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Plain-English guides to how APA pay actually works - overtime, penalties, timesheets and invoicing - for UK film and TV crew. No jargon, no fluff, just the bit you needed to know before you sent the invoice. They come from TimeMachine, an APA pay and timesheet calculator for UK commercial crew, on iPhone and the web.

Rates and pay

The APA rate table Reference

Every crew role with its 2025 and 2026 day rate, overtime grade and coefficient. Searchable by role or department.

APA crew rates 2026: what changed on 1 September

The new card took effect on 1 September 2026. Most day rates rose about three per cent, each role kept its overtime grade, and a job that started before the date keeps the old rates.

What changed in the September 2026 APA crew terms?

Prep days can now be booked for 8 or 10 hours, the overtime grade boundaries have moved, and base to base no longer covers your own hired kit. The three rule changes explained.

How APA rates actually work

A band per role, a BHR that's a tenth of your day rate, and three overtime grades. The two boundaries worth knowing before you negotiate.

How APA overtime actually works

BHR is a tenth of your day rate, and the three grades decide your multiplier. When overtime starts, the round-up rule, and triple time after midnight.

Commercials and long form: what changes when you leave the APA terms

Three separate agreements, not one. Where the shooting day, the continuous day, the hourly rate and the consecutive day rules diverge between commercials, scripted TV and film.

Production managers, assistants and runners: the separate APA rules

Most of the APA terms do not apply to PMs, PAs and runners. Their overtime is on shoot days only, at basic hourly rate on a weekday, with the day rate itself multiplied at weekends and on nights.

APA holiday pay: what the 12.07% means

5.6 weeks, 12.07% of hours worked, and already inside what you are paid. What clause 10 says, and the questions it does not answer.

Long form (beta)

Scripted TV budget bands: what they are and what they change

Four bands, set by the cost of a broadcast hour. The band changes two bank holiday clauses in the agreement, and a good deal more on the rate cards.

The scripted TV working day and overtime under Pact and Bectu

Standard, semi-continuous and continuous days, the extra contracted hour for six departments, and overtime at time and a half with a £35 floor and a £70 ceiling.

Feature film under Pact and Bectu: the 55 hour week and film overtime

The £30 million threshold, the 55 hour week, an hourly rate of weekly pay divided by 55, and camera overtime at double time, capped at £81.82.

Early calls and pre-dawn calls on scripted TV and film

An extra 0.5T before 6am on scripted TV, double time before 5am on film. How individual call times and pre-calls fit, and how both differ from an early call on a commercial.

Lunch and meal breaks on scripted TV and film

Lunch within six hours of the unit call on both agreements. On TV a late or cut lunch pays at the overtime rate; on film, late at single time and cut at double. What a continuous day gives you instead.

Night work on scripted TV and film

On scripted TV, shooting past 11pm is added up over the week and settled as rest or an extra 1T. On film, it is £20 a night and a turnaround day when the nights end.

Broken turnaround on scripted TV and film

Eleven hours on both agreements. On TV, compensatory rest or an extra 0.5T; on film, 1.5T capped at £45 an hour. How both differ from time off the clock on a commercial.

Sixth and seventh days on scripted TV and film

Time and a half for a sixth consecutive day and double for a seventh, on both agreements, but calculated differently. How the run is counted, and why travel days hold it.

Bank holidays on scripted TV and film

Double time for working one on both agreements. For a bank holiday you are not asked to work, film pays your daily fee and scripted TV pays only on Band 4. Which nation’s holidays count.

Travel on scripted TV and film: travel days, travel time and mileage

A 30 mile radius or the M25 on scripted TV, 30 road miles each way on film. When travel time is paid, what a travel day is worth, and how both differ from commercials.

Cancelled as a daily on scripted TV or film: what you are owed

No sliding scale on long form. A confirmed daily cancelled after 1pm the day before on TV, or 3pm on film, is owed the full daily rate. What counts as notice, and what the terms leave open.

Deal memos and getting paid on scripted TV

What your deal memo should fix, the 48 hours you have to object, when the contract has to arrive, and when PAYE and invoicing crew are paid under the Pact and Bectu agreement.

The working day

APA call times: early calls, late calls and pre-calls

Early calls pay the hours before 7am on top of the day, late calls count from 11am, and the APA only prices one kind of pre-call. What the terms say, and what the app does with the rest.

The continuous working day, and how you end up on one without being told

Nine hours, no breaks, overtime from nine hours not eleven. If your first break starts late enough, an ordinary day converts automatically, and nobody announces it.

Night shoots: what you're actually owed

Flat double hourly with a ten hour minimum, no overtime, no triple. Unless it's a continuous night, which pays more and looks identical on the call sheet.

APA Saturday, Sunday and rest day rates explained

Saturday at 1.5 times, Sunday at double, rest days flat whatever the day, and travel at single time even on a Sunday. What weekend work actually pays.

Time off the clock: the turnaround rule, and what you're owed when it's broken

11 hours from wrap to the next call, a floor of 10, the lost hour at your overtime rate, and what TimeMachine counts below that.

Breaks and penalties

Breaks and penalties: what a late lunch is actually worth

The £10 late lunch, the curtailment rule that moves overtime earlier, and the six and a half hour trigger that converts the whole day.

Travel and prep

APA travel days and travel time: what are you actually owed?

The 5 hour minimum on travel days, the 11 hour rule, the first hour deducted each way, and what changed for collecting your own kit.

Mileage: when you can claim it, and when you can't

50p per mile, nothing inside the M25, and a fixed Soho postcode as the origin. When mileage is payable and how it's worked out.

Prep, recce, build and pre-light days: the eight hour day nobody explains

Recce and build days are eight hours, not eleven, and prep is now booked for 8 or 10. Pre-light adds a lunch hour, rest days pay flat, and three roles are exempt.

Getting paid

How to invoice an APA commercial job

The last job of the shoot: raising the invoice. The day calculation, kit and mileage, VAT, numbering, the seven day term, and why sending works differently on iPhone and web.

How a best boy tracks a whole crew's hours

Eight people, eight different calls, one department. Keeping the record on the day, and handing each of them something they can invoice from.

What happens to your timesheet after wrap

Wrap to money in the account, in order: the record, the calculation, the timesheet, the invoice, the seven day term and chasing it when it slips.

Late payment: the seven day rule, and what you can charge when they miss it

The APA terms say seven days. The industry drifted to thirty. The statutory interest and fixed recovery fees you can add when an invoice runs late.

Your shoot got cancelled. What are you owed?

Seven days' notice pays nothing, the day before pays the lot. The APA cancellation scale, how the days are counted, and the multi-day rule that catches people out.