How to track crew hours on a shoot day
The short answer
Write down start and end times per person, per session, on the shoot day itself. Do not piece them together later. Record the crew member, the session, the planned hours and the real hours. Have each crew member confirm their own times. Hours rebuilt from memory days later are the most common cause of pay disputes. The gap almost always goes against the crew.
You had five people on set across two sessions. Now you need hours for each of them that will stand up. The group chat is not it.
Step by step
- 1
Name the sessions before the day
Split the shoot into named sessions. For a wedding: getting ready, ceremony, reception. For a production: setup, main shoot, wrap. Hours logged against a session can be checked. Hours logged against a whole day are one number nobody can check.
- 2
Write down the planned hours for each crew slot
Each role on the shoot should carry its planned hours before anyone arrives. Without a planned figure, you have nothing to compare the real hours against. Then overtime stays invisible until it is an invoice.
- 3
Each person clocks in and out
Each crew member records their own start and end time for each session, on the day. Times people log themselves, and can see, are rarely argued over. Times a helper wrote in a notebook often are.
- 4
Say yes to overtime on the day, and write down why
When a session runs over, grant the extra hours as a recorded decision with a reason. Do not find it in a spreadsheet later. Overtime agreed on set is a chat. Overtime found at pay time is a dispute.
- 5
Check planned hours against real hours before you pay
Compare the two figures per person before anything is paid. A big gap means the plan was wrong or the day ran long. Both are worth knowing before you quote the same shoot again.
Where this goes wrong
One set of hours for the whole crew
The second shooter left after the ceremony. The editor stayed to wrap. They did not work the same day. One figure overpays one and underpays the other.
Times written down by someone other than the crew
Times someone else wrote down get challenged. Times people log themselves, and can see, rarely do.
No record of who approved overtime
If nobody owns the decision, it gets argued again at pay time. Attach a name and a reason when the hours are granted.
Questions people ask
Do I need to track hours if I pay a flat day rate?
Yes. A day rate covers a set number of hours. Without real hours you cannot tell if a day ran into overtime. And you cannot price the same shoot right next time.
What is the minimum I should record per crew member?
The person, the session, the planned hours, the real start and end times, and any overtime granted with the reason. That is enough to work out pay nobody argues with.
Can I use a spreadsheet?
For one or two shoots a month, yes. It stops working when several shoots overlap. The checking is all by hand, and nothing links the hours to the booking they came from.