Industry-standard formats, real-time actuals, and hot costs — without the $500/year software license or the 40-tab spreadsheet. Budgets speaks production, not just finance.
Budgets ships with industry-standard account structures for every production type — no reformatting, no custom spreadsheet, no consultant required.
Designed for line producers and producers who need real-time visibility without living inside a spreadsheet — and accountants who need clean exports when the shoot wraps.
Start with the top sheet, drill into any department or account. Estimated vs. actual at every level — variances surface automatically, no formula hunting required.
Log expenses as they happen. Hot costs update daily — producers see where each department stands against estimate before the next shoot day starts.
Create, route, and track POs within the same tool that holds the budget. Approvals are tied directly to account balances — no overspending without visibility.
Generate deal memos from the crew database with rates, kit rentals, overtime rules, and bump structures. E-sign built in — no DocuSign subscription required.
Crew submits timecards digitally. Approved hours flow into payroll export — compatible with major payroll services. Overtime, penalties, and meal bumps calculated automatically.
Calculate fringes automatically. Model tax incentive scenarios against real spend. Productions spanning borders get per-vendor exchange rates with automatic rollup conversion.
Dashboard views that show where you stand — over budget, under budget, and where the risk is — before it becomes a problem on set.
Account-level management with full audit trails. Every change tracked, every PO accounted for, department-level permissions so each head sees their own numbers.
Export to industry-standard formats. Compatible with payroll services, accounting software, and completion bond reporting requirements — zero reformatting.
MMB is powerful but isolated — a desktop app with no real collaboration and no connection to your schedule or crew. Budgets is browser-first and integrated with the rest of your production stack.
Enterprise pricing puts professional budgeting tools out of reach for independent productions. Budgets has a free tier that's genuinely useful and scales to studio-level productions.
A spreadsheet doesn't calculate union fringes or know your shooting schedule. Budgets connects directly to Sheets — a schedule change updates your daily cost projection automatically.
Get early access when Budgets launches.