Settings & Shortcuts

Global Settings

Settings that apply to all projects.

• User Profile: Username, email, display name, production company, role, avatar
• Theme: Dark mode, Light mode, or System default
• Accent color: Choose the color that runs through the app (teal, blue, purple, amber, rose, or neutral) and switch the selected sidebar item between a filled pill and a softer tint
• Infrastructure: Default projects folder, backups folder, auto-backup frequency (15/30 min, hourly, daily, manual)
• Budget Appearance: Font sizes, weights, text transforms per hierarchy level. Grid line visibility, thickness, and colors.
• Stripboard styling (strip height, column visibility, and colour mode) is not here: it lives behind the gear icon on the Stripboard page itself.
• Default Account Numbering: Base number, increment, format types per level (numeric, alpha, roman), separators
• Subscription: Check your plan and subscription status

Accounts & Signing In

A password is optional. Set one if you want FilmBase to ask for it when you open the app; leave it blank and it opens straight to your work.

• Optional password: Add a password to lock the app, or skip it and open straight in. A password you set can't be reset, so keep it somewhere safe.
• Remember me: On a computer you trust, tick "Remember me on this device" at the password prompt and FilmBase won't ask again until you sign out.
• Multiple profiles: If there's more than one profile on a computer, FilmBase opens the one you used last. Sign out to switch.
• Projects travel with you: Projects aren't tied to the computer that made them, so copy or move a project folder to another computer and open it there.

A Project Is a Folder

Opening a project folder shows the .filmbase database, a Backups folder you can delete to reclaim space, and a Files folder holding everything you have added: branding logos, contact photos and invoices, expense receipts, reference images, and storyboard art. A hidden .filmbase folder holds the project's key and a little app state.

Always move the whole folder, never the .filmbase file on its own. The file is encrypted and the key that opens it lives elsewhere in the folder. Sent by itself it cannot be opened by anyone, on any computer, with or without a password. To send a project to someone, use Export Project from the ⋯ menu in the Project Hub, which packs the folder into a single .fba file.

While a project is open you will also see .filmbase-wal and .filmbase-shm beside the database. Those are its working files and they clear themselves when the project closes.

Project Passwords

Projects have no password unless you give them one. An unprotected project opens in FilmBase on any computer it is copied to, which is what you want when handing a project to an editor or a producer. Your account password is a separate thing and is never used to lock a project.

To protect one, turn on Password-protect this project in the new-project dialog. You can also add or remove a password later, from either:

• The Project Hub: the ⋯ menu on the project card, then Project Password
• Inside the project: Settings > Project > Security

Setting a password means it is needed to open the project on every computer, including the one that made it. Removing it lets the project open freely again.

A project password cannot be reset. If it is lost, nobody can open the project, us included. Keep it somewhere safe and send it along with the project.

Project Settings

Settings that apply to the current project only.

Budget Settings

• Currency: Define currencies with exchange rates for multi-currency budgets
• Units: Custom unit definitions and conversions
• Fringes: Fringe benefit tiers (tax, insurance, benefits) applied to categories
• Global Variables: Named values/formulas (e.g., "ShootDays = 30") referenced throughout the budget
• Account Codes: Customize numbering format per level with regeneration support

Branding

Upload a production company logo and a show logo (Region and Format > Branding) and they print on the header of every PDF export. Each export dialog controls whether they appear and at what size and position. The images live inside the project folder, so they travel with the project.

Script Settings

Scripts default to Letter, the industry standard for screenplays. That is deliberately separate from your regional paper size, so call sheets and budgets can print A4 while the script stays on Letter.

Exporting a Letter script to A4 keeps the same content body and the same page breaks. The pagination does not shift, so page counts and eighths stay honest.

Region & Format

Override the workspace paper size, time format, and temperature unit for this project alone. Useful when one show is shooting in a different territory to the rest of your slate.

Backup & Restore

Backups

FilmBase creates clean, optimized backups of your project data. Auto-backups run at the frequency set in Global Settings. Manual backups can be created at any time via the toolbar. Backups are stored in your project's backups folder. The system keeps the most recent 10 auto-backups and preserves all named backups.

Restoring

Restore from any backup via the Project Hub. A safety backup of the current state is automatically created before restoring.

Keyboard Shortcuts