I saw a commercial the other day for Quickbooks with a well-known actor, and he was holding up receipts in his hand saying “what is this? the 80’s.” Right now in 2019, the standard way of collecting receipts in the Entertainment Industry is by taping them to paper. You might catch some scanning them, but in general, people are stuck on their paper technology. There is also this widespread idea that scanned copies of receipts are not acceptable in entertainment accounting offices. A clue to everyone….scanned copies are adequate and the IRS accepts them in an audit which by the way is the only audit one should worry about passing because if you can pass with the IRS, all other inspections are a cake walk.
When I talk about technologies worth using vs. those that need to be retired from the business process you will hear the term “silo.” The Unabridged Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of a silo is ” a trench, pit, or typically cylindrical structure usually sealed…” The purpose of the reference is to give a visual. And the point is when deciding upon the right business process for a project getting rid of technologies that create silos is one of the first steps in understanding the advantages of platforms. And how platforms manage big data and information giving teams access. Like the
We have a digital approval system, with digital purchase orders and digital payroll. In this post, we talk about the silo’s created by paper, and in the coming weeks, we give the reasons to limit other silos like email and phone calls when sharing, working and collaborating on projects. Old habits are hard to break, and I hear the screaming and kicking which is why getting the right resources pooled together is essential for productions to be successful when making the business process transition. The transition still starts with urgency running through the blood of everyone in the company and working on the projects.
When using paper to transact business, the traditional Feature film and TV production way for approving accounts payable (AP) and payroll (PR) is a pen and paper process — physically handing off to an assistant who “runs” it to the next person in the approval chain. Some Crews are using next day shipping companies to get their documents approved. They are still “rushing checks.” HUH! There are digital approval systems, and banks have some pretty cool technologies to get vendors, and employees paid, like ACH. Why does the industry insist on being a laggard with their business process? Is business about efficiency and making money? Because from what I have seen it is about fear and control in Hollywood. Why do you think the current big scandal happened? It is in the culture starting at the top.
Paper slows down the data turning into useful information because sometimes crews are waiting for enough documents to send for approval. When a platform gives immediate access to the data then setting aside blocks of time to approve AP or PR becomes a more controllable tactical task that strategic producers will enjoy. When the approver has immediate access to how the payment will affect the budget, then they can approve of knowing for sure without having to ask for a ledger report or additional information about the purchase order or payments.
Paper delays the data from being useful. While all this is happening some crew members keep track of their department costs on spreadsheets. Sorry, but many have formula errors, or they are using a technique that does not take advantage of the powerful tools spreadsheets have, or worst of all they don’t know and have to ask accounting for a ledger report on their department spending and assets. It is chaos to the nth degree when using paper and other ad-hoc solutions on a production.
The internet and computers are not fads. The internet, computers and mobile devices are the best ways to transact business now and into the future. They too will eventually be replaced, but for now, it is time for the Entertainment Industry to take a hard line and educate itself. It is time to break out of the late adapter and laggard label on the business process. It is time to be a leader
