Overview
Q: What is Onboarding & Timekeeping?
A: Onboarding & Timekeeping is Cast & Crew's digital solution purpose-built for the pace of commercial production. It brings crew onboarding, time entry, and payroll submission together in one seamless, web-based platform, eliminating the disconnected processes and manual steps that slow productions down.
Q: How is Onboarding & Timekeeping different from what Cast & Crew offered before?
A: You can now onboard crew, track time, and submit to payroll in a single, integrated experience, fully connected to Cast & Crew's payroll system. No more juggling separate tools or re-entering the same information across platforms.
Q: Who is Onboarding & Timekeeping built for?
A: It's built for commercial production companies looking to streamline crew management and payroll, from Heads of Production and Production Supervisors to crew members. Whether you're running one shoot or managing multiple productions, the platform is designed to scale with you.
Q: What are the core benefits?
A: Faster, Smoother Workflows
- Simplifies and accelerates crew onboarding and time entry, reducing back-and-forth and bottlenecks across departments
- Mobile-friendly so crew can complete onboarding from anywhere
Fewer Errors, Greater Accuracy
- Built-in automation and payroll system integration reduce manual entry, helping prevent costly payroll mistakes
Seamless Support and Trusted Oversight
- Combines modern technology with Cast & Crew's dedicated payroll coordinators, real people with decades of production payroll experience, ensuring your team stays confident and supported at every step
Q: How does Onboarding & Timekeeping ensure accuracy, compliance, and scalability?
A: Accuracy: The platform automates time entry validation, integrates with payroll rulesets, and reduces manual calculations through intelligent timecard configurations, so data flows cleanly from onboarding through payroll with minimal errors.
Compliance: The solution supports jurisdiction-specific labor laws, union rules, and required onboarding forms (e.g., I-9, W-4). It's updated regularly to keep pace with regulatory changes so you can trust it meets both federal and industry-specific standards.
Scalability: Designed for productions of all sizes, from single-shoot projects to high-volume multi-production workflows, it supports batch timecard approval and cross-department permissions.
Q: What are the system requirements?
A: Devices: Desktop, tablet, or mobile
Browsers: Chrome or Safari (latest version recommended)
Connectivity: Stable internet connection required
Q: What email address will my crew receive their onboarding invitation from?
A: Onboarding invitations are sent from no-reply@castandcrew.com. If any crew members report not receiving their invite, ask them to check their spam folder or whitelist that address.
Features
Q: What is Admin-Initiated onboarding?
A: With Admin-Initiated onboarding, Production Supervisors can add crew directly to a project and set key parameters, union, occupation, rate, and start date, on their behalf. This gives your team full control over project setup from the start, reducing errors that occur when crew enter their own information.
No setup is required — this feature is available to you automatically.
Q: Can we pre-approve employees to be paid as loan-outs?
A: Yes. Admins can pre-approve an employee to be paid as a loan-out during onboarding, bypassing the additional approval step later. On the Members page, the Employee Type column makes it easy to see at a glance which employees are classified as loan-outs.
Q: Can admins set up prep and shoot line numbers during onboarding?
A: Yes. For commercial projects, admins can set prep and shoot line numbers at the time of invitation.
Q: Can admins assign project admin roles during onboarding?
A: Yes. Client admins can designate project admins during the invitation process, so the right people have access as soon as an employee onboards. No need to log in separately to make that assignment.
Q: What changed with e-signatures?
A: E-signatures are now saved, so crew members don't need to re-sign each time they onboard. A separate e-signature consent step has been added for clarity, and I-9 countersignatures are now handled independently from other start paperwork, giving admins more control over that specific workflow.
Q: What changed with reimbursement attachments?
A: Crew members can now upload images as reimbursement attachments and preview them in the platform before submitting, no need to download files to verify what was attached.
Q: What changed with guaranteed-rate calculations?
A: Guaranteed-rate calculations now incorporate both California and non-California overtime rules, improving payroll accuracy for productions working across multiple states.
Q: Are Timecard Reports (TCRs) included in batch exports?
A: Yes. TCRs are now included automatically when you export batch data, so you no longer need to pull them separately.
Q: Can exempt employees log in/out times?
A: Yes. In/out time entry is now optional for exempt employees, giving productions more flexibility in how time is tracked for that employee type.
Onboarding Dashboard
Q: What is the Onboarding Dashboard?
A: The Onboarding Dashboard gives admins an at-a-glance view of onboarding activity across all projects. Key capabilities include:
- "Overdue" status — automatically flags employees whose start date has passed but who haven't completed onboarding
- Updated filters — occupation and union filters now match those in the Time tab for consistency
- Direct action links — navigate straight to relevant tasks (countersign, review loan-outs, etc.) without searching
- Clipboard copy — quickly copy employee contact information with one click
Q: What is the admin side panel?
A: When a supervisor selects a crew member from the Onboarding Dashboard, common admin actions like signing paperwork, starting paperwork, managing crew roles, and viewing assignments, are accessible directly from a side panel. No need to navigate away from your current page.
Q: What changed with employee type selection during onboarding?
A: The employee type selector has been updated from a dropdown to a radio button group, making all options, including loan-out, visible at once. This reduces onboarding errors that occurred when crew missed the loan-out option.
Custom Onboarding Documents
Q: Can we create our own onboarding documents?
A: Yes. Company Administrators can build and configure custom start work documents directly in the platform. No need to submit a request to Cast & Crew. The platform currently supports documents ideal for NDAs, arbitration agreements, employee handbooks, and similar materials.
Q: What types of custom documents can we create?
A: Document for Signature — automatically pulls from employee profile and project data already in the system
Custom Data Collection — gather specific information without a formal document
Custom Data Collection with Document — combine data collection with a formatted, professional output
Q: Does creating a custom document change anything for crew members?
A: No. Crew members simply complete the documents assigned to them; their experience remains the same.
Q: How do we access data collected through custom onboarding documents?
A: Navigate to the Employees tab, click the three-dot menu on an employee, and select Start Paperwork. Select Download All to receive a PDF with the data included. For bulk data collection, it's available through Reporting+ for analysis and export.
Q: What are default mapping fields?
A: Default mapping fields allow the platform to auto-populate information for countersigners, loan-out employees, employees, and projects when generating custom documents, reducing manual data entry during setup. Fields include date of signature, job title, loan-out name and EIN, last 4 of SSN, project start date, and project start/end dates.
Department Management
Q: What is Department Management?
A: Department Management lets your company build and manage its own department lists (Camera, Sound, Wardrobe, Grip, and so on) and assign employees accordingly. Previously, employees could only be categorized under two generic options: General or Art. Now your crew data reflects how your productions are organized.
Q: How does the department list work across productions?
A: A company sets up its department list once, and every new production under that company automatically inherits it. No repeat setup required.
Q: Can a production add a department that isn't on the company list?
A: Yes. A production admin can add a one-off department locally, for example, "Animals" for a specific shoot, without affecting the company-wide list or any other production.
Q: What if a production doesn't need a department from the company list?
A: They can turn it off at the production level without deleting it company-wide. Existing employee records remain accurate even if a department is later renamed or retired.
Automated Reimbursements
Q: What are Automated Reimbursements?
A: Automated Reimbursements allows admins to set up recurring reimbursement rules once, such as a daily meal per diem, mileage, or kit fee, and have the platform apply them automatically to the right timecards whenever the conditions are met. No more manually adding the same reimbursement every day.
Q: How do we set up a reimbursement rule?
A: If you’re an admin, you define the reimbursement type, the amount, and the date range it applies to (a single date, a date range, or the full project duration), then specify who qualifies — by department, role, or union. The system handles the rest.
Q: Can a reimbursement rule apply across all productions, or just one?
A: Both. A rule can be configured at the company level and automatically passed down to every new production or set up for a single production only.
Q: What does the crew member experience look like?
A: Crew members simply see the reimbursement already on their timecard. No extra steps, no requests to submit. It's there when it's supposed to be.
Q: Can admins make changes to an auto-applied reimbursement?
A: Yes. Admins retain full control. Any auto-applied reimbursement can be edited or removed on a given timecard before it's finalized.
Q: How do automated reimbursements flow to payroll?
A: Once approved, they move through to payroll exactly the same way a manually entered reimbursement does today. No changes to the downstream process.
Contact & Support
Q: How do I get in touch with the Onboarding & Timekeeping team?
A: We're here to help. Reach out to us at:
General inquiries: OATinfo@castandcrew.com
Support: OAT.support@castandcrew.com
Q: Where can I find additional resources for Onboarding & Timekeeping?
A: Visit the Cast & Crew Help Center for articles and videos related to Onboarding & Timekeeping for Commercial productions.