Budget basics

The Budget tool is your project's cost plan. It's organised the way production budgets usually are — big groupings broken down into smaller ones, down to individual costs. This page covers the structure and how to build it; the money columns, rates, snapshots, and extras each have their own page.

Open it from Budget in the project sidebar.

How a budget is structured

A budget has three levels:

• Chapter — a large grouping, such as "Staffing" or "Equipment".
• Sub-chapter — a grouping within a chapter, such as "Camera Staff".
• Line item — a single cost: one person, one piece of kit, one expense.

You build from the top down: add chapters, add sub-chapters inside them, then add line items.

📷 Screenshot: /images/docs/budget/budget-table.png A budget with chapters, sub-chapters, and line items in the table. Alt: A budget table organised into chapters and sub-chapters with line items and cost columns.

Adding to the budget

• Use Add chapter in the chapter list on the left.
• Inside a chapter, use Add Sub-chapter and add line items in the table.
• For each line item, set its name, day count, quantity, rate, and markup — see Rates, fees, and markup. You can pull item names and prices from your price lists as you type.

Chapters can be reordered, and line items can be selected in bulk to move into groups or delete.

More than one budget

A project can have several budgets — for example a draft and an approved version, or two scenarios you're comparing. A switcher at the top lets you move between them, and New Budget creates another (with a name and optional notes). Each budget is independent.

The money columns, in brief

The budget table has several cost columns. Two deserve special mention because they're what makes CrewGrid's budget live rather than static:

• Allocated — the live cost of the bookings linked to a line, updated automatically from your current plan.
• Actual — what you really spent, entered after the shoot.

These have their own page: Allocated vs Actual.

Adjusting the view

A View control lets you switch density and show or hide optional columns like Drift, Allocated, and Actual — handy for focusing on what matters at a given moment.

Where to go next

• Rates, fees, and markup — how each line is priced.
• Allocated vs Actual — the live money columns.
• Budget snapshots — saving and comparing versions.
• Groups, templates, and export.