The headline rebate is 30% and I will not see 30%

A financier wants the rebate shown against the production budget, and the figure they trust is the cash that arrives, not the advertised rate. In Splinde you model the rebate as lines inside the budget: a negative line that points at the qualifying Sections, plus one line for each thing that shrinks the payout, so the model moves with the budget instead of living in a separate file.

Splinde's own guidance on film incentives calls the gap between advertised and effective rate "a structural feature of every film incentive program". It names five things that make it up: a qualified spend haircut (only part of your spend counts), a cap per project, the risk that the annual fund is used up, payout timing and the cost of bridging it, and broker fees on non-refundable credits. What counts as qualifying spend, what the cap is and whether the fund is still open are set by the programme and change with the year, so take them from the programme's own rules or ask the fund and your financier. None of this is tax advice.

Build the rebate line

1. Put the qualifying work into its own Sections, or nest the qualifying Sections under one parent.

2. Add a General Cost Item for the rebate, in a Section of its own.

3. In Fee, type @, open the Sections tab and pick the qualifying Section.

4. Click the unit label above the middle field, search Percentage in Search Unit and pick it, then type the rate. Set the unit first, so the figure you type is the percentage itself.

5. In Amount, type -1 so the line subtracts. Numeric fields accept a leading minus.

To keep the rate in one place, create a Variable of type % Percentage in the Variables tab and point the middle field at it with @.

When qualifying spend cuts across Sections

Mark the eligible lines with a Label, which gives you the qualifying total at a glance.

1. Click Add Label on each qualifying Cost Item and pick or create one.

2. Open the Sections tab, then the Smart Subtotals sub-tab. The Labels block shows that label's sum and its share of the budget Total, live.

3. In an Offer Document, a Group by Labels block puts the same split in front of a financier. Create the label inside a Label Group, since the block groups by Label Group.

To make the rebate line itself follow that spend, group the same lines under one Section and point the rebate line's Fee at that Section as above.

Good to know

• Model each shortfall as its own line rather than folding them into one reduced rate. A cap, a payout delay and a broker discount are three different conversations, and a financier will want to see them separately.

• Work out the cost of bridging a late payout with your financier and enter it as its own line. The budget carries the arithmetic once you have the figure.

Related

• How much contingency, and on what base?

• How much did we spend on freelancers across every chapter?

• Can I point one line at another line's value?

• The client's cost controller wants the composition, not just totals