Estimates & Cost Sharing

Overview

An Estimate is a price quote you send to a client before work begins. Estimates outline what the project will cost, what's included, and the timeline.

Cost Sharing is a feature that lets you split a single production cost equally among multiple parties (companies or brands) who are sharing the shoot. Each party gets their own share calculation, and on approval, each receives their own invoice.

What Are Estimates?

Estimates contain:

• Line items — What you're charging for (e.g., "Studio Time", "License Fee", "Retouching")
• Rates — Cost per item, qty, total per line
• Tax & discounts — Applied to the grand total
• Approval workflow — Optional approval requirement (clients sign to accept)
• Deposit terms — If approved, auto-create invoice with deposit schedule

💡 Estimates vs Invoices

Estimates are quotes sent before work. Invoices are bills sent after work, requesting payment. Approved estimates can auto-create invoices.

Estimate Lifecycle

Draft

You're still editing the estimate. Not sent to the client yet.

Sent

You've sent the estimate to the client. They can view it.

Viewed

The client has opened and viewed the estimate. You'll see a "viewed at" timestamp.

Approved

The client has accepted the estimate (with optional e-signature). If deposit terms are configured, an invoice is auto-created.

Expired

The estimate's validity period has passed without approval. Set a validity period when you enable approval requirement.

Cost Sharing: The Basics

Imagine you're hired to photograph a commercial real estate project, but the Architect, Contractor, and Engineer all need the same photos for their portfolios and marketing . Instead of billing each separately, you can use Cost Sharing:

1. Create one estimate for the base production cost (the lead client's cost)
2. Enable Cost Sharing and add the other professionals as additional parties
3. Set an Additional Party Usage Fee for each party that joins (e.g., $500 per party for licensing)
4. Each party sees their individual impact and what the total would be if all accept
5. Send each party their unique cost share link to review and accept
6. As parties accept, costs update in real-time
7. When ready, convert to invoices—each party gets their own invoice for their final share

How Cost Sharing Works

The Parties: Primary vs Additional

Every cost share starts with a primary party (the estimate's main client) who is automatically responsible for the base production cost. Additional parties can join to share the cost and are each charged an additional usage/licensing fee for their participation.

Example: Primary = Architect (responsible for base $5,000). Additional parties = Contractor, Engineer (each adding a $500 usage fee for licensing the photos).

The Calculation: How Party Costs Are Determined

Base production cost: $5,000

Additional Party Usage Fee: $500 per additional party

Scenario: 3 parties sharing photos of a commercial project (Architect, Contractor, Engineer)

Primary Party (Architect):

Automatically responsible for the base $5,000. If all others accept, splits equally with remaining parties.

When Contractor Accepts:

Contractor sees: "If you accept, total becomes $5,000 + $500 (your usage fee) = $5,500. Split 2 ways = your share is $2,750."

When Engineer Accepts (after Contractor):

Total is now $5,000 + $500 (Contractor) + $500 (Engineer) = $6,000. Split 3 ways = each party's share becomes $2,000.

(Architect's share decreases from $2,750 to $2,000, Contractor's decreases from $2,750 to $2,000)

Why the usage fee? You're granting usage rights to multiple companies for the same shoot. Each additional party increases your total exposure/licensing obligations.

How Parties See Their Cost

When a party receives their cost share link, they see the full estimate and a detailed breakdown showing their share and everyone else's share. Here's what the Contractor sees:

Cost Sharing Breakdown

Production Costs $5,000.00 Additional Licensing (2 × $500.00) $1,000.00 Grand Total $6,000.00 Architect $2,000.00 Contractor (You) $2,000.00 Engineer (Invited) $2,000.00

Amounts shown assume all parties accept. Your final share may change if a party declines.

What they learn from this view: The Contractor sees the full $6,000 grand total, understands their $500 licensing fee, and sees that if the Engineer accepts, the cost will split three ways evenly at $2,000 each. They also see which parties have already accepted (if any) and the current status of others still pending.

If the Engineer hasn't accepted yet, the Contractor knows their final share could change if the Engineer declines. This transparency helps parties make informed decisions about participation.

Costs Update After Each Acceptance

As parties accept their share, the total cost and each party's individual share recalculate in real-time:

• Each additional party that accepts adds their usage fee to the pool, increasing the grand total but splitting it among more parties
• When a party accepts, StudioLedger records a committed share snapshot at that moment for reference
• As more parties accept, each participant's share is recalculated from the current grand total and accepted-party count
• Depending on your additional party usage fee and participant count, a share can move up or down during review
• Parties that haven't yet accepted see the updated "if all accept" calculation
• All parties automatically receive email notifications when their share amount changes due to another party's acceptance. This keeps everyone informed in real-time.

Setting Up Cost Sharing: Step-by-Step

1. Create an Estimate — Go to Finance → Estimates and click New Estimate. Add line items for the production costs.
2. Enable Cost Sharing — Look for the Cost Sharing section. Toggle it on. This creates a Cost Share Group for this estimate.
3. Add Parties — The primary estimate client is automatically the first party. Click Add Party to add additional companies/brands from your CRM. Each party is assigned a color dot for easy identification in the UI.
4. Set Additional Party Usage Fee — Enter the usage fee (in dollars) per additional party. StudioLedger will add this to the total and recalculate equal shares.
5. Review Calculated Shares — The Cost Sharing panel shows the grand total, parties, and each party's calculated share. Verify the math is correct.
6. Send to Parties — Once you're satisfied, send the estimate and cost share link to each party. Each party gets their own unique link to review and accept their share.
7. Parties Accept/Decline — Parties visit their unique cost share link and can view the breakdown. They can accept or decline their share. As they accept, you see real-time updates in StudioLedger.
8. Convert to Invoices — Once all parties have accepted (or declined as needed), click Convert to Invoices. StudioLedger creates one invoice per accepted party with their calculated share amount.

Share Changes During Review

Here's a realistic scenario showing how costs update as parties accept:

📋 Scenario: Successive Acceptances

Setup: Photographing a commercial building project. Base cost $5,000, usage fee $500 per additional party. Architect (primary), Contractor, and Engineer share the shoot.

1. Architect accepts first (primary party)

Architect accepts at an initial share of $5,000 (since no other parties have accepted yet).

2. Contractor accepts

Total is now $5,000 + $500 (Contractor fee) = $5,500. Split 2 ways:

• Architect's current share updates to $2,750

• Contractor's current share is $2,750

3. Engineer accepts

Total is now $5,000 + $500 (Contractor) + $500 (Engineer) = $6,000. Split 3 ways:

• Architect's share updates to $2,000 (they benefit from more cost sharing)

• Contractor's share updates to $2,000 (they benefit too)

• Engineer's share is $2,000

Key point: When a party accepts, StudioLedger records their committed share at that time, then keeps recalculating shares as participation changes. Final invoice amounts are based on accepted parties at conversion time, so a party's share can increase or decrease during review.

Converting to Invoices

When you're ready to bill, click Convert to Invoices in the Cost Sharing panel. StudioLedger creates one separate invoice per accepted party:

• Invoice #INV-2025-0101 for Architect for $2,000
• Invoice #INV-2025-0102 for Contractor for $2,000
• Invoice #INV-2025-0103 for Engineer for $2,000

Each invoice is independent. You can adjust, mark paid, or add payment terms individually.

Cost Share Widget (Embeddable Calculator)

You can create a public, embeddable cost share calculator that visitors can use to estimate their share of a production.

This widget lets someone input:

• Number of parties sharing the shoot
• Total production cost
• Additional party usage fee

The calculator outputs each party's share. You can embed this on your website, send it to potential collaborators, or use it in sales calls.

Next Steps

• Learn about Invoices & Split Invoice for billing clients
• Explore Templates to save estimate and invoice configurations
• Create your first estimate and test cost sharing

Sending Cost Share Invites

When an estimate uses Cost Sharing, StudioLedger now routes the send flow through the template-based email composer. That means each party receives a personalized invite instead of a single generic message.

1. Open the estimate and choose the send action.
2. Select or customize the email template you want to use.
3. Review the recipient list, which is pulled from the active cost share party list.
4. Send the estimate. StudioLedger delivers one personalized email per party.

If a party does not have an email address, StudioLedger skips that recipient instead of pretending the invite was delivered. This makes the send result more accurate and easier to troubleshoot.