Guide
How to budget a film
To budget a film in InteScene, choose between a quick top-level budget for an at-a-glance grand total or a full chart of accounts with coded accounts, sub-accounts and line items tracking Estimated, Actual, Paid, Payable and Variance. Costs from your breakdown, locations, catering and transport feed in automatically, and you can add globals, fringe libraries, multi-currency lines, what-if scenarios and emailable vendor purchase orders, so estimating starts from your real production rather than guesswork.
Choose your budgeting speed
InteScene is a two-speed budget. Use the quick top-level budget when you want an at-a-glance grand total, or open the full chart of accounts when you need line-by-line accounting. The chart of accounts mirrors how production accountants work, with coded Accounts, Sub-accounts and Line items, each tracking Estimated, Actual, Paid, Payable and Variance.
Let breakdown and department costs feed in
Because the budget reads from the same connected dataset, costs flow in automatically from your breakdown items, location costs, catering and transport. Estimating starts from your real production rather than guesswork, and actuals turn red when over and green when under so overspend is visible at a glance.
Set up globals and fringes
Use Globals so that changing one day rate updates every linked line at once. On Production tier and up, add Fringe libraries for payroll taxes, pension and health, and holiday pay with cutoff caps, calculated correctly per labour line. Add multi-currency lines that convert to your base currency automatically.
Raise purchase orders
On Production tier and up, raise vendor purchase orders coded to a budget account. They auto-number (PO-001, PO-002), pre-fill your company letterhead, are status-tracked, and email as PDFs straight to vendors.
Model scenarios and import or export
On Studio tier, capture named what-if budget scenarios and compare them per account to pitch a studio cut against a lean cut to financiers. You can also import CSVs, including the exports of dedicated film-budgeting tools, via automatic header-matching, and export a round-trippable CSV of the full chart of accounts or PDF reports with a Summary-versus-Detailed toggle.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to enter every cost manually?
No. Because InteScene shares one connected dataset, costs feed into the budget automatically from your breakdown items, locations, catering and transport. That means estimating starts from your real production, and figures such as tracked labour from crew check-in can flow into the budget's payable figure live rather than being re-entered.
Can I move my existing budget into InteScene?
Yes. InteScene imports budgets from CSV, including the CSV exports of dedicated film-budgeting tools, using automatic header-matching so an existing chart of accounts comes across without retyping hundreds of line items. A budget import that parses to nothing usable is blocked, so you cannot accidentally wipe a budget with a misformatted file.
Which budgeting features need a higher plan?
Core budgeting, including the top-level budget, chart of accounts, globals, units, currencies and most budget reports, is available on all plans. Fringes, the Fringe Report and Purchase Orders are Production-tier features, and Budget Scenarios are a Studio-tier capability. Every paid plan includes a two-week free trial, and you can sign up at https://intescene.app/signup.
Run your whole production in one place
Start on the free plan. No credit card required.
Try InteScene Free