Film and TV production services procurement
transparent and certifiable

Visualnet digitalises production services procurement with full traceability and sealed market benchmarks. Documentary evidence that meets the requirements of investors, tax incentive bodies and international regulatory frameworks.

NISR 4400 · Agreed-upon procedures IRC §482 · Arm's length / IRS UK Bribery Act · Adequate procedures Art. 36.2 LIS · Spain incentives SOX §302/§404 · Internal controls

Every step, traced and sealed

Visualnet digitalises the complete procurement process, from project creation to final award, with documentary evidence at every stage.

01

The production company creates the production project

The production company creates the project on the platform and defines its type, phase and shoot schedule. It assigns one or more Production Managers to manage the request for proposals process.

· Title, description and production type (feature film, series, commercial, documentary...)
· Phase A (Development): indicative benchmark, no binding award
· Phase B (Pre-production): real tender, binding award, exact shoot dates
Project created · History initiated
02

The Production Manager defines the request for proposals

The Production Manager creates the request for proposals within the project. They select the activities from the catalogue — 106 activities in 17 categories — they need to procure: camera crews, lighting, transport, catering, post-production...

· Detailed technical description of requirements for each service
· Deadline for receipt of bids
· Optional indicative maximum budget (not visible to suppliers)

NISR 4400 — Number of bids

NISR 4400 certification does not depend on a minimum number of responses. The system notifies 100% of qualified suppliers for that activity and geography. If the market responds with one bid, the process is certifiable. If it responds with twenty, the benchmark is complete. The certification level is assigned automatically at closing.

106 activities · 17 categories
03

Publication and automatic notification to 100% of the eligible market

On publishing the request for proposals, the platform automatically identifies all directory suppliers offering the relevant activity and sends them an invitation. No manual supplier search or contact is needed.

· Automatic supplier selection by category and geography
· Personalised invitation with project details, without revealing data of other invited suppliers
· The moment of publication is sealed and immutable — it cannot be modified retroactively
Sealed publication · NISR 4400 §3.1
04

Receipt of bids in a confidential environment

Invited suppliers access their panel, review the request details and submit their bid. Each bid can include total price, line-item breakdown and attached documents.

· Each supplier sees only their own bid — no competitor can see another's proposal
· Bids can be edited until the closing moment
· The Production Manager receives real-time notification of each bid received
Confidentiality guaranteed · No cross-visibility
05

Closing, sealed benchmark and analysis view

On closing the request for proposals, the platform automatically seals the market benchmark based on the bids received. The Production Manager accesses the comparison view with all bids and their relative positions.

· Benchmark sealed at closing: Minimum / Below average / Average / Above average / Maximum
· The benchmark cannot be modified after closing — no platform administrator can alter it
· Comparison view visible only to the Production Manager and authorised production company users
Sealed benchmark · NISR 4400 §4.2
06

Award with documented justification

The Production Manager selects the winning supplier. If the awarded price exceeds the benchmark average, the platform requires a written justification before confirming the award. This requirement is automatic and non-waivable.

· Automatic notification to the winning supplier
· Automatic notification to non-selected suppliers
· The justification is recorded in the history when the price exceeds the average
· The moment of award is immutable and cannot be modified retroactively
Documented justification · Immutable award · NISR 4400 §5.1
07

Exportable history for investors and regulatory bodies

Every action in the process is recorded with a cryptographic identifier chained to the previous event. Impossible to alter the history without leaving a mathematical trace — verifiable by any independent auditor.

· Immutable record of: creation, publication, each bid received, closing, sealed benchmark, award and justification
· PDF export of the complete history per project
· Read-only audit panel for auditors designated by the production company or studio
· Valid before AEAT (Spain), HMRC (United Kingdom) and IRS (United States) as evidence of procurement at real market rates
Exportable · NISR 4400 · IRC §482 · Art. 36.2 LIS

Certification by process, not by outcome

NISR 4400 certification aims to demonstrate that the procurement process was correct: that the request for proposals reached 100% of technically qualified suppliers according to Visualnet's taxonomy and directory. That is what the auditor certifies — the quality of the process, not the number of responses the market gave.

A Production Manager cannot control how many suppliers are available in a specific market for a given date. They can — and must — control that the request reached 100% of theoretically suitable suppliers. If the market has only one capable supplier on those dates, a single quote is perfectly certifiable.

Full certification

3 or more bids

Certified process + full market benchmark. The NISR 4400 report includes minimum, average and maximum.

Exhausted market

1 or 2 bids

100% of the market was contacted. Certified process + documented note of limited market. The NISR 4400 report stands firm.

Not certifiable

Zero bids

No NISR 4400 report is issued. The process is documented but without certification.

Why documentation matters
when shooting in Spain

International productions located in Spain to access tax incentives operate within a multi-level regulatory framework. Visualnet is designed to meet its requirements.

🇺🇸 IRS · IRC Section 482

The IRS requires that services between related entities are invoiced at the price an independent third party would have charged. Without a documented, independent benchmark, the studio cannot defend those prices under inspection. Penalties range from 20% to 40% of the estimated difference.

🇺🇸 DOJ/SEC · FCPA + Sarbanes-Oxley

US-listed companies must maintain accurate accounting records and adequate internal control systems (SOX §302 and §404). The FCPA requires that any payment through third parties abroad be documented in sufficient detail. The CFO personally certifies this to the SEC.

🇬🇧 SFO · UK Bribery Act 2010

The UK Bribery Act treats the Spanish service producer as an "associated person" of the commissioning studio. If the producer is investigated in Spain, the studio must demonstrate it had adequate procedures. Without that evidence, the studio is liable — even without direct knowledge of the problem.

🇪🇸 AEAT · Art. 36.2 LIS

Access to the Art. 36.2 LIS deduction and regional incentive programmes requires evidence that expenditure is real and at market price. Visualnet's sealed history provides exactly that evidence, line by line.

What Visualnet provides to the studio, not just the production company

Visualnet's chained history — with sealed benchmarks line by line — is exactly the type of evidence the IRS, SEC, SFO and AEAT accept as proof of orderly procurement at market rates. It is also the documentation that major audit firms request when conducting due diligence on productions with tax incentives.

A process that defends
the budget before everyone

🏦

Investors and financing entities

Demonstrates with real market data that the technical production budget is competitive. Exportable history for financial due diligence and international co-production.

🏛️

Tax incentives and bodies

The sealed record certifies that expenditure is real and at market price — an essential requirement to access Art. 36.2 LIS in Spain, the AVEC before HMRC or equivalent programmes in the United States.

🔍

Audit firms

The chained history and sealed benchmarks provide the objective, independent evidence audit firms need to issue agreed-upon procedures reports.

Ready for any independent review

Every architecture decision at Visualnet is oriented towards meeting the most demanding standards in the financial and film and TV industrys.

NISR 4400

Agreed-upon procedures

Every Phase B request for proposals generates NISR 4400-compatible documentation. The certification level (full / exhausted market) is assigned automatically based on eligible market coverage.

GDPR · FNMT-RCM

Security and digital signature

Cloud-native architecture with strict per-client data separation, AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit. NISR 4400 reports are signed with a qualified FNMT-RCM certificate compliant with Regulation (EU) 910/2014.

SHA-256

Immutable history

Each event generates an identifier chained to the previous one. Impossible to alter the history without leaving a mathematical trace. Verifiable by any independent auditor, regardless of jurisdiction.

Want to see it in action?

Request a personalised demo for your production company, studio or audit firm. We show you the complete process with real data.