Cost report: Meaning in Film Production

Cost report

Definition

A cost report is the weekly financial report a production accountant prepares showing, for every account in the budget, the approved budget, costs this period, costs to date, open purchase orders, estimate to complete, and estimated final cost. The difference between budget and estimated final cost is the variance that producers and financiers watch.

Reading the columns

Every account in the chart of accounts gets a row. Here is the camera account from week 3 of a fictional shoot:

Acct	Description	Budget	This week	To date	POs open	ETC	EFC	Variance
3300	Camera	$118,000	$14,600	$61,200	$22,400	$41,000	$124,600	($6,600)

EFC is $61,200 + $22,400 + $41,000 = $124,600. Variance is $118,000 - $124,600 = -$6,600, shown in parentheses because the account is heading over. The "POs open" column comes from purchase orders issued but not yet paid, which is how a cost report catches spending that has been promised before the invoice arrives.

The hard part is ETC

Anyone can add up invoices. The judgment in a cost report is the estimate to complete: what's left to spend on this account, given what the accountant now knows. If the DP added a second camera operator for the last two weeks, ETC has to include those weeks even though no time card exists yet. A cost report with honest actuals and a stale ETC will look fine right up until it doesn't.

How it's built each week

Post all paid invoices, petty cash envelopes, and payroll to the ledger by account.
Reconcile open POs.
Pull overages from the week's hot costs.
Meet with the line producer or UPM to update ETC account by account.
Recalculate EFC and variance, then summarize by category on a top sheet version of the report.

What people get wrong

Moving budget between accounts to hide an overage is the big one. The approved locked budget column should stay fixed; if money moves, it shows as a transfer in a separate column so the history is visible. Another is reporting variance without explaining it. A good report has a short note per significant variance: "3300 Camera: added B-camera operator weeks 4 and 5, approved by producer 3/12."

The production accountant owns the report. For a walkthrough of a full sample, see how to read a film cost report.

Frequently asked questions

How often is a cost report done on a film?

Weekly during prep and production, and usually every two weeks or monthly during post. Financiers and completion guarantors often receive every issue.

What does EFC mean on a cost report?

Estimated final cost: what the account is expected to cost when the picture is done. It equals actual costs to date plus open commitments plus the estimate to complete.

Who sees the cost report?

The producers, line producer or UPM, the studio or financier, and the completion guarantor if there is one. Department heads usually see only their own accounts.