# Storiara for Line Producers: Budget, Schedule, and Incentives

Source: https://storiara.com/blog/storiara-for-line-producers
Last updated: 2026-09-14
Author: Nick Harty, Storiara

> For a line producer, Storiara is most useful for the first pass: a budget top sheet built from the script breakdown, cast and crew records, and the schedule, organized into above-the-line, below-the-line, post, and other costs, with an incentive estimate you can apply. It isn't a cost reporting tool. There are no actuals, purchase orders, cash flow, or budget versions, and its rate tables need checking against current agreements.

A [line producer](https://storiara.com/roles/line-producer) usually meets a project when it's a script and a number someone wants to hit. The first job is finding out whether the number and the script can live together. That means a breakdown, a rough schedule, and a budget built from both, usually before anyone is hired.

That first pass is what Storiara is built for. This post covers what it does for a line producer, in the order you'd use it, and what it doesn't do once the show is shooting. Every feature described here is in the app today.

## Getting to a schedule you can price

The budget needs shoot days, and cast costs depend on which days each actor works. So even for a line producer, the path runs through the script and the board.

1. Upload the script (PDF, .docx, or .fdx). Storiara splits scenes from the headings, measures eighths from the PDF, and pulls characters, extras, locations, props, wardrobe, and music and effects.
2. In Cast & Crew, add people or placeholders, and assign cast members to characters.
3. Set Production Schedule with your shooting dates and daily hours.
4. Build a rough board on the Stripboard. It's manual, with no auto-scheduling, so for a first budget a quick pass by location is enough. The [stripboard walkthrough](https://storiara.com/blog/how-storiara-turns-a-script-into-a-stripboard) has the details.

The Day-Out-Of-Days then fills in from the board, and that grid is where the budget gets cast paid days: every code except I (idle) and WD (work-drop) counts.

## Setting up the budget

Open Budget and run Setup Budget. The wizard has three steps.

| Step | What you set |
|---|---|
| Production | Format (Feature Film, Short Film, Documentary, Commercial / Ad, Music Video, Series Pilot, Web Series) and Union Agreement (Non-Union, SAG Ultra Low Budget, SAG Modified Low, SAG Low Budget, SAG Basic Agreement, Full Union) |
| Schedule | Shooting Days (defaults to your production schedule's day count), Prep Weeks, Post-Production Weeks, Stage / Backlot Days, Principal Photography Start, Script Page Count, Target Pages / Day |
| Financial | Contingency (7.5, 10, 12, or 15 percent, or custom) and an optional Completion Bond at about 3 percent |

Storiara then builds line items and a top sheet.

![Storiara budget top sheet with above-the-line, below-the-line, post, other costs, contingency, grand total, and net total](https://storiara.com/screenshots/budget-topsheet.png)

## How the numbers are built

The calculation is deterministic arithmetic, with no AI in the numbers. Where you've entered a real rate on a cast member, crew member, piece of equipment, asset, or location, the budget uses it. Where you haven't, it fills the gap from built-in tier tables for your production type and union tier.

The chart of accounts is film style, with four-digit accounts in four sections:

| Section | Accounts |
|---|---|
| Above the line | 1100 Story, Rights and Writing; 1200 Producers Unit; 1300 Directors Unit; 1400 Cast |
| Below the line, production | 2000 Production Staff; 2100 Extra Talent; 2200 Set Design; 2300 and 2400 Set Construction and Strike; 2600 Special Effects; 2700 Set Dressing; 2800 Property; 2900 Wardrobe; 3000 Picture Vehicles and Animals; 3100 Makeup and Hair; 3200 Lighting; 3300 Camera; 3400 Production Sound; 3500 Transportation; 3600 Location Expenses; 4200 Stage and Facilities |
| Post production | 4400 VFX; 4500 Editorial; 4600 Music; 4700 Post Sound; 4800 Post DI; 4900 Titles |
| Other | 6500 Publicity; 6700 Insurance; 6800 General; 6820 Payroll Service |

Contingency and the completion bond sit at the top level. You can turn on sequential account codes for sub-lines.

Fringes use flat percentages. Below-the-line fringe is 13.5 percent for non-union, 20 percent for ultra and modified low budget tiers, 24 percent for low budget, and 28 percent above that. Cast fringe is 17.5 percent for union and 13.5 percent for non-union, unless the contract you picked carries its own fringe. Overheads use estimates: insurance around 1.3 percent plus E&O, publicity between 0.3 and 1.2 percent, and a 2.5 percent payroll service fee. Payroll taxes aren't calculated as line items. Check those assumptions against your payroll company's quote, since fringe and tax rates vary by state and union.

The arithmetic on one line, with a rate you'd enter yourself: on a non-union short, the key grip is entered at $450 per day and the line comes out at 6 days: 6 x $450 = $2,700, and the 13.5 percent fringe adds $364.50, for $3,064.50. If you haven't entered a rate, the line uses the tier table instead, and that's the number to replace first.

![Storiara budget line items under account 4700 Post Production Sound with quantity, unit, rate, and total](https://storiara.com/screenshots/budget-lineitems.png)

### The rate tables need your attention

The app includes union rate data for SAG-AFTRA, DGA, IATSE locals, Teamsters Local 399, and WGA. That data hasn't been verified against current agreements, so don't treat it as today's minimums. Enter rates from the current rate sheets on each person's record in Cast & Crew (choosing their union and contract there fills in a rate you can overwrite), then Sync. The [crew rate lookup](https://storiara.com/tools/crew-rate-lookup) and the [SAG-AFTRA low budget agreements](https://storiara.com/blog/sag-aftra-low-budget-agreements) post point to primary sources.

## Adjusting and keeping it current

The budget page has a few controls a line producer will use constantly:

- Sync rebuilds line items from story data after the schedule, cast, crew, or rates change. Line items you've edited by hand are preserved.
- Reconfigure reopens the setup answers.
- Add line items and categories for anything the calculation doesn't know about (a kit rental deal, a location's overtime clause, permit fees).
- Export to Excel produces an .xlsx file, and Print gives you a printable budget.

Access is set per collaborator. Roles include Producer/Manager and Accountant, and permissions control who can open the budget. Anyone who can open it can also edit it. Those limits are applied in the app's interface.

## Incentive estimates on the Funding page

Funding matches your story's locations against a built-in dataset of incentive programs (116 records, about 104 of them real programs, the rest placeholders for states with no program). You can filter to Applicable or Applied programs and open a details dialog for each one.

![Storiara Funding page with incentive cards, an Apply to Budget button, and location filters](https://storiara.com/screenshots/funding-dashboard.png)

The estimate math is simple, and you should know it before you show a number to an investor:

1. Qualifying spend is assumed to be 60 percent of the budget's gross total.
2. That spend is divided by total shoot days.
3. The result is multiplied by the program's base rate and the number of shoot days at locations that match that program.

For a $500,000 budget with 20 shoot days, 12 of them in a state whose program has a 20 percent base rate: 60 percent of $500,000 is $300,000, divided by 20 days is $15,000 per day, times 20 percent is $3,000, times 12 days is $36,000.

The math ignores per-project caps, program caps, uplift rates, resident labor rules, sunset dates, currency, and whether a program is active. All amounts show in US dollars. The dataset has no last-updated date, and a few of its sunset dates have already passed. The Grants & Festivals and Suggestions tabs are empty even though the dataset has some grant records. Apply to Budget writes the estimate into the budget, and the top sheet shows a Net Total after it. Verify every program on its official page; the [Georgia incentive page](https://storiara.com/incentives/us/georgia) is an example of what the real rules look like.

## What's missing once you're shooting

Once the show is in production, these gaps matter:

- No actuals, variance, or cost report.
- No purchase orders.
- No cash flow schedule.
- No budget versions or scenarios, so save an Excel export before big changes.
- No CSV export, and no Movie Magic Budgeting import or export.
- No payroll tax calculation by state.

Keep the [hot cost report](https://storiara.com/templates/hot-cost-report) and [cash flow schedule](https://storiara.com/templates/cash-flow-schedule) in spreadsheets or your accounting software, and use Storiara's budget as the estimate you compare them against.

## Pricing

New accounts get a 30-day free trial, after which a paid plan is needed. The Producer plan is $39.99 per month and includes the owner; each additional collaborator is $19.99 per month. Studio pricing is custom. The [line producers page](https://storiara.com/solutions/line-producers) has a shorter summary.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Storiara use AI to write the budget?

No. The budget calculation is deterministic. It uses the rates you enter on cast, crew, equipment, assets, and locations, fills gaps from built-in tier tables based on your production type and union tier, and takes cast paid days from the Day-Out-Of-Days. It does count against the free plan's AI usage limit.

### Can I trust the union rates in Storiara's budget?

Treat them as placeholders. The built-in union rate data hasn't been verified against current SAG-AFTRA, DGA, IATSE, Teamsters, or WGA agreements. Enter the rates from the current rate sheets on each cast and crew record, then Sync the budget.

### Can Storiara export a budget to Excel or Movie Magic Budgeting?

It exports to Excel (.xlsx) and prints. There's no CSV export and no Movie Magic Budgeting import or export, so a budget that has to live in MMB needs to be rebuilt there.

### How does Storiara estimate film incentives?

The Funding page matches your story's locations against a built-in list of about 104 incentive programs. It assumes qualifying spend is 60 percent of the budget's gross total, spreads that across shoot days, and multiplies by the base rate for days at matched locations. Caps, uplifts, labor rules, and sunset dates aren't in the math.

### Does Storiara track actual costs against the budget?

No. There's no actuals entry, variance, purchase orders, cost report, or cash flow schedule. Use it to build and adjust the estimate, and keep hot costs and cost reports in your accounting system or a spreadsheet.