Automating billing and payments wins at maximizing efficiency

Viraaj Solanki launched Digital Tank Marketing Agency (DTMA) in 2018. The digital marketing agency, based in Sacramento, California, is a boutique creative agency that supports businesses of all sizes to bring their vision to life in a strategic and custom way. While it can be a competitive space, Viraaj built DTMA based on relationships and referrals, taking the company from a six-figure agency to a seven-figure agency within a year.

At DTMA, Viraaj wears a lot of hats, one of them being billing. As the steward of DTMA’s strategic, financial and creative gameplan, he’s always involved in the company’s various departments so he can continue evolving while always staying true to the big picture.

Viraaj was wrestling with an onerous and outdated billing process. Navigating the traditional path, he painstakingly created invoices and individually customized invoice numbers, and sent these invoices to each client by email. It was a repetitive, time-intensive cycle that he repeated monthly.

This routine of generating invoices, monitoring payments, and chasing overdue bills became a considerable drain on Viraaj's precious time. He succinctly summed up the challenge: "Running a business ... time is valuable. We've got to maximize our time."

In an industry where agility is paramount, these inefficiencies were hampering DTMA's growth and progress.

The struggle was clear – the traditional methods were no longer tenable for a dynamic, growing agency like DTMA.

In his quest for an all-encompassing solution, Viraaj sought a platform that would not only boost operational efficiency but also enhance client experiences and optimize cash flow. He understood that in the dynamic world of marketing, it was crucial to provide superior experiences in every aspect – be it creative output, billing processes, or overall client communications.

Ignition presented the customization capabilities to ‘check all his boxes’ and deliver an unrivaled experience to his clients. Ignition seamlessly integrated with DTMA's existing processes, bolstering the agency’s automation capabilities and efficiency. "I love the fact that Ignition integrates with QuickBooks, making it easier for my CPA to reconcile every month – so that I know what the real-time numbers are each month," he says.

Ignition gave Viraaj greater transparency into his incoming cash flow, significantly enhancing budgeting and financial management. The platform aligned perfectly with DTMA's evolving needs.

Working with Ignition has yielded remarkable results for DTMA. The platform has noticeably reduced Viraaj's billing-related workload to a mere two hours per month.

This radical decrease in time consumption has translated into countless saved hours, diminishing stress and giving Viraaj the freedom to put his time and energy into leading his team and growing his business.

On top of that, Ignition's business intelligence dashboard has impacted DTMA's proposal process for the better. The dashboard offers an instant snapshot of Viraaj’s sales pipeline, highlighting outstanding issues and identifying the clients who require follow-ups.

But the impact of Ignition extends beyond operational efficiencies. One of the most significant shifts the platform has enabled for DTMA is with client communications. Discussions have moved away from awkward payment-related conversations toward growth strategies and service improvements. Reflecting on the transformation, Viraaj says, "The outcome has been like: Well, why didn't I do it sooner?"

With a clear view of his incoming cash flow and enhanced budgeting and financial management, the result is a profound positive change in the agency's operations, one that Viraaj emphatically sums up: