SMART START
Paperless onboarding. Digital, efficient and accurate.
Get crews to work faster with SmartStart - the industry's most secure, digital start work solution.
Single signature starts. Automatic updates. One-click approvals. Easily add custom forms. Ensure audit and regulatory compliance.
Trusted by nearly 100,000 users in more than 3,700 productions, SmartStart is the safest, paperless onboarding process in the industry. Use pre-existing start packet templates, easily add custom forms designed for your production and with built-in, automatic updates you are ensured of always being in compliance. Enter data once and SmartStart updates, verifies and stores it for a simplified, entirely digital process. Eliminate the need for back-and-forth with crew through notifications handled directly in the tool. And with an easy-to-use interface and military-grade security, you'll wonder how you ever started without it.
Ensure complete, error-free start packets and streamlined workflows.
- Collect and securely store all your crew information online and enable one-click approvals to successfully complete your start paperwork requirements quickly and efficiently.
- Create custom forms specific to your production or use pre-existing templates to streamline the start process.
- Standardized job titles and scale rates automatically imported from the Paymaster Book save time and ensure consistency.
- Help protect your production from costly fines with a built-in verification management tool that lets I-9 verifiers keep track of each pending crew verification in their queue.
Gain visibility across entire crew. Enjoy seamless integration with accounting and payroll.
- Get visibility into what offers have been extended and where your entire crew stands in the start process using a single, intuitive online dashboard - accessible anytime, anywhere, on any device.
- Eliminate incomplete information, illegible handwriting, and re-keying. Plus it's faster, so your crew can spend more time working and less time filling out paperwork.
- Share start packets with accounting and your EP paymaster automatically, so you don’t have to rely on paper handoffs, and you avoid scanning, searching, and sorting through information.
- Start information and rates are passed from SmartStart into SmartTime, EP's digital timecard solution, giving accountants a valuable head start and reducing manual data entry.
- Deliver, execute, and archive all documents automatically in SmartHub, so you can access a digital backup whenever you or your stakeholders need it.
SmartStart is fully integrated with EP's Production Finance Studio. Learn more.
Stay compliant. Work safely from anywhere with military-grade security.
- With built-in, automatic updates, you’re always in compliance with sick leave, minimum wage, and other federal and state laws.
- EP leads the industry with a military-level security program including advanced product and internal protections to make sure your data is secure and all products are available.
- Use SmartStart anywhere you can connect to the internet, on any device. With no app to download, SmartStart is immediately accessible to users.
- Because SmartStart is entirely based on our secure encrypted cloud infrastructure, no private personal information whatsoever needs to be stored on production laptop hard drives or physically in the production office, greatly reducing the risk of leaked or stolen information.
Learn more about EP's industry leading security infrastructure.
"Know what they're doing, not just payroll but residuals, stunt player insurance, guilds, and prices are competitive. Nice people too."
"Nothing has ever been wrong. Other payroll services are such a pain. I think the ONE time I needed to call EP, everything was taken care of immediately. Best in the biz right here!"
SmartStart
Put the industry’s most secure, completely digital start solution to work for you.
Discover why so many production teams and accountants love working with SmartStart.