Tips for Budgeting Crew Payroll

How to budget crew payroll

Budgeting for payroll can seem overwhelming at first, but the process is quite manageable when broken down into smaller parts. 

While the exact workflow will differ from project to project, the fundamental concepts and questions that drive your payroll budget will always remain the same. 

With that in mind, here are six easy(ish) steps for budgeting crew payroll. 

1. Start with budget estimates

While crafting a budget, the first step is to estimate a headline figure for crew pay. This preliminary estimate doesn't have to be set in stone, but it will help you understand the needs and limits of your production. 

If you are still in the financing stage, treat that number as aspirational, a best-case target that compensates everyone fairly while keeping the shoot on schedule and within budget. Once you’ve secured funding, you will know exactly how much money you’re working with, and this is when the estimate becomes real. 

Locking this figure into your master budget will give you an instant read on how crew costs square up against other line items like equipment rentals, locations, production insurance, and post-production. It’s also the earliest opportunity to gauge how much you can truly spend on payroll.

In the next steps, we will zoom in, breaking down the crew payroll estimate into specific cost details, such as shoot days, positions, overtime, and fringes. 

Pro tip: Lock in your top-line estimates before you dive into the details. That way, every line item has money allocated to it, and all the production’s needs are covered.

2. Build a preliminary schedule

A production’s budget and shooting schedule always go hand-in-hand. The schedule drives the budget, and the budget drives the schedule.

To move your crew payroll budget past a placeholder, you have to start thinking about the shooting schedule. 

But creating a shooting schedule is a major undertaking of its own. Fortunately, you only need the most basic information at this point. In fact, it can be boiled down to a single, fundamental question:

How many days are you shooting?

The number of days in the schedule dictates the number of days for which you’ll need crew on the clock. While we’re primarily concerned with the production days, be sure to also take pre-production and post-production into account. By the end of this step, you should have a total count of days for which crew will be hired. With that day count and your headline budget figure, you know two things: how much money you have and how long it has to last. The next step is figuring out how many people you can actually hire with those constraints. 

3. Calculate your crew

The next step in budgeting for crew payroll is to build a rough crew list. We need to figure out how many people we need to hire and in what positions. 

This step is tricky because no two crew positions cost the same. The gaffer usually has a higher rate than the best boy electric. The 1^st assistant camera person may require a kit fee. The set PA and the truck PA are paid at the same base rate, but the truck PA will likely incur overtime on a regular basis. 

Factor in all these variations, and the math gets complicated fast. 

If you choose to avoid the complexity while crewing up, you’ll face ugly surprises later. That being said, unforeseen circumstances will always present themselves on set. Therefore, the goal is to have a detailed budget that still leaves wiggle room to adjust as needed.“Wiggle room” can mean many things. The best practice is to have a certain amount earmarked for contingencies., But you should also design the budget with some general flexibility in mind. 

At the end of the day, filmmaking is a team sport. Most experienced department heads understand that production teams have fiscal responsibilities. So, if a department needs to hire an extra crew member, they’ll likely work with you to free up the necessary funds or find another fix. 

Keep the communication lines open, and the numbers will stay on your side. 

4. Consider indirect costs

Day rates are only the beginning. There are many indirect costs, such as workers’ compensation and payroll fees, that you need to consider when budgeting crew payroll.

Luckily, Wrapbook’s all-in-one platform brings many of these critical services under one roof, allowing producers to create a quick production insurance quote or even a payroll cost estimate with just a few clicks.

It’s also important to keep in mind that there are often less obvious costs that don’t technically fall under payroll but grow with every additional name on the call sheet. A larger crew means higher catering and craft services bills, more hotel rooms on travel shoots, and, in some cases, even larger permit zones. 

None of these costs are technically part of crew payroll, but it’s important to recognize and flag them early on. This allows you to trim and mitigate indirect crew costs, thereby keeping the bottom line intact. 

5. Review your payroll budget

Once you’ve drafted a working payroll budget, the next step is to review it. Budgets are built on layers of details, and those details are constantly evolving. A single tweak to the schedule or a last-minute rate change can send you straight to the danger zone. 

As a rule, make troubleshooting your budget early and often a habit. Identifying and addressing these issues ahead of time will save your production money in the long run. 

6. Rinse and repeat

Schedules change. Production plans evolve. Costs rise and fall. A lot can happen while making a movie, and the budget must evolve with the project’s needs.

Your crew payroll budget is a living, breathing document that is never truly locked until final wrap. This means that you can always optimize to quickly fix errors and identify new opportunities for savings.

In short, don’t be afraid to rinse, revise, and repeat. There’s always another tweak to make the numbers work in your favor.

Tips & Tricks: How to make the most of a limited crew payroll budget

Keeping a production on budget is no easy feat, especially when the crew payroll budget is tight. Producers have to hustle to stretch the budget and make every dollar count.

To help you do this, we’ve put together some tips and tricks to make the most out of whatever budget you’ve got. 

1. Treat budget challenges like creative challenges

The crew payroll budget doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it’s one gear in the massive machine required to make a movie. 

While that seems intimidating, it also presents an opportunity. Troubleshooting a budget isn’t just about costs and savings, it often requires creative problem solving. In fact, the key to solving your crew payroll challenges might be found in an entirely different department. 

For example, rather than lose a key character due to a tight budget, shift all their scenes to one location to save shooting time and location fees.  You might even discover it makes their scenes more intimate and distinct if they’re associated with this one place.

Stay alert to unlikely solutions and keep an open mind; when it comes to film production, flexibility is just as valuable as foresight.

2. Keep your crew lean

Building a realistic crew payroll budget starts with asking yourself the tough questions: who is essential and who isn’t?  Only hiring the roles the production truly needs is the most direct path to keeping payroll budget under control.

Of course, there is a trade-off to consider. You’ll find that some ‘non-essential’ crew members still pay for themselves by saving time, money and avoiding costly mistakes that an understaffed crew might trigger. 

There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but always weigh the cost of each role against the value it delivers. Viewing the budget through this lens will help you stretch your payroll dollars without short-changing the end product. 

3. Consider tax credits and other incentives

Many states in the U.S. offer film tax breaks that could save your production hundreds of thousands of dollars. These incentives can free up cashflow for funds to be redirected to your crew payroll budget.. Start by checking with state film offices and to confirm if your production can qualify for film tax incentives.

These incentives exist in the form of refundable or transferable tax credits, cash rebates, fee waivers, and other perks. If this feels like uncharted territory, Wrapbook has you covered. 

Start with the state-by-state overview of US film tax incentives to understand the big picture. Once you’ve locked a shooting location, dive into the state-specific guides, whether that’s California, New York or Georgia. These guides break down the fine print on eligibility, incentive amounts, and application processes.

Properly utilizing film tax credits can free enough cash to keep your crew-payroll line whole without sacrificing production value. For more details, be sure to check out Wrapbook’s Production Incentive Center as well.

4. Traveling? Hire local

If you’re traveling out of town for a shoot, the most straightforward way to reduce payroll costs is to hire local. Hiring local crew won’t reduce your crew payroll budget directly, but it can dramatically reduce many of those indirect costs such as hotels, flights, and per diems. Those savings add up fast. Plus, the benefits of local hires extend far beyond production budget. They know the terrain, can flag hidden pitfalls, and even connect you with the regional vendor networks. 

In some states, employing local crew even boosts your eligibility for production tax credits, allowing you to further stretch your budget.

5. Digitize your payroll workflow

Let’s face it. Managing crew payroll by hand eats time and money. Not to mention that it is also a guaranteed headache. 

What if you could scrap the paperwork, speed up approvals, and pay everyone with a click?

That’s exactly what Wrapbook’s digital workflow delivers.

Wrapbook’s all-in-one platform brings production payroll to the 21st century. Crew fill out digital startwork forms, smart timecards track their hours automatically, and you run payroll from one dashboard with the click of a button.

Wrapbook streamlines payroll from top to bottom with a faster, smoother and more efficient workflow. 

Wrapping up

Budgeting crew payroll doesn’t have to be a headache. With a little know-how and our free budget template, you can line up the right team at the right price.

If you’re hungry for more information, check out Wrapbook’s Resource Center for additional guides on avoiding expensive payroll mistakes and minimizing payroll costs. If you’re ready to kickstart production, book a demo to learn how Wrapbook can be a force multiplier for your next project.