Help Center

Costs & Deals

Everything between planning a rate and the money leaving your account — two tabs of the production you are already in.

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What it does

Costs is the plan: the roster at the rates you expect, prep and kit, the non-people costs, and a target the client can approve on a private page. Deals is the other side of the same record — each person’s actual agreement, drafted from the plan in Agreements and read here. Together they answer one question end to end: what did I agree to pay each person, and have I paid them? Nobody needs an account — each person gets a private link, and what they do with it comes back here.

Deals are built in Agreements, and only there. The Costs tab plans; the Deals tab shows each deal and its state. Nothing here sends an email by itself. Sending is always a separate, deliberate step on the person's row.

The plan: the roster at the rates you expect, prep and kit, and a target the client approves on a private page — with each person’s deal read straight from it on the Deals tab.

The five states

A person moves left to right, and the row tells you where they are.

  1. Draft. They're on the list with a rate you're still deciding. Nothing has left the building.
  2. Offered. A private deal link exists. They can open it, read the terms and accept — or ask for a review.
  3. Accepted. They approved the terms. That agreement is frozen as a snapshot, which the wrap is later measured against.
  4. Wrap in. They've told you what they actually worked. This is the one state that needs you.
  5. Paid. You've recorded what you sent, how and when. They see the same three facts on their page.

Getting started

  1. Plan the roster on Costs. Pull from the call sheet or the Library, set rate and days, mark prep billable where it is. Remove whoever the client pays directly.
  2. Share the plan, if the client approves it. A private page shows the plan against the target — names hidden if you choose.
  3. Draft each deal in Agreements. The terms start from the plan — rate, days, prep, kit — so nothing is retyped.
  4. Review the terms and send. Open Send on a row: write what you're expecting, what production covers, whether prep is billable — then copy the link or email it.
  5. Reconcile the wrap. When they submit, Review wrap shows what they claimed against what you agreed. Approve it or settle at the agreed figure.
  6. Record the payment. Amount, date, method, reference. That closes the deal.

The wrap is the point

A crew member who worked two extra days used to tell you by sending an invoice you weren't expecting. The wrap moves that conversation to before the money, not after.

When someone submits their wrap you get a banner and a count on the tab, because until you rule on it the number is undecided and nobody should be invoicing. You have exactly two honest answers, and the modal names the difference in words rather than making you do the arithmetic:

Approve as submitted

Pay what they say they worked — days, billable prep and any accepted extras.

Settle at agreed

Hold the original figure. They see that decision on their page, with the number.

Whichever you choose, the invoice request that follows asks for the reconciled figure — never the original. Approving extra days and then billing the old total is the exact surprise the wrap exists to prevent.

What they claimed beside what you agreed — receipts cleared, the difference named — reconciled to one figure before anyone invoices.

What the crew member sees

One page, no login, no account. Their rate and what it adds up to; what production covers; what you're expecting of them; a message thread; a place to log expenses with a receipt; and, after the shoot, the wrap form. Once you record a payment, the amount, date and method appear there too.

The link is the credential. Anyone holding it can open that deal — so send it to that person and nobody else. It shows only their own terms: no other crew member's name, role or rate is ever in the payload.
private deal link

Ava Reyes

Wrap approved
Director of PhotographyWildflower · Sep 17–18
Fee · $1,750 × 2 days$3,500
Kit$150
Approved expenses$48
Paid · wire · Sep 24$3,698

One deal, one person, one private link — terms, receipts, the wrap and the payment.

Worth knowing

Accepted rates lock

Once someone approves, their rate stops being editable in place — an agreement you can quietly change isn't one.

Day-count drift

If the call sheets say four days and the deal says three, the row flags it rather than letting the two disagree in silence.

Expenses arrive here

Small receipted items clear themselves; anything judgement-shaped waits for you, with the reason shown.

Email is optional

No address on file? Copy the link and send it however you already talk to them.

It syncs both ways

Open the tab and it pulls back what each person has done since you last looked.

Cinethread never moves money

Recording a payment records it. Paying still happens in your bank, Zelle or chequebook.

Common questions

I clicked the button and nothing seemed to happen. Did it email everyone?

No. Generate offer links mints the private links and stops there. Sending is a second step you take per person, from Send on their row — where you can also read and edit the terms before anything leaves.

Someone accepted but I need to change their rate.

Accepted terms don't edit in place, deliberately. Change the numbers and generate a fresh offer, so what they agreed to and what you're paying are never two different things.

What if they never submit a wrap?

Then the agreed figure stands. Once the last shoot day has passed they become ready to invoice at what you agreed.

Can a producer see this?

No. Pay is owner-and-manager only, like Settings — a producer working the same production never sees rates.

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