AI accounting and bookkeeping for media companies
Media accounting.
Every show and title in view.
Battle-tested on 1,000+ companies' books.
Zeni is an accounting firm too. More than 250 of our own accountants, bookkeepers and controllers use this platform every day to close the books for 1,000+ customers, with more than $20 billion in finances processed.¹
Zeni connects your banks, cards, payroll and payment accounts, and our team manages the AI agents and reviews the work. With other AI accounting tools, keeping the agents working is your job.
Results by show or channel
Tag revenue and spend to a class or project and see revenue, OPEX and net income for each show, title or channel.
Freelancers, paid and tracked
Freelancer and contractor bills go through Bill Pay with approvals, and the Vendors view covers vendor spend and 1099 filing.
Every revenue stream, coded
Stripe and PayPal payouts, ad revenue and sponsorship deposits coded with the AI's reasoning attached.
Gear and licenses, scheduled
Cameras, studio equipment and annual software above your capitalization threshold become fixed-asset and prepaid schedules for your sign-off.
An AI Accountant for the books.
An AI CFO for the answers.
The AI Accountant codes every revenue stream. The AI CFO tells you which shows make money.
Connect your accounts. See every show.
Zeni's AI and finance team handle the bookkeeping. You make the content.
Connect your accounts
Banks, cards and payroll. Your Zeni team handles the setup with you.
Coded to the show
The AI Accountant codes revenue and freelancer bills and tags them to the right show or channel.
Zeni closes the books
Zeni's finance team reviews the AI's work and closes the month.
Know which shows make money
Ask the AI CFO for net income by show and a 13-week cash forecast.
What is media accounting?
Media accounting is bookkeeping and financial reporting for companies that publish, produce or distribute content, such as publishers, podcast and video studios and digital media brands. It usually means tracking revenue from ads, subscriptions and sponsorships, paying freelancers and filing their 1099s, reporting results by show, title or channel, and depreciating production equipment.
Every entry comes with its reasoning.
Each AI suggestion arrives with its reasoning and confidence. Bills wait for approval before they're paid, schedules wait for sign-off, and nothing changes in a closed period.
AI CFO · answers from live booksKnow which shows make money.
Zeni's AI CFO answers questions on revenue, spend and net income by show or channel from your live books, shows how every number was calculated, and builds a 13-week cash forecast.²
Your month-end close, show by show.
Thought process on every AI callCoded, with the reasoning attached.
Every payout, sponsorship deposit and freelancer bill gets a category, class and vendor, plus the reasoning behind it.
Explore transactions →
Prepaid schedule drafted, waiting on your approvalSchedules waiting for sign-off.
Production equipment and annual software become fixed-asset and prepaid schedules that post only after approval.
Explore month-end close →
Receipt matched to its charge, on the recordReceipts matched.
Missing receipts are flagged and matched automatically when they're forwarded or uploaded.
Explore receipts →
AI CFO explains the spike: up 167% from SeptemberFlux before you ask.
Month-over-month variances by vendor, category and class, with an AI summary of what changed.
Explore month-end close →
Found 3 statement transactions missing from the booksReconciled to the statement.
Bank and card accounts are reconciled to statements, with missing transactions flagged and entries suggested.
Explore reconciliation →
Every close task has an owner, a due date and time trackedClose tasks with owners.
Assign owners, priorities and due dates to every close task, so you see who owns what while the month is open.
Explore month-end close →Run more of your media finance work in one place.
Bill pay
Pay freelancers and vendors with multi-level approvals and invoices read automatically.
Class and project reporting
Report by class or project, including profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow by show or title.
Explore financial reporting →
Commenting
Comment on any transaction, @mention a teammate and keep the answer on the record.
Explore commenting →What media founders ask. What the AI CFO answers.
Built for the people who run media finance.
Your team, plus an AI Accountant and AI CFOMedia founders and CEOs
Founders who want to know which shows and titles make money without doing the books.
- Net income by show or channel
- Cash forecast for the next 13 weeks
- Books closed every month
Finance and operations leads
The people who pay freelancers and own the close, and want the bookkeeping done first.
- Freelancer bills approved before they're paid
- 1099s tracked all year
- Reconciliations drafted for review
Make the content. Keep the books right.
See the AI Accountant and AI CFO on a media company's books.
Media accounting and AI bookkeeping FAQs.
- Zeni internal figures, October 2026.
- AI CFO is in beta and can make mistakes; check anything important against the books.
See how Zeni's AI bookkeeping and accounting software works for other teams like yours.
