Estimating & budgeting software for video & creative production agencies
An AICP-format budget with a confidence level attached
Your bid form is already a Work Item tree — day-rate crew, equipment rental and location Cost Items, sections A through X. What it doesn’t do is simulate what happens when a shoot day gets rained out, a client adds a review round, or overtime stacks past the contracted day length. back-napkin starts from a real production Work Item tree and a risk checklist built for the job, then runs the numbers to a confidence level before you commit to a fixed price.
Production budgets don’t overrun on the line items you priced
The day rates and rental costs are the easy part. The margin disappears in scope that never made it onto the bid form.
Unbilled scope is routine, not rare
In a 2025 survey of 273 agency managers, 57% said they lose $1,000-$5,000 a month to unbilled scope creep, and 30% lose more than that — mostly extra revision rounds that were never capped in the SOW.
Scope-creep-affected jobs run 27% over
Accounting-advisory data puts the average overrun on scope-creep-affected agency projects at 27% against sub-15% net margins for the segment — a single added review round can erase the job’s profit.
Fringes and overtime stack, they don’t just uplift
Overtime past the contracted day length, meal-break penalties, turnaround-breach penalties and night loading can all apply on the same overrun day — a flat markup percentage doesn’t capture that shape.
A weather day or a reshoot has no line item
A rained-out exterior day or a reshoot triggered by missed coverage or late client feedback runs at a premium over the original day rate — re-prep, continuity, rush post — and most bid forms have nowhere to put it until it happens.
Built from real production job types
Five Project Starters, each with its own Work Item tree, hidden-task checklist and risk checklist — not a generic project template with the words swapped out.
Brand film / commercial shoot
Pre-production, shoot and post-production laid out AICP-style — casting, location scouting, principal photography, offline edit through online conform and delivery — with reshoots and revision rounds priced in, not bolted on.
Corporate video
Discovery and interview-outline through stakeholder-scheduled shoot days and a review chain that runs comms, legal and brand sign-off before delivery.
Event coverage
Run-of-show planning, multi-camera and live-switch shoot days, and a same-day highlight cutdown alongside the full edit — for a schedule the event sets, not the crew.
Social content batch
One batch brief and shoot day fanning out into per-deliverable edits and per-platform spec versioning, with batch-wide review and approval as its own step.
Animation / motion package
Script and storyboard through style-frame approval, per-scene animation passes and VO/ADR, with revisions priced per animation pass rather than per whole project.
The risk checklist is specific, not generic
Every Brand film / commercial shoot starts with these on the risk register — pulled straight from the pack, not written after the fact.
Weather stops or delays an exterior shoot day
Loses 0.5-1 full shoot day; may trigger a full reshoot day at premium cost if the client’s air date is fixed
Client adds a review/revision round beyond the contracted number
Effort +15-30% on edit-stage Work Items without a capped-revision clause; 57% of agency managers lose $1,000-$5,000/month to unbilled scope, 30% lose more
Fringes/overtime exceed the budgeted markup
Stacking penalties — overtime past the standard shoot-day length, meal-break penalties, turnaround-breach penalties and separate night loading, each priced and able to compound in a single overrun day
Bid your next production job with the risk already priced in
- 3 active projects
- 25 AI assists/month
- No card