How UK Productions Are Moving Beyond Fragmented Finance Tools with EP's Production Finance Studio

As seen in Broadcast.

Having supported UK productions for years through its Payroll and Incentives services and Movie Magic Scheduling, Movie Magic Budgeting, SmartAccounting, SmartPO +Payables and Casting Portal solutions, EP has built a deep understanding of the needs of the UK production community. Now, with the upcoming expansion of its digital onboarding and timecard solutions SmartStart and SmartTime into the UK market, EP brings together these solutions in its UK Production Finance Studio: a purpose-built, end-to-end, integrated suite covering the full lifecycle of production finance from crew start paperwork and timecards through to budgeting, accounts payable and production accounting, all within a single connected system.

What sets the Production Finance Studio apart is the combination of the scale, innovation and proven capabilities of the production finance technology that is trusted by major studios around the world, and the functionality that has been extensively re-designed, localised and purpose-built by EP’s UK team to reflect the way UK productions operate.

"What the market has been missing until now is genuine integration," says Mark Goldstein, President and CEO of Entertainment Partners. "Productions have been working with individual point solutions that don't talk to each other, manual processes that slow things down and introduce errors, and data that lives in separate places. But at the outset, we also knew that bringing our Production Finance Studio to the UK meant much more than introducing integrated technology that has already proven itself globally. Our UK team has invested heavily in ensuring it reflects the specific needs of this market, from payroll practices and reporting requirements to the day-to-day workflows production finance teams rely on. That’s what gives us confidence in what we’ve built.” 

How EP's Production Finance Studio closes the integration gap

The practical difference integration makes is felt most by the people doing the day-to-day work. When SmartStart handles crew onboarding and feeds directly into SmartTime for timecards, which connects in turn to EP Payroll, SmartAccounting and SmartPO +Payables, information entered once flows automatically to wherever it needs to be. Approvals happen digitally. Cost reports update in real time.

For UK Financial Controller Jane Glover, the impact has been tangible. “I couldn’t understand why production accounting software was lagging behind the rest of the accounting software options available in other industries," she says. "SmartPO importing direct to SmartAccounting has reduced so many man hours lost to manual inputting."

Built for the UK market, backed by EP's global infrastructure

The UK has established itself as one of the world's leading production destinations, home to major studio tentpoles and US streamer originals, alongside a thriving slate of independent features and homegrown HETV drama. That breadth brings with it a wide range of financial structures, reporting requirements and operational demands, all within a distinctly UK framework of employment law, union agreements and incentive structures.

EP's Production Finance Studio has been developed with that complexity in mind. 

While it runs on the same platform used by major studio productions in the US, providing international studios and streamers the consistent reporting standards and data visibility they require across their global slates, the solution available in the UK has been extensively engineered by EP’s UK team. Every phase has been refined to reflect UK legislation, payroll practices, production accounting requirements and local workflows, creating a solution purpose-built for UK productions. 

"It is not about bringing technology from one market to another,” says Goldstein. "It’s about taking the industry's leading production finance technology and investing the time to make sure it genuinely reflects how productions operate here in the UK. That’s exactly what our team has done, and we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve delivered.” 

Real-time visibility across the slate

For production finance teams, the advantages of having all your production data flow through one connected system are significant. EP's Payroll and Labour Insights and Production Accounting Analytics solutions give production companies and studios real-time visibility across an entire slate: how spend is tracking against budget on each production, where variances are emerging, how costs compare across projects.

"That kind of insight was previously only available to the very largest organisations with the resources to build it themselves," says Goldstein. "The Production Finance Studio brings those capabilities to a broader range of UK productions through a platform that combines global scale with workflows designed specifically for the market.” 

Supporting productions of every scale

EP's Production Finance Studio is designed for the full breadth of the UK market, from major studio productions to independent features and mid-budget HETV productions. While the scale of productions may differ, the operational challenges are often the same: ensuring crews are onboarded correctly, timecards are processed accurately, and cost reports are kept current. And these are arguably even more valuable when teams are leaner and margins are tighter.

"Getting things right the first time matters enormously on any production," says Goldstein. "For smaller teams especially, the time saved by having systems that work together is time that goes directly back into protecting the budget. The technology should work the way production teams work, not the other way around. When systems are designed around how teams actually operate, everyone has more time to focus on supporting the creative process.”

EP offers more than technology

Building a platform for the UK market required more than engineering. It required an understanding of the processes and pressures behind every production. For EP, the technology is only part of the picture. The company works actively with the broader UK production community – including the Production Guild, Pact and the National Film and Television School – and is committed to the UK market as a long-term partner.

"A production finance tool is only as useful as the support behind it," says Goldstein. "When a production accountant has a question at 8pm during a shoot, they need to speak to someone who understands production. That is what our UK team is there for."

Jane Glover agrees. "As soon as I switched to SmartAccounting, the support that I received has been incredible... not only fixing any issues during the working week, but also to show me helpful tools to make reporting easier. [EP’s] one-to-one support with team members meant that very little training time was needed."

It is this client-first approach that reflects EP's broader ambition in the UK: not simply to offer a suite of tools, but to be a partner that supports the industry it is working in.

"The UK production community knows what it needs from its technology,” says Goldstein. "Our role is to listen, understand those needs and build a solution that delivers real value. By combining our global production finance expertise with the knowledge of our UK team, we’ve created a platform that is both proven at scale and purpose-built for UK productions.” 

Looking ahead: What's next for EP in the UK

The UK is one of the most dynamic and ambitious production markets in the world. The goal behind EP's Production Finance Studio is straightforward: to make sure the financial and operational tools available to UK productions are worthy of the industry they serve.

"As the industry continues to grow, the systems supporting it need to grow with it," says Goldstein. "EP's goal is to give UK productions the benefit of the world’s leading production finance technology, while ensuring every workflow reflects the way productions here actually operate. Ultimately, it’s about helping teams spend less time navigating complexity and more time focused on what they do best – creating great content."

To find out more about Entertainment Partners' full Production Finance Studio – including SmartStart, SmartTime, SmartAccounting, SmartPO +Payables and Payroll – visit ep.com/ep-global/uk.