PEX Expense Envelope: Breakthrough Expense Tracking for Film and TV Production

A long time ago—nobody knows when—somebody on some set somewhere grabbed an envelope and started stuffing their receipts into it. If there was an Academy Award for finance, that person might have won it.

Envelopes kept all that production hand’s spending in one place. Department heads, producers, and accountants could review all the receipts in one shot. Since different production people had different spending responsibilities, each envelope could follow its own path to approval.

PEX Expense Envelope, now available in the PEX Marketplace at no additional charge, updates that concept for the 21st century. It sorts PEX transactions into different expense reports, called envelopes. Each envelope then routes through your approval process in the cloud.

This paperless system reduces errors, enhances efficiency, and creates a seamless approval process. 

Smarter Spend Management for Today’s Film and Television Production Needs

Here’s a simple picture PEX Expense Envelope in action:

PEX cardholders tag each transaction with an account code and submit it with a photograph of the receipt. This happens in real-time through the PEX website or mobile app. Cardholders can capture the information you need without slowing down the pace of production.

The system automatically batches the cardholder’s transactions into a virtual envelope for review. This approach lets managers and financial professionals efficiently review spending in batches rather than one at a time. If anybody in the approval process needs to look deeper into a purchase, they can look at a transaction-specific pdf with the relevant details, including the receipt’s image.

Of course, all studios have different approval processes. Tell us your workflow, and we’ll program Expense Envelope to support it. You can include department heads, UPMs, production accountants, auditors, controllers, and more—at the production and studio levels. Whoever needs access to approvals can have it. And in whatever order you want them to review it.

Moreover, communications up and down the approval chain can happen in the Expense Envelope environment. PEX built the application with the understanding that production spending may be subject to audit, so we designed the functionality to let auditors, managers, and users readily access the information they need.

And because this is a cloud-based, paperless approach, Expense Envelopes seamlessly move through the approval process. It doesn’t matter if production teams and approvers are half a world away; PEX keeps all records always available. Approvals move through the system like they’re in the same building.

Save Time and Gain Greater Visibility with Key Software Integrations

Overall, PEX Expense Envelope is a powerful tool for managing spending and finances on the set. And it becomes even more powerful when used with popular film budgeting, payroll, and accounting programs.

PEX Expense Envelope integrates with Green Slate, ABS Payroll, Extreme Reach, QuickBooks, and other popular software programs.

Once the final approver signs off on an envelope, you can upload all its transactions with one click. No manual accounting software entries. Not even a cut and paste. And then, you can dig into your software programs for better, more-detailed budget analysis and spend tracking.

Make Spending Approvals Paperless and Seamless. See PEX Expense Envelope in Action

PEX understands film and television production. We know that hours wasted waiting for approvals can cost thousands of dollars on a busy set. We purpose-built our spending platform to help accelerate approvals and funding for purchases. And we’ve been working with film and tv production companies since our founding in 2008.

Now PEX Expense Envelope simplifies the review and approval process. See it in action. Click here to learn more or here for a free demo.