Finance
Member compensation
Compensation settings record how each member is paid. They feed budgets and the profit-and-loss view — and, because pay is sensitive, they're kept private to the people who manage them.
Employment types
Each member has an employment type that says how their pay works: freelance (booked and paid per shoot at a rate), salaried staff (a fixed monthly salary, regardless of shoot count), or hourly staff (paid for the hours they work).
Cost and bill rates
A member can carry two rates. The cost rate is what they cost the studio; the bill rate is what the studio charges a client for their time. The gap between them is margin.
Salaried staff-time
When a salaried member is booked on a shoot, their pay isn't added again as a shoot cost — it's already covered by their salary. Instead the shoot budget records their time as a staff-time line, so you see how salaried hours are spent without double-counting.
Key terms
- Employment type
- How a member is paid — freelance, salaried, or hourly.
- Cost rate
- What a member costs the studio.
- Bill rate
- What the studio charges a client for a member's time.
- Staff-time allocation
- A shoot-budget line recording a salaried member's hours without re-charging their pay.
Common questions
What are cost and bill rates?
The cost rate is what a member costs the studio; the bill rate is what you charge a client for their time. The difference is margin.
How is salaried pay handled on a shoot?
It isn't charged again — a salaried member's pay is covered by their salary. The shoot records their hours as a staff-time line so nothing is double-counted.
Who can see compensation?
Pay is sensitive, so it's kept private to the people who manage it rather than shown across the workspace.