Budget Globals & Fringes Explained

These are the two mechanisms underneath FilmBase’s film budgeting software. Last episode we applied a global to the gaffer’s multiplier and left it there. Here we fix that, and cover the two things doing the arithmetic underneath every budget: globals and fringes.

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Step 1: What a Global Is

A global is one number, kept in one place, that you can apply to any line in the budget — or to a category, when you want it to drive that category’s total. When the number changes, everything it is applied to changes with it.

1. On the Detailed Budget, open the right inspector and switch from the Item tab to the Settings tab.
2. Select the Globals tab.

You already have some, and FilmBase created them for you:

Global	What it holds
<Block name> Shoot Days	one per shooting block — the block selector you met in Episode 2. Block 1 gives you Block 1 Shoot Days
Total Shoot Days	the count across every block

Dead Tired has one block, so both read 5.

Try to type into either and it will not let you. These belong to the schedule, not to you. Their values come from the shoot days you set in Episode 2, and if you could edit them the next schedule change would overwrite whatever you typed.

That distinction is worth a moment on the gaffer you set up last episode. His multiplier is on Block 1 Shoot Days, the global for the block you are working in. Switch him onto Total Shoot Days and nothing changes today — the line still reads $600 × 5 = $3,000 — because there is one block and both read 5. On a production with a second block they would part company, and which one you want depends on whether that gaffer works across both.

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Step 2: Make Your Own Global

1. On the Globals tab, click + Create New Global.
2. Fill it in:

Field	Value
Name	Prep Days
Value or Formula	3
Target Field	Multiplier

Two of those fields are worth pausing on.

Value or Formula means a global does not have to be a plain number. You can write a formula that references another global in square brackets, so you can express something like twelve hours for every shoot day without hardcoding the day count.

Target Field decides which column the global drives: Rate, Multiplier, Amount, or Total. A day count is a multiplier, which is why Total Shoot Days went into the gaffer’s multiplier rather than his rate.

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Step 3: Fringes, and Choosing What a Fringe Applies To

A fringe is a cost that rides on top of wages: payroll tax, pension, holiday pay. Same inspector, same Settings tab, this time on the Fringes side.

1. Click + Create New Fringe, enter Payroll tax as the Fringe Name and 18 in Rate %. There is a Cutoff setting beside it for a capped fringe.

Add a per diem line with Quick Add

She needs one more line before the fringe makes its point, which is a good moment to meet Quick Add.

2. Click the Quick Add button in the toolbar (its tooltip reads “Quick add buttons on hover”).
3. Hover over Wanda’s line. Two round buttons appear on the left of the row:

Button	Adds
Plus	a line at the same level as the row you are hovering
Chevron	a line inside it

The labels follow what you hover. On a category they read Add Category and Add Account; on Wanda they read Add Account and Add Detail. This works in both Tree and Drilldown view.

4. Click the chevron on Wanda’s row to add a Detail inside her, and fill it in:

Field	Value
Description	Per diem
Qty	4
Unit	Days
Rate	150

Four days because she is engaged for four: two shooting, two on hold. The line comes to $600, and Wanda’s total moves to $8,100.

Apply the fringe

5. Right-click Wanda’s parent line, choose Apply Fringe, and tick Payroll tax.

Applying it to the parent rather than to each child matters: a fringe with a cutoff is then taken against her wages as a whole, which is how a capped payroll tax works. Right now it charges 18% on all $8,100, giving $1,458.

6. In the right inspector, find the Fringe Base section. It lists her three children with a tick box each.
7. Untick the per diem.

The fringe drops to $1,350, which is 18% of the $7,500 that is actually wages. The $600 of per diem is still in her cost; it has simply left the base the fringe is worked out on.

The same settings live under Settings → Project → Budget with more room, which is the better place for a long tidy-up. For adding one fringe while your budget is in front of you, the inspector is quicker.

One caution: put a fringe on the parent or on its children, not both. The engine applies whatever it finds on each, so doing both charges twice.

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