If you'd like to watch a video of this process, click here or scroll to the end of this article.

To access this sheet, you can press the ‘Prod Fee & Ins’ button at the top of the Cost Summary sheet, or via the button on the TrueBudget ribbon tab and Menu sheet.

By default, there are three areas to this sheet: Estimate, Working, and Actual.

Note: if you have any of the Phases enabled, an area for each Phase will also be visible.

Options Menu

The first thing you’ll want to do on this sheet is click the ‘Options’ button in the top left corner. This will open a menu where you’ll determine how you wish the Production Fee & Insurance to be calculated for each area.

In the drop-down menu next to ‘Area of the budget’, choose which area you would like to affect. (By default, the Estimate will be selected.) You will then be able to set the calculation method for the Production Fee, Insurance, and Handling Fee (if it is enabled).

For each, there are three choices you can pick from in the Estimate:

I will enter the percentages per Section – this will use the percentages you input into the Estimate columns on this sheet to calculate the amounts. These amounts will automatically show up on the Cost Summary sheet in the Estimate column, whenever it is visible. For the Insurance, it will appear in Line 24, and for the Production Fee, it will appear in Line 25.

I will enter the percentages per Line Number – this will allow you to enter the percentages for each Line Number individually. You would enter them on the individual budget pages. The columns where you would enter them are hidden by default, but you can reveal them by pressing the Detail button above the area.

Selecting this option also reveals two check boxes:

Including the % on the Fringe amount – checking this box will allow you to enter a percentage separately for the Fringe amount. For instance, your client might want you to use a different Production Fee percentage for the Fringes than the rest of the budget.

Including the % on the PH&W amount – checking this box will allow you to enter a percentage separately from the PH&W amount. Just like with the Fringe, your client might want you to use a different Production Fee percentage for the PH&W than the rest of the budget.

Note: if you have this calculation method selected, in order to set the percentages for the “Other” lines on the Cost Summary sheet, you would still use those cells on the ‘Prod Fee & Ins’ sheet.

I will enter the amount manually – this will allow you to manually input an amount on the Cost Summary sheet. For the Insurance, you would input an amount in Line 24, and for the Production Fee, you would input an amount in Line 25.

For the Working, Actual, and any Phases that are enabled, you have the three choices above, but you also have a fourth choice:

Match what is in the Estimate section – this will take the actual dollar amount that is in the Estimate and use it. For instance, if under Working you choose this for Production Fee, and the Production Fee amount in the Estimate is $20,000, the Production Fee under Working will also be $20,000. For the Working and Actual, this is often what you will want to select. This way, whatever amounts are in the Estimate for the Production Fee & Insurance will be carried over to the Working and Actual. However, please note that there may be occasions where you want to change it. This is why TrueBudget gives you the option to either calculate it by a percentage or input an amount manually.

Once you have made your choices in this Options menu, click OK to return to the ‘Prod Fee & Ins’ sheet.

Entering Your Percentages

Once you’ve made your selections in the ‘Options’ menu, you may notice that some of the columns on the sheet are greyed out. It is only possible to enter percentages if you have that area set to ‘I will enter the percentages per Section’ in the Options menu. The one exception is if you have the area set to “I will enter the percentages per Line Number’. In that case, you will be able to enter percentages for the ‘Other’ columns on the Cost Summary sheet.

If you wish to populate an entire column with the same percentage, you can use the PROD FEE % and INSURANCE % cells (near the top left of the sheet) to do that. For instance, if you want the Prod Fee to be 20% and Insurance to be 2% for the entire Estimate area, type ‘20’ in the PROD FEE % cell and ‘2’ in the INSURANCE % cell. Then press the ‘Apply to Estimate’ button. You will see those percentages fill in next to all of the various sections.

You may specify the percentages for each section, so you can change each one to your liking.

If you want to clear an area of all percentages, press the Clear button (Clear Estimate, Clear Working, Clear Actual, etc) above each section.

Once you input the percentages, it will take effect immediately. You may press the ‘Close’ button when you’re finished.

Video Tutorial