---
title: "Lock a project budget"
slug: "lock-a-project-budget"
updated: 2026-07-07T18:24:35Z
published: 2026-07-07T18:24:35Z
canonical: "help.wrapbook.com/lock-a-project-budget"
stale: true
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.wrapbook.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Lock a project budget

> [!NOTE]
> This help article is related to Cost tracking
> 
> In Wrapbook, production accountants and administrators can manage budgets using either Cost tracking or the [Production Accounting Suite](/v1/docs/about-production-accounting).

> [!NOTE]
> Lock a project budget is permission based
> 
> Locking a project budget in Wrapbook, your account must have one of the following [roles](/v1/docs/permissions-and-access-control) enabled:
> 
> - Role: *Company Admin, Company Manager, Project Coordinator*
> - Custom role with: *Accounting & Cost Tracking* / *Budgets (Cost Tracking) - Full access*

Reasons why you might want to lock a project budget:

- When you need to track approved overages separately - locking the original budget helps maintain clear visibility of additional costs that were approved after the initial budget was set
- During weekly cost report meetings - producers and department heads need to see the original locked budget alongside approved overage amounts to make informed decisions about department spending and project scope changes
- When tracking special circumstances - such as when a non-union show converts to union, requiring additional payroll costs across departments
- For accurate variance tracking - locking the budget ensures that the variance calculations (comparing estimated final costs to total budget) remain reliable and consistent

When a project's budget is locked:

- The budget column becomes read-only and cannot be updated
- The *Approved Overages* column also becomes read-only
- The system prevents any new data from being received for these locked values

To lock a project’s budget:

1. In the left-side navigation, click the dropdown menu
2. In the dropdown menu, select the name of the project that you want to lock the budget for
3. In the project dashboard’s *Budget* overview, click **View budget**
4. On the project’s *Budget tracker* click the **Actions** button
5. Click **Lock budget**

A detailed weekly report that summarizes cost compared to budget. This summary document is organized by department and reflects cost analysis in terms of current week’s spend, actual spend to date, PO commitments, estimate to complete (ETC), current estimated final cost (EFC), product placement monies, current budgeted amount, and any overages (approved or not), and overage/underage detail by account.

The final approved budget by the producer, UPM/line producer, production accountant and studio that will be used for cost reporting and variance comparisons. If different currencies are being used, exchange rates are finalized at the same time the budget is locked.

An approved amount over the locked budget total. An over-budget item recognized as necessary for the completion of a production and therefore approved. Approval comes from studio/financier.

In production accounting, the difference between the actual costs of production and the estimated budgeted costs.