It is not uncommon to take up to 3 years from delivery of a production before the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) company is closed down. During this time the Production Accountant is likely to have moved onto other productions. The Production Accountant can either work on both productions at the same time, or hand over to a Post Production Accountant.
Costs will continue to be incurred until delivery of the production and after this time there will always be queries to deal with and suppliers who invoice late. Until the production is finally closed the monthly, quarterly and annual returns continue to be required to be submitted. It is still vitally important to monitor the costs during this stage, ensuring the final cost report reflects a true and accurate cost of the production. The Post Production Accountant needs a good knowledge of production and post production in order to deal with queries arising, to understand the technicalities, resolve disputes and provide accurate cost reports. A close working relationship with the post production supervisor is also key to doing the job well.
When the production accountant hands over to the post production accountant after the shoot, the following should be detailed:
- Balance Sheet – with supporting documentation and reconciliations for each account
- Cost report – notes against all remaining estimates to complete
- Purchase Orders – explanations for all unmatched POs
- Outstanding queries – full details / correspondence for current state of affairs
- Access to all systems and files
