Production Office Best Practices

1. Get started with the basics.

Set up your payroll and accounting with GreenSlate, an all-in-one platform built for digital workflows. The system uniquely leverages one database to allow all crew to submit timecards and start work, view check copies, and initiate purchase orders and check requests in a single online application. Having one platform where all payroll and accounting forms can be completed without paper is critical to contactless operations.

Select production management software that works for your needs and budget. With industry standard tools such as SetKeeper or Scenechronize, you will be able to share scripts, production reports, call sheets, sides, and more, without any paper.

2. Set up your approval flows. 

Think about what you do on set and share your process with our Digital Success team.

We will make sure you have the flexibility you need and everything is configured to work the way you work.

Start with our default approval flows and customize from there!

1. Designate who your approvers are, by person or by role. 
2. Indicate the order of approvers.
3. Indicate whether an approver can be skipped.
4. Designate who needs to sign.
5. Set up conditional approval steps based on amounts. 
6. Set automated notifications throughout the process to help keep everything on track.

EASILY TRACK DOCUMENT APPROVALS IN THE APP

Color coded icons highlight the status of your approvals.

3. Build training into your onboarding process. 

Schedule webinars and set up required trainings for your production.

Our Support team works as an extension of your crew. We can customize GreenSlate platform webinars for crew, department heads, approvers and/or accountants, and can set up any required trainings. 

Managing your required trainings:

1. Consult with our Onboarding and Support teams to review any specific requirements for your production and preload any trainings before production starts. We offer a Health Check Module to support your production, and the mandatory sexual harassment trainings for NY and CA are also preloaded in the app.
2. Manage required trainings from the app and send reminder emails to crew as needed.
3. Track completed trainings and certifications in the app.

CUSTOMIZE AND MANAGE TRAINING FOR YOUR CREW

The GreenSlate training module makes online training quick and convenient. 

• Build trainings using presentations or videos you already have, or by sourcing content online, and add required checklists or attestation forms.
• Collect survey, quiz, and attestation responses.
• Set parameters for how trainings can be completed or course content can be viewed.
• Add certifications that are valid for predefined periods of time.
• Track completions.

We also offer live payroll, accounting, and crew training sessions so that your team can learn how to fully leverage all of GreenSlate’s features to save time and work more efficiently.

4. Manage your production payroll. 

Start work paper goes away and onboarding is completely digital.

We can set up forms to be prefilled and approved as one packet, and if you have additional forms employees need to submit, other than the I-9, W-4, and start form, such as deal memos, we can set up custom forms to capture all the information you need.

1. Invite your crew to complete the needed forms in the app before they even arrive on set.
2. Track and approve submitted start work in the application and send reminders.
3. If needed, all start work packets can be downloaded as a PDF with signatures.

Quickly get answers to any questions with direct access to our Support team over live chat, phone, or email. Software support is available 24/7.

5. Enable your accountants to work remotely.

Get started quickly with multiple budget import options.

Seamlessly import Excel, Movie Magic, or Showbiz budgeting files.

Set up your expense management tools. 

Access all transaction documents and email PDFs of POs with associated backup directly from the app.

• Initiate and distribute purchase orders digitally. Eliminate trips to the office to submit forms or to photocopy documents. 
• Replace petty cash with GreenSlate Prepaid Visa® cards or CASHét and eliminate the need to physically pick up cash. Make online purchases, deliveries, and check balances in real time and easily upload receipts from your mobile device.
• Attach any related backup to transactions, along with system digital signatures/approvals, once bills have been entered digitally.
• Approve payments, print checks with digital signatures, and access transactions with remote bill payments.

Manage your production accounting records. 

You can check account balances for all projects with one click and monitor the Chart of Accounts and General Ledger in real time on your computer or mobile device without having to run reports.

• Instantly access information on screen, instead of printing reports, with multi-filter views and drilldowns.
• Easily open and view backup attachments within the active window when reviewing and approving transactions.
• Instantly view subledgers and transactions to address questions and investigate spend coding with our interactive Trial Balance and Cost Report Dashboard.
• View all of your incentive projects with estimation versus actual reporting and recode spend on the fly with our Tax Incentive Dashboard.
• Easily code or recode spend to track costs with the Edit Transaction Details.
• Run any report by any currency and rate you require with our flexible multi-currency entry and reporting.
• Select and filter your document downloads to save them the way you need them, by employee/vendor name, transaction type, or number.

6. Streamline your post accounting and incentives process.

Implement end-to-end digital tools to simplify your post accounting and incentives process. 

You can speed up your incentives application and audit, and ultimately the time it takes to get your funds. GreenSlate provides in-house post accounting, for a one-stop shop for all your post production payroll, accounting, and tax credit needs. Save money by eliminating the need for paper, bankers boxes, shipping, and storage costs.

• Cloud storage of all files provides access to all transaction details and speeds up both filing and the audit process.
• All accounting transactions on the web allow for the upload of backup, such as invoices, receipts, W-9s, etc.

Easily generate the information you need with GreenSlate state tax incentive filing exports.

Automatically generate the documents you need for some of the most complicated state forms, such as the New York State Budget Cost Qualifier.

SIMPLIFY YOUR RECORDS MANAGEMENT

Robust tools accessible directly in the accounting General Ledger allow you to work quickly.