Every feature, start to finish. Or take it chapter by chapter below.
Why this exists
I Built It For Myself
Twenty years directing. The work I am proudest of, I produced myself.
That is not an accident. When you produce your own film you put the money
where the picture shows it. The right camera. The right day. The right crew.
Nobody is protecting a margin between you and the frame, so every dollar lands
on screen.
There was one part of it I hated.
The budget. Every bid, the same evening lost. The premium tools were priced like enterprise
software and still built for the way productions ran twenty years ago. So it was a spreadsheet. Formulas pasted by hand. Nothing that would drag
or drop. Copying between templates to build one quote. An export that looked
cheap, and broke anyway depending on whether the client opened it on a Mac or a
PC.
I was spending my nights fighting a spreadsheet instead of thinking about the
film.
So I built the tool I wanted. Not a cheaper version of what exists. The one I
would actually use, on my own jobs, with my own money on the line.
It is the tool this studio bids with. A working quote in a few minutes, not an
evening. Rates that match the market you are shooting in. An export you can send
without apologising for it. And it costs a fraction of what the old ones charge.
I like producing again. That was the whole point.
Olivier Hero Dressen · Director & Executive Producer
Stage 32 winner, three times · Jury, Asian Academy Creative Awards 2025 · Jury, Phoenix Tree Awards 2026 · Work for Nike, Porsche, Coach
Try it freeThe whole app runs in your browser right now.
What it is actually for
Speed
Paste the brief
Drop in what the client sent. It comes back as a structured budget with
departments, crew, gear and days already laid out. You are editing, not starting
from an empty sheet.
Adjust in seconds
Every rate is a median for that market, which means it is close and it is a
starting point. Change what you know, leave what you do not, watch the total move
as you go. No formulas to repair.
Send it
Terms, schedule and conditions are already in the document. One click to a PDF
that looks like it came from a studio, and an XLSX for the finance people.
Keep it. Drop your Excel or PDF budget in and it comes across the way you built it:
your departments, your line items, your rates. Save it and start every job from it.
Then it does what a spreadsheet never could. A brief fills it in minutes, supplier
quotes land straight in it, you change it by typing, every rate is checked against
the market, and the client gets a clean PDF without your margins. Export back to
Excel whenever you like. Your template, upgraded.
Most are built by software people who have never bid a job. This one was built
by a working executive producer, inside a studio that quotes brand films across
seven markets, and it is the tool that studio actually uses. The rates are the
rates we bid at.
So are ours. It does not lock you into a structure. Every department, line item,
rate and term is editable, and you can move the whole thing around as the job
changes. The template is a starting point, not a cage.
Neither would I. It only touches what you name. Say remove the kit section and
it removes the kit section. If a change strays outside what you asked for, the
whole thing is rejected and nothing is applied. Five levels of undo, and you can
lock your screen credit, kill fee and payment terms so they cannot be quietly
rewritten.
Nothing is uploaded. It runs in your browser and your quotes stay on your
machine. If you opt into the rate benchmarks, only the pricing structure is
shared, never your project, client, contacts, brief or conditions.
"I do not have time to learn a tool mid-bid."
It runs in a browser with no signup and no card. Paste the brief and you have a
first-pass budget before you have finished your coffee. If it does not save you
time on the first bid, you have lost ten minutes. And if you get stuck, just ask:
there is an assistant built into the app, and a Help button with the full
walkthrough, chapter by chapter.
Start from your own spreadsheet. Drop it in and it becomes a priced, editable production budget.
What it actually does
The Whole Thing
Everything a production quote needs, in one document you can send.
Quoting speed
Paste a brief, get a priced budget. Works from a client email, a PDF brief, or a supplier quote in PDF, Excel or CSV.
If the brief already has its own priced lines, they come in exactly as written. No template imposed on your numbers.
Start from a blank sheet, a department template, or the AICP bid form.
Talk to your quote
Change the budget in plain language: set contingency to 5, remove the kit section, add the 30% deposit terms, change C1 to 140 days. Dictate it if your hands are busy.
It only touches what you name. If it strays, the whole change is rejected and nothing is applied.
Lock your screen credit, change-order rate, kill fee and payment terms so they can never be quietly rewritten.
Five levels of undo.
Structure a real budget
Optional departments: priced and visible to the client, out of the total.
Pass-through at cost: flights, hotels, permits, cloud compute. No markup, out of the deposit schedule, invoiced against receipts.
Fringes: pension, health and welfare, payroll tax, workers comp and payroll handling, union or non-union, per department. Editable to your market, so it also covers French and Belgian social charges.
Above the line and below the line with subtotals.
AICP bid form: the lettered A to P structure US agencies expect, so your bid lines up against the competition.
Payment schedules with your own printed terms.
Know if your price is right
See every rate against the market median for the market you are quoting.
Seeded from published rate cards: London (APA 2026), Los Angeles, New York, Bangkok, Cape Town, Paris, Dubai. 229 roles, each traceable to its source. Seven markets and growing.
Rates refine as producers contribute anonymised quotes. Share yours, see the market.
Only the pricing structure is ever shared. Never your project, client, contacts, brief or conditions.
Send something that looks like money
Client-ready PDF with your logo, your colours, your terms.
Internal numbers stay internal. Margins, cost and benchmarks never print.
Export to Excel, or hand over the project file.
Practical
Runs in the browser. No install, no account, nothing uploaded.
Your quotes stay on your machine.
In-app help that knows the product, and a suggestion box that reaches a human.
Works on a phone on the way to a recce.
Getting paid
Protect Yourself
The conditions veteran producers put on every job, built in as presets.
Split the money in three
A deposit on signature, a payment on the shoot day, the balance on delivery. Never one invoice at the end. The most common way a filmmaker gets burned is finishing the work first and asking for the money second. By the time a client goes quiet you have already spent the crew, the gear and the weeks.
Write the cancellation ladder before you need it
A percentage at fourteen days, more at seven, more at forty-eight hours, the full fee on the day. Written in days rather than dates so a schedule change does not void it. If a job collapses after you have turned other work down and booked a crew, this clause is the difference between a bad week and a bad quarter.
Price the usage, not just the shoot
Media, territory, term, and what an extension costs. A film licensed for one year online is a different job from one licensed forever, and the difference belongs in the fee. Agree it in writing before the shoot, because renegotiating usage after delivery is a conversation you will lose.
Count the revisions
How many rounds are included, and what a further round costs. Undefined revisions are the quietest way a profitable job becomes an unprofitable one. Nobody sets out to abuse it; it just happens, one small change at a time, until you have worked a fortnight for free.
Keep pass-through costs out of your fee
Flights, hotels, permits. Marked pass-through, invoiced at cost against receipts, and out of the deposit calculation. It keeps your margin honest and removes the markup argument before the client can start it.
Lock what should not move
Your screen credit, your kill fee, your payment terms. Set them once and lock them, so they cannot be quietly edited out during a long negotiation or by someone else working in the document.
None of this is legal advice, and it is not a substitute for a contract or a lawyer. It is the set of conditions we use on our own productions, after twenty years and a fair number of lessons learned the expensive way. Production Mogul ships them as editable presets so you start from something sensible rather than a blank page.
Free, no account
The Quote Checklist
Twelve things a production quote must contain, or the job will cost you more than it
pays. Terms, usage, overtime, cancellation, contingency, margin. Twenty years of
bidding, in five pages. Free, no account.
One email. The checklist, nothing else.
Questions
Straight Answers
What people ask before they start budgeting.
The Mogul takes your questions.
What is production budgeting software?
Production budgeting software builds and prices a film, video or photo production budget: crew day rates, equipment, locations, post and overheads, in one document you can export as a client-ready quote. Production Mogul does this in a browser, with real market rates built in.
How do you budget a film production?
You break the production into departments, price each line at the going day rate for your market, add your margin and your terms, then export a quote the client can read. Production Mogul starts from a brief and builds that structure for you, so the first draft takes minutes instead of an evening.
What should I charge for a production in Los Angeles versus Bangkok?
Rates differ enormously by market. Production Mogul opens with median rate levels for Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Belgium, Shanghai, Dubai and Bangkok, each in its local price level and currency, with live exchange rates and an optional second currency for the client. They are a fast starting point, not a fixed price list, and every line is yours to adjust.
How do I bill flights and permits without marking them up?
Mark that department pass-through. The cost stays out of your fee base and out of your deposit schedule, and the quote prints it as invoiced separately at cost, so there is no markup to defend.
Can I import a supplier quote into my budget?
Yes. Drop in a PDF, Excel, CSV or pasted text and it matches the supplier lines to your open quote. You can rebuild the whole budget from it, or update prices only, with a preview of every change first.
Can I use my own budget template?
Yes. Import your existing budget from Excel, PDF or CSV and it keeps your departments, line items and rates. Save it and open it as the starting point for every new job. Everything Production Mogul adds then works on your own format: brief to budget, market rate checks, any city and currency, private margins and typed changes. You can export back to Excel at any time.
Is there free production budgeting software?
Production Mogul runs free in your browser with no signup and no card. You can build complete budgets in the trial. Exporting, saving and printing unlock with a licence at $19 per month or $190 per year.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It runs in any modern browser on Mac, Windows or Linux. After subscribing, a licence key arrives by email and activates in about ten seconds.
How do I know if my production rates are too high or too low?
The benchmarks show anonymised, aggregated ranges from other quotes in the same market, so you can see where your rates sit against your peers before you send the bid.
Can AI write a production budget?
It can build the structure and price it against market rates in minutes, which is the slow part. What it should not do is change things you did not ask for. Production Mogul only edits what you name: say remove the kit section and it removes the kit section. If a change strays outside the instruction, the whole edit is rejected and nothing is applied, with five levels of undo behind it.
What is an AICP bid form?
The standard bid structure US agencies expect, lettered A to P, covering pre-production through post. Using it means your bid lines up line for line against the competition rather than making a client translate your format. Production Mogul can start a budget from the AICP form, a department template, or a blank sheet.
What are fringes in a production budget?
The employer costs carried on top of a day rate: pension, health and welfare, payroll tax, workers compensation and payroll handling. They vary by market, by union status and by department, and leaving them out is one of the most common ways a budget comes up short. Production Mogul carries them per department with editable defaults, which also covers French and Belgian social charges.
What is the difference between above the line and below the line?
Above the line is the creative and rights side: director, producer, writer, talent. Below the line is everything it takes to shoot and finish: crew, equipment, locations, post. Clients and financiers expect to see them subtotalled separately, and Production Mogul does that by default.
How much contingency should a production budget carry?
Commonly five to ten percent depending on how locked the job is, but the number matters less than defining it. State the percentage, what it may be spent on, who authorises it and what happens to it unspent. Undefined contingency quietly becomes a discount at the end of the job.
What is a kill fee and when do you charge it?
The amount payable if a job is cancelled after you have committed time, crew or bookings. It usually sits inside a cancellation ladder: a percentage at fourteen days, more at seven, more at forty-eight hours, full fee on the day. Write it in days rather than dates so it survives a schedule change.
Can I use it for photo production, not just film?
Yes. There are presets for film and video, AI video, photo and print, and AI print, each with its own crew roles, day rates and department structure ready to edit.
Does it work on a phone?
It runs in any modern browser, including on a phone, which is useful when a rate question lands while you are on the way to a recce. Nothing is uploaded and your quotes stay on your machine.
How do I price a production for a market I have never shot in?
Start from the median rates for that market and adjust what you know. Production Mogul carries seeded rate levels for London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Bangkok, Cape Town and Dubai, 229 roles each traceable to a published source, with live exchange rates and an optional second currency for the client.
What should never appear on a client-facing quote?
Your cost lines, your margin and your benchmark comparisons. The client sees a priced document with your terms, logo and colours. Internal numbers stay internal and never print.
How should a production payment schedule be split?
Three phases: a deposit on signature, a payment on the shoot day, the balance on delivery. Never a single invoice at the end. Finishing the work before any money has moved is the most common way a filmmaker gets burned, because by the time a client goes quiet the crew, the gear and the weeks are already paid for. Production Mogul ships this split as an editable preset.
What should I do if a client does not pay after delivery?
The work to prevent it happens before the shoot, not after. A deposit on signature proves intent and funds the start. A shoot-day payment means you are never carrying the whole job. Payment terms stated in days, a defined cancellation ladder and agreed usage rights leave far less room for a dispute. None of this is legal advice and it does not replace a contract, but it is what experienced producers put on every job.
Start a quoteExporting unlocks at $19 a month. Everything else is open.
They said it couldn't be done
Production Mogul
19 Departments · Multiple Markets · 4 Minutes
You don't believe me? Try it.
Built by a director and executive producer,
inside a working studio, on the jobs it was made for.
