Secondary Control: Fraud Prevention with Wrapbook

In the fast-paced world of film and television production, speed is essential—but so is security. When you’re running a high-budget project with a decentralized team and tight deadlines, the last thing you want is a hidden vulnerability slowing you down, or worse, exposing you to fraud.

At Wrapbook, we understand this balancing act. That’s why we’ve built configurable approval workflows—a powerful feature that introduces what we call secondary control. It’s intentional, lightweight control embedded directly into your production finance operations, designed to help you move fast and stay protected.

Hidden risks in fast-moving productions

Productions operate differently than most businesses. Crews are assembled quickly. Spending ramps up overnight. Dozens—sometimes hundreds—of workers are paid across multiple departments. It can become a perfect storm for fraud.

Some of the most common schemes include:

• Ghost employees: Individuals added to payroll who never actually worked, or in some cases, never existed.
• Unauthorized payouts: Payment amounts altered without oversight.
• Fake vendors and spoofed invoices: Illegitimate companies invoicing for services never rendered.

These issues can be costly, and unfortunately, traditional fraud controls often fall short. They’re manual, cumbersome, and incompatible with the unique pace and structure of production. That’s where secondary control—and approval workflows—come in.

How Wrapbook enables confidence into every transaction

Approval workflows are streamlined online processes built into Wrapbook that require designated reviews before sensitive actions—like issuing a payment or creating a purchase order—can proceed. They work behind the scenes to ensure every decision is seen by the right people at the right time.

Here’s what makes them so effective:

• Helps prevent unauthorized actions by requiring approval from designated team members or approver groups
• Helps enforce your approval process for high-stakes operations
• Introduces a verification step and simultaneously enables more efficient collection of approvals

Most importantly, Wrapbook’s approval workflows are designed to adapt to your organization’s structure and needs. You can:

• Customize workflows by company, cascading them down to projects as needed
• Set conditions based on user roles and real-world hierarchies
• Automatically create audit trails for compliance and accountability

With a few clicks, your production can create a highly sophisticated series of internal controls—without the bureaucratic baggage associated with legacy processes.

Real-world applications that protect your bottom line

Approval workflows aren’t just theoretical—they help solve real problems on set and in the office every day. Some of the most impactful use cases include:

Purchase order approvals

Tight control over spending is critical. Approval workflows help ensure that:

• Purchases stay within scope and budget
• Potentially suspicious activity can be surfaced early
• Every PO has a clear approval history for audits

Adapting to complex production hierarchies

No two productions are structured the same. That’s why Wrapbook lets you configure rules that reflect your unique org chart, and route approvals conditionally based on your company’s discretion.

Whether you're managing a short shoot or a multi-project slate, approval workflows can scale with your operations.

Fast, secure, and built for you

The takeaway? Approval workflows aren’t red tape. They’re trust infrastructure.

By embedding fraud prevention directly into your operational flow, you can move more confidently—knowing that critical decisions are being reviewed, risks are minimized, and your production is protected.

And because these workflows are fully customizable, they don’t slow you down—they help keep you moving safely at speed.

Wrapping up

Already using Wrapbook? Take a moment to review your current workflow configurations. Are there steps that could use a second pair of eyes? Are the right people involved at key checkpoints?

If you’re unsure or ready to level up, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Wrapbook Support. We’re here to help you design workflows that strike the perfect balance between agility and control.

Because sometimes secondary control is exactly what keeps things running smoothly.