The Symmetry Tax Engine has provided Topsheet with the ease of accurate and efficient tax calculation and tax rate updates for cast and crew of any size.

Topsheet automates film & television production payroll and management through our apps and services on desktop and mobile.

The Challenge

The entertainment industry is known for its hustle and bustle environment. Things are done according to a schedule, from short commercials to big-time productions. In addition to requiring quick and efficient calculations to finalize paychecks and get people paid for their hard work, payroll in the entertainment industry has several additional considerations. Entertainment payroll companies must understand the industry's wage and hours laws, the regulations of the local unions and guilds, and the contract rates for pension, health, and welfare funds.

In addition to the effort required to abide by the laws, rules, and production regulations required to run a compliant payroll, many production companies running their payroll manually struggle with manual paycheck calculations that are subject to human error.

Topsheet found the payroll process for clients challenging and time-consuming, especially with the frequent tax rates. Sometimes their team would simply not know what taxes were required to complete payroll for a particular employee, or even if knowing the taxes themselves then what was the correct rate for each. Topsheet further found that their manual calculations, despite taking significant time and energy to produce, were also not entirely accurate. Topsheet having employees in different states also made the constant changes in rates and taxes challenging to keep up with during every payroll run. Topsheet was looking to ultimately optimize and make their payroll tax withholding more accurate.   

The Search

Therefore, Topsheet began its search for a professional tax engine. To fit the company's needs, Topsheet needed a tax engine to calculate taxes for multiple states while abiding by production legalities such as meal and entertainment expenses, limits on state and local taxes, and any deductions of production costs. Also, Topsheet wanted to provide a better customer experience and allow their clients to receive accurate tax numbers for their local taxes, as well as have the ability to show wage numbers and tax rate amounts to their clients both in aggregate at the company level and at the individual level on employees' paystubs.

The Solution

The Symmetry Tax Engine has provided Topsheet with consistent updates to tax and rate changes and an easy way to calculate taxes for all 50 states and U.S. territories, including multi-state scenarios and reciprocity arrangements, not to mention the unique considerations of entertainment payroll. 

Having the Symmetry Tax Engine has been a significant weight off of Topsheet's software engineers’ and payroll managers’ shoulders, knowing that a professional tax engine is in place. They no longer have to rely on countless error-prone spreadsheets and formulas. Instead, Topsheet feels more confident in the accuracy and reliability of the payroll calculations they deliver to clients and their workers by using the Symmetry Tax Engine. The company's automation process has also been taken to a whole new level as a result of integrating the Symmetry Tax Engine API seamlessly into their payroll product. Ease of implementation and use and increased compliance have allowed Topsheet to pass on the benefits of the Symmetry Tax Engine to their clients and the people they pay.

About Topsheet

Topsheet is a technology company that streamlines entertainment production management. Production companies of every size use Topsheet's software to run payroll and manage their sets. 

About Symmetry Software

Symmetry Software is the payroll infrastructure for software & payroll platforms powering the paychecks of over 64 million workers each year. Our fully integrated suite of payroll tax APIs and software tools allows companies to solve tax compliance issues and build applications across the entirety of the payroll process.