AICP Bidding Resources: AICP Bid Form, Bidding Reference Guide and Suggested Best Practices
Source: https://aicp.com/business-resources/business-affairs-information/bidding-resources
Intended for AICP member companies.
Structured fields
{
"revision": {
"ref": "Page lists 'AICP Bid Form - Excel Version (macro) - Updated January 2023', 'AICP Bidding Reference Guide - February, 2026'",
"pinned": false,
"source_url": "https://aicp.com/business-resources/business-affairs-information/bidding-resources"
},
"checked_at": "2026-10-17T00:00:00.000Z",
"usefulness": "Association of Independent Commercial Producers page hosting the standard US commercial bid form (Excel macro workbook and 14-page PDF), a 2026 bidding reference guide of questions to settle before bidding (budget, insurance, delivery, talent, timeline), sample bid language and bidding best practices. The bid form's top sheet shows the standard commercial budget structure.",
"source_type": "documentation",
"availability": "available",
"source_owner": "Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP)",
"next_check_at": "2026-10-24T00:00:00.000Z",
"known_limitations": [
"The AICP page also lists an 'AI Resources' page that is member-only; its content was not accessible.",
"The bid form is a US commercial-production tool; feature and episodic budgets use other structures.",
"The PDF is a print of the Excel workbook; sample numbers in it are leftovers and not guidance."
]
}Evidence claims
- [upstream_claim] The AICP Bid Form was introduced in 1975 to standardize bidding on commercials. · locator: page intro source
- [sourced_fact] The Excel (macro) bid form is listed as updated January 2023, with a PDF version. · locator: 'New AICP Bid Form' source
- [sourced_fact] The PDF bid form's top sheet sums lettered sections A-K (prep crew through miscellaneous production costs) as a sub-total. · locator: bid form PDF, 'Summary of Estimated Production Costs' source
- [sourced_fact] Director's fees are a separate lettered section (L) after the A-K sub-total. · locator: bid form PDF, top sheet source
- [sourced_fact] Insurance and Production Fee rows follow the sections on the top sheet. · locator: bid form PDF, top sheet source
- [sourced_fact] The top sheet has a 'Contingencies (Not Billed)' block. · locator: bid form PDF, top sheet source
- [sourced_fact] The reference guide asks whether a job is firm bid, cost-plus or a blend, which changes how the budget is built and reported. · locator: Reference Guide p.2 source
- [sourced_fact] It also asks whether wrap-up insurance covers the job or production should bid full insurance. · locator: Reference Guide p.2 source
- [upstream_claim] Research review verdict at export: reviewed (as of 2026-10-17). Recorded by the research pipeline, not a hub review outcome; evidence.review stays unreviewed until an independent reviewer records one.
Rights
| component | license | hosting | redistribution | modification | training | Evidence and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| documentation | unknown | restricted | restricted | unknown | unknown | AICP disclaimer: AICP owns copyright in website information, which 'may not be used for any purposes other than informational, personal, non-commercial use'. The bid form is offered to members for use; no licence for redistribution found. The Excel workbook was not downloaded. |
Linked records
- How should generative-AI generation credits and compute be classified in a production chart of accounts and treated under tax-credit expenditure rules? discusses → this
- Can the published budget and cost-report templates (AICP bid form, Telefilm standard budget, Screen Australia QAPE spreadsheet, HMRC claim templates) be hosted or transformed, or only linked? discusses → this
- Is there a published mapping between Telefilm/CAVCO numbered budget lines, Movie Magic Budgeting default account numbers and AICP bid-form sections? discusses → this
- Steps an agent can follow, each attributed. (1) Build a three-level hierarchy: topsheet categories that roll up accounts, which roll up detail lines; Movie Magic Budgeting's own example is a '2500 SET OPERATIONS' category with account '2503' for dolly grips and '2517' for grip rentals [mmb Accounts… cites → this
- They differ and several block hosting copies. GOV.UK pages (AVEC guidance, HMRC manuals) and the HSE web page are under the Open Government Licence v3.0, which requires acknowledging the source [ogl; avec; hse]. The HSE leaflet INDG360 instead carries an older Crown copyright notice allowing free r… cites → this
- No single published standard was found. Movie Magic Budgeting lets each budget define its own account-number pattern (1-6 characters per level) and says every category and account is expected to carry a number that can later match the production's accounting system [mmb Account Coding]. Telefilm's … cites → this
- None was found. Searches for generative-AI cost tracking returned only vendor blog posts, which were not recorded. Netflix's Partner Help Center has a Gen AI category, but fetching it redirects to a script-driven hub that returned only a 'Knowledge Hub' heading, so the guidance text could not be re… cites → this
- Film budgeting (Wikipedia) related → this