage cash-in-advance invoices for political campaigns or vendors that require pre-payment of media costs

      Set-up:

      This functionality is available for agencies using Freewheel's media platform and has enabled the Financial integration with Accountability. 

      1. Enable the Cash-In-Advance/Pre-Pay functionality in Freewheel's Strata system.  Contact your Freewheel account manager for details. 
      2. Access the Freewheel Configuration page by going to Set Up Files>Set Up Options and clicking on the the API Integrations link.  
      3. To use the automated CIA reversal function, check the following option:

      Workflow and accounting impact:

      The Cash-In-Advance function in Freewheel pushes an invoice number with a specific prefix to distinguish it from other invoices.  For example, CIA-D-12345

      Accountability treats these CIA invoices as standard supplier invoices that the agency can pay ahead of the actual invoices. 
       
      The chart below maps out the accounting postings for each transaction throughout the workflow.
      Transaction Media Cost Control (Media WIP) Accounts Payable
      CIA Invoice DR CR
      CIA Invoice Payment CR DR
      CIA Reversal Invoice* CR DR

      *CIA Reversal Invoice

      The CIA reversal function in Accountability automatically creates a reversal/credit at the same time the CIA invoice is created. 

      This credit sits on the AP Ledger as a negative balance indicating that the supplier was paid in advanced.  When the actual supplier invoice comes in, the agency goes through the payment workflow in the platform as usual, which deducts the reversal/credit. 

       
      Actual Invoice Reconciliation
      Transaction Media Cost Control (Media WIP) Accounts Payable Bank
      CIA Reversal Invoice* CR DR  
      Actual Invoice DR CR  
      Actual Invoice Payment  

      DR  (for actual invoice)

      CR  (for CIA reversal invoice)

      		 CR
       

      The Bank CR reflects the net difference between the actual invoice and the Cash-In-Advance invoice.

      Alternate workflow in Accountability:

      If you do not want to go through the  the payment and reconciliation process for the actual supplier invoices, you will need to process an adjustment invoice for the difference between the actual and CIA invoices.