Wrapbook vs Saturation (2026): Production Payroll vs Production Finance

Wrapbook and Saturation are both built for film and TV productions. Both handle money. But they do very different things, and the producers who understand the difference run smoother, leaner productions.

Wrapbook is a production payroll platform. It handles W-2 crew payments, union compliance, workers compensation, and crew onboarding. If you have SAG-AFTRA or IATSE crew on your call sheet, Wrapbook manages the payroll side of that relationship.

Saturation is a production finance platform. It handles budgeting, expense tracking, vendor payments, and production banking. Before you even hire your first crew member, Saturation is where you build your budget, track your actuals, and manage your cash flow.

Many productions use both. This guide explains what each platform does, where they overlap, and how to decide what your production needs.

What is Wrapbook?

Wrapbook was built to replace the paperwork-heavy, phone-tag-driven payroll process that has defined Hollywood for decades. The platform brings crew onboarding, timecards, payroll processing, and production accounting into a single digital workflow.

Founded in 2019, Wrapbook serves feature films, episodic television, commercials, music videos, and specialty content. The company positions itself as a modern replacement for legacy payroll processors like Cast and Crew and Entertainment Partners.

Core Wrapbook Features

W-2 Payroll Processing

Wrapbook processes payroll for W-2 employees on your production. Crew members are paid through the platform, with taxes withheld, employer taxes calculated, and pay stubs delivered digitally. The system includes real-time hour-to-gross calculations so you know exactly what each payroll run will cost before you process it.

Union Compliance

Wrapbook is built around union production. The platform supports SAG-AFTRA, DGA, and IATSE agreements, automatically applying the correct wage scales, overtime rules, and fringe calculations for each union. For SAG-AFTRA Ultra Low Budget productions with a $300,000 ceiling, the platform handles the specific day rate requirements ($232 to $241 per day) and agreement-specific rules automatically.

Workers Compensation

Wrapbook includes integrated workers compensation coverage. Productions do not need to source separate workers comp policies. The platform manages claims handling and coverage as part of the payroll service.

Digital Crew Onboarding

Wrapbook eliminates paper start packages. Crew members complete I-9s, W-4s, state tax withholding forms, and deal memos digitally before day one. The platform collects signed state tax withholding forms across all 43 required states, which matters for multi-state productions shooting on location.

Production Accounting Suite

Wrapbook has expanded beyond payroll into broader production accounting. Their Production Accounting Suite (PAS) includes budget tracking (with import from Hot Budget, Movie Magic, or Showbiz), purchase order management, vendor invoices, accounts payable, petty cash tracking, and cost reports. This makes Wrapbook a more direct competitor to production accounting software than it was in earlier years.

Concierge Service Model

Wrapbook pairs its software with human support: union paymasters, customer success managers, and dedicated support specialists. This matters on complex union productions where a payroll error can trigger a grievance.

What is Saturation?

Saturation is a cloud-based production finance platform built by filmmaker and producer Jens Jacob. Where Wrapbook starts when your crew is hired, Saturation starts when you open your first budget line.

Saturation combines collaborative film budgeting, real-time expense management, vendor and contractor payments, and production banking in one platform. The free tier makes it accessible to emerging filmmakers who cannot afford legacy desktop software.

Core Saturation Features

Collaborative Film Budgeting

Saturation replaces spreadsheets and legacy desktop software like Movie Magic Budgeting with a cloud-native budgeting tool. Multiple team members can work on the same budget in real time. Department heads can manage their own line items without emailing revised Excel files back and forth. For a deep dive on budgeting workflows, see our guide to best film budgeting software.

Expense Management and Receipt Tracking

Every purchase on a production needs to be tracked against the budget. Saturation lets crew members upload receipts on the go, routes approvals digitally, and maps every transaction to the correct budget line. Actuals update in real time so you always know where you stand versus budget.

Saturation Pay (Contractor and Vendor Payments)

Saturation Pay handles contractor and vendor payments. This is the accounts payable side of production finance: paying your location scout, your equipment rental house, your post facility, your caterer. Saturation Pay is not W-2 payroll. It is designed specifically for the non-union, contractor, and vendor payments that every production makes.

Production Banking

Saturation includes production banking with expense cards. The production credit card earns 3% cash back on production expenses. Cards can be issued to department heads or producers, with spend controls and real-time visibility across the production's accounts.

Free Tier Available

Saturation offers a free tier, which makes it the only production finance platform accessible to micro-budget and student productions. Independent filmmakers working on their first feature do not need an enterprise sales call to start budgeting. For a complete guide to production budgeting from scratch, see how to create a film budget.

AI-Assisted Features (April 2026)

Saturation is launching AI-assisted fringe calculations and budget suggestions in April 2026. The platform will use production data to flag fringe rate errors and suggest budget adjustments based on similar productions.

The Key Difference: Payroll vs Production Finance

The clearest way to understand the difference between Wrapbook and Saturation is to look at where each platform sits in the production workflow.

Wrapbook handles the employer side of your crew relationships. When a union crew member submits timecards, Wrapbook calculates gross pay, applies the correct union scale, withholds taxes, files the tax forms, and delivers a paycheck. The production is acting as an employer, and Wrapbook manages that relationship compliantly.

Saturation handles the financial management of the production itself. Before you hire anyone, Saturation is where you build the budget. Once shooting starts, Saturation tracks every expense, payment, and approval against that budget. After the shoot, Saturation gives you the actuals that go into your cost report.

Think of it this way: Wrapbook answers the question "How do we pay our crew legally and compliantly?" Saturation answers the question "How do we manage the money for this production from development through delivery?"

Where Wrapbook and Saturation Overlap

Both platforms have expanded their feature sets, which creates some functional overlap worth understanding.

Wrapbook added a Budget Tracker to their Production Accounting Suite that can import budgets from Movie Magic, Hot Budget, or Showbiz and reflects payroll, purchase orders, and petty cash transactions in real time. This puts Wrapbook in the budget-tracking space, although it is primarily designed as a view into payroll costs rather than a full budgeting tool.

Saturation Pay handles contractor and vendor payments, which overlaps with accounts payable functionality in Wrapbook. The difference: Wrapbook's AP is designed to work alongside W-2 payroll in a unified production accounting system. Saturation Pay works as a standalone contractor payment tool that integrates with the Saturation budget.

Productions running Wrapbook for payroll and Saturation for budgeting and vendor payments can connect the two platforms. Saturation has a Wrapbook integration that allows payroll actuals from Wrapbook to flow into the Saturation budget, keeping above-the-line and below-the-line costs in sync.

Wrapbook Pricing

Wrapbook does not charge monthly or annual subscription fees. The platform charges a processing fee on payroll run through the system, currently approximately 0.75% to 1.5% of payroll processed, depending on volume and production type. Their payroll estimator shows a 1.49% platform fee in sample calculations.

There are no setup fees. Crew members pay nothing to be onboarded, paid, or access their documents. The production company absorbs the platform fee as part of payroll costs.

Workers compensation premiums are additional and calculated based on role classifications and state requirements. Wrapbook provides a payroll cost estimator at wrapbook.com to project total payroll spend including taxes, fringes, and workers comp before committing to the platform.

For productions with high payroll volume, Wrapbook's percentage-based pricing can represent a significant cost. A $500,000 payroll budget at 1.49% translates to approximately $7,450 in platform fees. This is worth factoring into your budget before committing.

Saturation Pricing

Saturation offers a free tier that includes core budgeting and expense tracking features. Paid plans add collaborative features, advanced reporting, Saturation Pay for vendor payments, and production banking with expense cards.

Because Saturation is free to start, productions can build and refine their budgets without committing to a paid plan. The platform scales with the production: a micro-budget film can use the free tier, while a studio episodic can add team members, banking features, and integrations on paid plans.

To see current pricing and plan details, visit saturation.io.

Feature Comparison Table

Who Needs Wrapbook

Wrapbook is the right choice when your production has W-2 crew and you need compliant payroll processing. Specifically:

• Union productions: Any production with SAG-AFTRA, DGA, or IATSE crew needs payroll software that handles union scales, fringes, and agreement-specific rules automatically. Wrapbook is built for this.

• Productions hiring across multiple states: Multi-state tax withholding is complex. Wrapbook handles state-specific forms in all 43 states that require them.

• Productions that need workers compensation: If you cannot source workers comp separately or want it integrated with payroll, Wrapbook includes coverage.

• Larger productions with significant crew: The more W-2 crew you have, the more value you get from Wrapbook's digital onboarding, timecard management, and union compliance features.

• Productions moving away from Cast and Crew or Entertainment Partners: Wrapbook was built as a modern alternative to the legacy payroll incumbents, and many productions are making that switch.

Wrapbook is less suited to micro-budget productions with no W-2 crew, productions operating entirely with independent contractors, or productions that do not need a full payroll processing solution.

Who Needs Saturation

Saturation is the right choice when you need to manage production finances from the budget stage through completion. Specifically:

• Any production building a budget: Whether you are budgeting a $15,000 short or a $5 million feature, you need a place to build, share, and update your budget. Saturation's free tier makes this accessible to everyone.

• Productions tracking expenses against budget: Once you are in production, every purchase needs to be reconciled against the budget. Saturation's expense tracking and receipt capture handles this in real time.

• Productions paying contractors and vendors: If you are paying a director of photography, a location owner, a visual effects studio, or any non-W-2 vendor, Saturation Pay handles those payments.

• Independent and micro-budget films: The free tier means Saturation is accessible to filmmakers who cannot afford enterprise payroll software. This is the segment that legacy tools have always underserved.

• Productions that want banking integrated with budgeting: Saturation's production banking and 3% cash back card keeps production spending inside the same platform as the budget.

• Production teams that need real-time budget visibility: When department heads, producers, and accountants can all see the same live budget, fewer surprises hit at the end of the shoot.

Do You Need Both?

For union productions with W-2 crew, the honest answer is often yes.

Wrapbook handles the payroll side: onboarding, timecards, union compliance, workers comp, and tax filing. It does this well and it is built specifically for entertainment payroll.

Saturation handles the finance side: budgeting, expense tracking, vendor payments, and production banking. It gives you the full picture of where your production money is going, not just what payroll costs.

The Wrapbook and Saturation integration allows payroll actuals from Wrapbook to flow into the Saturation budget automatically. You are not maintaining two separate systems manually. Payroll data goes into Wrapbook and surfaces in Saturation's cost report, giving you a unified view of all production costs in one place.

For non-union productions, commercial shoots, or music videos where crew are primarily independent contractors, Saturation alone often handles what you need. Saturation Pay covers contractor payments, expense cards cover department spend, and the budgeting tool keeps everything in line.

Ready to see how Saturation works for your production? Start free at saturation.io.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Saturation compete with Wrapbook?

Not directly. Wrapbook is a payroll platform. Saturation is a production finance platform. They serve different parts of the production workflow. Many productions run both in parallel, using Wrapbook for crew payroll and Saturation for budgeting, expense management, and vendor payments.

Can Saturation process W-2 payroll?

No. Saturation Pay handles contractor and vendor payments, which are accounts payable transactions. It is not a W-2 payroll processor. If your production has union crew or W-2 employees, you need a payroll platform like Wrapbook for that function.

Does Wrapbook handle film budgeting?

Wrapbook's Production Accounting Suite includes a Budget Tracker that imports budgets from Movie Magic, Hot Budget, or Showbiz and reflects payroll and expense transactions against those budgets. It is a budget tracking tool rather than a full budgeting platform. Wrapbook does not replace dedicated budgeting software for the pre-production build phase.

How does Wrapbook pricing work?

Wrapbook charges a processing fee of approximately 0.75% to 1.5% of payroll processed. There are no monthly subscription fees. You pay only for what you process. Workers compensation premiums are additional and calculated based on role classifications and state requirements.

Is Saturation free?

Yes. Saturation offers a free tier that includes core budgeting and expense tracking features. Paid plans add collaborative features, advanced reporting, Saturation Pay for vendor payments, and production banking with expense cards. Visit saturation.io to see current plan details.

Do Wrapbook and Saturation integrate with each other?

Yes. Saturation has a Wrapbook integration that allows payroll data from Wrapbook to flow into Saturation's budget tracker. This gives productions a unified view of all costs without manually reconciling two systems.

Which platform is better for a micro-budget film?

For a micro-budget film with no W-2 crew, Saturation is the better starting point. The free tier gives you collaborative budgeting, expense tracking, and contractor payment tools without any upfront cost. If your micro-budget production is SAG Ultra Low Budget (under $300,000) and you have union talent, you may need to add a payroll service like Wrapbook for the union actors while using Saturation for the rest of the production's finances.

Can Saturation handle union productions?

Saturation handles the finance side of union productions: budgeting (including union fringe rates), expense tracking, and vendor payments. For the payroll processing, tax withholding, and workers compensation side of union production, a dedicated payroll platform like Wrapbook handles that function. The two platforms are designed to work together.

What production types does Wrapbook serve?

Wrapbook serves feature films, episodic television, commercials, music videos, and specialty content. The platform is used by major studios and streaming services as well as independent productions. They count Netflix, RadicalMedia, and Anonymous Content among their clients.

Where can I learn more about film budgeting?

Saturation's blog covers film budgeting in depth. Start with our guide to best film budgeting software for an overview of the tools available, or read how to create a film budget for a step-by-step walkthrough of the budgeting process from development through production.

Written by Jens Jacob, film producer and CEO of Saturation.io. Jens has produced feature films including "After Death" and "The Heart of Man" and built Saturation to solve the production finance problems he experienced firsthand.