Tidewater Creative

Chapter 01

The audit

Four weeks across the back office. We interviewed 7 people, accessed 6 systems, mapped 3 processes as documented and as they really run, counted every exception, and sorted every step.

Sample deliverable. Tidewater Creative is a fictional client and every number here is illustrative.

7

People interviewed

6

Systems accessed

3

Processes mapped

11

Opportunities found

Four-week audit timeline

Week 1

  • Day 1

    Kickoff and scope

    Owner, account lead

    Google Workspace

  • Day 2

    Shadow a month-end report build

    Account lead

    Meta AdsGoogle AdsGoogle Sheets

  • Day 3

    Billing walkthrough

    Owner

    QuickBooksGmail

  • Day 4

    Read access to the ad platforms and books

    Owner

    Meta AdsGoogle AdsQuickBooks

Week 2

  • Day 6

    Mine 12 months of invoices and payments

    East River Agents

    QuickBooks

  • Day 7

    Mine the reporting folder and email threads

    East River Agents

    Google DriveGmail

  • Day 8

    Client onboarding walkthrough

    Account lead, designer

    NotionGoogle Drive

  • Day 10

    Interview: what a client actually reads

    Account lead, two clients (by phone)

Week 3

  • Day 11

    Exception pattern analysis

    East River Agents

    QuickBooksGmail

  • Day 12

    Measure elapsed and hands-on time on 24 report cycles

    East River Agents

    Google DriveGmail

  • Day 14

    Process maps reviewed with the team

    Owner, account lead, designer

Week 4

  • Day 16

    Sort every step with the owner

    Owner

  • Day 18

    Build order and run-cost estimate

    East River Agents

  • Day 19

    Baseline numbers signed off

    Owner

    QuickBooksGoogle Sheets

  • Day 20

    Deliverable review and build quote

    Owner, account lead

People interviewed

  • O

    Owner

    Sells, approves every report, sends every invoice

  • Al

    Account lead

    Builds the monthly reports, talks to clients weekly

  • Mb

    Media buyer

    Runs the ad accounts, pulls the numbers

  • D

    Designer

    Creative, onboarding assets

  • B(

    Bookkeeper (part time)

    Reconciles QuickBooks monthly

  • Tc

    Two clients

    What they read, what they ignore, when they pay

Systems accessed

  • QuickBooks OnlineInvoicing and books

    Primary

    Invoices created by hand from a reporting spreadsheet; reminders sent manually from Gmail

  • Meta Ads and Google AdsSpend and results per client

    Healthy

    APIs available; numbers currently copied into Sheets by hand each month

  • Google SheetsThe monthly report workbook

    Used everywhere

    One workbook per client, formulas drift, no version control

  • Google DriveReport PDFs and client folders

    Manual

    Final report exported and filed by hand; naming inconsistent across clients

  • GmailApprovals, sending, chasing

    Manual

    Approval threads and payment chasing live here; nothing tracked

  • NotionOnboarding checklist

    Action needed

    Template exists but is not used after the first week of a new client