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Loring is a Los Angeles-based writer, director, and creative producer. His work has been commissioned by a diverse range of clients- from Havas Worldwide to Wisecrack, inc.- and has been screened around the world. Through a background that blends project development with physical production across multiple formats, Loring has developed a uniquely eclectic skillset as a visual storyteller.
At Wrapbook, we pride ourselves on providing outstanding free resources to producers and their crews, but this post is for informational purposes only as of the date above. The content on our website is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for legal, accounting, or tax advice. You should consult with your own legal, accounting, or tax advisors to determine how this general information may apply to your specific circumstances.
Lengthy productions generally exist in a near-constant state of flux. Scripts are revised, weather conditions force additional shoot days, a director alters the scale of production—no matter the cause, it’s a given that schedules and budgets are evolving all the time.
Keeping up with fluctuations in a production plan is perhaps the primary challenge faced by a typical accounting team on a typical shoot. It requires a constant stream of updates and adjustments that can keep whole departments busy. The job is already difficult by nature, but it becomes exponentially more so when multiple budgets are introduced. Even small adjustments can ripple into a long to-do list of extra tasks.
Managing multiple budgets may necessitate adherence to differing financial regulations. To maintain compliance, accounting teams may need to organize and provide documentation that satisfies multiple sets of audit requirements.
The potential for varying audit requirements adds yet another layer of complexity to multiple budget maintenance. With this particular layer, the additional complexity can carry serious legal consequences. A failure to account for multiple audit requirements could result in expensive fines or other penalties.
Working with multiple budgets can muddy financial visibility. The higher volume of more complex information makes clarity more difficult to achieve, a frustrating reality that can also visit severe collateral damage on the quality of a production’s communication.
The value of transparency cannot be overstated. All departments and other production stakeholders need clear visibility into budget constraints to make optimal decisions over the long term. The importance of communication only increases when multiple budgets are introduced.
Unfortunately, the production accountant’s current tech toolbox may sometimes make multiple budgets more difficult to manage. Accounting teams may be required to consolidate financial data from multiple software systems, a task that can easily lead to discrepancies if not properly synced. In that event, inadequate digital solutions run the risk of creating more manual work.
This micro issue reflects the macro state of the production industry. While filmmakers love disruptive technology, production accounting and payroll systems often remain archaic and poorly integrated. Antiquated systems slow accounting teams down and force them to trudge through inefficient workflows.
The standard response to the challenges outlined above is a series of ad hoc workarounds. Production accounting teams create separate spreadsheets for each budget. Costs are tracked and allocated manually on a case-by-case basis. Errors are corrected by hand.
These ad hoc systems are loosely held together by software whose relevant functionality is significantly limited. The result is an inefficient, ungainly process that consumes exorbitant amounts of time upfront and increases a production’s potential for mistakes over the long term. Adding insult to injury, when such discrepancies do inevitably emerge, they’re also more difficult to correct.
The need to manage multiple budgets within a single project is not a rare circumstance. There is such a wide variety of situations in which it’s necessary that many production accountants no doubt consider the practice commonplace. Why then are industry standard solutions still so ill-fit to meet the challenge?
Here at Wrapbook, we see no reason that accounting technology shouldn’t meet the real-world needs of its users. The obvious solution is more adaptable systems supported by better tools. The right software should streamline the management of multiple budgets without disrupting a healthy production accounting workflow.
Wrapbook’s Production Accounting Suite provides a centralized method for managing production finances. It’s a powerful set of tools that empowers accountants with real-time data and visibility that enables better, faster, and more efficient decision-making.
Our next-gen technology is designed to act as a force multiplier for production finance and accounting teams. That means providing tools that help professionals handle challenges that they actually face in the real world, like managing multiple budgets within a single project.
With Wrapbook, accounting teams can easily manage multiple budgets on a single project with tools that enable them to:
Combined with seamless workflows for recording, analyzing, and reporting on a production’s costs, Wrapbook’s ability to handle multiple budgets makes cost management easier for production accountants and their teams. Our software can adapt to your needs, alleviating the pain points explored above.
Cost tracking and allocation are simplified through an easy-to-use index. Digital records and documentation streamline any necessary adjustments or reconciliation for production changes. Errors are easier to both catch and correct. Advanced reporting features elevate transparency, which in turn can drastically improve communication, compliance, and the approval process.
As the entertainment industry evolves, Wrapbook continues to evolve with it, delivering constant improvement to its tools and services to better meet the needs of professional filmmakers.
Wrapbook is the next standard for production finance and accounting teams. Our platform empowers confident, collaborative decision-making on a foundation of next-gen technology and a concierge service model, all driven by the guidance of entertainment payroll and production experts.
To learn more about how we can streamline your next project, check out what’s new in Wrapbook or dive straight into our demo to experience it firsthand.
Production accountants sometimes face the unique challenge of juggling multiple budgets within a single production. It’s a task all too often defined by cumbersome complexity, one that muddies communication and strains the capacity of even top tier accounting teams. Reporting inefficiencies, redundant labor, and confusion over costs are all par for the course.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Improved processes and next-gen technology can dramatically simplify the challenge of managing multiple budgets. In this post, we’ll explore how the right tools can make all the difference.
First, let’s examine the problem in a little more depth.
Multiple budgets require more organization, more decisions, and more raw effort. Costs must be tracked, isolated, and correctly categorized according to individual episodes, webisodes, or specific locations. Under even the best conditions, the result is a heavier workload with higher risk exposure. Opportunities to make mistakes are ample, and the extra labor needed to avoid them is significant.
Below, we’ll highlight specific problem areas that might affect your accounting team when dealing with multiple budgets on a single project.
The most inherent challenge of multiple budgets is the extra complexity it adds to cost allocation. It’s critical that production accountants attribute every single cost to the correct budget. A failure to do so can result in serious problems down the road, such as unexpected cash flow shortages and discrepancies during budget actualization.
When working with a single budget, accurate cost-tracking is just business-as-usual, a relatively simple task that blends seamlessly with other accounting best practices. With multiple budgets, however, the process can quickly become overcomplicated.
Many complications can be solved through sheer diligence, but extra diligence also means extra effort, which often leads to extra time and extra costs. It’s a good idea to self-audit early and often, but that doesn’t mean you should have to go through your receipts with a fine-tooth comb every single day.
In contrast, some complications can only be solved through strategy, decision-making, and careful documentation. This is especially true when resources must be shared across multiple budgets. If costs associated with a project’s crew, equipment, or locations must be split across more than one budget, your production accounting team will need to take extra care in cost tracking and coordination.
A predictable extension of troubles in cost allocation, managing multiple budgets within a single project often leads to a more cumbersome approval process. This is simply because multiple budgets may require approvals from a wider variety of stakeholders. A decision that requires only one “yes” under a single budget may require several under more than one.
The math is straightforward, but the consequences can be far more indirect and troublesome. For example, the additional time required for additional approvals may lead to delays or inconsistencies in cash flow management. A minor inconvenience in theory can create a major financial disturbance in practice.
Handling multiple budgets may also lead to compounding difficulties when dealing with multiple sources of film financing. Varied sources of funding often have their own requirements for reporting and compliance. The experience of dealing with a studio is very different from dealing with private investors or a grant organization, and you’ll likely find further variation among individual financiers within any given category.
The rising prevalence of production incentives heightens the importance of this particular concern. Incentive programs can vary wildly from state to state and sometimes even between municipalities. Production accountants ultimately bear the considerable burden of any overlapping, diverging, or intersecting program requirements.
