Have you ever wondered what production accountants do? A production accountant is the one that is responsible for the management of finances as well as the maintenance of financial records during video production. This is a professional who works closely with the producer and the rest of the production team. His job also includes preparing budgets and schedules for video productions. The objective is to manage day-to-day accounting, financial reporting against the allotted budget.
More often than not, production accountants work as freelancers. The qualification and experience that is asked will depend greatly on the scale and size of the video production, TV show or film project.
Production accountants must, of course, have a background in accounting whether through experience or education. They must also have a few years of experience in video production accounting.
Production accountants have to gain the approval of guarantors, financiers and studios that are involved in the video production. Since this is so, it is crucial that they have ample experience to back up their application.
The specific tasks that are handled by a production accountant include costing productions, calculating finances, managing the overall cash flow, and liaising with the financiers. He must also make sure that all legal requirements are met preferably during pre-production.
During pre-production, a production accountant assists production managers and producers in preparing the correct kind of budget. He gets to set up the accounting system while also being the one in charge of managing it throughout the project.
The production accountant is also the one who supervises assistant accountants or accounts trainees if there are any. He also gets to deals with completion guarantors and bank finance transactions.
The production accountant also creates and keeps the financial records that are related to the video production project. He could also possibly arrange a freelance audit. There are times when the production accountant works with senior accountants. The latter are also known as financial controllers who are the ones that are permanently employed by the video production companies.
As a production accountant, you must also have a good knowledge of the video production processes like bookkeeping and general accounting.
It is wrong to presume that the video production industry is in no need of accountants. A production accountant is essential to successfully run a video project. The task involves budget, working within that budget, and keeping everything within the said budget. Minus the accountant who keeps track of finances through financial records, it can become impossible to keep finances within the required perimeter.
If you want to work as a production accountant, you must first have a few years of job experience in the accounting industry. This also means that you must have attained at least a Bachelor’s Degree, preferably in accountancy.
As a production accountant, you must have working knowledge regarding the government rules and regulations with regard to guilds, unions and taxation relating to video production. This kind of work is usually on a contract basis or on freelance. You can also choose whether you would want to work locally or if you choose to take a job abroad. There are many traveling production accountants these days who enjoy their foreign jobs – you could become one of them.
About Author
