The columns
- Bid. The approved number. It stays put once the job is awarded.
- Running. What you now expect the line to cost.
- Committed. Purchase orders issued and not yet fully spent.
- Actual. Payroll, petty cash and vendor costs posted to the line.
- Variance. Actual minus bid. Positive is over the bid. Negative is under. The same sign is used on the running budget, which shows the change since the bid was approved.
What else belongs on it
The section totals, then the same markups as the bid: insurance, production fee, post markup and the grand total. Overages the client has approved sit below the grand total, with their own markup and insurance, because they are billed beyond the contracted number.
The forward-looking figure is the estimate at completion: what the job will cost if the open purchase orders and the lines already over the running budget are taken into account. Spent-to-date alone always looks better than the job is.
How to keep one
- Lock the bid so the baseline cannot drift.
- Post every purchase order, payroll entry and petty cash envelope to a budget line as it happens.
- Read variance on shoot days and once a week in prep and post.
- Record approved overages separately so they are billed rather than absorbed.
- Export the summary when someone needs a file. The spreadsheet totals reconcile with the top sheet.
The practice behind the columns is budget vs actuals.