Film Payroll Accountant – Most In-Demand Job in Film Accounting

September 28, 2014

There aren’t many ways to assess the demand for film production accountants. The film business is really a word-of-mouth industry. Getting verifiable statistics of the demand for those who work at the various levels of film production accounting are usually hard to find.

EMILY’S LIST

However, there is one source that many studios, producers and production accountants have used to find available film accountants. It’s referred to as “Emily’s List”. The postings are looking for various levels of film accountants to work across America, and even up into Canada. The internet address for Emily’s List is at https://sites.google.com/site/ricegortonpictures/film-tv-prodn-accounting-listings-1

4 OUT OF 10 LISTINGS ARE FOR PAYROLL ACCOUNTANTS

I went through the last 120 listings or so, from Sept 24/14 backwards to Aug 14/14, to discover how many requests were for Payroll Accountants. I found that 4 out of 10 listings are for either a Film Payroll Accountant, or for a Film Payroll Clerk. That makes the other 6 out of 10 listings shared by Key Accountants, 1st Assistant Accountants, 2nd Assistant Accountants and File Clerks. Wow…. that proves to me that the Payroll Accountant is a scarce commodity.

CALCULATING TO “GROSS PAY” ONLY

As you can see from my other posts, film payroll accounting is all about knowing how to calculate the “Gross Pay” – that is, the Overtime Hours multiplied by the contracted rate, plus any meal penalties and rest violations. You won’t need to know about government and union withholdings and contributions – all of that nasty stuff is done by the payroll service.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

So, the task becomes knowing how to calculate union payroll, and that’s all we do for 2 full days – right from beginning to end. You will be left with all of the reference material for SAG, DGA, IATSE Area Standards, and IATSE Low Budget Agreement, as well as on-line access to the full courses and materials for future reference. (A Michigan Teamster Agreement is reviewed at the end of the 2nd day; however, after doing the above it seems pretty simple).

I did a screen recording to give you a better idea of how the Film Payroll workshop works – see this short YouTube video: http://youtu.be/GcwXoq0cRE8

The payroll workshop is over the weekend of Nov 8th and 9th, 2014 in Toronto; and again on Feb 7th and 8th, 2015 in Atlanta.

Hope to see you there!

For more info you can check out my web site at http://www.filmaccounting.com/filmworkshops6.htm

Best / John