Spots you owe back

When an advertiser paid for a spot and it did not air, you owe them that spot. This is called a makegood. Cartwright keeps a record of each one until it is settled.

Most traffic systems can tell you *ordered 12, aired 10*. The question that matters comes next: were those two ever made up?

Two months later the same line might read *ordered 12, aired 14*. Unless something links the two extra spots to the two that were missed, nobody can be sure the account is square. Cartwright makes that link for you.

Where they come from

A spot becomes owed in one of two ways. Which one it was changes what you tell the advertiser.

Would not fit shows up when you generate the day. Each unplaced spot is listed with the reason. Nothing is dropped without telling you.

Missed shows up when you reconcile the day, which means comparing the log with the as-run (the automation system's record of what really played).

You can also open a makegood by hand, for example when a spot ran but should not count.

Why the next morning matters

A makegood found at invoice time is hard to make good. The campaign is over, the advertiser has moved on, and every choice left costs money.

The same makegood found the morning after, with three weeks left in the flight, is just one more spot in next week's log.

So Cartwright opens the makegood as soon as reconciling shows the miss. It shows on Daily Log and the Dashboard that morning.

Check the runway first

Next to each owed spot is its runway: how many days are left that can carry it. A day counts if the order runs on that day of the week, and it falls inside the order's dates or within 30 days of the miss, whichever is later.

The 30 days come from the standard contract terms Cartwright prints on your orders. They promise to reschedule a missed spot "in a comparable position within thirty (30) days", and to credit it only when that cannot be done. So a spot missed in the last week of a campaign can still run after the campaign ends. It runs on the order's own days of the week, in its own dayparts, with its own copy. Nothing else from the order runs on those days.

• Runway left means a scheduling job. Pick a day, or let Cartwright pick.
• No runway means a phone call. No day left can carry the spot, so your choices are to credit it, extend the order, or agree with the advertiser to let it go.

They look different on purpose, because they need different answers.

A spot can also show as held. That means there are days that could carry it, but their logs have already been sent. That is different from a flight that has ended, and you settle it differently.

Settling one

Open Daily Log and find Spots owed. Every row gives you these choices. Cartwright does not choose for you.

• Find days for these plans a day for each owed spot: earliest day first, one makegood a day for each order, and never on a log already sent. It shows you the plan first, and nothing is saved until you accept it.
• Make good, on a row or next to a missed spot under What aired, shows the day Cartwright picked. One click schedules it there.
• Choose a different day or time is for when the advertiser asks for something in particular: a day, and if they like, a time window such as 7:00 to 9:00 AM. The spot then goes in a break inside that window.
• Credit or write off closes the makegood without the spot airing. Both ask who decided and why, and keep the answer. Months later, you will know whether it was a credit or a favor.

When the advertiser asks for something outside the rules

You owe the spot, so the advertiser usually gets what they ask for. Cartwright checks the day and time you choose against the rules it uses when it picks a day itself, and tells you each rule your choice would break:

• later than the order's end plus the 30 days after the miss
• a day of the week the order does not run
• a second makegood for the same order on the same day
• outside the times the order was sold for

You can still go ahead. Cartwright asks why, for example "the advertiser asked for Saturday", and keeps your reason and your name with the makegood.

Three things cannot be overridden, because they would change what has already aired or what is already on the air:

• A day that has already aired, or today.
• A day whose log is already on the on-air PC. Press Revoke delivery on that day first. Then schedule the makegood, and generate and send the day again.
• An order that is not active. Make the order active again, or credit the spot.

What each status means

Made good means proved. Putting a makegood in a log does not settle it. The day has to be reconciled, and the spot has to show up in the as-run. Only then can you tell the advertiser they are square.

Not proved is not the same as made good, which is why it has its own status. If many pile up, days are being built but not reconciled. The Dashboard names the oldest day still waiting to be reconciled. Reconcile it, and the list gets shorter.

What this means for the invoice

Cartwright bills from what aired, not from what was scheduled. An owed spot stays on the list until someone settles it, and the invoice can point to the spot that repaid it.

That is why there is one row for each owed spot rather than a count. You can point to a row. You cannot point to a count.

Two things worth knowing

Cartwright never closes a makegood for you. Crediting a spot or letting it go is always a person's decision. Cartwright finds what is owed, shows your choices and records what you chose. In Automated mode it can schedule owed spots again by itself, but a spot is only made good once the as-run shows it aired.

Generating a log again does not lose a makegood. The day a makegood is planned for is kept when the log is generated again. Cartwright checks every time whether the makegood is really in the log, so one that fell out goes back on the list instead of looking settled.