VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Mike Paul]

For those who have an accounting system in place (I'm using Freshbooks), wondering: what are some things that would be COGS related? Here are some things that may or may not be COGS, which I'd love your thoughts on so I can record the right categories to these expenses going forward.

Talent fees
Swipe fees from credit card payments
Software
Script preparation
Editing and post-production
Music and sound effects
Marketing and advertising
Insurance
Office expenses

[Mike Paul]

Doing a little more homework, "COGS consists of direct costs that are directly related to the production of goods or services, such as the cost of materials or labor. Credit card swipe fees, on the other hand, are indirect expenses that are not directly tied to the production of a specific product or service. Instead, they are a general cost of doing business and are usually recorded as overhead rather than COGS."

... so maybe the Swipe Fees from the above list don't count because it didn't directly relate to the production of the voiceover. Freshbooks classifies these as Bank Fees, which I suppose could be useful for accounting purposes. Nice to know how much I'm losing to these fees, just in case I want to justify the switch to asking for checks more often instead of CC payments which are often faster and more reliable that I'll get paid than paper checks.

[Bruce]

Most of the items on the list are "cost of doing business" and shouldn't be charged to the client... things like electricity, scotch tape, single malt scotch, etc.

Proper charges are your talent fee, the talent fee of others if you've hired them, and that's about it. I used to produce commercials with music and SFX and would charge a "needle drop" fee for music, and nothing for SFX. Now that everything is sent back and forth digitally there's not much sense in charging for storage or transportation of material. Source Connect is a one time expense much like your computer or monitor and you don't charge for those either. Make it simple. Your client expects that.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Mike Paul]

Ah, gotcha.

So it sounds then like the cost of goods sold are the raw materials that go into the VO deliverable... so my voice (the talent fee) would be the cost of goods sold. Everything else is overhead because they weren't purchased to produce the one deliverable, but rather my business as a whole. Mo bettah? (And yeah... my invoices are super simple: session and usage fees.)

[todd ellis]

Take all of the things like electricity, scotch tape, whisky and constant therapy sessions into account when you bid any project. Create a dollar figure
(in your head, not on the invoice) to account for everything you need in order to do business on a monthly/yearly basis.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Moe Egan]

Whiskey, hee hee
_________________
Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
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[todd ellis]

Prove to me it's not a necessary cost of doing business.


I'll wait.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

[Moe Egan]

You do have a point
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Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
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