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Spotdata Electronic Invoicing
Spotdata™ is a web-based service that allows advertising agencies, media buying services, and in-house agencies to download, view, and print electronic invoices from broadcasting and cable companies. Using state-of-the-art technologies, Spotdata provides secure data protection and encryption to protect the invoice data as it is delivered to the agency or media buyer via the World Wide Web.

Read about Spotdata Electronic Invoicing (Spotdata EI):



Who uses Spotdata EI?
Spotdata EI is for all local and national advertising agencies, in-house agencies, and media buying services regardless of the software package used to reconcile invoices. To facilitate industry participation, we have published an open standard for all agency software vendors to configure their media systems to receive electronic invoices via the web.

How will Spotdata EI help me?
Spotdata EI will make it easy for your agency's financial manager to receive invoices from broadcasting and cable companies.

Spotdata EI means . . .

  • Faster delivery of invoice data
    With EI, you'll download your invoice data quickly and efficiently. We will notify you via email when your invoices are ready for download just hours after the stations create them.
  • Faster turnaround of reconciliation
    With the electronic delivery of invoice data, you will be able to shorten the reconciliation process.
  • Easy-to-follow web interface
    We step you through the process of downloading, viewing and printing invoices using a simple series of web pages. It's easy!
  • No more costly manual entry
    EI means that you no longer need to enter data manually. You download the invoice data electronically via the web to your media system. Your data entry errors are eliminated.
  • A paperless environment
    No more paper to handle. All invoice data transmissions are electronic.
  • Review invoices online
    Invoice detail is at your fingertips. View your invoices online right inside your web browser.
  • Print only the invoices you select
    See savings in paper and storage! Print only the invoices you need to review on paper.

How does Spotdata EI work?
Spotdata uses an industry clearinghouse where broadcasting and cable companies send their invoice information and agencies retrieve it using an easy-to-follow web interface. Once the invoice files are received at the clearinghouse, we consolidate them and send an email to each agency notifying them that their invoices are ready for download.

Using the user ID and password assigned during the sign-up process, subscribers log into the Subscribers Only area of spotdata.com and download, view, and print their electronic invoices.

To see just how easy and convenient it is to download, view, and print your invoices, check out the Spotdata EI Demo.

How much does Spotdata EI cost?
Rates vary according to the volume of invoices you download each quarter and will be no more than $1 per invoice, with no minimum fee. Click here to see the Spotdata price list.

What are the hardware and software requirements?
In order to access the secure areas of this web site for downloading, viewing, and printing electronic invoices, you need to configure your system as follows:

Environment

Hardware and Software Requirements

Browser: Secure Area

Internet Explorer, version 5.0* & up
Firefox Version 2.0 & up

 

*for MacOS, use Internet Explorer 4.5 or later

Browser Plug-ins:
(view & print users)

Adobe Acrobat Reader, version 3.02 & up

Operating Systems

Windows 9x,NT (SP3),2000,ME,XP or Vista
MacOS 7.6.1 & up

System RAM

Minimum for selected Operating System

Connection Speed

Minimum 256 kilobits per second (DSL) or faster

Software Decompression Utilities

Windows: WinZip (or comparable product)

Mac: StuffIt Expander with Drop Stuff Expander Enhancer (or comparable product)

User ID and Password

We will supply the user id and initial password, which should be changed after initial log in.



How do I know my data is secure?
No other agency will be able to view your invoices. Spotdata protects your data:

  • A firewall protects the invoice data in the industry clearinghouse.
  • We control access to the invoice download area of the web site and delivery of invoices to the proper agency by requiring the user to have a user ID and password that is checked every time the user logs into the secure area.
  • Secure Internet protocols (HTTPS and SSL) ensure that the data is encrypted when transmitted over public Internet connections.

See also: Security Detail

Okay, I'm interested! How do I get started?
Select Sign Up to begin the Subscriber Registration process.

If you want more information before you sign up, you can Request More Information.