Film budget software with tax incentives and an AICP bid builder.
A full film budget - departments, fringes, cashflow, tax incentives and an AICP bid - that builds from your breakdown and updates as the schedule moves. Track POs and payments, watch the hot-cost against estimate, and export an accountant-ready ledger.
See the Budget →
What's inside Budget
Film budget software, tax credits to bid.
- AICP bid builder - your departments mapped onto the industry chart of accounts, with production fee, insurance and contingency as knobs that move the firm bid live
- Union rate finder - 32 roles across 12 unions on the current scale schedules, dated and source-cited, searchable by role and region
- Cashflow schedule with a budget exhaust point - the date your cumulative spend crosses the budget line, before you find it out the hard way
- Fringe matrix and payroll loading, plus a tax-incentive estimator
- Purchase orders that write themselves back onto their budget line when they are paid, so committed spend is never a guess
- Ledger health - how many lines are clear, how many need you, how many are critical, and why
- Twelve-tab budget module - from Cost Report and Variance to Tax Incentives, Fringes, Cashflow and the AICP Bid Builder
- Tax Incentive Estimator - every major jurisdiction ranked by estimated credit from your live ATL/BTL/Post spend, 3-way comparison + per-programme detail
- Fringe Matrix - one-click per-department SAG / IATSE / DGA / non-union / BECTU rule packs with caps, floors and dated, source-cited rates
- Cashflow Schedule - weekly drawdown curve from your shoot dates and PO invoice dates, peak-week and budget-exhaust warnings
- AICP Bid Builder - departments mapped to the industry chart of accounts, fee/insurance/contingency knobs, printable firm-bid one-pager
- Union Rate Finder - 30 dated 2026 scale rates (SAG-AFTRA, DGA, WGA, IATSE locals, Teamsters, BECTU, Equity) with a live cost calculator
- Two-way Budget ↔ Purchase Order sync - paid POs roll up to actuals, variance flags overages
- Line items auto-linked to Breakdown elements + suggested adds from breakdown counts
- PDF export matches the format investors actually read
The pipeline
Where Budget sits in the production flow.
The financial spine. Budget reads from the breakdown (element counts → suggested line items) and the cast app (deal memos → cast department lines with auto-fringe), then feeds the producer dashboard's EFC + variance + hot-cost surfaces. The number every financier asks for, finally automatable.
Feeds downstream into
DollyAI™ in this app
AI commands wired into Budget.
A few of the 200+ DollyAI commands across the suite, here in Budget. Every one shows its credit cost before you commit, and every response is anchored in your real project - not a generic prompt.
Suggested adds
2 crReads the breakdown counts and proposes budget lines (props × £50, vehicles × £1500/day, locations × £800 flat) you can accept whole, edit, or reject.
AI variance predict
8 crAI scores every budget line for overrun risk (0-200% predicted overrun, confidence band, one-sentence reason). Surfaces the highest-risk lines + total predicted overrun in the project's currency. /api/budget/variance-predict canon route per §17.173.
Top-sheet narrative
3 crCover letter for the budget PDF - written in the language a financier expects to read alongside the numbers.
Talks to every app
Budget reads + writes to the same project file.
No re-entry, no copy-paste, no out-of-sync versions. Every connection below is a live data path in the running product.
Breakdown
Per-category element counts feed budget-line suggested-adds via /api/budget/hints.
Cast
Deal-memo status flips trigger Cast department line writes - signed/executed → confirmed adds, cancelled → removed.
Producer
EFC + variance + hot-cost roll up to the producer dashboard on every save.
Call Sheet
Per-day cost figures flow into the daily call sheet's overrun forecast pill.
Frequently asked
Common questions about Budget.
Does the budget actually run AICP / broadcast-network line numbering?
Yes. AICP + broadcast-network shells are first-class templates. The line numbering every commercial producer + TV LP recognises ships out of the box.
How do POs roll up to actuals?
Two-way Budget ↔ Purchase Order sync. Paid POs automatically write to the actuals column on their linked budget line; variance flags overages live.
Does the SAG fringe engine handle the 2026 contract rates?
Yes. SAG / IATSE / DGA / WGA fringe rates ship current - and recalculate live whenever you tweak a deal memo.
Can I export to Movie Magic or Showbiz?
PDF + CSV export ship today; native .mmb export for legacy budgeting tools is roadmap. The PDF format matches what a financier actually reads.
The Promise
Budget is on every tier.
No locked features, no Pro-only exports, no surprise paywalls. Every Budget tool on this page ships on every plan - Hobbyist to Enterprise.
