Adding Money to a Production Account

The account has to have the money first

Nothing is borrowed when a crew member swipes. The purchase is paid from funds the production already put in. That is why a brand-new card with a high limit still declines if nobody has funded the account.

Producers add money through the production as the crew spends. There is no cap on how much a production can spend over the life of a show.

Three numbers people mix up

• The account balance is money that is actually there and can be spent.
• The card limit is the most that one card is allowed to spend. Dolly’s ceilings are $50,000 per charge, $100,000 a day, and $500,000 a month. A production can set a card lower.
• A pending hold is money set aside for a purchase that has not finished posting. It is not available for the next swipe, and a pending return does not put it back until the return posts.

Money on the way is not money you can spend

A transfer does not help the crew until it has arrived and shows as available. Sending it this morning does not mean a card can use it this morning. If a purchase matters today, confirm the funds are in the account before someone leaves for the store.

Plan the load for the spending you expect, including holds. Hotels, rentals, and restaurants often set aside more than the final bill. An account that looks big enough for the receipts can still be short once those holds are counted.

How long each way takes

To count for that business day, a wire has to arrive by 5:00 PM ET, a same-day ACH by 1:00 PM ET and a standard ACH by 8:30 PM ET.

Use the bank details shown in Funds for each balance. Some accounts take ACH only, and the page says so. A wire sent to an ACH-only account will not arrive.

Only admins who manage the workspace can see Funds.

Get warned before it runs low

In Settings → Notifications → Production Settings:

• Low Balance Threshold. Dolly emails when the balance drops to this amount or below.
• Alert recipients. Who gets that email.
• Automatically pull in. If you have a linked bank account, tick this, enter an amount and choose the External auto-funding account. Dolly pulls that amount in when the balance runs low.

An automatic pull takes as long as any transfer Dolly starts, usually 2–6 business days. Set the threshold high enough to cover a few days of spending.

Crew asking for more to spend

Crew don’t add money themselves. A cardholder who needs more texts Dolly, for example “I need 400 more” or “raise my weekly limit to 1500 for this week”. Dolly confirms the amount and sends the request to the production’s admins.

Admins get an email with a Review button and can approve, adjust or decline without signing in, or decide on the card page. Dolly texts the cardholder the answer. A request expires after 24 hours. See texting Dolly.