Help & Documentation

Offline-first guidance for safe gear lists.

Budget & Return Tracking

Plan section budgets and compare against actuals

The project workspace's 'Budget' tab holds two parts: Item Cost Breakdown, which lists the rental, purchase and insurance cost of each item on your gear list, and the 'Budget vs actual' report where you enter section budgets, contingency, and profit margin and watch a progress bar against actuals from billing and approved timesheets. A project can budget against a fixed ceiling or a rate-based (rate × shoot length) model, and once it's linked to a time-tracking timesheet the real logged overtime, surcharges, mileage, and equipment flow into the Actual column on their own.

Setting Up Section Budgets

Section budgets (Rental, Crew, etc.) plus Contingency and Profit Margin add up to the Grand total. Set them once per project; the Lock button freezes the values when the producer signs off.

  1. Open the project workspace and switch to the 'Budget' tab.
  2. Scroll to the 'Budget vs actual' report panel.
  3. Enter values in each section row (Rental, Crew, and any other categories you defined).
  4. Reveal optional sections from the 'Optional sections' row above the report — Set Design and Post-Production are both off by default. Enable one per project when the job actually has an art department or post; toggling is non-destructive, so a hidden section keeps any values you already entered.
  5. Set 'Contingency / Buffer' and 'Profit margin' in the row below the sections — both are added on top of section sums to produce the Grand total.
  6. Click the Lock button when the budget is signed off. Locked budgets can't be edited until you toggle the lock open again.
Sketching a commercial-shoot budget

Example shape for a 2-day brand commercial (numbers are illustrative):

  1. Camera Package — bodies, lenses, media
  2. Lighting — LED panels, HMIs, stands
  3. Audio — wireless mics, recorder
  4. Support — dolly, jib, tripods
  5. Contingency — buffer for last-minute additions
  6. Profit Margin — your fee on top of pass-through costs
Tips
  • Set the overall ceiling first, then divide it into categories — easier than reconciling category totals against a hidden grand total.
  • Reserve roughly 10–15% as Contingency for last-minute additions and price changes.
  • Set the budget early in pre-production — planning under a known cap is faster than cutting later.
  • Temporary rentals get their own 'Temporary Gear' section, split out of Equipment automatically once the gear list has temporary items — short-term kit is costed on its own without inflating the permanent-equipment total.
  • Amounts accept either decimal separator: type 1,50 or 1.50 and both record 1.50. A German-style 1.234,56 is read as 1234.56, so a figure copied from an invoice keeps its value.
Common Pitfalls
  • Forgetting consumables (tape, batteries, media) and shipping fees in the section totals.
  • Setting per-category limits whose sum exceeds the overall budget — Cine Power Planner does not auto-balance these for you.
  • Skipping insurance costs and damage deposits.

Tracking Costs vs. Actuals

While you're building the gear list, the Budget vs actual panel updates live. Several actuals feed in automatically — rental from the gear list, department equipment from per-item costs, crew from approved timesheet earnings, and travel and expenses from Spesen trips and linked expenses — while the other section rows are typed in by hand.

  • The 'Budget used' bar shows actuals divided by the Grand total, shaded neutral → warning → over as you approach and exceed the cap.
  • Net result (budget − actual) sits below the bar with a sign indicator.
  • Three cards sum up the report: Grand total (with the cost and the margin behind it), External Spend (real costs paid to others) and Net result.
  • Estimated Cost Distribution shows each section's share: Equipment, Personnel, Logistics, Set Design, Post Production and Other / Buffer.
  • Budget Snapshots: 'Save Snapshot' keeps the current numbers, and 'Compare' on a saved snapshot shows what has changed since.
  • Undo and Redo in the panel (Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z) walk back recent edits.
Tips
  • Check the panel before finalizing the gear list — catching an overrun while items are still flexible is much easier than after pickup.
  • In the gear list, switching items from rental to owned gear is the fastest way to pull a section back under cap.
  • Lock the budget once it's signed off — accidental edits during the shoot won't change the agreed numbers.
Common Pitfalls
  • Ignoring yellow warnings — they usually escalate to red once last-minute additions land.
  • Editing a locked budget by toggling the lock and forgetting to re-lock afterwards.
  • Comparing day rates without multiplying by the actual number of rental days.

Planning vs. Actual View

A 'Budget view mode' toggle at the top of the Budget vs actual panel switches the report between two lenses on the same numbers — Planning while you're still shaping the budget, and Actual once money starts moving. Switching modes only changes what the panel shows; it never changes the underlying figures.

  • Planning — a clean calculation view for building the budget and quotes. It trims the summary to the Grand total and the section distribution and hides the actual-spend columns, so you can plan without the noise of live costs.
  • Actual — the tracking view. It shows spend, Net result (budget − actual), and utilization against the Grand total so you can see at a glance whether you're staying on budget.
  • Recorded actuals (rental, equipment, crew from approved timesheets, travel and expenses) keep accruing in both modes — Planning mode simply doesn't display them.
Tips
  • Stay in Planning mode during pre-production while you're still sizing sections and preparing a quote — the hidden actuals keep the view uncluttered.
  • Switch to Actual mode once pickup starts and real costs land, so the progress bar and Net result reflect reality.
  • Applying a budget template replaces the plan values but keeps recorded actuals — you can re-plan mid-project without losing what's already been spent.
Common Pitfalls
  • Reading Planning mode as 'nothing has been spent' — actuals are only hidden there, not zero. Switch to Actual mode to see real spend.
  • Thinking the numbers changed when you toggle modes — only the displayed columns differ, not the values.

Rate-Based vs. Fixed Budgets

A 'Budget model' toggle sits at the top of the Budget vs actual panel, switching a project between two ways of setting the ceiling: Fixed budget (a number you plan against) and Rate-based (no ceiling — the cost is driven by rate × shoot length, the same calculation time tracking uses, so it grows as the shoot runs long). Switching is non-destructive: your fixed figures are kept for switching back.

  1. Open the project's 'Budget' tab and find the Budget model toggle above the report.
  2. Leave it on 'Fixed budget' for jobs with an agreed cap — you enter a fixed number and plan against it.
  3. Switch to 'Rate-based' for day-rate jobs — there is no fixed ceiling; the cost follows rate × expected days.
  4. In Rate-based mode the readout shows a 'Planned (rate × days)' figure until the linked timesheet has entries, then 'Spend so far' from real logged time.
Tips
  • Rate-based is for jobs you bill by the day — no more inventing a fixed number and reconciling it later.
  • The planned figure uses your rate and the expected shoot length; once crew log time, the live spend takes over, so an overrun shows up on its own.
  • Switching models keeps both sets of numbers — flip back to Fixed and your manual figures are still there.
Common Pitfalls
  • Expecting a hard ceiling in Rate-based mode — there isn't one; the cost is meant to grow with the shoot.
  • Reading 'Planned' as final — it's an estimate from rate × expected days until the timesheet has real entries.

Time Tracking Feeds the Budget

When a project is linked to a time-tracking timesheet, real logged hours, surcharges, mileage, and equipment flow into the budget's Actual column automatically — so overtime, night and weekend surcharges, and per-kilometre car costs stop reading €0. An Actual that came from the timesheet carries a ⏱ badge instead of an input box.

  • Overtime & surcharge rows — the Personnel surcharges (11th / 12th / 13th hour, Night Surcharge, Sunday, Holiday, 6th Day) fill their Actual from the timesheet's real logged overtime and surcharges.
  • Overtime source modes — the small button on the Overtime line cycles its source: a fixed amount (currency symbol), a % of the crew budget (%), or ⏱ from time tracking (which respects the timesheet's own overtime cap / uncapped setting).
  • Car costs by kilometre — the 'Vehicles / Rental cars' row (Logistics section) opens a Vehicle km calculator holding an estimated distance, the actual distance logged on the timesheet, a shared €/km rate, and a toggle for whether the final cost bills the estimate or the actual.
  • Expenses — equipment logged on a crew member's timesheet flows into the Expenses Actual (per-diem and mileage already arrive via Travel and the km calculator).
  1. Open the 'Overtime conditions' card in the Budget tab — it shows base hours per day, the three overtime tier percentages (11th / 12th / 13th hour), and the overtime cap.
  2. Under 'Sync with time tracking', each linked sheet reads 'In sync', or shows a diff labelled 'Differs from budget'.
  3. Choose 'Use time tracking' to pull that sheet's conditions into the budget, or 'Use budget' to push the budget's conditions onto the sheet.
  4. Edit the budget's own conditions with 'Edit conditions' (the Rate Rules dialog).
  5. Sheets governed by a collective agreement stay read-only ('Governed by an agreement') — the agreement is the legal source of truth, so you can only pull from them, never overwrite.
  6. Canceled shoot days roll up into their own Personnel row, "Cancellation Fees" — plan a provision in the budget column, and the actual arrives live from the linked timesheet with the ⏱ badge
Tips
  • The ⏱ badge next to an Actual means the figure came from the timesheet, not hand entry — trust it as the live number.
  • For a km-billed car, set the estimate up front; the actual distance fills in from logged trips, and the charge-basis toggle decides which one the client is billed.
  • The €/km rate is shared with time tracking — change it in the km calculator and it's pushed to every linked timesheet (and back again), so there's one rate across both surfaces.
Common Pitfalls
  • Typing over a ⏱-sourced Actual — it's calculated from the timesheet; edit the timesheet instead.
  • Expecting to overwrite an agreement-locked sheet — those are pull-only by design.
  • Forgetting to link the project to a timesheet — with no linked sheet, the surcharge and overtime Actuals stay at €0 and you enter them by hand.

Notes on Individual Budget Lines

Beyond the panel-wide Notes field, every budget line can carry its own note — a place to record the assumption or caveat that belongs with that specific row.

  1. In the Budget tab, find the row to annotate — any section row (Equipment, Personnel, Logistics, Post-Production), a surcharge row, or one of your own custom line items.
  2. Click the small note button beside the row's label.
  3. Type the note — for example 'deposit refundable on wrap', 'client covers flights', or 'quote still pending'.
  4. The note saves with the project; the button turns highlighted so annotated rows stand out, and a one-line preview shows under the row when it's collapsed.
Tips
  • Use line notes for the 'why' behind a number — the assumption you won't remember six weeks later.
  • Line notes stay visible (read-only) while the budget is locked, so signed-off assumptions travel with the agreed figures.
  • Clearing a note removes it — there's no separate delete step.

Currency & VAT

Handling budgets across vendors with different currencies or tax treatments.

  • Default currency lives in Settings → Account (Preferences → Currency). New projects inherit this default.
  • Per-item pricing uses the project default currency — there is no automatic FX conversion.
  • When renting from international vendors, convert manually and record both the original price and the converted amount in the row's notes.
Tips
  • Pick the producer's reporting currency for the project, then convert vendor quotes into it before entering them.
  • Make it explicit in notes whether a price is net or gross — VAT-inclusive vs VAT-exclusive numbers look the same in the UI.
  • For multi-week prep windows, FX moves can matter — re-check rates close to pickup.
Common Pitfalls
  • Mixing currencies in the same project — the totals lose meaning.
  • Forgetting that the producer's accountant may expect net (ex-VAT) numbers when planning sees gross.

Exporting Budget Reports

The Budget tab exports a PDF report with your branding, or a CSV for spreadsheet / accounting import.

  • The PDF contains the sections you ticked in the dialog.
  • CSV exports include section rows for cross-referencing with invoices line by line.
  • Both exports reflect the current state — lock the budget first if you want a stable snapshot.
  1. Open the project's Budget tab and scroll to Item Cost Breakdown.
  2. Click the 'PDF' button in its header. The 'Export Budget Report' dialog opens; pick PDF or CSV at the top.
  3. PDF: tick the sections to include (Per-Item Cost Breakdown, Category Totals, Budget vs. Actuals, Cost Distribution; at least one), then click 'Export PDF'. The report uses your accent colour and logo.
  4. CSV: click 'Export CSV'. The file lists every line with its Budget, Actual and Variance, section by section, ready for Excel, Sheets, or your accounting tool.
  5. The file lands in the device's default downloads folder.
Tips
  • Send a PDF summary to producers who just want the headline numbers.
  • Send the CSV to accountants who need to reconcile against the rental house invoice.
  • Export at key milestones — after planning, before pickup, and after wrap — so you have a paper trail for future estimates.
Common Pitfalls
  • Exporting before all rental rows have prices assigned — the report shows incomplete totals without warning.
  • Forgetting to export a final report after wrap — the panel state changes over time as billing drafts close out.

Day-to-Day Habits

Patterns that keep the budget panel useful through prep, shoot, and wrap.

  • Reserve 10–15% Contingency. The exact number depends on the production, but zero contingency is rarely realistic.
  • Review the panel daily during active prep — costs creep up quickly once vendors start confirming.
  • Send producers a quick status update before they ask. Surprises are worse than weekly updates.
  • Save end-of-project budgets as templates for similar production types — your next estimate starts grounded.
  • Do a post-wrap budget review: plan vs. actual per section, with one line of notes per variance.

A budget that follows its quote

A project made from a quote takes the quote's planned amounts for rental, crew and travel, and the quote's work conditions as its overtime conditions. While you keep editing the quote, the budget follows.

  • The budget remembers what the quote wrote. A value that is still what the quote wrote, or empty, is updated when the quote's positions change. A value you changed by hand is kept.
  • The update happens a moment after you stop editing the quote. It only runs for a project whose budget was seeded from that quote.
  • 'Seed budget from quote' under the linked quotes does the same on demand and tells you how many hand-changed values it kept. Click again to overwrite those too.
  • The Overtime conditions card starts with the quote's working hours, overtime steps, night, Saturday, Sunday and holiday surcharges and travel-day shares. They are written once; conditions you edit in the budget are never replaced.
  • A project linked before this existed starts following after one click on 'Seed budget from quote'.
Tips
  • Want a budget value to follow the quote again? Set it back to the quote's amount, or use the overwrite click.

Rental, equipment, crew (from approved timesheets), travel, expenses, and — when a timesheet is linked — overtime, surcharges, and per-km car costs feed in automatically; enter the remaining section actuals by hand as costs come in. Switch a day-rate job to the Rate-based model, and lock the budget once it's signed off so the agreed numbers stay agreed.

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