Creating a Report

Every report is built in the same five-step wizard. Step 1 is different for each report type (see that report's page); steps 2 to 5 are shared and covered here. The Preview pane on the right updates as you go, so you can see each choice before you commit to it.

Step 1: Report Information

• Report Name: required, and it must be unique among your saved reports.
• Report Type: choose Budget, Cashflow, Currency, Custom, Episodic Budget or Location.

Once you pick a type, its options appear below. Next stays disabled until you've given a name, chosen a type and ticked at least one section (Custom and Cashflow reports don't need a section). See each report type's page for what these options do.

Step 2: Cover Page

Cover page

Turn on Use Cover Page to add a title page to the front of the report. Its layout is an image, then centred title text (up to six lines), then a second image.

Click Select Image in either image slot to choose Default Logo or Alternative Logo, or Remove Image to leave the slot empty. You upload both logos on the Project Details page.

Topsheet title page

(Budget and Episodic Budget reports)

Use Topsheet Title Page is on by default. It puts a title block at the top of the topsheet page. There are three layouts to choose from:

Layout	Contents
1	Image / title / image, then two text boxes (left and right)
2	Title only, then two text boxes
3	Image / title / image, then one text box

Inserting project details

In any text box, type # to open a menu of your saved Project Details (Project Title, Production Year, Prepared By, any custom details, and so on) and insert one. The menu only lists details that have a value. Because they are inserted from the budget's Project Details, update them once there and every saved report picks up the change.

The text toolbar offers left, centre and right alignment, bold and italic.

Step 3: Header/Footer

(Not shown for Goalpost budgets.)

Area	Fields	Option
Header	Left, Right	Display Header on First Page (off by default)
Footer	Left, Center, Right	Display Footer on First Page

• The header's centre position is where the page number goes.
• Type # in any box to insert a project detail, just as on the Cover Page.
• Include "Made with Line Budgeter" (on by default) puts that credit in the centre of the footer. It only appears if you leave the Center box empty.

tip

Leaving the header off the first page is a good choice when you use a cover page, so the cover stays clean.

Step 4: Additional Options

Page setup

• Page Orientation: Portrait (default) or Landscape. Cashflow reports are always Landscape.
• Page Layout: Letter (default), Legal, A4 or A3.

Columns

(Not shown for Cashflow or Goalpost reports.)

Topsheet Columns controls the columns on the topsheet:

• Account Number, Account Name and Total are always included.
• Percent (%), Subtotal, Tax & Fringe and Incentives are on by default.
• Page Number is off by default. When it's on, each account shows the page where its detail starts.

Report Columns controls the columns on the account detail pages:

• Account Number, Amount, Unit, Multiplier, Rate and Total are always included.
• Details, Description, Subtotal, Tax & Fringe and Incentives are on by default.
• You can add Tax %, Company Unit and Episodes.
• In Landscape you can also add Tracking 1, Tracking 2 and U1 to U5. That's a good reason to switch orientation.

What to print

Option	Default	What it does
Show Total Summary on Topsheet	On	Adds Gross Total, Incentives and Net Total under the topsheet (Budget and Episodic reports).
Include Accounts with Zero Totals	On	Prints accounts that total 0. Turn it off for a tighter report.
Show Detail Lines	On	Prints every line item. Turn it off to show one total row per account, with no line detail.
↳ Show Header Details	Off	Under each smart-group header, prints its deal details — hire city and type, affiliation, rate, day count, guarantee, loan-out, dates, company unit.
↳ Include Associated Reference Lines	Off	Prints associated reference lines.
↳ Include Lines with Zero Totals	Off	Prints lines that total 0.
↳ Include Unchecked Lines	Off	Prints lines you've unchecked in the budget. They're shown for reference but still don't count toward totals.
↳ Include Budget Notes	Off	Prints each line's note beneath it as "Note: …".
Display Fringe Summary as Account ("99 account")	Off	Shows the fringe total as its own account at the end, the traditional "99 account" layout (not offered for Location and Currency reports).
Show Page Number	On	Numbers the pages.
Alternating Line Color	Off	Shades every other row to make wide reports easier to read.
Watermark	Off	Prints a large, faint diagonal watermark on every page.

The ↳ options only apply when Show Detail Lines is on.

Watermark text can be Account Name (your name, the default) or Custom (type your own, such as DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL). Your workspace, or whoever shared the budget with you, may require a watermark. In that case it's switched on and locked.

Step 5: Review and Create

1. Save to My Reports: enter a name and click Save. When you're editing a saved report, you get Update, which overwrites it, and Save as New, which keeps the original and saves a copy. You don't have to save to export, but a saved report can be re-run on later drafts in a couple of clicks.
2. Export To: PDF is the default. Cashflow reports can also export CSV.
3. Click Create. A save dialog opens so you can choose where to put the file. The PDF then opens in your default PDF viewer.

The default file name is based on the report name and type, for example Studio Draft_Budget_Report.pdf.

note

Episodic Budget Reports can take a moment. Their full PDF is only built when you click Create, and the button shows a spinner while it works.