TillyGen and Google Sheets

What this is about

Google Sheets is the shared calculator of most small production companies: day rates, rental quotes, catering estimates, all editable by producer and line producer at the same time, commented on by whoever disagrees. Its connection to TillyGen is the CSV export — shoot days, crew counts and planned resources arrive as rows, and the sheet multiplies them by rates. That direction matters: quantities come from the plan, prices come from the sheet. When the plan changes, new quantities flow in; the rate columns and formulas stay where they are.

An integration is good when nobody talks about it any more: the data is where it is needed and nobody exports anything.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• The CSV lands on its own tab, untouched; calculation tabs reference it, so a re-import never destroys a formula
• Day-rate math updates the moment new plan quantities arrive — an added shoot day prices itself before the client asks
• Simultaneous editing lets producer and line producer work the same budget during the call in which it is negotiated
• Comment threads on single cells keep rate discussions attached to the number they dispute

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Export the schedule data from TillyGen as CSV and import it into a dedicated source tab in the budget spreadsheet.
2. Build the calculation on separate tabs that reference the source — day counts times rates, gear days times rental prices, contingency on top.
3. Share the sheet with edit rights for the money people and comment rights for everyone who should see but not touch.
4. After every plan change, replace the source tab with a fresh export; the formulas recalculate and the delta is your cost consequence.
5. Freeze a copy at approval — the signed budget stays as it was signed, the working sheet keeps moving with the plan.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Quantities corrected in the sheet instead of the plan — the budget now prices a shoot that TillyGen no longer describes
• One tab mixing imported data and formulas, so every refresh becomes surgery instead of a file drop

With TillyGen

TillyGen supplies the quantities a shoot will consume; Sheets prices them. As long as every quantity change arrives via export instead of by hand, the budget follows the plan instead of arguing with it.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.