Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about TimeCardRobot.

TimeCardRobot has built-in rules for the Basic Agreement (major studio and network TV), Pay TV Agreement, Streaming (SVOD), Low Budget Theatrical (Tiers 1–3 plus Ultra Low Budget), Videotape Agreement (live TV, talk shows, awards, game shows, sports), and Commercial (AICP) agreements. Non-union productions are also supported using state labor law overtime rules. Each contract comes with accurate, built-in rules for overtime, meal penalties, turnaround, and more.
It's built around the camera department. The classifications, scale rates, and contract rules all come from the IATSE agreements covering camera crew, so that's where it's accurate straight out of the box. If your production has a role that isn't listed, you can add up to five custom classifications with their own rates, and non-union work is calculated using state labor law overtime rules. Crew in other departments can work that way too — you'd just be entering your own rates rather than having the built-in tables do it for you. If you're in another local and you'd like your agreement supported properly, with its own classifications and rates built in, get in touch. Which contracts get added next depends on hearing from people who work under them and are willing to check the results against their own real weeks — that testing is the part that can't be done from the outside.
Yes, and every rate is dated. Agreements get renegotiated every few years and scale rates usually step up annually, so each rate records the date it took effect and a week is priced with the rates that were in force that week — entering last year's job doesn't quietly apply this year's numbers. Rates are checked against the published rate cards as new ones are issued. Where an agreement publishes no rate for a classification, the app shows you which floor it's using and why instead of guessing silently.
Yes. TimeCardRobot is a fully native app — time entry, calculations, and PDF export all work with no internet connection. When you're back online, any changes sync automatically to your other devices via iCloud.
TimeCardRobot is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac on the App Store. It's a Universal Purchase — buy it once on any of them and you have it on all three, at no extra cost. Your shows, crew, and time entries sync through iCloud, so a day you punch in on set is waiting on whichever device you pick up next.
Your shows, crew rosters, and time entries sync automatically in the background across every device signed into the same Apple ID, whenever you're online. If something looks out of date, check that both devices are on the same Apple ID, that iCloud is switched on for TimeCardRobot, and that both are actually online — a large library can take a few minutes on first sync. To keep everything on one device instead, turn sync off in System Settings › your Apple ID › iCloud › TimeCardRobot on a Mac, or Settings › your name › iCloud › TimeCardRobot on iPhone and iPad.
Yes. Every download includes a 30-day free trial — full access to every feature, no credit card required. It starts the first time you open the app. When it ends you can subscribe or buy the lifetime unlock to carry on; current rates are on the pricing page. Subscriptions auto-renew through your Apple ID and can be canceled anytime in App Store settings — you keep the time you've paid for either way. And if you'd rather just look around first, the built-in demo show is free to browse whenever you like — it doesn't touch your trial.
The lifetime purchase gives you permanent access to TimeCardRobot and all future updates — you pay once and own the app forever, with no recurring charges. That includes any new contract types, features, and improvements added over time, on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The current price is on the pricing page.
Yes. You pick the payroll processor your show uses when you set the production up, and TimeCardRobot exports time cards, daily time sheets, and box rental invoices as PDFs laid out the way that processor expects — the field positions differ between them, so the app builds the right one rather than a generic sheet. What you hand in looks like what the office is already used to receiving. If your show uses a format that isn't covered, let us know.
Yes. Any individual rule can be overridden to match your deal memo — thresholds, penalty amounts, turnaround requirements, per diem rates, and the rest. Overrides are tied to the specific contract you edited, so they follow that show and leave your other productions alone.
It depends which number is off.

Gross pay should match. It's contract math — what the agreement says you're owed for the times you entered, against what payroll actually processed. When the two differ, the Summary breakdown shows which line accounts for the gap: a meal penalty that wasn't paid, overtime that started an hour late, a distant day treated as local. That's a far easier conversation with your UPM or payroll coordinator than “this looks low.”

Net pay is an estimate — usually within a few percent of the real check, because withholding depends on details your times don't show. If the gap is bigger than that, start with the three that move it most: the contract and subtype, your work and hire states, and your filing status and allowances. Then grace and meal settings, local versus distant hire, any rate overrides from a deal memo, and mileage, per diem, and box rental, which are paid to you but taxed differently from wages.

Some things it can't see at all: garnishments, a loan-out you haven't set up, 401(k) or benefit deductions, and a production's own accounting adjustments.
Yes. TimeCardRobot scales from one person double-checking a single paycheck to a Loader running time cards for the whole department on a major studio feature. For personal tracking, the My Work view is built for individual crew members: tag yourself in your preferences and the app automatically collects every week you appear on across all your shows — with tabs for Paychecks (with inline reconciliation against your actual deposits), Charts (earnings and hours visualized by month, contract type, and location), and Totals (year-to-date summary with a projected year-end estimate).
TimeCardRobot supports all standard camera department classifications: Director of Photography, Camera Operator, Technician, 1st Assistant Camera, 2nd Assistant Camera, Digital Imaging Technician (DIT), Loader, Still Photographer, Portrait Photographer, Camera Utility, Digital Utility, and Video Controller. If your production has a role that isn't on the list, you can also add up to 5 custom classifications with their own rates.
Yes, and in ordinary formats. Time cards, daily time sheets, and box rental invoices export as PDF in the layout your production's payroll processor expects. Days, weeks, and summaries export as CSV for any spreadsheet. A single production travels as a .tcrshow file and a crew roster as .tcrcrew, either of which another TimeCardRobot user can open directly, and a full backup captures everything at once. Between PDF and CSV, nothing you've entered is trapped in a format only this app can read.
Nothing is deleted. The app becomes read-only: every show, crew member, and week you've entered stays exactly where it is, and you can still open them, read the numbers, and export them as PDF or CSV. You just can't create or edit anything new until you subscribe again. The lifetime unlock isn't affected by any of this — it doesn't expire.
It never reaches us. Your productions, crew details, and time entries live on your device and in your own iCloud private database — we have no access to any of it, and it isn't shared with third parties. TimeCardRobot contains no analytics, no tracking, and no third-party services of any kind. See our Privacy Policy for the full detail.