What comes across in a .mmbx file
Storiara keeps its budget in the same shape as Movie Magic Budgeting: a topsheet, categories, accounts, and detail lines, with fringes, globals, groups, and charges behind them. That is why a file can move in either direction without being mapped to a different structure.
| Part of the budget | Import | Export |
|---|---|---|
| Categories, accounts, and detail lines | Yes | Yes |
| Fringes, including cutoffs | Yes | Yes |
| Globals and groups | Yes | Yes |
| Sets, locations, units, and currencies | Yes | Yes |
| Charges | Yes | Yes |
| Incentive tags | Not applicable | Yes, as groups |
Incentive tags export as groups, so a budget tagged with Auto tag keeps its per-program groups, such as "GA QW". Lines you marked by hand with Incentive qualified export in a single group for qualified spend.
Three ways to bring a budget in
Start on the Budget page under Financing while it says No budget yet.
- Upload an existing budget is for a file with figures you want to keep. Every line, fringe, global, group, and charge stays as it is, and Storiara reads shoot days, prep and post weeks, contingency, and any completion bond from the budget. The steps are in how to upload an existing budget.
- Upload a template is for your own chart of accounts with little or nothing in it. Storiara files its estimates into your accounts by account number, then name, then department, and doesn't add categories. See how to upload a Movie Magic template.
- Import .mmbx in the grid toolbar replaces a budget the project already has. A confirmation shows the total stored in the file beside the recalculated total, and Undo brings the previous budget back.
Sending a budget to finance
Financiers, bond companies, and studio accountants often ask for a Movie Magic file or its standard reports. Click Export .mmbx above the grid and the file downloads with the budget's name, ready to open in Movie Magic Budgeting 10.
If they want paper, open the three-dot menu in the page header and choose Movie Magic reports... for the top sheet, account details, category summary, group totals, and other reports as PDF, Excel, or CSV. How to export a budget to Movie Magic lists all of them.
Working back and forth
When a budget you exported from Storiara comes back from Movie Magic Budgeting, importing it keeps its links to the project, so a sync updates those lines instead of adding them again. Lines someone changed in Movie Magic stay as they edited them.
Any other .mmbx file opens as it is, with no Sync button, because Sync re-runs Storiara's estimates and an uploaded budget doesn't have any. To add estimates later, open Reconfigure and turn on Fill in estimates. A review shows what would be added before anything is saved.
Limits
- Files must be .mmbx from Movie Magic Budgeting 10. Older .mbd files need to be opened there and saved as .mmbx first.
- Uploads can be up to 20 MB.
- Uploading or replacing a budget takes budget edit access.
- A project holds one budget, and there is no live link to Movie Magic Budgeting.
Troubleshooting
- Could not read the budget or Could not read the template means the file isn't a .mmbx that Storiara can open. Save it again from Movie Magic Budgeting 10 and retry.
- That budget is empty means the file has accounts but no figures. Use Upload a template instead.
- The three start buttons only appear when the project has no budget. If one exists, use Import .mmbx in the grid toolbar.
- If the totals differ after import by a dollar or more, the confirmation says so and the grand total will be the recalculated one. Compare the two topsheets category by category to find where they part.