Greenslate’s John Finn Talks Rebranding and How Technology Can Revolutionize the Payroll Industry with Filmmaker Magazine

"John Finn, founder and CEO of Greenslate, remembers the good old days — and they weren’t that good. In 1995, when he first got into the independent film industry, he was a freelance production accountant, loaning himself out to productions where every penny counted. The standard practices of production accounting were daunting back then: there were seas of paperwork, year-end production company tax filings were strenuous efforts and, on set, accountants would spend entire days running around just trying to get signatures on start paperwork from producers and crew members.

“I realized there was a need for financial acumen,” Finn recalls. “But being a production accountant, I had to use these outside payroll companies that served as a niche industry.” He says he found that places like Entertainment Partners, Cast & Crew and Media Services — which all still exist today — were lacking in certain key areas.

In 2004, he created Indiepay, a production payroll company that would use technology to streamline the accounting and payroll processes. This spring, Indiepay rebranded as Greenslate, but the main thing that’s changed is the name. They still seek to compete within the payroll industry by finding ways to make the process easier and less costly. “I knew there was a way we could save producers money on their projects,” Finn explains..."

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