Crew-day credits

CrewShift is billed in crew-days. Each crew member you put on a production day uses one crew-day from your balance. Projects, schedules, negotiations, hours, approvals, invoices and exports cost nothing extra. Crew never pay, and they never see your balance or any figures.

What a crew-day is

One crew-day is one crew member on one production day.

A production day is a day with the category Production. Prep, shooting and wrap days all count. Office day and Travel are free. See Day types.

What counts is each person's own category for the day. A setting on the crew member comes first, then the department's, then the day's. If a crew member's day is set to Office day or Travel, it costs nothing for them, even while the rest of the crew shoots.

• Day length doesn't matter. A half day or an hourly day is one crew-day, the same as a full one.
• Two days on the same date (day 14 and day 14A) are two production days, so anyone on both counts twice.
• Every person counts separately: ten crew on a five-day shoot is fifty crew-days.
• A day where a crew member's Scheduled switch is off doesn't count for them. The same goes for a day where their department is switched off.
• A day you release a crew member from (open the day, tap Cancel this day…, then Release individual crew instead) stops counting for them.
• A cancelled day stops counting for everyone who was on it. See Cancelling a day or releasing crew.

When a crew-day is charged

Crew-days are counted at signing, the moment the crew member countersigns the deal memo and the position is confirmed. From then on, the production days inside that deal's dates count against your balance.

Between sending a memo and the countersignature, the days it covers are reserved, so nothing else can use them up. That normally keeps a sent memo safe. If your balance still drops below what the memo needs before it's countersigned (because your free allowance expired, say), the countersignature is refused until you top up.

Your free allowance

You get a free allowance of 30 crew-days (unless we've agreed a different number with you), to use within six months.

It goes to the project of the first deal memo you send that includes a production day. A project you set up earlier but never sent a memo from doesn't get it. The six months start when you send that memo, and the allowance stays on that project even if the memo is later withdrawn or never signed. Only that project's crew-days draw from it.

When the six months are up, the free days you already used stay covered. New crew-days come from your balance. The project's Finances section always shows the current numbers.

When you run out

When your balance can't cover what you're about to commit to, five actions are refused:

• Sending a deal memo whose days you can't cover. Outside your free-allowance project, only purchased crew-days count.
• A crew member countersigning a memo you sent while you still had the balance for it, if the balance has dropped since.
• Adding or changing a production day in a way that adds crew-days. That includes switching a day to Production, scheduling someone who was off, and promoting a scenario that does either. In a promotion, only the day changes that need crew-days fail. The rest is applied, and the result says "Promotion completed with issues" and how many steps failed, without the reason. Check your balance before you promote.
• Reinstate day on a cancelled day.
• Re-add on a released crew member.

Undoing a cancellation or a release charges those crew-days again, which is why the last two can be refused. Don't cancel a day or release someone just to free up crew-days for something else.

When a send, a day save, Reinstate day or Re-add is refused, you see an Out of crew-days banner with a Get more crew-days button.

Everything else carries on. Signed deals stay signed, the schedule stays as it is, and hours, approvals, invoices and pay keep running. You can still negotiate, cancel days, release crew and run the shoot. An action that removes crew-days is never refused.

Crew only notice when their countersignature is refused. They get a message without any figures, saying the memo can't be countersigned until the producer adds crew-days. You don't get a notification, so the crew member will usually contact you. The memo stays sent, and they can sign it once you've topped up.

Where to see your balance

The crew-days card appears in two places:

• The Finances section on the project's Planning tab.
• Your Dashboard, with your balance across all your productions.

On the card:

• Purchased crew-days: crew-days you've bought that haven't been used yet.
• Free allowance left. On a project, this row only appears where the allowance can be used.
• Crew-days used on this project (on the project card only).
• A status of Sufficient, Running low or Used up.
• "Free allowance expires" with the date, while there's allowance left.

At 10 crew-days or fewer you get a warning: a banner on your Dashboard and Running low on the card. That count includes your free allowance. Days reserved by memos that aren't countersigned yet are still included in these numbers, so a send can be refused while the card shows Sufficient. Because the allowance only works on its own project, another project can run out before you see any warning.

Co-producers

Crew-days are charged to the producer who owns the project. On a project you co-produce, the owner's balance is the one that counts, and the project's Finances section shows theirs. If it runs out, ask the owner to top up. Your Dashboard only ever shows your own balance.

Getting more crew-days

Tap Get more crew-days on the warning, or email info@crewshift.app. Tell us the production and roughly how many crew-days you need, and we'll add them to your balance.