Lessons

If you already have a project in the Scheduling module, you can use it to add a cost estimate in the Budgeting module by importing data, e.g. a list of actors, sets, resources, etc. To do so, link the project on the project settings page or in the Cost Estimate menu. Learn more about this feature in this module.

After linking the project, select an item to import data into or add a new one, e.g. Actors (if we import actor data). This item will be the parent item, the system will create associated items inside it (if Actors already has associated items, the system will add new ones below them). 

Right-click on the added item and select Import from Scheduling Module. You will see the import parameters window.

In the Type field, select the type of the imported entity (set, character, resource, etc.). In this case, you need the Characters type as we add information on actors/characters in the cost estimate.

Next, select the role type and check the Display the Name of the Actor in the Item Name box (if necessary).

When importing sets, you can sort them by type and select sets with props only. You can also enable the location name in the item name.  

Another convenient feature is grouping by sets and locations.  In this case, all sub-sets will be linked to one item, and the number of shooting days will be equal to the sum of shooting days for all sub-sets. 

Let’s get back to actor imports. Next, check the required boxes. You can also link a character to an item that is already included in the cost estimate. To do so, select an item from the drop-down list.

The counter of selected items is displayed at the top. You can click on it and move to the table with only the selected items and, for example, delete unnecessary ones there.

Upon selecting the required items, click Select.

You will see a table where you can select the exact data that you need in the cost estimate. For example, cost type (fixed or shooting day), number of shooting days, total quantity, cost, and commission fee. To do so, click on the arrow next to the required value.

In this table, you can also select the data you want to import from linked items. To do so, you need to uncheck the boxes (by default, they are all checked) for values that you do not want to update.

In addition, you can enter commission fees for all items. To do so, click on the arrow next to the commission fee in the header.

After you have finished selecting the data, click Import.

Thus, the required items with data are included in the cost estimate.

By doing this, you can easily generate a cost estimate version. Imports of items from the Scheduling module are useful to import shooting day accruals later. Learn more about this feature in this module.

Next, you will be able to update the data in such items, if the values changed to new ones in the Scheduling module. Learn more about this feature in this module.