cinemasetfreeYour first budget
Add a department, then line items. A line is quantity × unit cost × multiplier, plus an allowance percentage, which is how a 12-day camera package priced per week gets budgeted correctly.
A worked example: budgeting the camera department
Create the department
Camera, account code 3300. Codes are conventional in film budgets and worth using. They are what makes your budget legible to a line producer who has never seen this app.
Add a straightforward line
“Camera operator”, quantity 18, unit day, unit cost £420. Total £7,560. This is the shape most lines take.
Use the multiplier for the awkward ones
The camera package is quoted at £1,800/week but you need it for 18 days. Quantity 3, unit week, unit cost £1,800, and a multiplier for the partial week. The multiplier exists so you don’t have to fake the quantity and lose what the number actually means.
Add an allowance where you're guessing
Expendables are genuinely unknown. Put in your estimate and set an allow percentage: a contingency on that line alone, rather than one lump at the bottom that hides which lines were soft.
Link the line to what it pays for
A line can be attached to a location, a character, a wardrobe or a team member. Link the operator’s line to their roster entry and “what does this person cost” stops being a search.
Track actuals as they land
Each line has an actual alongside its estimate. Filling these in during the shoot is what turns the budget from a pitch document into a cost report.
Once you’ve added the standard department set, most productions only use half. Hide empty departments collapses the rest so the top sheet reads as your film rather than a template.