November 7, 2023
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Empowering Film & TV: Wrapbook’s Production Accounting

Chris Cullari
About the author
Chris Cullari

Chris Cullari is a writer/director based out of Los Angeles. His most recent film, THE AVIARY, is available for streaming on Paramount Plus and Showtime. You can find him tweeting about monsters, pro-wrestling, and horror movies.

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Disclaimer

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.

Last Updated 
November 7, 2023
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The complete package for production accounting

Our all-in-one, real-time, seamless solution allows accountants to build their workflows around Wrapbook.

Whether it’s approving timecards, entering POs, downloading cost reports, or assigning startwork, everything gets done faster and easier when you work with Wrapbook.

Set up projects

We’ve made it easy for anyone from the Controller to the Key Production Accountant to work with our solution. 

Whether the team needs to create their Chart of accounts, import their budget from Movie Magic Budgeting, or set up their accounting periods, bank account and tags, they can do it in a few easy steps in Wrapbook.

Pay workers

With our all-in-one solution, accounting departments can review and edit timecards and expenses. They can also run payroll whenever they want using our existing tools that people love.

Unlocking Wrapbook’s Production Accounting Capabilities - Wrapbook - Run Payroll
Running payroll on demand is just one way Wrapbook’s tools complement and supercharge each other.

And because payroll can be run on demand, production accountants can also get that posted to their books faster. No more waiting on a paymaster to approve each and every payroll. 

Manage and pay vendors

Production accountants can set up their vendors in Wrapbook, create and manage POs, and pay them via CASHétPay. 

We’re also building PO approval workflows so production accountants can set up different workstreams and approval flows for POs. For instance, if the department head approves, then the PO goes to the production accountant, and executive producer if needed.

Manage cash flow

Cash flow management is easier than ever with our powerful suite of tools.

Unlocking Wrapbook’s Production Accounting Capabilities - Wrapbook - Cash Flow
Never lose track of cash flow again with our easy to use cash flow tracking.

Want to input AP invoices and journal entries, review payroll entries, post to the General Ledger, manage your budget and EFC, or reconcile your bank accounts? Wrapbook’s got you covered.

Reporting

Finally, our system allows the entire production accounting team to easily access and manage their General Ledger, Cost Report, and Trial Balance Report. With Wrapbook, you can quickly and efficiently work on your Cost Report and share in the format required by your production.

Quality-of-life solutions

Wrapbook’s mission to improve every aspect of production accounting has resulted in upgrades to even the smallest details.

Autosave

As accounting teams input information into the system, Wrapbook autosaves data as it’s entered. This unique Wrapbook feature prevents accounting from losing data and having to spend time re-doing work.

Journal entry pasting

Accountants can copy and paste large amounts of data into Wrapbook from a spreadsheet. Our platform will automatically populate it into a journal entry. This is super fast to complete and doesn’t require accountants to import or fuss with a template. It makes their data entry method faster (and it’s also just really cool). 

Customer support

We have an amazing support team to back our film and television customers. From having a dedicated Customer Support Manager (CSM) to accessing our in-house tax incentive and labor relations experts, our customers are always backed by the best in the industry. 

Wrapping up

Wrapbook is your partner in precision, ensuring every detail is managed with the care you deserve. Connect with us to learn more. 

Transform your production accounting with precision and peace of mind. Discover more about Wrapbook’s Production Accounting solution here

Final FAQ

What accounting software do film production accountants use?

Film production accountants often use specialized production accounting software to streamline financial management. 

Popular tools include Wrapbook, Movie Magic Budgeting, and PSL, which allow them to handle production payroll, track expenses, and produce reports in real-time. 

These tools empower accountants to manage complex financial tasks efficiently across all departments.

What financial reports do accountants produce during film production?

During film production, accountants produce several key financial reports. These include the cost report, which tracks actual spending against the budget, cash flow statements, and payroll summaries. 

These reports are essential for keeping production teams and stakeholders informed about the project's financial health.

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Production accounting is a complex task. Managing a film or TV production’s finances across all departments requires a high degree of organization and collaboration. 

Most production accountants rely on specialized software to help manage day-to-day financial operations like payroll, budgeting, expenses, accounts payable, and compliance. The tools an accountant chooses can either help or hinder their ability to efficiently manage cash flow, stay on budget, and keep stakeholders informed. 

But most accounting software isn’t built for the speed and expectations of modern production.

That’s where Wrapbook comes in. 

Main points

  • Production accounting requires organization and collaboration to manage finances across all departments.
  • Most production accountants rely on specialized software for tasks like payroll, budgeting, and compliance.
  • Traditional accounting software can be outdated and inefficient for modern production needs.
  • Wrapbook provides an all-in-one solution that centralizes production costs and improves real-time decision-making.

The problem with production accounting

For decades, production accountants have relied on outdated, standalone tools to track cash flow and manage budgets. Each tool served a single purpose—one tool for budgeting, another for payroll, a separate tool (or tools) for Purchase Orders and Accounts Payable, etc. etc. 

With production cost data siloed in disconnected tools, simple tasks like pulling an up-to-date cost report required logging into each tool, exporting and formatting the necessary data, and then importing it back to their budgeting tool. 

At a minimum, those processes are inefficient and needlessly take hours out of the accountant’s day. Worse, those manual, offline processes create the risk for human error and incomplete or inaccurate data being shared with stakeholders. 

This can leave accounting teams scrambling to make sure no information is lost or misreported when trying to manage everything from POs to timecards to startwork throughout the day.

To keep pace with a fast-moving production, what production accountants really need is an all-in-one, easy-to-use solution. Like Wrapbook.

The solution

Our team of industry and accounting experts knew that a better solution for production accountants was possible. They also knew it was necessary to develop the next generation of production accountants. 

Wrapbook’s Production Accounting solution is easy-to-use, centralizes production costs, and gives accountants real-time visibility that enables better, and faster decision-making. 

Here’s how. 

All-in-one

When you log into Wrapbook, everything you need for your day to day is in one place, easily accessible from our modern dashboard and navigation system.

Unlocking Wrapbook’s Production Accounting Capabilities - Wrapbook - Navigation
Welcome to the future. With Wrapbook’s modern navigation system, you’ll never again feel like you’re working with software from the early 2000s.

With our system, accountants don’t have to manage duplicative information across systems or worry about data being up-to-date and accurate in multiple places. They can access both production and payroll features as well as production accounting features from the same place.

On-demand and real-time

As payroll and expenses are processed in the system, they’re immediately ready for review by accounting. Run payroll with a click without having to wait on a paymaster to review your timecards, and post to the General Ledger as soon as it happens to see how the budget is impacted in real time.

Unlocking Wrapbook’s Production Accounting Capabilities - Wrapbook - Invoices
No more bouncing from program to program or waiting on a paymaster just to review how payroll is impacting the budget.

On-demand payroll  gives production accountants hours back to their day by making it easier and faster to account for payroll and expenses in accounting as they happen.

Seamless

Wrapbook’s easily accessible data makes quick work of previously arduous tasks. For instance, our platform allows accountants to add a vendor when entering a PO versus having to navigate to the PO entry screen.

Unlocking Wrapbook’s Production Accounting Capabilities - Wrapbook - Add a Vendor
It’s never been easier to add and pay vendors all from the same place!

Production accountants can even jump to individual transactions when working on their cost reports, making it easier than ever to edit and review.

This means no more jumping between web pages or navigating away from tasks to get something done. Do it all in the module you’re in while you’re thinking of it.

Day-to-day tasks get completed faster and more efficiently.

Book a Demo

Meet with a Wrapbook expert to create a plan for your payroll.