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Contractors & 1099s

The year-end answer to “what did I pay everyone, and do I have their paperwork?” — without going through bank statements.

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What it does

Contractors gathers every payment you've recorded — from Pay and from Deals — and groups it by person, by year. It's the worksheet you hand your accountant, plus a way to chase the W-9s you don't have yet, before January.

Owner only. This screen is reached from the Library toolbar and nobody else on your team can open it.

Every payment you recorded — from Costs and from Deals — grouped by person and year: the worksheet you hand your accountant, plus a way to chase the W-9s you don’t have yet before January.

The three views

By year

What you paid each person in one calendar year, with a total, a payment count and their classification.

All contractors

Everyone you've ever paid, lifetime, regardless of year — the roster view.

Missing W-9

Just the people over the reporting threshold with nothing on file. The list that's actually actionable.

Collecting a W-9

Cinethread stores the signed form, not the number on it. Your accountant wants the document, and a taxpayer ID that never enters the system can't leak from it, ride out in a spreadsheet export, or be silently wrong.

  1. Ask. Request W-9 opens a message you write and read before anything sends.
  2. They upload. The email carries their existing private deal link, pointed at the upload — a PDF or a clear photo. No account, and it works even if they never opened that link before.
  3. You download it. The form comes back through a short-lived private link. It is never publicly readable.

Exporting

Export CSV gives you legal name, the name you paid, email, address, classification, the year's total, the payment count, whether it crosses the threshold, and whether a W-9 is on file. That plus the forms is what an accountant asks for.

This is a worksheet, not your books. It only knows about payments recorded in Cinethread — anything paid outside it isn't here, and the report can't know what it never saw. Thresholds and exemptions are for your accountant to confirm.

Common questions

Why don't you store the taxpayer ID?

Because you don't need us to. You forward the form itself, and holding the most sensitive number in your business to save one field is a bad trade.

Someone shows up twice.

People are matched on their library record where there is one, and on email otherwise. Anything matched on name alone is flagged as such, so you can check rather than discover it in April.

Can I ask for a W-9 from someone who never used their link?

Yes — that's the common case, and it's handled. Their page shows the upload the moment you request it, whether or not they ever approved a deal.

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