Quickstart — Production Manager (UPM)

You manage the budget, the crew roster, the schedule, the POs, and the day-to-day operations of the production. You're in Grace daily, and you and the 1st AD are the heaviest power-users of the app.

You have T1 access — every section, every action. The producer/owner gave you a producer-tier seat which means you can invite people, customize access, and pull the budget reports.

Day one

  1. Open the production dashboard for the show you're on (or the home grid if managing several). See Production setup if it's a brand-new prod.
  2. Make sure the schedule has dates that match real-world reality. Schedule & Locations → Schedule.
  3. Bring up the crew + cast rosters and confirm everyone you expect is invited. Settings → Access for invites; Roster → Crew/Cast for the rosters themselves.
  4. If you're working with a 1st AD, hand them the keys — they'll live in Call Sheets and Set Dashboard.

Schedule

What you do day-to-day

  • Schedule — the strip-based shooting schedule. Drag scenes between days, add company moves, add lunch strips. See Pre-production.
  • Budget — categories → accounts → lines → items. Items can be flagged manual (locked from Grace's auto-cascades) or grace (Grace re-suggests on data change). See Pre-production.
  • POs — Purchase Orders, one PO per budget line/item. Status cycles pending → approved → paid. Per-PO actuals roll up to the budget actuals card on the dashboard.
  • Compliance — daily timesheet PDFs, exhibit G, turnaround waivers. See Compliance.
  • Vendors — every PO points at a vendor. Vendor list lives at Budget → Vendors.

When you're handing off to the 1st AD

The 1st AD takes over once the schedule is locked. Their daily cycle is Call sheets → Set Dashboard → wrap. You're still on the hook for budget/compliance/POs in parallel, but the day-of-shoot pacing is the AD's responsibility.

Cards you live in

The per-production dashboard surfaces what you care about at the top — Compliance Flags, Call Sheet Status, Budget Snapshot, Crew/Cast on Set. The mix is curated for T1 roles. See Dashboard cards.

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