Short answer: A bookkeeper for North Hollywood businesses in Los Angeles tags production costs to each job, splits payroll company invoices and keeps freelancer 1099s ready in January. Theaters get ticket, class and rental income recorded by source, with grants kept apart. The team works remotely in QuickBooks, Xero and more and reconciles every month.
NoHo's working mix
North Hollywood is where a lot of the entertainment business does its day jobs. The NoHo Arts District around Lankershim and Magnolia has small theaters, rehearsal spaces, dance studios and acting schools. The Television Academy is headquartered here. Post production houses, sound stages, equipment rental companies and prop shops fill the side streets toward Burbank and Studio City. The Metro station at Lankershim, the end of the B Line, brings foot traffic to cafes, bars and restaurants.
Off the entertainment track, North Hollywood also has contractors, auto shops and small manufacturers along the industrial corridors, plus family restaurants and markets that serve the neighborhood.
What we keep track of here
- Project and production costs tagged to each job, so you can compare spend to budget.
- Payroll company invoices split into wages, fringes and fees.
- Freelancers and crew paid as contractors, with W-9s on file and 1099s ready in January.
- Theater and studio income from tickets, class fees and rentals, recorded by source.
- Equipment purchases and rental income for gear houses.
- Grant and donation income kept apart from earned income for nonprofit theaters.
What North Hollywood owners ask us for
- Entertainment and production bookkeeping: Post houses, gear rental companies and production shops near Lankershim tag costs to each job. You can compare spend to budget while the project is still open.
- Tax-ready books: Crew and freelancers paid as contractors need W-9s on file before January. Pass-through costs on their own lines make your gross receipts easy to support.
- Construction bookkeeping: Contractors working along NoHo's industrial corridors get job costing and sub payments sorted by project, apart from the creative work nearby.
City tax and creative businesses
North Hollywood is inside the City of Los Angeles. Studios, theaters, production companies and loan-outs located here hold a Business Tax Registration Certificate and renew each year by the end of February on gross receipts. Companies that pass through costs for clients, such as equipment or talent billed at cost, should keep those amounts on their own lines so the gross receipts figure is easy to support.
California's expanded film and TV tax credit program, now $750 million a year, has brought more production back to Los Angeles. Credit claims are prepared by production accountants and tax advisers. Clean project books make their job faster.
Cash flow between productions
Creative businesses in NoHo often earn most of their year in a few busy months. A post house may have three big projects in spring and a quiet summer. A theater sells most tickets during a run. The books should make that pattern visible. We show income and costs by month and by project, and a simple cash forecast based on what is invoiced and what is due, so you can plan rent, payroll and equipment purchases through the slow stretch.
Deposits from clients for work not yet delivered are kept as a liability until the work is done, so a big deposit in March does not make March look like your best month.
How it works
Our team works remotely in QuickBooks, Xero and more. We connect your accounts, tag costs by project as they come in, reconcile every month and send you a project report and a company profit and loss. During a busy season we keep the cadence weekly if you need it.
Nearby
We also work with businesses in Valley Village, Studio City, Sun Valley, Toluca Lake and Van Nuys. Burbank is a separate city with its own license, and we keep books for Burbank businesses too.
Bookkeeping services in North Hollywood
- Bookkeeping cleanupWhen the books exist but nobody trusts them, cleanup finds what went wrong and fixes it at the source.
- Catch-up bookkeepingMonths behind, or a full year, the missing months get entered and reconciled from your statements.
- Emergency bookkeepingA deadline that will not move and books that are not ready. Here is how the work gets ordered.
- Monthly bookkeepingEvery month categorized, reconciled and closed, so the numbers you look at are numbers you can trust.
- QuickBooks cleanupA QuickBooks file that no longer matches the bank, fixed account by account and month by month.
- QuickBooks bookkeepingQuickBooks Online kept the way it was meant to be used, so the reports it gives you are right.
Questions
Do you do production accounting on set?
No. We keep company books for production businesses, theaters and loan-outs.
Can you keep books for a nonprofit theater?
Yes. We separate restricted grants, donations and earned income so your reports and filings are cleaner.
Is North Hollywood inside the City of Los Angeles?
Yes. Businesses here use the City of Los Angeles business tax registration.
Do you handle residuals?
We record residual payments as they arrive and tag them to the project they came from, so you can see what each project keeps paying.