Film & TV Vertical

You're leaving millions
in tax credits unclaimed.

The average Vancouver production qualifies for $1.8M+ in BC tax credits — but claiming them requires meticulous payroll tracking across 4 unions, 36 months of filing windows, and zero errors. Most productions do it manually.

$4.9B BC film industry annually
400+ productions per year in BC
The Problem

If you're a UPM or production accountant in Vancouver, you know this:

  • 4 unions on every set — IATSE 891, Teamsters 155, UBCP/ACTRA, DGC — each with their own rate card, fringe structure, overtime rules, and 2025 increases. None of them align with each other.
  • One fringe miscalculation triggers a union grievance halfway through a 60-day shoot. There is no good time to handle this — especially not at 7pm during a night shoot.
  • The PSTC claim is due within 36 months. The documentation lives in 11 different spreadsheets, three accountants' inboxes, and a folder nobody can find on the shared drive.
  • Call sheets go out via email chains. A revised schedule at 6pm means someone works until midnight rebuilding them — and still misses a department head who was moved to a different unit.
  • Permit applications for 12 locations, all with different City of Vancouver lead times. One gets missed. You find out the morning of the shoot when a bylaw officer shows up before the crew does.
  • WorkSafe BC risk assessment for a stunt sequence written by hand at 11pm the night before. It's not that nobody cares — there simply isn't enough time in the day.
The Transformation

Here's what changes.

Area
Before
After the Film Agent
Union Payroll

Manual rate lookups per union, fringe calculation errors

Compliance checked after the fact — when it's already a problem

Auto-calculated rates + fringes per contract, compliance-checked before payroll runs

Zero fringe miscalculations across all 4 unions

Tax Credit Claims

11 spreadsheets, missed qualifying expenses

36-month scramble to reconstruct records from memory

Auto-categorized qualifying BC spend, claim documentation built in real time

Every dollar tracked. Nothing left on the table.

Call Sheets

Email rebuild on every schedule change, midnight rewrites

Version control chaos. Department heads missed.

AI-generated from shooting schedule, conflict-detected, distributed in under 24 hrs

Changes in, call sheet out — no midnight rebuilds

Permits

Spreadsheet tracking, missed lead times

Bylaw officers on shoot day is how you find out

Auto-generated applications, deadline calendar per location

City of Vancouver requirements flagged before you book the location

WorkSafe Assessments

Written by hand the night before, inconsistent quality

Missed hazard flags that show up during inspection

Auto-generated from production elements — stunt, pyro, and height flags surfaced automatically

Every sequence assessed. No 11pm scrambles.

Extras Management

Paper vouchers, payroll integration done manually at wrap

Casting database and payroll never talking to each other

Digital vouchers, payroll integration live throughout production

From casting call to cheque — zero paper trail

By the Numbers
$1.8M+
Average BC Tax Credit Per Mid-Budget Production
−70%
Tax Credit Claim Prep Time
Zero
Union Fringe Miscalculations
<24hr
Call Sheet Turnaround
"

We recovered $2.1M in PSTC credits on our last production that we would have missed. The agent caught qualifying expenses we'd been miscategorizing for years. It paid for itself before we wrapped principal photography.

Production Accountant — Netflix Canada Production, Vancouver
* Illustrative based on production outcomes using automated tax credit tracking workflows.
Capabilities

The Film Agent runs your entire production back office.

Hollywood North

Vancouver is the 3rd largest production hub in North America

Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, and Apple TV+ all have long-term studio leases in BC. The 2025 PSTC increase to 36% (from 28%) makes proper expense tracking more valuable than ever — the delta between a clean claim and a sloppy one just got significantly larger. This is the market. This is the moment.

How much did your last production
leave unclaimed?

Book a 20-minute demo. We'll run your last production's BC payroll through the agent and show you exactly what you qualified for.

Book a Demo →