Glossary
Plain-English definitions of every word CrewGrid uses — from chapters and line items to snapshots, re-seeding, and drift.
CrewGrid borrows some words from film and TV production and gives a few of its own words specific meanings. This page defines them in plain language. Terms are grouped by area; within each group they build on each other, so reading a group top to bottom makes sense.
Where a definition matters enough to have its own page, there's a link to it.
The big picture
Organization — A company or team that runs productions in CrewGrid: a production company, an agency, or a studio. An organization is the unit that holds projects, a team of people, and a subscription. You can belong to more than one organization.
Personal space (also "personal scope") — Your own area of CrewGrid, separate from any organization. This is where a freelancer manages their profile, responds to bookings, and keeps a calendar. Every user has one, reached at the You · Freelancer entry in the role switcher.
Project — A single production inside an organization: one shoot, one campaign, one job. A project holds its own budget, timeline, crew, and call sheets.
Module — One of the tools a project can turn on: Budget, Timeline, Staffing, Call Sheets, and Locations. When you create a project you choose which modules it uses, and you can add more later. Overview, Documents, and Settings are always available. See Choosing project tools.
Role (permission) — What a person is allowed to do inside an organization: Owner, Admin, Producer, or Viewer. Not to be confused with a production role below. See Your team and roles.
People and staffing
Contact — A person in your organization's directory whom you can book — either an internal team member or an external freelancer. The sidebar entry is labelled Contacts.
Marketplace — Where producers discover freelancers who've chosen to be findable, and connect with them through a contact request. Freelancers appear only if they turn on Findable on marketplace in their profile. See Finding crew on the marketplace.
Crew — A named group of production roles, such as "Camera Crew" or "Lighting". Crews keep a project's positions organised.
Role (production) — A single position to be filled, such as "1st AC" or "Gaffer", usually inside a crew.
Booking — A request to a specific person to work a specific role for specific dates. A booking moves through several stages (see Booking status below).
Booking request — The message a producer sends to book someone. If the person has a CrewGrid account they see it in their bookings; if not, they get a unique email link. See Sending a booking request.
Booking status — Where a booking is in its life. The stages you'll see:
- Requested — the producer has asked; the person hasn't answered yet.
- Availability confirmed — the person has said they're available. The producer still needs to lock it in.
- Confirmed — the producer has locked the booking. It's on.
- Needs re-confirmation — something changed and the producer has asked the person to confirm again.
- On hold — the producer has paused the booking.
- Clarification — the person has a question before answering.
- Declined — the person turned it down (or withdrew their availability).
- Cancelled — the producer called it off.
- No response — the request went unanswered.
Rate card — The agreed rate terms for one person working with one organization: a base day rate, overtime tiers, and any modifiers. A freelancer can keep reusable rate-card templates and propose them to organizations. See Adjustments and rate cards.
Adjustment — A change to a confirmed booking's money or schedule — for example a different rate for a travel day, an extra line item like a kit rental, or waiving a rule. Adjustments need both sides to agree. See Two-party approvals.
Availability hint — A simple traffic-light colour — green, amber, or red — that tells a producer roughly how free a freelancer is, without revealing their actual calendar. A freelancer chooses whether to share it. A hollow grey dot means "not shared".
Budget
Budget — The full cost plan for a project. A project can have more than one budget (for example a draft and an approved version).
Chapter — A large grouping of costs in a budget, such as "Staffing" or "Equipment".
Sub-chapter — A grouping within a chapter, such as "Camera Staff" inside "Staffing".
Line item — A single cost within a sub-chapter: one person, one piece of kit, one expense.
PSW (Prep / Shoot / Wrap) — A way of entering how many days a line item spans, split into three phases: Prep, Shoot, and Wrap. The alternative is Factor mode, a single multiplier. A project chooses one shape. See Rates, fees, and markup.
Markup — A percentage added on top of a cost — your margin. Can be set for the whole budget and overridden on individual items.
Surcharge — An extra percentage on a line item for things like KSK, AGA, or §50a (German production levies). Surcharges are named and can be set globally, then overridden.
Allocated — The live cost of the bookings linked to a budget line, worked out from your current plan. It updates on its own as your timeline and bookings change — it always reflects "what this would cost right now". This is the word CrewGrid uses everywhere for this figure. See Allocated vs Actual.
Actual — What was really spent, entered by hand after the production wraps. Allocated is the estimate from your plan; Actual is the reality.
Drift — A warning that a booking linked to a budget line would cost a different amount if you re-seeded it — in other words, your plan has moved on but the booking hasn't caught up yet. Drift shows as an amber ⚠ chip you can click to see the per-booking difference. See Allocated vs Actual.
Timeline
Timeline — A visual, editing-style plan of your shoot laid out over time — like the timeline in a video editor. A project can have more than one.
Stream — A horizontal track on the timeline, usually one department or unit, such as "Camera Dept". A stream can have sub-streams, such as "A Camera".
Item — A single block on a stream: a scene, a setup, a move, a meal. Items have times and can be tied to a location.
Location — A place used in the production — entered once with its address, map pin, venue contact, and logistics, then reused across timeline items and projects. Can have sub-locations (rooms or spaces within a venue) and lives either in one project or in the organization-wide Library. Locations are their own project tool. See Locations.
Linking — Connecting a timeline stream to the crew role that works it, so that when you build a booking or call sheet from the timeline, the right people get the right schedule. See Linking crew and roles.
Snapshots, re-seeding, and propagating
These three words are central to how CrewGrid works. The full story is in How scheduling works; here are the short definitions.
Snapshot — A saved, named version of your budget or timeline at a moment in time — a bookmark you can come back to. Saving a snapshot never changes anything downstream on its own. Timeline snapshots can be used as a stable source when building bookings and call sheets; budget snapshots are used to compare and restore.
Source — Where a booking or call sheet's schedule was built from — either the live timeline (your current working plan) or a specific snapshot.
Re-seed — Updating a booking or call sheet's schedule from its source. Nothing changes until you re-seed, and before it commits you always see exactly what would change. This is a deliberate step, not automatic. See Re-seeding bookings.
Out of sync (also "drift") — When a booking or call sheet's saved schedule no longer matches what its source would produce — the sign that a re-seed is available. In the budget, this same idea is shown as drift.
Propagate — Pushing your latest plan out to all affected bookings and call sheets in one reviewed step, instead of re-seeding each one by hand. See Propagating changes.
Call sheets
Call sheet — The daily plan you send to cast and crew — who's needed, when, and where — for one or more shoot days.
Section — A block on a call sheet. The types are header, schedule, location, crew, talent, and custom (free notes). You arrange sections in any order. Schedule, location, and crew sections can be built from your timeline; talent and custom are yours to write. See Call sheet sections.
Share — A way of giving a call sheet to someone. A personalised share gives each recipient their own link with a "Your call" highlight; an anonymous share is one link anyone can open (handy for clients or vendors). See Sharing a call sheet.
Share template — A saved, named choice of which sections a group of recipients sees — for example a "Client view" that shows the schedule and location but hides the crew list.
Plans and billing
Free / Starter / Professional / Enterprise — The four organization subscription plans, from no cost up to unlimited projects and members. Higher plans raise the limits on projects and team members. See Billing and plans.
Pro — The paid plan for an individual freelancer. It unlocks a public profile, rate cards, a calendar, availability sharing, and personal analytics. See Your freelancer account.
Trial — A 14-day free trial that comes with the paid plans. Your card is added up front but not charged until the trial ends. See Plans and trials.
Live mode — A project setting that silences CrewGrid's automatic email notifications — useful while you're still shaping a plan and don't want every change to reach people. See Project settings.
Where to go next
- How scheduling works — the ideas behind snapshots and re-seeding.
- Why some changes need both sides to agree.
- What is CrewGrid?.