What Entertainment Partners does

Entertainment Partners (EP), founded in 1976 in Hollywood by Bob Draney and Jack Peterson as Draney Information Services Corporation, is a Burbank-headquartered provider of production finance, payroll, and production management services for the entertainment industry. The company operates an integrated Digital Production Studio spanning Production Finance Studio, Production Management Studio, Enterprise Hub, and the AI-enabled Insight Solutions analytics layer, combined with long-standing product lines such as Movie Magic Budgeting, Movie Magic Scheduling, and the Emmy-winning SyncOnSet platform. Following recapitalization by TPG and CPP Investments in 2019 and subsequent acquisitions including SyncOnSet (2020), We Got POP (2020), Central Casting (2024), and CASHétPay (2025), EP now offers payroll and residuals processing, tax compliance, electronic payments, background casting across all 50 US states, training and certification through EP Academy, and production incentives advisory.

EP's revenue mechanics blend subscription-based software licensing (Movie Magic, SmartStart/SmartTime/SmartAccounting/SmartPO, Scenechronize, CASHétPay), professional services for payroll processing and production incentives advisory across 180+ countries, casting transactional revenue via Central Casting, and training subscriptions through EP Academy. The go-to-market combines enterprise direct sales to major studios and production companies, regional offices serving local production hubs (notably a strengthened Australia/New Zealand presence formalized in October 2025), and self-serve channels through the EP Store and ProductionLot.com community (10,000+ members) for independent filmmakers. The platform is delivered via hybrid cloud infrastructure spanning data centers in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific, with SOC 1, SOC 2 Type 2, and ISO 27001:2022 security certifications underpinning enterprise-grade compliance.

The company is structured through multiple legal entities in the US (California), Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK (including FLB Accountants and FLB Audit). Leadership comprises President and CEO Mark (Markham) Goldstein, EVP/CFO Darren Seidel, EVP/CRO Kendra Rawls, CTO Patrick Baca, SVP/CISO Martin Mazor, and regional managing directors in ANZ, alongside functional VPs across product, product marketing, and client partners. Customer segments are horizontally layered — spanning studios, independent productions, production crews, and below-the-line talent — and customer evidence includes HBO productions, Academy Award-winning films, and Emmy-winning television series.

Name

Entertainment Partners

Legal name

Entertainment Partners

Website

https://ep.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1976

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Entertainment Partners is a Burbank-based provider of production finance, payroll, residuals, and production management software for the entertainment industry, serving major and independent film/TV productions, studios, and crew across 180+ countries through an integrated digital platform and acquired brands including Central Casting and CASHétPay.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Entertainment Production Finance and Payroll Software

NAICS

Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures (711410), Agents and Managers for Artists, Athletes, Entertainers, and Other Public Figures (7114)

SIC

Services-Allied To Motion Picture Production (7819), Services-Motion Picture & Video Tape Production (7812)

akta.pro primary industry

Casting & Talent Services (Casting, Background, Talent Holding) (MPADAFAI)

Keywords

• Entertainment payroll services
• Production finance software
• Production accounting tools
• Tax incentive advisory
• Casting services

Headquarters

HQ city

Burbank

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Production Payroll Services: Comprehensive payroll processing for film, television, and commercial productions including tax withholding, residuals management, and international payroll compliance across 180+ countries.
2. Production Finance Software: Software licensing for production accounting, budgeting, and scheduling tools including Movie Magic Budgeting, Movie Magic Scheduling, and Scenechronize.
3. Casting Services: Background and principal casting services through Central Casting, operating in all 50 US states.
4. Production Incentives Advisory: Consulting and advisory services for maximizing production tax incentives and credits across global jurisdictions.
5. Training and Academy: Professional development and certification programs for production accounting and crew through EP Academy.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Entertainment Partners provides comprehensive production payroll, residuals management, and production finance software and services for the entertainment industry across 180+ countries. Its core Digital Production Studio integrates production finance (payroll, accounts payable, residuals), production management (budgeting, scheduling, daily production reports via SyncOnSet and Movie Magic), and AI-driven Insight Solutions analytics. The company also operates Central Casting for background talent across all 50 US states and offers tax incentive advisory, electronic payments (CASHétPay), and EP Academy training programs.

Product overview

Entertainment Partners (EP) offers a comprehensive, platform-plus-modules architecture for the entertainment industry. The core Digital Production Studio includes Production Finance Studio, Production Management Studio, Enterprise Hub, and Insight Solutions for data-driven productions. The product portfolio spans production payroll (Payroll, Residuals, SmartStart, SmartTime, SmartAccounting, EP Live, SmartPO, CASHétPay), production management (Movie Magic Budgeting, Movie Magic Scheduling, Scenechronize, SyncOnSet), multi-production oversight (AssetHub, SmartHub), and crew/talent solutions (My EP, EP Casting Portal, Diversity Management). Acquired brands include Central Casting for background casting, SyncOnSet (Emmy-winning), CASHét for electronic payments worldwide, and FLB Accountants for UK accounting. The ecosystem is extended by Production Lot, a premier online community for production professionals, and the Academy for training and certification programs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Central Casting: Background casting services for film and television productions available in all 50 states
• CASHétPay
• Movie Magic Budgeting
• Movie Magic Scheduling
• SyncOnSet
• ProductionLot
• SmartHub
• AssetHub
• Scenechronize
• Insight Solutions
• Academy
• EP Now

Products and services

• Production Finance Studio Integrated cloud-based platform that enables film and television productions to hire, manage, and pay crew and vendors with full control over production finances, including payroll, accounts payable, and time tracking.
• Production Management Studio Cloud-based suite providing digital solutions for the entire production arc, including scheduling, budgeting, daily production reports, and crew coordination for film and television productions.
• Enterprise Hub Single-view platform for managing multiple concurrent productions with fully digital operations, consolidated reporting, and enterprise resource planning for studios and large production companies.
• Insight Solutions AI-powered analytics platform aggregating production data across studios to provide payroll insights, predictive analytics, business intelligence, and benchmarking for production finance decision-making.
• Payroll Services Core managed payroll services for entertainment production workers including talent and crew, handling multi-jurisdiction tax withholding, international payroll compliance across 180+ countries, and tax credit incentive integration.
• Residuals Services Managed residual payments service for entertainment industry talent, handling complex calculations and disbursements to guilds, unions, and individual performers across multiple reuse windows and content distribution channels.
• Production Incentives Advisory Consulting and advisory service for maximizing production tax incentives and credits across global jurisdictions, including an incentives map covering US states, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Central Casting Background casting services for film and television productions, providing background actors, stand-ins, and day players across all 50 US states through a self-service portal.
• Movie Magic Budgeting Industry-standard standalone production budgeting software for film and television productions, providing financial planning and tracking from pre-production through final reconciliation, used by line producers across all production sizes.
• Movie Magic Scheduling Industry-standard standalone production scheduling software enabling day-by-day production planning and coordination for film and television productions, widely adopted by 1st Assistant Directors and production managers globally.
• Scenechronize Production management and collaboration platform for film and television productions, enabling real-time coordination across production office, locations, and post-production teams.
• SyncOnSet Emmy-winning production management platform for film and television productions covering scheduling, location scouting, and daily production reports, recognized by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for innovation.
• CASHétPay Electronic payment solution enabling productions to pay vendors and crew worldwide through digital rails, replacing check-based disbursement for global production finance teams.
• FLB Accountants UK-based accounting services for entertainment productions, providing audit, accountancy, and production accounting expertise under the FLB Accountants and FLB Audit brands.
• ProductionLot.com Premier online community platform for film and television production professionals providing networking, job boards, mentorship, and educational resources with 10,000+ members globally.
• EP Academy Professional training and certification programs for production accounting and crew including the EP Production Accounting 101 course and Movie Magic software training, supporting industry workforce development and job placement.

Quantifiable outcome

• Supporting productions in 180+ countries
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability3 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• NewFilmmakers LAminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 23 April 2025Partnership to expand ProductionLot.com online community reach, providing film industry professionals with networking, job opportunities, and educational resources through NewFilmmakers LA's filmmaker network.
• Think Tank for Inclusion & EquityminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 April 2025Partnership to enhance diversity and inclusion within ProductionLot.com community, supporting equitable access and opportunities for underrepresented professionals in the entertainment industry.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Workday: Workday is a broad enterprise HCM/financials platform that studios may evaluate as a horizontal alternative to EP's vertical payroll/finance stack, particularly for back-office consolidation initiatives.
• ADP: ADP is the broad incumbent payroll/HR services giant; while not entertainment-specialized, ADP competes for large-studio enterprise payroll contracts where entertainment vertical depth is deprioritized in favor of scale and breadth.
• Intuit QuickBooks: QuickBooks Payroll competes for the small-producer and independent-filmmaker segment where EP's EP Store self-serve software competes — QuickBooks offers a lower-cost, generic alternative for very small productions.

Direct peers

• Breakdown Services: Breakdown Services operates the dominant background casting platform (Breakdown Express), directly competing with EP's Central Casting subsidiary across talent discovery and background casting workflows.
• Cast & Crew: Cast & Crew (formerly CAPS Payroll) is EP's most direct competitor in entertainment payroll, residuals, and production accounting. Both serve the same studios, productions, and crew with overlapping payroll, residuals, and tax-credit services.
• Wrapbook: Wrapbook is a modern cloud-native entertainment payroll, production accounting, and onboarding platform that directly competes with EP's SmartStart/SmartTime/SmartAccounting suite, particularly for independent and mid-size productions.
• Greenslate: Greenslate provides payroll, accounting, and production-cost management for film and TV productions, competing directly with EP's core production finance and payroll offerings.
• Media Services (MBS): Media Services provides entertainment payroll, residuals, tax incentives, and production accounting services to studios and production companies — a direct functional overlap with EP's service portfolio.
• FilmTrack (Music Reports Inc.): FilmTrack (now part of Music Reports Inc.) provides rights management and production accounting software for film/TV — overlapping with EP's Scenechronize and Movie Magic Budgeting in production cost and rights tracking.

Emerging players

• Castifi: Castifi is an emerging background casting platform with partial overlap to EP's Central Casting, targeting the same below-the-line talent pools with a mobile-first model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/entertainment-partners
• Facebookfacebook.com/entertainmentpartners

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A5 records

Investments2 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Entertainment Partners