The sheet spreads the SALT FLATS budget across the calendar. Columns run from pre-prep through each week of prep, shoot, and wrap, then switch to months for post. Rows follow the same account groups as the budget top sheet, and the total column matches it to the dollar: $418,114 in scheduled spending plus $31,886 of contingency held back is $450,000. The bottom block shows when the money comes in and how much cash is on hand after each period. For what a cash flow schedule is in general, the glossary entry is the short version.
Why the timing differs from the budget
The budget says how much each account costs. The cash flow schedule says when each bill gets paid, and that depends on payment terms more than on the day the work happens.
Payroll is the clearest example. SALT FLATS crew turn in time cards on Sunday and are paid the following week, so the $24,000 of crew payroll in shoot week 1 is mostly prep days worked the week before. The full first shooting week of payroll lands in shoot week 2 at $70,000, and the second shooting week lands in wrap week at $66,000. The last $15,116 goes out in November, covering wrap days and final corrections.
Rentals work differently. The camera and G&E houses take a deposit at checkout on 10/2 and 10/3, which is why $10,000 goes out in prep week 3 before anyone has rolled a frame. Location fees are half on signing and half by wrap. Post vendors bill monthly, so the $42,836 of post spreads out through January, apart from the editor's first two weeks, which are paid with the shoot payroll.
Reading the SALT FLATS schedule
The biggest single period is shoot week 2 at $110,840: week 1 crew payroll ($70,000), cast and stunt payroll ($12,334, including the prep rehearsal and travel days), rentals, catering, hotel, and a director fee installment. Cast payroll carries 22% SAG-AFTRA pension and health and 18% payroll taxes and fees. Wrap week is next at $96,936, with the second week of cast and all the stunt days ($15,900). People expect the shoot weeks to be the expensive ones, and they are, but the bills arrive one week later than the work.
Funding comes in four equity draws: $150,000 at the start of pre-prep, $150,000 in prep week 3, $100,000 in shoot week 2, and $50,000 in November. The lowest cash balance, and the number to watch, is $53,506 at the end of wrap week.
If the third draw slips a week, the balance at the end of shoot week 2 drops to $300,000 minus $249,558 in cumulative spending, or $50,442. The balance at the end of wrap week is unchanged, because the money arrives that week. If the draw slips all the way to November, wrap week ends at $300,000 minus $346,494, which is $46,494 short with a payroll due. A draw schedule that lines up with this sheet is something to negotiate before the operating agreement is signed. The article on how to finance an indie film covers where those draws come from.
Building your own cash flow
- Start from the locked budget, grouped the way your top sheet groups it. Too many rows make the sheet unreadable, and too few hide the payroll.
- Set the columns from the production calendar: weeks for prep, shoot, and wrap, and months for post.
- Write down the payment terms in the header before entering numbers: payroll lag, rental deposits, location deposits, vendor terms.
- Spread each row across the columns by those terms. Check that each row still adds up to its budget total.
- Enter each funding draw in the period you expect the money to arrive, which can be weeks after the agreement is signed.
- Add cumulative spending, cumulative funding, and cash on hand. Any negative number in the bottom row is a problem to solve now.
- Each week, overwrite the forecast in the past column with actual payments from the cost report and move anything that didn't get paid into the next period.
Cash flow errors that bounce a payroll
Spending gets entered in the week the work happens. The schedule looks fine until the first payroll invoice arrives a week late and twice as big as the week before it.
Deposits get forgotten. Camera, G&E, locations, and insurance all want money before Day 1. On SALT FLATS the $6,000 production insurance premium is paid in pre-prep, so the policy can be bound before rental houses and locations ask for certificates of insurance.
Contingency gets treated as cash on hand. The $31,886 at the end of January is only there if nothing went over budget. If the hot cost report shows overages building, the ending balance shrinks by the same amount.
Nobody updates it after the shoot starts. A cash flow that still shows the prep forecast in week 3 of production can't tell a producer whether the next draw needs to come early.
How it connects to the other reports
The cash flow schedule sits between the indie film budget, which says how much, and the weekly cost report, which says how much has been spent and what's left to spend. The production accountant keeps all three in step. If you're bonded, the completion guarantor will want to see the cash flow before closing, and completion bonds explained covers why.
Where Storiara fits
Storiara doesn't build a cash flow schedule. Its Budget module calculates the budget from your breakdown and rate tables and exports it to Excel, and those account totals are the starting point for the rows on this sheet.