Method Budget 0.8.0

Method Budget 0.8.0

Shared budgets are signed: every change carries its author's signature, and nobody can
write one in someone else's name. You can invite people with a link, and a department
editor can ask for access to what they can't change.

Every change signed

• Changes are signed. From the owner's first role on, each person's computer signs
  what they change with a key kept on that computer. Every computer checks each change,
  and a change whose signature doesn't match is left out and listed with the reason.
• Remove someone. Remove takes a person out of a shared budget from a point in time.
  What they change after it is left out on every computer; giving them a role again
  brings them back.
• The owner's key is remembered. Each computer remembers the first owner key it sees
  and keeps out changes signed with any other. If the owner moves to a new computer,
  Trust the New Key… accepts its key.
• Start Again. If a key in the owner's name turns up before the owner's own computer
  put one there, the owner can make a new shared budget from the budget as it stands,
  with everyone's roles, signed with the owner's real key. The old history is kept aside
  in the folder, and each person reopens the budget to join.
• The command line and agents sign too. They sign with the key of the person on that
  computer, within that person's role.

Invite with a link

• Invite someone. In the Share dialog, pick a role, the categories for someone who
  edits some categories only, and how long the link lasts: 1, 7 or 30 days. The link is
  shown once to copy and send privately; no computer keeps it.
• Join from Link. The newcomer picks File > Join from Link…, pastes the link and
  picks the budget in their copy of the shared folder. Each link works once, stops
  working on its date, and Cancel Invite stops it early.

Asking for access

• Locked cells look locked. A department editor sees the categories and accounts
  outside their role muted, with a lock. Typing in one says so and offers to ask the
  owner for access.
• Requests come to whoever can say yes. The request travels through the shared folder,
  nothing is sent anywhere else, and shows on the toolbar and in the sharing panel for
  whoever may give that role. Allow it, allow those categories only, or decline.

Fixed

• Update checks. The secure connection the app uses to check for updates is on the
  latest fixed version.

Good to know

• Everyone sharing a budget needs 0.8.0. Method Budget 0.7.0 and older refuse a
  shared budget once its owner's key is in, which the first role brings, and again after
  its first invite. They say the shared changes are newer than they read. Update every
  computer before you set a role or send an invite.
• Signing guards the shared history, not the folder. It stops changes written in
  someone else's name. Someone who can delete files in the shared folder can still
  delete them, so keep backups as before.
• Mac builds are universal. Windows and Linux builds are included but not yet tested
  by hand.

Method Budget 0.7.0

Method Budget 0.7.0

Incentive programs are complete, with what-ifs and a printed report by location. You can
keep your own rate tables and lay out your own bids, and the start window organizes
budgets into projects.

Incentive programs, all the way

• Minimum spends, broker's fees and shared caps. A program can require a minimum
  qualified spend, take a flat broker's fee off after its cap and discount, and share a cap
  with other programs. Set them in Budget Setup's Credits tab.
• What if these lines were shot somewhere else. The Credits tab's What if… panel moves
  a category's, an account's or chosen lines to another location on a copy and shows every
  program's estimate before and after, the difference, and the net total. Apply it as one
  undo step, or leave it.
• An incentives report by location. A new report section lists each location's spend,
  the programs counting it and every program's terms, with totals that match the topsheet's
  credits. It prints, makes a PDF, and appears as an Incentives table in spreadsheet
  (.xlsx) and CSV exports of a budget with credits.
• Estimates show their figures. A program you haven't applied shows its row figures,
  marked as an estimate.

Rate tables you keep

• Your own tables of rates. Budget Setup's Rate Tables tab keeps classifications with a
  rate per unit, dates in effect and notes. Import one from your own spreadsheet by
  mapping its columns.
• Fill a line's rate from a table. Fill Rate from Table… on a line writes the rate once
  and remembers where it came from; Explain says so. When the table changes, Update rate
  is offered, and no figure changes on its own.
• No rates come with the app. Every table is one you make or import.

Bids laid out your way

• A bid layout in a report preset. Name your own header fields, make sections that take
  accounts by category, by account or by a range of account numbers, and add running
  subtotals and markups (a percent of chosen sections or a flat amount). The Bid section
  prints it in the preview and the PDF.
• Every account counts once. An account no section takes is printed under Unassigned,
  so the bid always adds up to the budget's net total plus its markups.
• One plain example layout comes with the app to start from.

The start window, finished

• Projects. Folders down the left of the start window hold a project's budgets,
  sub-budgets, copies, setup packs and schedule files. Add Folder… adds one, and New
  Budget can make a project folder for the new budget.
• Thumbnails. Each budget shows a small bar for each category's total.
• Duplicate, and a sub-budget from a row. Duplicate saves a copy beside the file. New
  Sub-Budget from This Category or Account makes a smaller budget from a topsheet row,
  with the same totals.
• Link a schedule when you start. New Budget's Link a Schedule… fills the shoot days
  and the dates from a schedule's days file.
• Sorting, and who was in. Sort by last opened, name, last changed or net total.
  Shared budgets show who was in them lately.

Fixed

• Very long formulas. A formula as long as the app allows, thousands of terms, is
  worked out without running short of memory on any computer.
• Safer connections for updates. The libraries that check secure connections are
  updated for recently published advisories.

Good to know

• The app is getting ready for other languages. Most of its words now come from one
  table. English is still the only language.
• Windows and Linux builds are included but not yet tested by hand.

Method Budget 0.6.0

Method Budget 0.6.0

Intel Macs are back: the Mac app runs on Intel and Apple silicon again, and an Intel Mac
still on 0.2 updates straight to this version. Budgets changed elsewhere are noticed more
reliably on Windows and Linux.

One app for every Mac

• Intel and Apple silicon. The Mac download is one app that holds both kinds of code,
  so it runs natively on any Mac with macOS 11 or later. Versions 0.3 to 0.5 were for
  Apple silicon only.
• Intel Macs catch up on their own. An Intel Mac that stayed on 0.2 is offered this
  version at its next check for updates, or at once with Help > Check for Updates.

Opening from the suite

• Two command-line options for the app. --open-sample opens the Field Station sample
  instead of the start window, and --check-for-updates checks for updates as Help >
  Check for Updates does. Method Launcher uses them; they also work from Terminal.
• The recent list says when. Each budget on File > Open Recent now remembers when it
  was last opened, so the suite's launcher can list your budgets newest first. A list from
  an earlier version is read once and kept, Mac bookmarks included.

The sample, once

• No switch for it any more. Field Station opens once, at the very first start, and
  never again unasked. Help > Open the Sample on First Launch is gone; Help > Open Sample
  still opens a fresh copy any time. If you already had budgets of your own, you never see
  it unasked.

Fixed

• A change made elsewhere is noticed. On Windows and Linux, a budget rewritten by a
  sync service or another computer moments after your own save, at exactly the same size,
  could go unnoticed. Now the content decides whenever the file's time can't.
• The Windows build carries its files exactly. The bundled charts of accounts and the
  sample are now byte for byte the same on Windows as on the Mac.
• Agents see the same paths everywhere. The agent server names files inside its
  folders with / on Windows too, so a path it lists can be passed straight back.

Good to know

• The message for a computer without an update changed. Where no build exists for
  your computer, Help > Check for Updates now says "There's no update for this computer
  yet. This version stays as it is."
• Windows and Linux builds are included but not yet tested by hand.

Method Budget 0.5.0

Method Budget 0.5.0

A finished sample budget comes with the app: Field Station, an invented feature of about
a million dollars, built from a schedule and ready to explore.

A sample budget to explore

• Field Station opens at the first start. Someone new to Method Budget, with no
  budgets of their own yet, starts in Field Station instead of an empty page. It is an
  invented independent feature on the low-budget feature chart: globals set from its
  schedule's days, fringes with cutoffs, one person paid in two accounts, groups, two
  lines in euros, an incentive estimate, a saved draft to compare against, dated notes
  and actuals through the second shoot week, all adding up to a net of 1,050,288.03.
• Always a fresh copy. The sample opens untitled, marked "Sample" on its tab. Change
  anything you like: nothing is kept unless you save it, and saved as a file it is yours.
• Help > Open Sample opens a new copy any time. Help > Open the Sample on First Launch
  turns the first-start sample off. Anyone who already has budgets of their own never sees
  it unasked.
• The same budget everywhere. The browser demo on the website and the pictures there
  now show Field Station too.

Good to know

• Checksums for every download. Each release now lists the SHA-256 of every file it
  carries in a file called SHA256SUMS, so a download can be checked before it is
  installed.
• Mac builds are for Apple silicon. Windows and Linux builds are included but not yet
  tested by hand.

Method Budget 0.4.0

Method Budget 0.4.0

A schedule's days drive your globals, a shared budget can say who may change what, one
person's cutoffs count once across accounts, and incentive programs show what they are
worth before you apply them. Reviewers can comment on a copy, and the app works better
with a screen reader.

Your schedule sets the days

• Import Schedule Days. File > Import > Import Schedule Days… reads the days file
  Method Schedule exports. A review shows each figure with the global it sets, the value
  now and the new value. Total shoot days go to SHOOT_DAYS; days at a location, on a
  set, in a week or for a cast member go to globals you pick. Applying is one undo step.
• Import again when the schedule changes. Each global remembers which figure it came
  from, so the next import ticks it again and says what changed. A figure that has left
  the schedule is never set to 0 unless you pick it.

Working together with roles

• Who may change what. In a budget shared through a folder, the owner can make each
  person an admin, an editor, an editor of some categories only, actuals only, comments
  only or read only, and can make an admin a co-owner. Changes beyond someone's role are
  refused on every computer, and the app lists them with who, when and why.
• Good to know before you set the first role. Roles stop people changing what they
  shouldn't by accident. They don't stop someone who edits the shared folder's files
  directly. Everyone sharing the budget needs 0.4.0 or later once a role is set.

Money that adds up the way payroll does

• One cutoff per person. Give lines a person, and that person's fringe cutoffs count
  once across every account they are paid in, shared over their lines by pay. A new
  Person column shows how close each person is to each cutoff.
• Incentive estimates by location. A credit can be limited to locations, and every
  credit, applied or not, now shows its qualified spend and an estimate after caps and
  the broker's discount. Budget Setup's Credits tab puts the programs side by side, next
  to the spend at each location. You write the programs from the public rules; nothing
  is bundled.

Reviews, new budgets and access

• Review files. File > Open for Review… opens a budget read-only and keeps comments
  on lines, accounts and categories in a small file beside it. The author opens it with
  File > Open Review Comments… and merges comments in as dated notes, or dismisses them.
• New Budget brings in your setup. Tick your setup library or any setup pack, and its
  fringes, globals and the rest come into the new budget.
• Screen readers. The budget grid says where you are ("45.00, Rate, Gaffer"), changes
  to the net total are read out, dialogs behave as dialogs, and low-contrast text is
  darker.

Good to know

• Updates come through the suite's shared updater. Checking, downloading and
  installing work as before, from the same Help menu.
• Command line and agents in shared budgets. On a budget shared through a folder,
  method-budget set and apply and the agent server now record their changes in the
  shared history as you, within your role, instead of rewriting the file.
• Roles need this version everywhere. Once a role is set, an older copy of Method
  Budget opens the shared budget on its own and says the shared changes are newer than it
  reads.
• Mac builds are for Apple silicon. Windows and Linux builds are included but not yet
  tested by hand.

Method Budget 0.3.0

Method Budget 0.3.0

A fuller Help menu, a command line named for the app, and Mac builds made for Apple
silicon. It also brings the saving and opening fixes that were ready for 0.2.1.

Help when you need it

• Report a Bug. Help > Report a Bug… opens a new issue on GitHub with the version and
  your system already filled in. Nothing from your budgets is ever included.
• The user guide, licences and the suite. Help now has User Guide, Licenses and
  Notices (the app's licence and the third-party software it carries) and a link to the
  Method Production Suite. About Method Budget shows the licence too.

The command line is method-budget

• A name that says which app it is. The command line is now method-budget, so it
  sits clearly beside the other apps in the suite. The old name, method, still works
  for now and prints a one-line note when you use it.
• Coding agents and git keep working. Agent setups and git merge driver settings that
  run method mcp or method merge-driver carry on unchanged and print no note. The
  agent server also speaks the newest version of the agent protocol.
• Command line edits follow the app's rules. Money typed on the command line rounds
  the way the app rounds it, and line fields and fringe changes are checked the same way.

Fixed

• Saving through a link keeps the link. A budget opened through a symbolic link now
  saves into the file the link points to, instead of replacing the link with a copy.
• The command line and shared folders save as carefully as the app. Each save writes a
  complete new file before it replaces the old one, so a crash or a full disk mid-save
  never leaves half a budget or a stray temporary file behind.
• Oversized files are refused. A budget or a collaborator's change file larger than
  256 MB is turned away with a clear message instead of filling memory.

Good to know

• Mac builds are for Apple silicon from now on. Intel Macs keep the version they
  have. Asking an Intel Mac to check for updates says so instead of reporting an error.
• Updates now come from the Method Production Suite on GitHub. The old address
  forwards there, so nothing needs doing.
• Downloads have names without a version number, such as Method-Budget-macOS.dmg, so
  a download link always points at the newest release.
• Windows and Linux builds are included but not yet tested by hand, and they don't
  update themselves yet.
• The method name will go away in a later release. Change scripts to
  method-budget when it suits you.

Who helped

• masyarakatai, for two documentation fixes: the git merge driver's name in the README,
  and a stale note in the website's not-found page.

Method Budget 0.2.0

Method Budget 0.2.0

A start window for new and recent budgets, other programs' budgets that open with a
double-click and come out to the penny, and a first way to work on one budget together.

Start a budget in one place

• A start window. When nothing else opens, the app starts with your pinned and recent
  budgets, each with its total and when it last changed. Search, pin, open or take one off
  the list from the keyboard. File > New… opens it any time.
• New Budget. Give it a title and, if you like, the type, season and episode, dates,
  schedule length, location and currency. Pick a chart of accounts from the bundled
  charts, start from a budget file, or start empty. It is saved into the folder you choose
  straight away.
• Closing the last tab brings the start window back instead of closing the window.
• Moved files are followed. Pinned and recent budgets you move in Finder stay on the
  list.

Open other programs' budgets

• Open converts them. File > Open takes a budget exchange JSON or XML, the Excel or
  tab-delimited export, or a spreadsheet, and works out which it is. An export goes
  through a figure-by-figure check, then becomes a new Method Budget tab. The original file
  is never changed, and the first Save offers the same name as a .mthd.
• On a Mac, Open With offers Method Budget for these files as a second choice.
• Exports come out to the penny. Percent units, fringe ranges and cutoffs, contingency
  charges, tax credits and whole-dollar account totals now come across as the budget had
  them. A round percentage charge comes in as a real percent charge.

Share a budget through a folder

• File > Share. Put a budget in a folder you already share (Dropbox, iCloud Drive,
  Google Drive, LucidLink) and everyone who opens it edits the same budget. Changes from
  others appear within seconds, with their initials beside the rows they touch.
• Nothing is lost when two people change the same thing. The cell is marked, both
  values are kept, and you pick one in the Review tab. The Activity tab lists who changed
  what, and Edit > Who Changed This answers it for one cell.
• Undo is yours. It takes back your own changes, not other people's.
• This is the first step. Roles, invites and live sessions without a shared folder come
  later.

Numbers that match

• Round account totals to whole units. A new setting in Budget Setup > Settings,
  matching budgets kept with no decimals in totals. New budgets start with it on.
• New budgets start the way producers expect. Account numbers with no separator
  (1301), fringes posted by budget, the usual units and a cutoff factor of 1.0.
• More from Budget Setup. Credit rows on accounts, frozen original totals for
  comparison, totals in another currency, and currency formats.

Fixed

• Percent fringes and charges. A few percentages came out a cent low; they now match
  to the cent.
• Flat fringes on empty lines. A flat fringe no longer charges a line whose amount is 0.

Good to know

• New budgets now round account totals to whole units. A budget you already have keeps its
  own setting, and the checkbox in Budget Setup > Settings turns it off.
• Sharing needs every person on 0.2.0 or later.
• The Windows and Linux builds are included but haven't been tested yet.

Method Budget 0.1.0

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.