Start with the budget
You don't need a new system for your whole company to get better budgets. You can start with just the budget. Build production budgets from your own structure, keep every version and see what changed between them.
Your accounting, your scheduling and the way invoices are handled stay exactly as they are. Budgeting only costs € 29 per month, including two users.
Why start with the budget
Most budgets start in a spreadsheet, and on the day you make it that works fine. Then the client calls and wants something different. The recce changes the plan for a location. A shoot day moves. The fund asks for the same budget in its own layout. Each time you save a new file, repair a formula and hope the totals still add up. A few weeks in there are seven versions, and nobody can quite explain the difference between the last two.
That is why the budget is an easy place to start. Everybody already makes one, so there is nothing new to introduce, only a better way of doing what the team does anyway. And the schedule, the costs and the forecast all build on it later.
What it solves
One budget, every version
No more Budget_v7_final.xlsx. Save each version with a name, go back to any of them, and lock the one the client agreed to.
See what changed
The total went up. Put two budgets side by side and see where, per category and per line, in a minute.
Change once, update everywhere
One extra shoot day? Set it once and every line that depends on it follows. No hunting through the sheet.
The same rates in every budget
Start from your own templates and price lists, so every producer builds the same way and a camera day costs the same everywhere.
Change one number and the budget follows
Globals are the numbers a budget depends on, defined once and used everywhere.
Episodes, shoot days, weeks of prep, a crew day rate. In a spreadsheet those numbers are typed into dozens of cells, and changing one means finding them all. In Tubes they are globals. You give each one a short code, such as [EPS] for the number of episodes, and the lines of the budget calculate with that code instead of a fixed number.
- Global calculations. A line can be a formula such as
[EPS] × 2days per episode, or a rate times the number of shoot days. Change the global, and every line that uses it is recalculated. - Three levels. Account-wide globals that apply to every production, globals that come with a template (a series template brings its own episode count), and globals for this one budget, which override the rest.
- Scenarios in seconds. What if it is eight episodes instead of six, or 24 shoot days instead of 20? Change one value and see the new total straight away, then save it as a version to compare.
Without starting over
- Keep your existing budgets. We set up your templates and bring in your existing budgets with you, as part of getting started.
- Import from Movie Magic Budgeting. Upload its Excel export and every detail line comes in, with description, quantity, unit, rate and currency. Account numbers are matched to your cost types, and fringes come in as separate lines.
- A first draft in minutes. Describe the production and let AI suggest lines, quantities and prices in your own cost structure. A starting point, which you check line by line.
- Cost and sales in one place. For service productions and commercials, set a margin per line or per group and see the quote total next to your cost.
- Quotations and budget documents. Turn the budget into a quotation or another document for your client, from your own templates, with your own text and the level of detail you choose. Send it as a PDF, or have it signed digitally (optional).
- Let stakeholders take a look. Give a client, financier or co-producer a secure link to the budget, protected by a verification code and valid for a limited time. They can read along and comment on a line, without a Tubes account.
- Series and episodes. Budget per episode and, where it matters, per minute.
- Sign-off before it goes out. Name who has to approve a budget, such as the producer or the managing director, and see who still has to.
- Excel stays available. Every budget exports to Excel or CSV, for the fund, the co-producer or the accountant who works in spreadsheets.
One thing at a time
Starting with budgeting means your team learns one screen, not a whole platform. Nothing else in your company has to change on day one.
When the budget works, the next steps are there in the same account, if and when you want them. You can plan the shoot from the budget, track actual costs against it and forecast where the production will end. That is a later conversation, not a condition. Tubes is built to be adopted in steps.
How a first conversation goes
- Thirty minutes, online. Bring a recent budget, in Excel or from Movie Magic.
- We look at how you build budgets now. Where the time goes, where the mistakes creep in, who needs to see what.
- We show the same kind of budget in Tubes, with your structure, not a generic demo.
- You decide whether it is worth trying on your next production. No obligation, and no plan to replace everything else.
Start with budgeting, expand when you want
Budgeting
For producers who want better budgets first, without changing the rest of how they work.
€ 29 per month, includes 2 users
€ 19 per month for each additional user. Expand to Producer Pro at any time, in the same account.
- Budgets from your own templates and price lists
- Versions and side-by-side comparison
- Quotations and budget documents
- Stakeholders can view and comment
- Movie Magic import and Excel export
- AI first draft
- Cancel anytime
Producer Pro
The full platform, with budgeting, planning, cost control and forecasting, for when you want to take the next step.
From€ 49 per month, includes 2 users
Includes up to 3 active projects. € 25 per month for each additional user, up to 10 users.
- Everything in Budgeting
- Planning, cost control and forecasting
- Xero connection
(optional) - Cancel anytime
Larger team or several companies? See all plans, including Enterprise.
Questions about starting with budgeting
Do we have to use the rest of Tubes?
No. You can use Tubes only for budgets and keep doing scheduling, invoices and accounting the way you do now. We set up the account so your team only sees the budgeting part of the menu. The rest stays in the same account, out of sight. When you are ready, you can expand to planning, cost control or forecasting at any time, and your budgets carry straight over.
Can we keep working with Excel?
Yes. Every budget exports to Excel or CSV, with categories, lines, quantities, rates and totals, so a fund, a co-producer or your accountant can keep reading it in a spreadsheet.
We budget in Movie Magic. Do we have to start over?
No. Tubes imports the Excel export of Movie Magic Budgeting, and we help you bring your current budgets in when you start.
What does it cost?
Budgeting only costs € 29 per month, including two users. Extra users are € 19 per month each. Expand later to the full platform (Producer Pro, from € 49 per month) and you move on in the same account; see plans and pricing. Using Tubes for a single production? Get in touch and we'll work something out.
Which kinds of production does it work for?
Film, TV series, documentaries, commercials and branded content, and live shows. The structure comes from your own templates, so a commercial and a feature don't have to look alike.
Show us your last budget
Thirty minutes on how you build budgets today, and what that same budget looks like in Tubes.