Production accounting — the book of record (COP accounts)

Production accounting is the keeping of a production's book of record — the double-entry general ledger from which the trial balance, financial statements and the Cost of Production (COP) accounts are drawn. It is more than a cost-control overlay: it is the statutory accounting record an external accountant relies on to prepare and file the Section 481 — the Irish scripted tax credit claim.

Entity model

Books are kept per legal entity; the project is a job dimension within the entity, not a separate set of books each. The shape depends on the credit:

• S481 mandates a DAC (DAC — when required), so the entity is the DAC and entity ≈ project 1:1 — the DAC's whole ledger is that one film.
• S487A has no DAC: expenditure sits at the producer company, which holds many titles' journals separated by project. An S487A title's cost report is the producer company's journal lines filtered to that project.

Each entity runs its own fiscal calendar (DACs and the producer company both to a 31 December year-end); VAT is on the invoice basis.

WIP capitalisation

Production cost does not hit profit and loss as it is incurred. It capitalises as work-in-progress (an intangible-asset-in-production, balance-sheet account 1800) and is released to cost of sales as the title recognises revenue. This is the film-specific treatment that distinguishes production accounting from ordinary trading accounts.

How the ledger and the cost report reconcile

One posting model serves both. A coded vendor invoice debits WIP (analysed by cost code) and VAT control, and credits AP control. The Cost report actual is the WIP debit leg, grouped by cost code; the trial balance is the same journal lines grouped by GL account. So Σ WIP debits = Σ cost-report actuals — they reconcile by construction, not by a separate sync.

Why it matters

The COP accounts are what the external accountant certifies for the S481 final claim and the FCS — Final Cost Statement. A clean, reconciled book of record is the difference between a smooth claim and a Revenue query.

In Togra

The Cuntasaíocht (Accounts) module is the book of record — general ledger, purchase orders, accounts payable, payment runs, payroll journals, VAT return, bank reconciliation, financial statements, year-end close and WIP release. The Production Accountant reaches a single production's books (trial balance, P&L, balance sheet, COP reconciliation) via Production books, scoped to the DAC (S481) or the producer-company-filtered-by-title (S487A).