What stays the same
- The AICP-format sections A to X and the standard line numbers.
- Labor with days, rate, base hours, overtime and fringes; expenses with quantity, days and rate.
- Production fee, insurance, handling, talent agency fees and post markups.
- Bid, running and actual columns, purchase orders, payroll and petty cash logs.
- An AICP-format PDF for the agency.
What changes
- No file to send around. Everyone opens the same budget, and edits appear as they are made.
- Permissions. Choose who can view, who can edit, and who can edit only certain sections.
- A locked bid. Lock the approved numbers and keep working in the running budget without touching them.
- Every version kept. Snapshots and a history of who changed what.
- Any computer. Mac, Windows or a borrowed laptop: nothing to install, no macros to enable.
- Receipts from your phone. Snap a receipt on set and post it to petty cash.
Bring your Hot Budget jobs
Import a saved Hot Budget file and it is rebuilt here: sections, lines, the bid and the running budget, and the purchase order, payroll, petty cash and overage logs. The preview shows the file's totals next to ours, section by section, before you import. The file is read on your computer and never uploaded.
When Hot Budget is still the right call
If you bid alone, offline, and never share the working file, a desktop workbook does the job. ACTUALS earns its place once more than one person touches the budget, or once you want actuals tracked against the approved bid without a second spreadsheet.