Storyteller Studios is ten times more efficient with Wrapbook
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Picture a movie that wrapped principal photography in February. In May, an actor comes back for a single ADR session. For most of the crew, it’s a footnote. For production accountant Denise Bernard, it’s a line item that, months after the fact, has to find its way back to the correct ledger, even with several other projects running concurrently.
Storyteller Studios is an Atlanta-based independent production company known for thrillers and romantic comedies. Led by veteran producer and owner Ken Sanders, it has made many popular Lifetime movies, along with other made-for-TV and independent features. As head accountant, Denise runs between seven and 13 non-union films a year, often back to back, often overlapping.
Today, it’s Denise and one assistant. They’re on their eighth movie of the year, and they’re getting ready to audit the 13 films they produced the year before. That kind of scale wasn’t possible a few years ago. Wrapbook is a big part of why it is now.
Picture a movie that wrapped principal photography in February. In May, an actor comes back for a single ADR session. For most of the crew, it’s a footnote. For production accountant Denise Bernard, it’s a line item that, months after the fact, has to find its way back to the correct ledger, even with several other projects running concurrently.
Storyteller Studios is an Atlanta-based independent production company known for thrillers and romantic comedies. Led by veteran producer and owner Ken Sanders, it has made many popular Lifetime movies, along with other made-for-TV and independent features. As head accountant, Denise runs between seven and 13 non-union films a year, often back to back, often overlapping.
Today, it’s Denise and one assistant. They’re on their eighth movie of the year, and they’re getting ready to audit the 13 films they produced the year before. That kind of scale wasn’t possible a few years ago. Wrapbook is a big part of why it is now.
Outgrowing the old software
When Denise started, Storyteller ran its books in QuickBooks. For a production company juggling a dozen projects at once, it wasn’t ideal.
Because the rules governing Georgia’s film tax incentives require every dollar to be carefully coded to the right production, it was essential for Denise to have a way of separating costs by project. Quickbooks could only separate them by date range. With multiple projects running concurrently, the only way to pull an accurate per-project payroll report was to have Denise build it by hand.
“I went through one audit and I was like, ‘well, this isn’t sustainable.’ It was twice the work.”
She went looking for something that would eliminate paper checks and save her from rebuilding audit reports by hand. But after demoing all the big names in entertainment payroll; each of them had glitches, clunky interfaces, and tedious data entry.
Then she found Wrapbook. The interface was clean, the dashboards weren’t confusing, and, most important, she could run payroll across every project and break it out cleanly by film.
“That’s what really got us hooked. I was like, ‘oh, thank God.’”
A tenfold improvement in efficiency
Storyteller started its switch to Wrapbook with payroll alone, then moved its loan-outs and contractors onto Wrapbook too. For a while, that was how Storyteller ran its projects: payroll in Wrapbook, production accounting still in QuickBooks.
But when Denise’s rep at Wrapbook mentioned the platform’s production accounting software to her, she jumped at the chance to finally have everything under one roof. The efficiency boost was immediate.
“Wrapbook has improved our efficiency tenfold. It’s one website with all your needs: running payroll, doing reports, paying your vendors, having all your documents on file, and minimizing your manual admin. There’s no other platform like it.”
Outgrowing the old software
When Denise started, Storyteller ran its books in QuickBooks. For a production company juggling a dozen projects at once, it wasn’t ideal.
Because the rules governing Georgia’s film tax incentives require every dollar to be carefully coded to the right production, it was essential for Denise to have a way of separating costs by project. Quickbooks could only separate them by date range. With multiple projects running concurrently, the only way to pull an accurate per-project payroll report was to have Denise build it by hand.
“I went through one audit and I was like, ‘well, this isn’t sustainable.’ It was twice the work.”
She went looking for something that would eliminate paper checks and save her from rebuilding audit reports by hand. But after demoing all the big names in entertainment payroll; each of them had glitches, clunky interfaces, and tedious data entry.
Then she found Wrapbook. The interface was clean, the dashboards weren’t confusing, and, most important, she could run payroll across every project and break it out cleanly by film.
“That’s what really got us hooked. I was like, ‘oh, thank God.’”
A tenfold improvement in efficiency
Storyteller started its switch to Wrapbook with payroll alone, then moved its loan-outs and contractors onto Wrapbook too. For a while, that was how Storyteller ran its projects: payroll in Wrapbook, production accounting still in QuickBooks.
But when Denise’s rep at Wrapbook mentioned the platform’s production accounting software to her, she jumped at the chance to finally have everything under one roof. The efficiency boost was immediate.
“Wrapbook has improved our efficiency tenfold. It’s one website with all your needs: running payroll, doing reports, paying your vendors, having all your documents on file, and minimizing your manual admin. There’s no other platform like it.”
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Outgrowing the old software
When Denise started, Storyteller ran its books in QuickBooks. For a production company juggling a dozen projects at once, it wasn’t ideal.
Because the rules governing Georgia’s film tax incentives require every dollar to be carefully coded to the right production, it was essential for Denise to have a way of separating costs by project. Quickbooks could only separate them by date range. With multiple projects running concurrently, the only way to pull an accurate per-project payroll report was to have Denise build it by hand.
“I went through one audit and I was like, ‘well, this isn’t sustainable.’ It was twice the work.”
She went looking for something that would eliminate paper checks and save her from rebuilding audit reports by hand. But after demoing all the big names in entertainment payroll; each of them had glitches, clunky interfaces, and tedious data entry.
Then she found Wrapbook. The interface was clean, the dashboards weren’t confusing, and, most important, she could run payroll across every project and break it out cleanly by film.
“That’s what really got us hooked. I was like, ‘oh, thank God.’”
A tenfold improvement in efficiency
Storyteller started its switch to Wrapbook with payroll alone, then moved its loan-outs and contractors onto Wrapbook too. For a while, that was how Storyteller ran its projects: payroll in Wrapbook, production accounting still in QuickBooks.
But when Denise’s rep at Wrapbook mentioned the platform’s production accounting software to her, she jumped at the chance to finally have everything under one roof. The efficiency boost was immediate.
“Wrapbook has improved our efficiency tenfold. It’s one website with all your needs: running payroll, doing reports, paying your vendors, having all your documents on file, and minimizing your manual admin. There’s no other platform like it.”
Outgrowing the old software
When Denise started, Storyteller ran its books in QuickBooks. For a production company juggling a dozen projects at once, it wasn’t ideal.
Because the rules governing Georgia’s film tax incentives require every dollar to be carefully coded to the right production, it was essential for Denise to have a way of separating costs by project. Quickbooks could only separate them by date range. With multiple projects running concurrently, the only way to pull an accurate per-project payroll report was to have Denise build it by hand.
“I went through one audit and I was like, ‘well, this isn’t sustainable.’ It was twice the work.”
She went looking for something that would eliminate paper checks and save her from rebuilding audit reports by hand. But after demoing all the big names in entertainment payroll; each of them had glitches, clunky interfaces, and tedious data entry.
Then she found Wrapbook. The interface was clean, the dashboards weren’t confusing, and, most important, she could run payroll across every project and break it out cleanly by film.
“That’s what really got us hooked. I was like, ‘oh, thank God.’”
A tenfold improvement in efficiency
Storyteller started its switch to Wrapbook with payroll alone, then moved its loan-outs and contractors onto Wrapbook too. For a while, that was how Storyteller ran its projects: payroll in Wrapbook, production accounting still in QuickBooks.
But when Denise’s rep at Wrapbook mentioned the platform’s production accounting software to her, she jumped at the chance to finally have everything under one roof. The efficiency boost was immediate.
“Wrapbook has improved our efficiency tenfold. It’s one website with all your needs: running payroll, doing reports, paying your vendors, having all your documents on file, and minimizing your manual admin. There’s no other platform like it.”
Sunday night to Thursday
Before Wrapbook, each payroll week had a predictable shape. Paper timecards would arrive by scan on Sunday night. Denise would calculate hours by hand, check rates, enter everything, code it, and then start over when late timecards trickled in. If all went well, checks went out on Friday.
“It would take me until Thursday to calculate everything and run checks. That’s like four days of me just getting all the information.”
Now timecards are electronic. Line producers approve them before they reach her, and they arrive already coded. Once payroll runs, it posts to the GL instantly. There’s no wrangling multiple systems, and no reconciling across different platforms.
“Wrapbook’s timecards alone have saved me days.”
No more waiting for checks to clear
Paying vendors used to be its own slow loop. Denise would cut a check, wait for it to clear, keep checking the bank account until it did, and then come back to post it with the right dates. She estimates each payable took roughly an hour, spread across days of checking in.
With Wrapbook’s Direct ACH vendor payments, that loop is gone. Vendors email invoices straight into the project’s dedicated inbox. Denise reviews them, routes them to a line producer or unit production manager (UPM) for approval, and pays them with a click, all without leaving Wrapbook.
“I know I have money in my account. I can process it. I don’t have to go back days later to verify dates. It’s all in the system.”
Sunday night to Thursday
Before Wrapbook, each payroll week had a predictable shape. Paper timecards would arrive by scan on Sunday night. Denise would calculate hours by hand, check rates, enter everything, code it, and then start over when late timecards trickled in. If all went well, checks went out on Friday.
“It would take me until Thursday to calculate everything and run checks. That’s like four days of me just getting all the information.”
Now timecards are electronic. Line producers approve them before they reach her, and they arrive already coded. Once payroll runs, it posts to the GL instantly. There’s no wrangling multiple systems, and no reconciling across different platforms.
“Wrapbook’s timecards alone have saved me days.”
No more waiting for checks to clear
Paying vendors used to be its own slow loop. Denise would cut a check, wait for it to clear, keep checking the bank account until it did, and then come back to post it with the right dates. She estimates each payable took roughly an hour, spread across days of checking in.
With Wrapbook’s Direct ACH vendor payments, that loop is gone. Vendors email invoices straight into the project’s dedicated inbox. Denise reviews them, routes them to a line producer or unit production manager (UPM) for approval, and pays them with a click, all without leaving Wrapbook.
“I know I have money in my account. I can process it. I don’t have to go back days later to verify dates. It’s all in the system.”
Sunday night to Thursday
Before Wrapbook, each payroll week had a predictable shape. Paper timecards would arrive by scan on Sunday night. Denise would calculate hours by hand, check rates, enter everything, code it, and then start over when late timecards trickled in. If all went well, checks went out on Friday.
“It would take me until Thursday to calculate everything and run checks. That’s like four days of me just getting all the information.”
Now timecards are electronic. Line producers approve them before they reach her, and they arrive already coded. Once payroll runs, it posts to the GL instantly. There’s no wrangling multiple systems, and no reconciling across different platforms.
“Wrapbook’s timecards alone have saved me days.”
No more waiting for checks to clear
Paying vendors used to be its own slow loop. Denise would cut a check, wait for it to clear, keep checking the bank account until it did, and then come back to post it with the right dates. She estimates each payable took roughly an hour, spread across days of checking in.
With Wrapbook’s Direct ACH vendor payments, that loop is gone. Vendors email invoices straight into the project’s dedicated inbox. Denise reviews them, routes them to a line producer or unit production manager (UPM) for approval, and pays them with a click, all without leaving Wrapbook.
“I know I have money in my account. I can process it. I don’t have to go back days later to verify dates. It’s all in the system.”
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Tracking more than just money
Wrapbook has also become Storyteller’s source of truth for important financial records. Invoices, loan-out agreements, and deal memos all live alongside the payments to which they belong. That’s no small thing for Denise, who’s still closing out a 2024 audit on a production that relied on a system of shared folders, where invoices sometimes never made it out of someone’s inbox.
“I’d need an invoice for the audit, because I have to show what I paid. And there would be no invoice. I paid it, but where did it go?”
Approvals moved into the system, too, which means far fewer emails asking about someone’s timecard. “I no longer have to check my email 20,000 times a day. It’s amazing.”
Her line producers and UPMs have noticed the difference as well. They spend less time scanning paperwork and digging through inboxes. All of this clarity has given rise to a simple rule on Denise’s productions:
“I tell everyone, ‘put it in Wrapbook. If it ain’t in there, I don’t want to know about it.’”
A culture of responsiveness
Denise has also come to count on Wrapbook’s proactive approach to support. Nine times out of ten, she says, her emails get a same-day reply, and when she calls, she reaches someone right away. With past providers, she’d wait on callbacks.
It’s also a two-way street. That’s because Denise has noticed that her suggestions have a tangible impact on the product itself.
“I’ll say, ‘Hey, can we try this?’ And you guys come back and actually do it.”
After Denise suggested a change to Wrapbook’s AP interface—one that would cut back on her needing to click back and forth to pay an invoice—Wrapbook’s team pivoted to incorporate it. “It’s just cool to see that you’re actually listening to your users,” she says.
Tracking more than just money
Wrapbook has also become Storyteller’s source of truth for important financial records. Invoices, loan-out agreements, and deal memos all live alongside the payments to which they belong. That’s no small thing for Denise, who’s still closing out a 2024 audit on a production that relied on a system of shared folders, where invoices sometimes never made it out of someone’s inbox.
“I’d need an invoice for the audit, because I have to show what I paid. And there would be no invoice. I paid it, but where did it go?”
Approvals moved into the system, too, which means far fewer emails asking about someone’s timecard. “I no longer have to check my email 20,000 times a day. It’s amazing.”
Her line producers and UPMs have noticed the difference as well. They spend less time scanning paperwork and digging through inboxes. All of this clarity has given rise to a simple rule on Denise’s productions:
“I tell everyone, ‘put it in Wrapbook. If it ain’t in there, I don’t want to know about it.’”
A culture of responsiveness
Denise has also come to count on Wrapbook’s proactive approach to support. Nine times out of ten, she says, her emails get a same-day reply, and when she calls, she reaches someone right away. With past providers, she’d wait on callbacks.
It’s also a two-way street. That’s because Denise has noticed that her suggestions have a tangible impact on the product itself.
“I’ll say, ‘Hey, can we try this?’ And you guys come back and actually do it.”
After Denise suggested a change to Wrapbook’s AP interface—one that would cut back on her needing to click back and forth to pay an invoice—Wrapbook’s team pivoted to incorporate it. “It’s just cool to see that you’re actually listening to your users,” she says.
.jpg)
Tracking more than just money
Wrapbook has also become Storyteller’s source of truth for important financial records. Invoices, loan-out agreements, and deal memos all live alongside the payments to which they belong. That’s no small thing for Denise, who’s still closing out a 2024 audit on a production that relied on a system of shared folders, where invoices sometimes never made it out of someone’s inbox.
“I’d need an invoice for the audit, because I have to show what I paid. And there would be no invoice. I paid it, but where did it go?”
Approvals moved into the system, too, which means far fewer emails asking about someone’s timecard. “I no longer have to check my email 20,000 times a day. It’s amazing.”
Her line producers and UPMs have noticed the difference as well. They spend less time scanning paperwork and digging through inboxes. All of this clarity has given rise to a simple rule on Denise’s productions:
“I tell everyone, ‘put it in Wrapbook. If it ain’t in there, I don’t want to know about it.’”
A culture of responsiveness
Denise has also come to count on Wrapbook’s proactive approach to support. Nine times out of ten, she says, her emails get a same-day reply, and when she calls, she reaches someone right away. With past providers, she’d wait on callbacks.
It’s also a two-way street. That’s because Denise has noticed that her suggestions have a tangible impact on the product itself.
“I’ll say, ‘Hey, can we try this?’ And you guys come back and actually do it.”
After Denise suggested a change to Wrapbook’s AP interface—one that would cut back on her needing to click back and forth to pay an invoice—Wrapbook’s team pivoted to incorporate it. “It’s just cool to see that you’re actually listening to your users,” she says.
Tracking more than just money
Wrapbook has also become Storyteller’s source of truth for important financial records. Invoices, loan-out agreements, and deal memos all live alongside the payments to which they belong. That’s no small thing for Denise, who’s still closing out a 2024 audit on a production that relied on a system of shared folders, where invoices sometimes never made it out of someone’s inbox.
“I’d need an invoice for the audit, because I have to show what I paid. And there would be no invoice. I paid it, but where did it go?”
Approvals moved into the system, too, which means far fewer emails asking about someone’s timecard. “I no longer have to check my email 20,000 times a day. It’s amazing.”
Her line producers and UPMs have noticed the difference as well. They spend less time scanning paperwork and digging through inboxes. All of this clarity has given rise to a simple rule on Denise’s productions:
“I tell everyone, ‘put it in Wrapbook. If it ain’t in there, I don’t want to know about it.’”
A culture of responsiveness
Denise has also come to count on Wrapbook’s proactive approach to support. Nine times out of ten, she says, her emails get a same-day reply, and when she calls, she reaches someone right away. With past providers, she’d wait on callbacks.
It’s also a two-way street. That’s because Denise has noticed that her suggestions have a tangible impact on the product itself.
“I’ll say, ‘Hey, can we try this?’ And you guys come back and actually do it.”
After Denise suggested a change to Wrapbook’s AP interface—one that would cut back on her needing to click back and forth to pay an invoice—Wrapbook’s team pivoted to incorporate it. “It’s just cool to see that you’re actually listening to your users,” she says.
A weekend off
At year's end, Denise used to spend hours untangling ledgers and payroll reports in QuickBooks, often racking up 60-hour workweeks in the process. Today, even with Storyteller shooting more projects than ever, Denise's work no longer stretches into Saturday and Sunday.
“Before, I was working 60 hours easily. Now I’m pretty sure it’s around 40. It saved my sanity. I mean, I can actually take a weekend off now.”
So the next time a May ADR session lands on a February film, it’ll simply be there, coded to the right project, ready for the audit. And Denise? She’ll have the weekend to herself.
A weekend off
At year's end, Denise used to spend hours untangling ledgers and payroll reports in QuickBooks, often racking up 60-hour workweeks in the process. Today, even with Storyteller shooting more projects than ever, Denise's work no longer stretches into Saturday and Sunday.
“Before, I was working 60 hours easily. Now I’m pretty sure it’s around 40. It saved my sanity. I mean, I can actually take a weekend off now.”
So the next time a May ADR session lands on a February film, it’ll simply be there, coded to the right project, ready for the audit. And Denise? She’ll have the weekend to herself.
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