Director, Television Production Accounting & Reporting

Job Description

Responsibilities
Job Purpose:
Universal Studio Group (USG) is a fast-growing content production division and a leading provider of domestic and global premium content for internal and external platforms. Television production accounting and reporting represents the most material component of the studio financial statements. The foundational integrity and accuracy are critical to our success as a business in delivering insightful management metrics to make timely decisions in a competitive landscape.

This role will be one of the two accounting and reporting experts over $4B in annual production and development spend and $2B in production assets across 50+ active business units and 200+ produced television titles. The primary focus of this role will be the lead responsible for all components of TV cost which is comprised of over 60+ production accounts in the financial ledger (SAP). This role must have solid understanding of ASC accounting literature and Sarbanes Oxley controls that governs Ultimate TV Cost accounting as well as ability to assess technical accounting treatment for complex topics such as Impairment Testing, Development Cost, and Library Write Off processes. Finally, this role must be able to understand the interdependencies of all financial systems and functionalities that have impact for TV costing and reporting.

This role will report to the VP, TV Cost and Reporting of the Universal Studio Group.

Essential Responsibilities:

Monthly Financial Close and Reporting
Management of the monthly close and financial reporting with key focuses around:

Production Assets
• Maintain and establish proper SAP chart of accounts (COA) for production costs and inventory balances, with accurate cost and profit centers as well as title references (WBSE)
• Review the capitalization of production spend for tracked titles and non-titles by reviewing the production subledger VISTA spend as well as production treasury funding
• Calculate and record ''by title'' TV cost amortization expense in SAP financial ledger. Review and reconcile TV cost amortization (GAAP and Tax) through respective supporting schedules
• Coordinate corporate and intracompany (within NBC Universal) as well as intercompany (between NBC Universal and Comcast) transactions such as production facility cross charges (e.g. sound stages), suspense and cost center clearing, and cost transfers
• Manage and review cost accounting, tracking, and reporting for non-standard production costs such as COVID costs, insurance claims, development cost, capitalized overhead, and library write offs

Production Funding
• Ensure the production funding requests are properly recorded and managed in conjunction with the USG Production Finance team and Corporate Treasury team.

Co-Productions
• Management of the passive co-production liability accrual. Review in collaboration with Production Finance (invoices received, Episodes billed, etc.), with Production audit for current audit status and with FP&A for deficit calculation inputs (Gross vs. Net).

Production Tax Credits
• Management of the production tax credits provided by the Production Finance tax team, including estimates, accruals, and receipts for when USG participates in a government sponsored program.
• Lead and ensure timely reconciliation and updates across Ultimate, Production Costs Reports, Production Recap Reports and Production Tax Credit Trackers.

Financial Reporting
• Review TV inventory pre and post cost amortization, quarterly asset rollforward, as well as negative inventory review and reclasses
• Review key and non-key TV cost reconciliations in blackline
• Review of classification of TV inventory balances at the title level for external financial reporting
• Perform and participate in monthly and quarterly balance sheet reviews with senior finance executives and studio segment controllers
• Perform analytics and provide insights on changes and variances of TV production spend and inventory by titles and studios
• Key accounting support for Production Finance and FP&A for total USG production (UTV, UCP, UTAS, and UIS) as well as Media Segment's 1st Run Syndication production

Production Financial Systems (GTM, SAP, VISTA, MicroStrategy)
• Develop functional expertise on all critical financial systems in support of TV Cost Accounting and Reconciliation, including navigating system access, interface, translation table, and key commands such as super settlement, journal workflow
• Partner with the GTM reporting and master data team as well as TV distribution finance and accounting team, production finance team ensuring accurate creation of TV development and production titles
• Identify and participate in process improvement initiatives and opportunities to build efficiencies into existing reporting routines within USG TV Cost ''Record to Report'' process, focusing integrated processes within SAP, respective subledgers and reporting data warehouses

Accounting Guidelines and Controls
• Ensure accurate and proper TV cost accounting and financial reporting in accordance with ASC 926 with latest update of ASU 2019-02
• Develop and document accounting guidelines and procedures specifically for USG TV productions (e.g. policy and procedures with respective Accounting Journal Entry flow)
• Document key quarter close accounting assessment for non-recurring transactions (e.g. Impairment Analysis or Write Offs), major transactions, changes of accounting treatment, and new interpretation of accounting guidelines

Collaborate with assistant controller's team and production audit team on quarterly review and update of SOX audit workflow related to TV Production and TV Ultimates

Qualifications/Requirements
Basic Qualifications:
• Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration and/or Information Systems or related field
• Certified Public Accountant Required (completed or in process)
• Minimum 10 years of financial accounting and reporting experience
• Proficiency with MS Office Suite: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Office, including good working knowledge of Excel
• Large ERP system such as SAP and PeopleSoft
• Entertainment Industry experience preferred
• Film and TV production experience a plus

Eligibility Requirements:
• Interested candidates must submit a resume/CV online to be considered
• Must be willing to work in Universal City, CA
• Must have work authorization to work in the United States
• Must be covered by Solutions, NBCU's Alternative Dispute Resolution Program
• Must submit an attestation disclosing your COVID-19 vaccination status and, if partially or fully vaccinated, submitting your vaccination record no later than 7 days following commencement of employment.
• Must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at the commencement of employment or must undergo regular COVID-19 testing if Company determines your job position requires accessing an NBCUniversal worksite.
• Must be willing to adhere to all Company COVID-19 workplace safety policies and protocols.

Desired Characteristics

Desired Characteristics:
• The ability to plan and organize work for self and others to meet tight deadlines.
• Well-developed organizing skills to manage multiple projects and priorities.
• Strong collaboration, organizational, leadership, communication and customer service skills with great attention to detail.
• Ability to build and lead an effective team and can stand alone

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Jobcode: Reference SBJ-g6xq9q-13-59-243-194-42 in your application.