Method Budget 0.1.0
The first release of Method Budget: a film and TV budgeting app that keeps every budget as a plain file on your own computer, with no account and no cloud.
Budget the way you already do
- Topsheet, accounts and detail lines. Every total rolls up as you type, to the cent.
- Fringes, globals, groups, charges and credits. Fringes with cutoffs and ranges, globals in any amount, rate or quantity, groups you can leave out for a what-if, and contractual charges and credits on the topsheet.
- A keyboard-first grid. Type-ahead for units, currencies, sets, locations and globals, with new ones added on the fly, and the shortcuts long-time budgeters expect.
- Numbers that match the industry standard. Rounding, fringe cutoffs, ranges, charges, credits and above and below the line work out the way producers expect, checked figure by figure against real budgets. Exact decimal math is one setting away.
- Explain this number. Trace any total down to the lines, fringes and rounding steps that make it up.
Never lose work
- Autosave, recovery and backups. Changes go into the file a few seconds after you make them, a budget not saved yet keeps a recovery copy, and earlier versions of each file are kept as backups.
- Tabs and split view. Open several budgets as tabs, side by side if you like. They come back as you left them the next time you start the app.
Start fast
- Charts of accounts. Start from a bundled feature or TV chart, including the studio charts, or import any chart from a spreadsheet.
- Bring budgets in from other programs. Open the JSON, XML, Excel or tab-delimited export of another budgeting program, checked line by line against its own totals.
- Setup packs and your own library. Keep fringes, globals, groups and the rest in a library of your own and share them as packs.
- A tidy Budget Setup. Every setup table is one compact, editable grid with its totals at the bottom.
Versions, compare and reports
- Named versions and compare. Save versions inside the budget and compare up to 16 budgets or versions, down to the detail lines.
- What changed and merge. See every change between two budgets in plain words, with the money it moved, and merge a returned copy back in.
- Reports and PDF. Print the topsheet, accounts and detail, with saved report layouts, and save straight to PDF. Export to Excel, CSV and tab-delimited files, and import lines from a spreadsheet.
- Actuals and cost reports. Import actual costs from an accounting export and see budget, actual and estimate to complete for every account.
Updates come to you
- The app keeps itself up to date. It checks for a new version now and then, downloads it in the background, and shows "Update ready: Restart to update" in the toolbar. Nothing interrupts you while you work.
- Your work is safe across the restart. Open budgets are saved first, and your tabs and split view come back after the update.
- What's new, once. After an update the app shows what changed, one time. Help > Release Notes shows it again.
- Your choice. Help > Check for Updates Automatically turns the background checks off; Help > Check for Updates looks right away.
Good to know
- Checking for updates is the only time the app goes online. Your budgets never leave your computer.
- The Mac app is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without any extra step.
- Coding agents can open, check and edit budgets through
method mcp. - The Windows and Linux builds are included but haven't been tested yet.