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Pull from breakdown and categories

Who can do this: Free plan on your first project, Supporter on all projects. Pulling lines and adding categories needs the organization owner, an admin, or a member with Manage crew contacts. Members with View budget can open the budget but not change it.
Your breakdown already knows every prop, every speaking part, every location, and every camera. The budget starts from that list instead of a blank spreadsheet, and fills in what the boards and cast records already say. Where to find it: open Production and click Budget.

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Pull lines from the breakdown

The first time you open the budget, Spell Slate pulls every tagged element into it. After that, each visit picks up anything new. To pull without leaving the page, click Pull from breakdown at the top. The top of the Budget page: Pull from breakdown, Export & reports, Budget settings, and Manage Each kind of element lands in its own department: A department that is not on your budget yet is added when its first element needs it. Pulling again never changes a line that already exists, so your edits stay. If an element is later removed from the breakdown, its line goes too, unless it has payments logged, in which case the line stays and is unlinked.

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Example: a second weekend of props

The art department tags six more props after the first budget pass. Open the budget, or click Pull from breakdown, and six new lines appear at the bottom of 38.00 PROPS at $0.00, ready for estimates. The lines you had already priced are untouched.

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Turn a category on or off

Each category in the sidebar has a checkbox. Clear it to leave that category out of the totals and the exports. The category stays on the page, marked as excluded. The budget sidebar: Budget, Categories, and a checked box beside each account from 01.00 Above the Line to 45.00 Camera Equipment

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Add a category

  1. Click Manage at the top of the budget, then Categories.
  2. Find the account you need and click its Off toggle to turn it On.
Manage categories: a list of accounts with an On or Off toggle, account code, and name, from 01.00 Above the Line to 14.00 Construction Labor The list is the full film budget chart of accounts. A category that already has lines stays in the list even when you turn it off.

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Add a line by hand

For a cost with no breakdown element behind it, such as contingency or petty cash, type it straight into the category.
  1. Scroll to the category.
  2. In the row under the table, fill in Description and any of Notes, Unit, Qty, Rate, Est, Fringe, and Actual.
  3. Click Add line.
The add-line row under 16.00 Other / Miscellaneous filled in with Petty cash, a note, and an estimate of 600, with the Add line button When Unit, Qty, and Rate are all set, Estimated is worked out for you as Qty × Rate. A line added by hand is not linked to a board, so it only changes when you edit it here.

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Example: petty cash for the art department

Under 16.00 Other / Miscellaneous, type “Petty cash”, add the note “Art department, reconciled weekly”, put 600 in Est, and click Add line. It sits beside Contingency and counts toward the grand total until you clear its checkbox.