What is a Variable?

A Variable is a named value, a Number, a Percentage or a Currency amount, that you create once in a budget and then point any number of fields at. Change the Variable and every field pointing at it updates with it.

What it's for

Production budgets repeat the same figures constantly: a shoot-day count, a social-contribution rate, a flat fee. A Variable holds that figure in one place, so changing it once changes it everywhere it is used, instead of editing every line by hand.

How it works

Create a Variable

Open the sidebar Variables tab and click +, or Add Variable in an empty budget. In Create new Variable, give it a Name, choose a Type and enter a Value, then click Create Variable. Each name is unique within its budget, and the Type is set when you create the Variable, so choose the one that matches the figure.

Number

A Number is a plain figure with no unit, such as shoot days, crew size or a multiplier. Create a Number Variable called Shoot Days, point the Days field of every shooting line at it, and when the client cuts a day you change it once.

Percentage

A Percentage is a rate, such as employer contributions, fringes, a handling fee or contingency. You enter 27.88 for 27.88 percent. Prepared AddOn cards create their rate Variables for you the first time you drop them in a budget, and every later drop of the same card reuses that Variable, so the whole budget stays on one rate. The blank Markup card arrives with an empty rate that you type in or link to a Percentage Variable you created.

Currency

A Currency Variable is an amount of money, such as a flat delivery fee, a per diem or a permit cost. It is always read in the budget currency, and the Type tab shows your currency's symbol, so it never needs a currency of its own.

Use a Variable in a field

Type @ in any number field on a Cost Item, a Section or an AddOn and pick the Variable from the Variables tab of the menu. The field shows the Variable and follows it. A field holds one typed number or one link, never both.

Edit or delete a Variable

Type a new value in the Variables list and every field that follows it updates. Click the chevron to rename it. When you delete a Variable that fields still use, Splinde states how many do, and each of them keeps the Variable's last value as a typed number.

Variables in scenarios

Each scenario holds its own independent copy of the budget's Variables. Creating a scenario copies every Variable into it, and from then on editing a Variable inside a scenario changes only that scenario, never Main or another scenario. That keeps a what-if fully self-contained, so you can push a scenario's numbers around with full creative control, knowing nothing leaks back into the budget everyone else is looking at.

Good to know

A rate you type straight into an AddOn's rate field stops following its Variable, and typing @ links it again. A brand-new budget starts with no Variables. They arrive when you create one or drop a prepared AddOn.

Related

• How do I update every line when the day count changes?

• I want to try a different rate in one option without touching the others

• What is a Reference?

• What is a Scenario?