Line items and the top sheet

The columns

Column	What it does
Description	What is being paid for.
Quantity	How many units: days, weeks, people, items.
Unit	What a unit is: day, week, hour, flat, or item. Changes nothing arithmetically; changes everything about whether the line is readable.
Unit cost	The rate per unit.
Multiplier	A factor applied on top, for partial periods or a rate that scales. Defaults to 1.
Allow %	A per-line contingency. Better than one lump sum at the bottom, because it records which lines you were unsure about.
Estimated total	Computed. Quantity × unit cost × multiplier, plus the allowance.
Actual	What it really cost. Left blank until you know.
Notes	The quote reference, who gave it, what it excludes.

The top sheet

The top sheet is every department’s total and the figure they sum to. It is the one page a financier reads. It sits above the detail so you can see the shape of the budget without scrolling through 200 lines.

The shoot day count shown alongside comes from the schedule board, and it’s the number several suggestions are calculated from. If the schedule is empty, that figure is zero and the suggestions will be poor.

Smart suggestions

Suggestions read what is actually in your project and propose line items that follow from it: how many shoot days the schedule has, how many cast are in the scene list, how many locations, what the breakdown says you need. A production with a stunt in the breakdown gets a stunt coordinator suggested; one without doesn’t.

They’re proposals: accept, edit or ignore each. Most useful late, as a completeness check. The question at that stage is what you have forgotten, not what to write down first.