Film Accounting Glossary
Chart of accounts
What is a chart of accounts?
Also called COA.
A chart of accounts is the numbered list of every account a production can code a cost to, and it is the backbone of the whole accounting system.
Standard industry charts group accounts by department in a familiar order, so a producer can read any budget without relearning the numbering. Keeping the budget, the cost report, and the accounting software on one identical chart is what makes variance reporting possible at all.
Example
A conventional chart puts story and rights in the 1100s, cast in the 1300s, camera in the 2200s, grip in the 2500s, transportation in the 3300s, and post in the 4000s. A producer who has never seen this show's budget can still read it, because the numbering is standard.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
Fixed before prep and shared identically by the budget, the accounting software, and the cost report. Renumbering mid-show destroys comparability.
Common mistake
Renumbering or restructuring it mid-show. Every prior week's report becomes incomparable, and the variance history that would have shown the trend is gone.
Related questions
- What is a standard film chart of accounts?
- A conventional department order: story and rights, cast, then production departments such as camera, grip, and transportation, then post and other charges.
- Can a production change its chart of accounts mid-show?
- It can, and it should not. Comparability across weeks is the point of the chart, so new needs are better handled with detail accounts under existing majors.