Start your first job
About 60 seconds to read. Less to do.
Don’t set up your whole business. Start with the production already in front of you.
Production Ledger is organised around the job. Once a job exists, everything else — the invoice, the people, the gear, the money — has somewhere to belong instead of living in five different places. So the whole setup is really one step: name the job.
Name the job
Open the invoice editor and type the production into Project title / Job description — “Meridian Spring Campaign”, or whatever you actually call it out loud. That name is the thread. Nothing else needs to exist first.
Bill the work on it
Add your labor line, your kit line, any expenses you fronted. Set the terms and the due date. That is a complete, sendable invoice — and it is now attached to the job, not floating on its own.
Use the same name everywhere else
Adding crew, a call sheet, kit or expenses later? Use that same job name. Matching names is what connects them, so the money, the people and the gear all roll up to one production.
The job starts answering questions
Once one real job is in there, you can see what you have billed, what you are still owed, who you owe, and what the production actually cost you — without rebuilding any of it from memory.
Want the industry version of what belongs on the invoice itself? How to invoice a production company.