Outstation filming budget worksheet

This worksheet adds up the travel and stay costs you already have quotes for, and keeps the rest visible as outstanding. It uses only the numbers you type in.

What is it for?

When a shoot is outstation, travel and rooms can change a quote a lot. They are often quoted late, in pieces, and sometimes in another currency. The worksheet helps you hold those pieces together without pretending the missing ones are zero.

How do I use it?

1. Enter the number of crew travelling, if you know it, and the travel and filming days you expect.
2. Add a line for each cost, such as tickets, rooms, a local car or equipment freight. The starter buttons add a label only, with no price.
3. For each line, choose the type and whether it falls on a travel day or a filming day.
4. Type the quoted price per unit. Leave it blank if the quote has not arrived.
5. Tick Linked to crew count when the quantity should follow the number of people, such as tickets or meals. Use “Nights or legs” for nights in a room or the number of trips.
6. Pick a currency for each line.

How do I read the result?

The known subtotal adds only lines with a quote and a usable quantity. Beneath it you see how much falls on travel days and on filming days.

Contingency, if you add it, sits on its own line. The outstanding list names each line that has no quote, or needs the crew count, with the reason. The questions below it turn those into things to ask.

What are the assumptions and limits?

• Each line is number times crew (if linked) times nights or legs times your quoted price.
• Totals add within one currency. Combining needs a rate, a date and a direction that you enter, and the result states them.
• The tool assumes no mileage rate, route, timetable, allowance or crew requirement. Everything comes from your quotes.
• It does not decide who pays for travel. That is agreed with the supplier.
• This is a planning aid, not a quote.

A worked example

This is an illustrative example, not a real quote. You set the crew to 3, add a per-person ticket line with no quote yet, and a van line quoted at RM300. The known subtotal is RM300 and the ticket line sits in the outstanding list.

When the ticket quote arrives at, for example, RM200 per person, the ticket line adds RM600 because it is linked to crew, and the subtotal becomes RM900. Changing the crew to 4 would raise the ticket line only; the van stays at RM300. If one line is in SGD, it keeps its own subtotal unless you enter a dated exchange rate.

When should I message us?

Message us when the date and place are fixed, or even earlier if you are choosing between locations. We can explain what we need to confirm about the crew and travel before we quote. The guide on travel and accommodation costs for outstation filming lists what to expect, and the budget worksheet shows the whole video budget with unpriced lines. When quotes arrive, the quote comparison worksheet puts them side by side.