Production finance executives have long struggled with data sources coming from legacy applications that are not integrated, resulting in inefficient exports, predominantly flat files. 

That struggle is coming to an end. 

At least for those who embrace it and work with payroll and accounting solutions that partner with companies like Snowflake.

Snowflake is a robust cloud-based data platform that can help entertainment businesses manage their production finance data.... capabilities that are highly beneficial to film and television production workflows.

Cloud-based data platforms are a major step forward for finance teams to access payroll, accounting, HR, and payment records in real time from live productions. Snowflake is one of the leading data platform tools used by entertainment companies, large and small.

All of the data in the GreenSlate Application can now be fed into any corporate system and many other tools such as Tableau for further analysis, reporting, or presentation.

The potential for improved user experience as a result is not left unnoticed by our clients, as we’ve heard them express growing interest in having seamless integrations that would eliminate the need for manual intervention and reduce the complexity of data handling.

Entertainment payroll is evolving and data platform solutions like Snowflake are a major step forward in the right direction. 

Here’s a bit more on why.

Leveraging the power of integrations

GreenSlate’s CTO Andrew Lundgren says, “At GreenSlate, we set the standard for industry-leading integration capabilities. Our clients demand data that is accurate, timely, and easily accessible – and that's exactly where we excel.” 

For years, GreenSlate has been at the forefront with our robust API offerings. “Now, with the availability of Snowflake accessible in GreenSlate, we provide even more seamless options to integrate production data with clients' internal systems. No matter how clients need their data, GreenSlate delivers it precisely as required."

With Snowflake, GreenSlate can provide clients who request it with direct access to a version of our database that contains their data.

Easy access to – and flexibility with – that data can have an outsized, positive impact. Consider visual analytics platforms like Tableau, a tool for taking data and making charts, graphs, predictive lines, etc.. A production company can tie all their production statuses into Tableau and create rich, easy to read and digest visuals. 

Andrew says that Tableau “...is just one example of how GreenSlate can connect production data to any BI solution. Whether it's Power BI, Domo, Looker, or any other corporate system like SAP, NetSuite, or Workday, we have you covered. Our innovative use of Snowflake as a centralized data repository acts as a universal connector, allowing seamless data transfer. By channeling all your production data – from crew information and payroll to POs, general ledger, and cost reports – into Snowflake, clients can securely and effortlessly route their data to any desired system using pre-built connectors. This makes GreenSlate exceptionally versatile in delivering integration solutions that cater to every client’s unique needs."

Versatile and transformative. 

But don’t just take Andrew’s word for it.

The SpringHill Company has also indicated to us that by integrating Snowflake they’ve been able to save nine to twelve hours of time, reduce many manual tasks, and catch errors they previously missed.

Automation and efficiency

Using Snowflake streamlines the reporting process by allowing users to query data, format it, create visualizations, and export CSV files—all in an automated manner. You can easily generate custom reports tailored to various use cases. 

In contrast, without Snowflake, compiling reports tailored to a specific production company involves a labor-intensive, manual process. This typically requires running multiple weekly reports, then merging them in Excel to create a cohesive summary, which can be time-consuming. 

With Snowflake, this formerly manual effort is transformed into an automated workflow. Weekly reports can be scheduled to arrive in your inbox on Monday morning, saving hours of manual labor each week.

Realizing efficiency through automation is one thing, but not everybody is going to be a whiz at writing SQL queries and operating in Snowflake, but if you’re a pro at Google Sheets, GreenSlate can help you set it up so your data goes into your Google Sheets and you can access it that way.

Snowflake makes it easy to connect your data to Google Sheets in real-time and allows you to leverage the extreme flexibility of Google Sheets in combination with the data we have in our application – employee, payroll, account payable, vendor lists…anything that runs through GreenSlate. 

Once in Google Sheets, well, just use your imagination. 

Better decisions, enhanced oversight

Getting needed oversight, staying on budget, elevating financial stewardship, driving better efficiency, and making informed decisions are well understood reasons why it makes sense to work with tools like Snowflake.

Today, our clients are able to review production budgets and do things like look at overtime trends in order to make decisions which can help schedule differently to avoid overtime costs. They are more informed with their financial strategy and production budgeting by better understanding cost savings or resource allocation. They’re better placed when it comes to communicating complex data in a simple, consumable way. 

By leveraging a tool like Snowflake in conjunction with GreenSlate, it can help visualize and simplify data so it can be presented to stakeholders more effectively.

Or as Andrew says, “Ultimately, it's about helping our clients save money by enabling them to make more informed, data-driven decisions."

Take the example of integrating month-end financials into an ERP like SAP. With Snowflake, it is easy for a production company to control this on its own without needing to continuously come back to a payroll provider like GreenSlate for every integration need. 

Having full control and oversight over all that data in the world’s leading cloud-based data platform is game changing and enables a level of self-sufficiency that’s eye opening once experienced.

Ever forward

Leveraging Snowflake is just one of the many ways we support production finance teams to streamline workflows and maximize production efficiencies. 

✅ Want to learn more? Contact sales here.