Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for tracking progress of media processing jobs. A system tracking progress of media processing jobs receives a media processing job submitted by a user via an electronic portal, inserts the media processing job as a job entry in a job submission table, sets an initial status for the job entry, processes the media according to parameters associated with the media processing job, maintains a processing history of the media processing job, and updates the initial status based on the processing. The system displays processing history of media processing jobs through an application interface and allows a user to expand and collapse the history to display additional or fewer details of the processing, respectively. The system can generate a virtual representation of a received physical copy of the media and associate the virtual representation with the electronically submitted media processing job.