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Industries We Serve

Bookkeeping for Film & Production

Production costs tracked against budget, project by project.

Call (310) 800-4494Book a Free Consultation

Remote bookkeeping — monthly close, cleanup, and books ready for your CPA.

Production accounting lives or dies on cost-to-budget tracking. When costs are not coded to the production and the budget line, overruns surface after wrap, and crew 1099s become a January problem.

At a glance

Cost against budget

Tracked per production, per line, while it can still change something.

Crew 1099-ready

Cast, crew, and contractors set up before wrap, not after.

Income by source

Client work, licensing, and distribution kept distinct.

Between projects

Books stay current in the gaps, so the next one starts clean.

What we handle

  • Production costs tracked against budget, project by project
  • 1099 tracking for crew, cast, and contractors
  • Equipment, rental, and location expense tracking
  • Income from clients, licensing, and distribution organized by source
  • Loan-out and entity activity separated from personal

Common problems we fix

  • Production costs not tracked against a budget
  • Crew and contractors not set up for 1099 reporting
  • Books that fall behind between projects

Trades and specialisms we cover

Film & Production is a broad category, and the bookkeeping differs meaningfully between the trades inside it. Here is what actually changes, trade by trade — each is handled under this service rather than as a separate engagement.

Casting Directors — jump to this section

A casting office is paid a fee per project while frequently handling money that belongs to others — session payments, background talent, and reimbursables — which makes the distinction between fee income and pass-through the central bookkeeping question. Work arrives in intense bursts with long gaps, so annualising is essential to know whether the year actually worked. Where the office engages readers and associates per project, those are contractor relationships that need setting up before the project, not at year end.

Cinematographers and DPs — jump to this section

A director of photography typically earns a day rate plus a separate equipment or kit rental fee, and those are two different kinds of income — one is labour, the other is a return on capital you own and depreciate. Books that merge them cannot show whether owning the kit is actually paying for itself. Work is project-based with per diems and travel, and gear purchases are assets rather than expenses, which is the most common thing we correct.

Production Companies — jump to this section

A production company runs each project as its own cost centre against a budget agreed before anything was shot, so cost-to-budget by line item, during production rather than after it, is the entire point. Client advances are held money until spent, not revenue. Where productions qualify for incentive programs, the eligible spend has to be tracked separately as it happens — reconstructing it afterwards is expensive and frequently incomplete.

Post-Production Houses — jump to this section

Post houses sell time on equipment and people, which means utilisation is the operating metric and suites, storage, and licences are the fixed cost being covered. Software and plugin subscriptions accumulate into a substantial recurring figure that rarely gets reviewed. Projects run long and are billed in stages, so work in progress — time incurred and not yet billed — is real and needs to be on the balance sheet rather than discovered at invoicing.

Loan-Out Corporations — jump to this section

A loan-out is a single-person corporation through which an individual’s services are engaged, and the whole point is that the corporate books stay genuinely separate from personal spending — a loan-out with commingled personal expenses undermines the structure it exists to create. Payroll to the owner, distributions, and reimbursed business expenses each need consistent treatment, and residuals or deferred compensation may arrive years after the work.

Commercial and Branded Content — jump to this section

Commercial work is bid against a detailed treatment and budget, and the client, agency, and production company may all be tracking the same numbers differently — so reconciling actual spend to the bid, line by line, is a deliverable rather than an internal convenience. Overages need approval and documentation as they occur. Payment terms from agencies are frequently long, which puts a production company in the position of funding crew and vendors well ahead of collection.

Not listed? Tell us what you do — these are the ones we are asked about most, not the limit of what we handle.

We keep the books. You run the business.

Categorization, reconciliation, month-end close, and clean financial statements — with nothing left for you to chase.

Call (310) 800-4494Book a Free Consultation
View pricing

How It Works

1

Free review

We look at how your film and production books are set up today.

2

Fix the structure

Chart of accounts rebuilt around how your industry actually earns and spends.

3

Catch up

Anything behind gets cleaned up at a fixed quoted price.

4

Close monthly

Current, reconciled books every month — ready for your CPA.

Film & Production — Frequently Asked Questions

Do you understand film and production specifically?

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Yes — that is the point of setting the books up by industry. Production accounting lives or dies on cost-to-budget tracking. When costs are not coded to the production and the budget line, overruns surface after wrap, and crew 1099s become a January problem.

What does bookkeeping for film and production actually involve?

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Production costs tracked against budget, project by project; 1099 tracking for crew, cast, and contractors; Equipment, rental, and location expense tracking; and 2 other recurring pieces. It is done monthly rather than reconstructed at year end, so the numbers are usable while the decisions are still open.

What usually goes wrong in film and production books?

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The three we see most: production costs not tracked against a budget; crew and contractors not set up for 1099 reporting; books that fall behind between projects. Production costs tracked against budget, project by project.

Do you work with casting directors, cinematographers and dps, production companies?

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Yes — those are three of the 6 trades covered under this service, and each is listed on this page with what changes about its books. They are handled under one engagement rather than quoted separately.

Do you work in the accounting file my film and production business already uses?

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Yes. We work inside your file so you keep ownership and full visibility. If you do not have one set up yet, we build it around your industry from the start, including a chart of accounts that matches how you actually earn.

Can you clean up film and production books that are months behind?

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That is our specialty. Cleanup is quoted at a fixed price after a short no-obligation review, so you know the cost before any work begins. Scope varies enormously, so we look first and quote second.

Related

All industriesBookkeeping servicesPricing

Bookkeeping built for film and production

Book a free consultation and we will tell you what your books need — and what it costs.

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  • Done-for-you
  • Solo or group
  • Nationwide

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