Senior Production Financial Analyst

This is a Full Time Job


Reporting to two Directors of Production Finance, the Senior Production Financial Analyst will play a vital role in financial planning, project management, and reviewing and analyzing actual costs for shows in various phases of development, production and budgeting.

Corporation and Show Set-up
• Builds corporate structure/flow chart for incentive planning and maintains implementation though all stages of production
• Opens bank accounts for specific filming locations, obtaining signatory information and establishing account signers from both studio and freelance team for processing payments via checks and online
• Works with the Studio Technology team to setup third-party accounting software set-up for use on production payroll and invoices, as well as user onboarding for all production systems
• Tracks crew hiring to create assumption agreements for union contracts, working with Labor Relations and payroll companies to ensure signatory status for IA/DGA/SAG are triggered timely

Production Prep
• Responsible for daily accounting functions of R&D/Prep, including onboarding. Establishes travel authorization and approval workflows before free-lance production accountants are hired
• Initiates invoice payments and ushers studio finance approvals. Monitors bank activity and account balances, placing stop payments when necessary, managing daily positive pay activity, and uploading files for batch payments
• Sets up accounting office both local and abroad, ensuring process and functionality is maintained for various production locations and users
• Works directly with feature film production accounting staff on reviewing approvals for studio on invoices, competitive bids, check requests, and petty cash
• Trains freelance production staff on online banking systems, accounting systems, production systems, etc. (Scenechronize, ESN, PSL , Smart Accounting, BOA, HSBC)
• Updates and approve templates for show forms, including deal memos, check requests, and competitive bids

Budget Construction
• Responsible for building and updating Budgeting Department Excel models including Budget History Report, Crew Rate Comparisons, ATL/BTL Variance Reports, Location Incentive Summaries, and Look of Picture Cost report and Production Accountant database. Presents to key studio executives and provides explanations of variations
• Researches new talent and crew contracts and adds new or revised details to Movie Magic budgets and production spend matrix (BLUE Report)

Production Accounting
• Works directly with production accountants in reviewing weekly closing reports, including trial balance, general ledgers, and check registers
• Acts as primary contact for any Accounting related issues, including banking, credit cards, policies & procedures; escalates issues to the Production Finance Exec, as needed
• Ensures all studio approvals are obtained timely, including deal memos, competitive bids, invoices, checks, and petty cash
• Submits weekly Production funding and currency hedge requests thru wire transfers, reconciling actuals of spot buys and FX hedges in wire log. Works with treasury to establish foreign currency purchase and incentive sells, calculating blended rate for gain/loss to show
• Initiates and processes payments via SAP, online banking software, and third party accounting system
• Monitors positive pay activity daily, clearing payments or reporting fraudulent check activity
• Journal studio costs in SAP, identifying and correcting all miscodes on show's subledger balances
• Sets up show credit facilities and acts as point person for all credit card authorization issues/declines; works Production Finance Execs in establishing individual crew card limits
• Tracks and compiles necessary agreements for production audits and incentive submissions
• Schedules turnover meetings and ensures completion of the wrap checklist; coordinates shipping of accounting files and assists with the transition from production to post

Responsibilities:

Development Accounting
• Sets up development projects with payroll companies for WGA writer payments
• Process invoices and wire transfers for development expenses
• Prepare monthly VAT return for expenses incurred by UK development entities
• Keep accurate accounting record of processed payments, VAT refunds and related journal entries in PSL and supporting backup on the Finance shared drive
• Perform monthly bank reconciliations, research and resolve any reconciling items in a timely manner
• Prepare monthly journal entries in SAP reclassing costs from development entities managed in PSL to the appropriate projects in SAP

Project Oversight and Reporting
• Oversees all updates of critical reports including production spend matrix (BLUE) and Executive Summary for studio-wide distribution
• Weekly reporting financial data of cost reports, change over prior variances, cost and PO commitments to date, potential variances, studio costs, hot costs, and major variances
• Updates and manages internal company reports to senior executives. Builds greenlight memo and final budget binder for studio circulation

Corporate Reporting
• Tracks and reports talent contracts, submitting pay or play commitments quarterly to controllership
• Runs weekly SAP Production and Funding Numbers, flagging erroneous charges and journaling any miscodes to proper show's chart of accounts
• Reconciles production accounting package and studio cost subledgers quarterly, auditing all costs transferred between the payroll and studio systems
• Sets up show Y-bill for studio charges and works with cashier to monitor Y-bill payments and tracking outstanding studio Y-bill charges
• Submits studio charges memo of soft costs for journaling over to production
• Works alongside controllership for all Quarter Close/Year end reporting, including current currency hedges and incentive tracking
• Joins Corporate Controllership on production location audit of each show to ensure best practices with accounting office and compliance to Disney policies. Advises the accounting team on previous flags, aids controllership on the ground recording findings, and presents audit report to production executives
• Opens studio travel cards, tracks Disney travel BTA and travel billing

Executive Analysis
• Works directly with Production Finance Executives to analyze updates to production budgets and cash flows. Identifies changes and communicates effectively to production executives
• Provides ad hoc reports to analyzes trends, ranges, and deviation of a variety of production-related expenditures

Studio Service
• Participates in testing of new technical systems to ensure functionality and accuracy for production teams
• Helps maintain and update the Finance Policies and Procedures as need, as well as draft new Policies for new jurisdictions

Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum of 5 years of production finance experience required or finance experience in entertainment, consulting or public accounting
• Strong financial modeling and analytical abilities
• Highly collaborative with strong interpersonal and project management skills
• Ability to quickly learn new concepts, think strategically, solve problems, and implement solutions
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize, multi-task, meet deadlines, make preliminary decisions and change course of action quickly
• Detail oriented with the ability to work well under pressure

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