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Imagine the chaos of juggling spreadsheets, receipts, and budget reports across multiple film projects. As a production accountant who has wrangled budgets for years, I used to dread the stacks of paperwork and the risk of human error. Finalising a budget for a TV episode felt like a marathon of copy pasting numbers into endless Excel tabs.
My day might start at the crack of dawn, poring over cost reports from yesterday’s shoot and updating the master budget. By noon I’d be chasing crew members for expense receipts, then reconciling them against invoices by afternoon. When deadlines loom and budgets are tight, every minute counts. This was the reality of production budget and cost management in the film and TV industry, where efficiency can make or break a production.
Then things changed when I discovered Just-TV by Creative Total Media. Designed as an all in one finance and production accounting software, it replaced the chaos with one unified system. Built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Just-TV consolidates all financial and production data into a single cloud-based solution.
Creative Total Media’s software is made for the TV/film industry. In other words, Just-TV felt like it was built for accountants like me.
One of the first things I noticed was how Just-TV centralised multiple productions in one place. Instead of separate Excel files for each show, Just-TV lets me view all of our productions from one unified platform.
This means I can inspect budgets episode by episode and see cash flow forecasts instantly. Creating budgets at the episodic level is now such an easy task, I can set up episodic budgets which roll up to an overall series budget.
Another game changer is the Cost Manager. For each production (and even each episode) I set up a Cost Manager profile, where I add expected expenses, gear rentals, location fees, VFX, you name it. As actual costs come in, I convert line items into purchase orders or expense entries with a couple of clicks. Having all episodes linked to a central cost manager means I get a live snapshot of spending. No more scribbling costs on paper or merging separate reports, the system does it for me.
The practical effect delivers huge efficiency. Production Accountants upload expenses and invoices directly into Just-TV, assigning each item to the right schedule/expense code and episode. Gone are hours of manual data entry; now I simply review and approve what’s already categorised.
Just-TV’s biggest game changer is how it eliminates tedious manual steps. In fact, one of its core promises is “no more data reconciliation with the finance data”.
Another huge benefit is real time reporting. The platform is a secure, scalable cloud solution, which means I can run up-to-date financial reports from anywhere. On a recent project, I pulled up a live dashboard showing our current spending on equipment and crew. Spotting a spike in lighting costs that evening helped us make immediate cuts elsewhere. Previously, generating that insight would have meant days of number-crunching and now it’s instant.
The built-in reporting tools also let me slice and dice data on demand. If a producer asks, “How much have we spent on post-production versus budget?” I can answer with a chart in seconds. This transparency means everyone gets their answers without waiting for spreadsheets to be cleaned up.
Automation is where Just-TV really shines. It incorporates Microsoft’s AI Copilot, which feels like having a digital finance assistant. The Copilot can generate pivot tables, automate bank reconciliation, and answer questions about our finances. I remember typing, “What are our expense code costs this year in descending order?” and instantly getting a pivot table where the largest costs were listed in that exact order. It’s incredibly time saving.
These AI tools also help catch issues before they become problems. Once I had a vendor questioning an invoice, however, they couldn’t remember the invoice number only that it was sometime around March. Instead of hunting for it manually, I simply asked Copilot, within seconds, it flagged the relevant invoice. Creative Total Media puts it well: with Copilot you can “automate processes” so accountants can focus on analysis rather than clerical work.
Just as crucial as crunching numbers is using that data to inform production decisions. Thanks to Just-TV, I can give directors and producers an instant snapshot of where each episode stands financially. When a director asked if we could afford an extra shooting day, the answer was simple: we checked the remaining budget balance, which Just-TV updates in real time, and made a call on the spot. No guesswork, no panic.
The cloud-based nature of Just-TV also means stakeholders can connect from anywhere. I often get network producers on the phone asking for a quick financial report. Reports that once took days (or longer) to compile now generate in seconds. This instant access has improved our credibility with investors and executives, who see we’re on top of the numbers.
Interestingly, Just-TV even helps us with sustainability. It tracks carbon footprint per production as part of its reporting. Our studio has committed to green initiatives, so being able to see the emissions from travel and energy use on each set is a neat side benefit. It shows how modern this tool really is.
Creative Total Media is set out to solve the industry’s pain points, and in doing so they’ve delivered software “built specifically” for TV and film. Robust cost managers, real time collaboration, AI automation, these are features that directly address our headaches.
From a production accountant’s perspective, the efficiency gains with Just-TV have been remarkable. It has turned a once tedious, error prone process into a streamlined, almost effortless workflow.
For anyone who has struggled with outdated, siloed data or endless reconciliations, it’s worth exploring this kind of software. When budgets and production realities finally align in real time, we can focus on making great content without the stress.
In our experience, adopting Just-TV was like discovering a superpower we didn’t know we had. Numbers finally made sense, and we could do what we do best: support storytelling instead of spreadsheets.
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