Classes

Designed for working finance professionals, the Key Accountant training will be divided into modules – each one focusing on a particular aspect. The program would build on the students existing knowledge with entertainment specific training – reports unique to the entertainment industry.

Participants will be given a project scenario (script, schedules, location, timeframe) to effectively budget, then hot cost, then cost report. Their project will evolve with them over the weeks of training, and they will turn in exercises for review/feedback along the way including preliminary budgets, revised budgets based on simulated Producer and Studio notes, locking a final budget, and importing the budget into accounting software. As they progress to cost reporting, they will use their locked budget to prepare daily hot costs (both in feature film and episodic TV formats – depending on the project they are assigned) and prepare cost reports. As part of learning to manage their office, team and workflow, they will be given sample edits of input sessions to review for accuracy and approve for posting (or give corrections that must be made prior to posting).

Special emphasis will be placed on understanding payroll contracts in order to budget properly and provide informed approval. Students will review and approve payroll new hire paperwork, timecards and edits by account prior to posting. They will perform in this sample environment all the functions they will be performing as the Key Accountant on a show.

Although designed as a series of modules that when combined create a certification program, existing Production Accountants may apply to take individual modules to enhance their existing skills.

Payroll will also be a series of modules from the basics of breaking timecards, to reading and interpreting labor contracts, to communication skills. Special attention will be given the new “paperless” tools for digital on-boarding, timecards and record-keeping methods. We will also provide focused learning opportunities with courses specific to various labor contracts – SAG, DGA, WGA, Post-Production/Editors, Basic Agreement, ASA, SVOD, etc. For example, if a Payroll Accountant has never worked in Louisiana, they can take the ASA short course to become knowledgeable on that contract.

A beginner can take the basic modules, then seek employment as an assistant payroll accountant to gain experience before taking advanced modules. Working payroll accountants can enhance their skill set by taking advanced modules and specific contract classes. A prospective hire can be guided through the specific classes needed to prepare for your upcoming project.

These courses will be designed to teach the specific skills needed to advance within the career of production accounting. Again, the focus will be hands-on in a test environment to enable them to do the tasks just as they will once on-the-job. Emphasis will be on digital tools and “paperless” accounting.

We also hope these courses will entice experienced professionals from outside the entertainment industry to take their existing skills and apply them to the unique aspects of production; to enable them to move laterally into production accounting rather than moving backward to entry-level tasks and a lower income in order to get a foot in the door.

Scheduled to launch in summer 2023

The entry-level training will introduce applicants to the unique aspects of production accounting such that upon completion they would be prepared for a position as a clerk, a payroll clerk, or digital filing assistant.

The course will be conducted on-line to include lectures, practical demonstrations and hands-on homework assignments. Students will learn industry terminology, common production paperwork, how to conduct yourself on the job, how does an accounting office function, the clerk’s role on the team, and review of all the basic clerk duties.

This course will prepare students to become general Clerks, AP Clerks, Payroll Clerks and Digital Coordinators (assisting crew members to learn and get comfortable with digital tools like on-boarding, timecards and digital purchase orders).