A free documentary budget template built for interview-driven production: a lean crew, working gear with media cards and expendables, locations, travel that actually gets used, and a post section that includes archival and stock footage licensing where it can't be forgotten. Docs run long and budgets run out. Itemize before the second one happens.
Documentary budgets die by accumulation: one more shoot day, one more archive pull, one more revision round. Every line in this template exists because someone forgot it once and paid for it out of the fee.
Every section below loads into the builder exactly as listed. This is the actual checklist, not a preview of one. Delete what your job doesn’t need and price the rest.
Everything billable before anyone touches a camera: concept, scripts, scouting, permits, insurance.
Day rates by role. Quantity is people, the multiplier is days. It remembers the 1st AC so you don't have to.
Unit: day. Quantity = # people, multiplier = # days.
On-camera people, voiceover, and the rights to keep using them. Usage buyouts live here, where they're hard to forget.
Camera, lighting, grip, and audio by the day, plus the truck it all arrives in.
Merged equipment + rentals. Default unit: day.
Fees, permits, parking, security, and putting the place back the way you found it.
Priced per person, so the math scales with headcount. A fed crew is a functioning crew.
Unit: person. Quantity = # people, multiplier = # meals/days.
Moving people and gear: vehicles, flights, hotels, per diems, freight.
Where footage becomes the deliverable: edit, color, mix, graphics, music licensing, revisions.
The interview-driven doc is already itemized, lean crew through archival licensing. Add shoot days and archive pulls, not sections.
Docs accumulate: days, pulls, revisions. Put in your rates and costs so the accumulation shows up as a number in the P&L, not a surprise in post.
Export a clean budget for the client, funder, or commissioner: prices, quantities, one total. The margin math stays yours.
The full guide (units, tax math, deposits, exports) lives on the Help page. It’s genuinely thorough. We’re as surprised as you.
For the longer answer, there’s a guide: What to Include in a Video Production Quote.
Eight sections shaped around how docs actually get made: pre-production, a lean crew (director, producer, DP, sound), specialty talent and voiceover with usage rights, working gear with media cards, locations, catering, travel, and a full post section including music licensing and archival and stock footage licensing. Revision rounds are a line item, because they happen.
They scale with days and archive, not glamour. A short interview-driven piece can come in under ten thousand dollars; long-form work with years of shooting, archival clearances, and a real post schedule runs to six figures and beyond. Days, travel, and rights are the drivers. All three are line items here.
Because it's the line that ambushes documentary budgets. Archive houses charge by the clip, the resolution, and the rights window, and the invoice arrives in post, long after the budget was approved. Pricing it up front, even as an estimate, is the difference between a licensing pass and a crisis.
Yes. The builder and every export work without an account: client PDF, Excel, CSV, and a read-only share link. Pro is a one-time purchase for branding and unlimited cloud saves. Nobody is monetizing your rough cut.