A weekly cost report tells you where the money went. By the time it's printed, five shoot days of overtime are already paid for. The hot cost is how a production finds out on Wednesday morning that Tuesday ran $9,000 over, while the 1st AD can still change Thursday. It doesn't need to be elaborate. On an indie it can be one tab in the accountant's workbook, laid out like our hot cost report template. What matters is that it's done every day and read by the people who can act on it.
For a short definition see hot costs, and for how the daily report relates to the weekly one, hot costs vs cost reports.
What the accountant needs from set
Hot costs are only as good as the paperwork that comes back after wrap. Before the first shoot day, agree with the 2nd AD and department heads on what arrives by when:
| Document | What it gives the hot cost | Usually from |
|---|---|---|
| Daily production report | Crew call, first shot, meal times, camera wrap, last man out, scenes and pages shot, background count, delays | 2nd AD |
| Crew time cards or start/wrap log | Actual in and out times per person, meal times | Department heads, payroll |
| Exhibit G | Cast work times, meals, travel, forced calls | 2nd AD |
| Background sign-in sheets and vouchers | Actual background headcount and adjustments | Background casting, 2nd 2nd AD |
| Catering count | Meals served versus ordered | Caterer, UPM |
| Purchase orders and check requests from that day | Unplanned rentals and purchases | Department heads, UPM |
The production report is the backbone. If it's missing a meal time or the camera wrap, the accountant is guessing, and a guessed hot cost gets ignored.
Setting the budget baseline for each day
A hot cost compares against what the budget assumed for that day, so you need a daily baseline. Pull it from the budget's globals and the schedule:
- Planned hours for the day (for example 12 elapsed from crew call, with a 1-hour meal).
- Crew headcount and average rate by department, from the crew list and deal memos.
- Cast scheduled that day, from the call sheet and day out of days.
- Background count from the breakdown for that day's scenes.
- Special equipment and extra crew booked for that day.
Most accountants set up one baseline row per shoot day before production starts. When the schedule changes, update the baseline, or the report will flag "overages" that were actually approved changes.
A worked hot cost: Day 14
Here's a realistic day on a feature using IATSE Low Budget Theatrical Agreement crew rules, with cast on the SAG-AFTRA Low Budget Theatrical Agreement. The rates and counts are illustrative; the overtime structure, crew meal penalty amounts, and performer meal penalties come from the agreements and SAG-AFTRA's published guidance cited below.
The day planned a 7:00 AM crew and cast call, lunch at 1:00 PM, and camera wrap at 7:00 PM (12 hours elapsed). The production report shows lunch called at 1:40 PM and crew wrapped at 8:30 PM (13.5 hours elapsed). A day player was added for a line the director wrote the night before. The background count came in at 61 against 45 budgeted, and a second camera body was rented for a stunt shot.
Crew overtime
Under the IATSE Local 44 summary of that agreement, crew earn time and a half after 8 hours worked up to 13 hours elapsed, and double time after 13 hours elapsed. With a 1-hour meal and an average straight rate of $34:
- Budgeted day, 11 hours worked: (8 x $34) + (3 x $51) = $272 + $153 = $425
- Actual day, 12.5 hours worked: $272 + (4 x $51) + (0.5 x $68) = $272 + $204 + $34 = $510
- Overage per person: $85. For 34 crew: 34 x $85 = $2,890
Crew meal penalties
Lunch was due at 1:00 PM and called at 1:40 PM, which is two half-hour units (the second unit is a fraction, and fractions count). The 2024 terms sheet lists $8.50 for the first half hour and $11.00 for the second.
- Per person: $8.50 + $11.00 = $19.50. For 34 crew: $663
Cast
SAG-AFTRA's guidance for theatrical meal periods sets $25 for the first half hour of delay and $35 for the second. Six performers were on the clock from 7:00 AM:
- 6 x ($25 + $35) = $360
The added day player at the 2026 Low Budget rate of $834, plus 22% pension and health:
- $834 + ($834 x 0.22) = $834 + $183.48 = $1,017.48
Putting the day together
| Item | Budget | Actual | Over / (under) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crew overtime, 34 people | $0 | $2,890.00 | $2,890.00 |
| Fringe on crew overage at 18% (production's rate) | $0 | $520.20 | $520.20 |
| Crew meal penalties, 2 units x 34 | $0 | $663.00 | $663.00 |
| Cast meal penalties, 2 units x 6 | $0 | $360.00 | $360.00 |
| Added day player with P&H | $0 | $1,017.48 | $1,017.48 |
| Background, 45 budgeted vs 61 used at $200 | $9,000.00 | $12,200.00 | $3,200.00 |
| Extra lunches, 17 at $18 | $0 | $306.00 | $306.00 |
| Second camera body, 1 day | $0 | $650.00 | $650.00 |
| Day 14 total | $9,606.68 |
The 18% fringe is a placeholder for this example; use the combined rate from your own fringe table. Payroll taxes also apply to meal penalties and the day player's wages, and a careful report includes them.
Reading the trend, not the day
One bad day is noise. The hot cost earns its keep when the accountant keeps a running total and projects it. Say the last five days looked like this:
| Day | Over / (under) | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | $3,120.00 | $3,120.00 |
| 11 | $6,480.00 | $9,600.00 |
| 12 | ($1,950.00) | $7,650.00 |
| 13 | $7,300.00 | $14,950.00 |
| 14 | $9,606.68 | $24,556.68 |
The average over those five days is $24,556.68 / 5 = $4,911.34 a day. With 10 shoot days left, the straight-line projection is 10 x $4,911.34 = $49,113.40 more, on top of the overage already spent. If the show has $60,000 of contingency left, this one pattern would take most of it. That projection goes into the estimate to complete for the labor accounts on the next cost report, and it's the number the line producer takes to the producer.
A straight line is a starting point. Adjust it for what's coming: if the remaining days include three night exteriors and a car sequence, the trend will likely get worse. If they're mostly a single interior location, it may improve.
Turning the report into decisions
The report should go to the UPM and line producer first thing, and the conversation with the 1st AD should be specific. "We're over" doesn't change anything. "Days 11, 13, and 14 all went past 13 hours elapsed, and the double time plus late lunches cost about $4,000 of Day 14's overage" gives the AD something to plan around.
Common responses, roughly in order of how much they cost to try:
- Call lunch on time and accept a shot rolls to after lunch. Two meal penalty units across 40 people cost more than most camera setups.
- Use a non-deductible breakfast where the agreement allows it, to shift the meal clock.
- Trim setups on upcoming days with the director, using the shot list.
- Tighten background calls to the scenes that need them, and release background early.
- Stop adding day-of rentals without a PO approved by the UPM.
- Move a heavy scene to a day with a later call, or split it.
Each change is priced the next morning in the same report, so the production can see whether it worked.
Mistakes that make hot costs useless
Doing them weekly defeats the purpose. So does including fixed costs that didn't change, which buries the real overages in lines nobody can act on. Forgetting fringes understates labor overages by whatever your fringe rate is. Using the original schedule as the baseline after the board has been revised flags approved changes as overages, and people stop trusting the report. And sending the hot cost only to the producer, and not to the UPM and 1st AD, means the people who control tomorrow's day never see it.
Tools
The overtime calculator and meal penalty calculator help check the labor lines before they go on the report. Meal penalties explained covers the rules behind them, and the production accountant role page describes who usually owns this report.
Storiara's budget holds the estimate a hot cost compares against, including shoot days and crew and cast rates, and exports to Excel. It doesn't track actual costs, so the hot cost itself is built in your own workbook or accounting software.