Union Studio Versions and Publishing

Union Studio (left nav) is where Greenroom keeps every union agreement's rates as data: minimums, premiums, fringe contributions, deductions, and the mailing destination for each fund. As a company manager you see a read-only view of the contracts your own production declared in Company Setup. Greenroom staff see the whole catalog, and only they can change it. A change made in the Studio is never an edit in place: it is a new, effective-dated version that goes through a draft, a validation pass with an impact preview, and a publish that closes the version before it.

Admin, Payroll, and Approver teammates can all read their production’s Union Studio. An Admin manages the company’s contract list; publishing rate versions remains a Greenroom staff action.

This page covers that lifecycle from both sides: what you see as a producer, what staff do to change a rate, and how a payroll run decides which version it prices against. For how rates get loaded in the first place, see Union Pay Rate CSV Upload; for where each figure comes from, see Union Rate Reference.

What you're looking at

What the screen shows depends on who you are. A company manager gets a read-only reference scoped to their own production; Greenroom staff get the whole catalog. Both read a version's rules the same way.

Your production's contracts (company managers)

The header reads Union Studio, then your company's name and Your union contracts, with a Read-only badge and a Review company setup button (Review Settings → Unions once your company is approved), which opens the Production & unions stage where your contracts are declared (see Union Setup). Below it:

• Your contracts: one entry per union contract your production declared, each showing the union, its agreement and, where it has one, its production kind. A wide screen lists them on the left; a narrower one puts them in a Contract menu beside the contract's name. Unions your production doesn't run under don't appear at all.
• The selected contract's name, with its union and agreement under it.
• The version bar: a Version choice, one per published version, each labelled with its effective window and the one in force today marked In force (see below); a status line saying where the chosen version stands today, with its Checked against the agreement or Not yet checked badge; and the line "Executed CBA prevails over transcriptions."
• A link to each section of rules, with its count, and Search rules, which matches rule names, job titles, tiers, funds and notes and counts what it shows (N of M rules). When nothing matches, the page says so and offers Clear search.
• The rules themselves, a card per section that holds any, in a fixed order: Minimums, Increments, Fringes, Deductions, Vacation, Overtime, Media fees, Leave. Each rule is one line: its name (a minimum is listed by its job title), its tier outside Minimums, its rate, its fund, and pre-tax or post-tax for a deduction. Under the rate is what bounds it: the part unit it's counted in (AEA Production's rehearsal overtime is counted in whole hours, rounded up), an amount cap, a weekly or annual basis cap, and who it applies to when that's only Employees or only Loan-outs. Minimum job titles that share one exact rate share a line, and a title listed twice names its tier under it. A rule's notes open under its line, and a search that matches a note opens it; a leave rule's note is its policy, so it reads in the line. Where your contract has a production kind (a tier or level), you see that kind's rules plus the ones every kind shares.

A contract can need your attention, and its notice shows once, under the contract's name. A notice that only some of your contracts carry also marks them Needs review in the list. "Outside the Off-Broadway scope." (or Broadway, or Development) means the contract's agreement isn't one Greenroom normally pairs with your production type. Here it is information only: the contract stays listed and its rates still show. A contract that needs a tier chosen, or needs marking as a musical or a play, says what to do and what its payees miss until then. "Set your production type in company setup to scope these contracts." means no production type has been chosen yet, which is about the company rather than any one contract. Once your company is approved it reads "Ask Greenroom to set your production type to scope these contracts." instead, because only Greenroom can set it then.

If your production hasn't declared a contract yet, the page says No contracts yet. A contract with no agreement chosen says Choose an agreement in company setup (Choose an agreement in Settings → Unions once your company is approved), and one whose agreement has no published rules says No published rules for this contract. Each offers the same Review button as the header. A newly added contract appears the next time the page loads.

The full catalog (Greenroom staff)

A super admin sees every union under Unions on the left (a Union menu on a narrower screen), each with its count of agreements and a Draft badge while one of its agreements has a draft in progress. The selected union's name heads the detail, with its code and count of agreements under it, then two tabs:

• Rates: the same version bar, with an Agreement choice above the Version one, one per contract type Greenroom holds for that union (Production, Off-Broadway, Development, and so on). Same union, different agreement, different rate book. The status line carries what can be done with the version: New version from this one (see Creating a new version), and Continue the draft while the agreement has one. Then the rules, drawn as a manager sees them, and for an agreement that carries a department catalog (IATSE Broadway today), a closed Departments card after them listing the departments its payees can be given.
• Destinations, with its count of current destinations: where each fund's cheque goes. Documented on Union Setup.

Every published version, in both views, carries the line "Executed CBA prevails over transcriptions." and one of two badges on its status line: Checked against the agreement (checked line by line against the governing agreement) or Not yet checked (loaded from a rate workbook, or authored in the Studio, and not checked against the agreement yet). What the badge means for a payroll run is covered below.

How dates and rates read

A version's window reads Sep 1, 2025 → Aug 30, 2026 when it has an end date, Sep 1, 2026 → present when it is open-ended and already in force, and Aug 30, 2027 onward when it is open-ended and hasn't started yet. The last form is there so a future step isn't mistaken for the contract in force. In the Version choice the version in force today is marked, as in Sep 1, 2026 → present · In force, a draft reads Draft · … and a retired version Retired · …. The status line beside it says what the chosen window means today: In force today, Not in force yet, Ended or Retired, and for a draft, Draft · payroll doesn't use it until it's published.

A rate reads the way it is priced, in both views: a dollar amount with its unit ($2,717.00/week, /day, /hour, /performance, /role, or the rule's own unit, such as /half-hour), a percent with what it applies to (2.5% of gross), an exact fraction of a basis (1/8 of base salary/performance), or both halves of a greater-of rule (IATSE Pink's Holiday pay reads Greater of 1/6 of base salary or 1/4 of weekly minimum/holiday). A rule whose rate is missing says Rate not configured or Amount not configured rather than showing $0.00.

Which version the Studio opens on

The Studio opens on the version in force today, not the newest one. That matters for a union with a future step already loaded: Local 802 carries three year-chained sets, and opening on the 2027 set would show next season's musician rates as though they were current. A version takes over the screen only when its window contains today's date. A version whose window starts in the future is in the Version choice to read, and the Studio falls back to it only when no version is in force at all (a union whose rate book starts next season). Choosing any other version overrides the default.

The URL carries the selection, so a bookmark to a specific union and agreement lands on that union and agreement. A bookmark naming a union code that does not exist says so — "No union with the code X is configured here — showing AEA instead. Choose the union you meant." — rather than quietly showing another union's rates under the wrong name.

A company manager's address names a contract and a version instead. One your company doesn't have says so in the same spirit, naming what is shown in its place, for example "That contract or version is not available for this company. Showing AEA · Production."

Versions and effective dates, from a run's point of view

A version is one union, one agreement, and a window of dates — effective from through effective until, both inclusive. Windows never overlap: publishing a new version closes the previous one the day before the new one begins, and the database refuses two active versions that share a day.

A payroll run resolves its rule set on the pay period's end date. Whichever version's window contains that date governs the whole period — a week is never split across two versions.

The second row is a mid-period step. Greenroom does not prorate across it; the new rates apply to the full week, and Payroll Summary says so: "SDC rates step on Sep 1, 2026, inside this pay period. The period is governed by its end date, so the new rates apply to the full week." It is informational, not a blocker — see the warnings table on Payroll Calculations.

The same rule decides what a reprint shows. A run that priced under the old version keeps pricing under it, because publishing closes the old version rather than editing or deleting it.

Checked against the agreement, or not yet

Every version records whether its rates have been checked against the agreement. When the version governing a payroll's period hasn't been, three things say so:

• Payroll Summary shows a note, for example "Local 802 Broadway rates have not yet been checked against the agreement. Confirm the Local 802 deductions and fringes with the union before remitting."
• Submit lists the union and agreement under Rates not yet checked against the agreement and asks you to look over their deductions and fringes. A preparer and a reviewer each tick the attestation before their action. The final required approval submits the payroll automatically, so Approvers attest before Approve this payroll too. The confirmation begins "I reviewed the payroll summary and union reports, including verifying the amounts for Local 802 Broadway myself (rates not yet checked against the agreement)."
• The printed union report carries a footnote: "The [union] rates on this report have not yet been checked against the agreement. Confirm the amounts with the union before remitting."

A version published from the Studio starts as Not yet checked. Its badge changes to Checked against the agreement only when Greenroom's engineering checks the version against the executed agreement, which is a data migration rather than a Studio action. Union Rate Reference records where each version's figures come from; the Local 802 Year 2 set, checked against the League's own memo, is the worked example.

Creating a new version (Greenroom staff)

A super admin reading a published version sees New version from this one on its status line. A retired version has none: its status line says "A retired version is read-only." and offers Open the version in force. The button opens New rule-set version:

Copies every rule from Local 802 Broadway (effective Aug 31, 2026) into an editable draft. Nothing changes for payroll until the draft is validated and published.

Two fields, both required:

• Effective from — the date the new rates take over. On publish, the previous version closes the day before this date, and runs whose pay period ends on or after it use the new rates.
• Source document — the CBA, memorandum or exhibit the rates come from, in the form "SDC/OBL MOA Art XI — +10% step effective 9/1/2026". It is never prefilled from the version being copied, because that version's document does not vouch for numbers about to be edited. It has to be at least four characters, so a dash or "n/a" cannot satisfy it, and at most 300. A rate change is a money change, so it has to be traceable to a document — the draft is refused without one.

Create draft copies every rule row into a new draft version and lands on it ("Draft created — edit, validate, then publish"). The draft inherits the copied version's effective until, so it replaces the tail of that window and can never collide with a later step that is already loaded. Its rates start as not yet checked.

Managers never see a draft — their list of versions shows published ones only. A super admin finds it in the Version choice as Draft · Jan 1, 2027 onward; the union carries a Draft badge in the list of unions, and the agreement's published versions offer Continue the draft (starts Jan 1, 2027).

Supersede, not add

There is no "add a second rate book" for an agreement. Every version starts as a copy of a published one, and publishing it supersedes its predecessor from the effective date: the predecessor's window closes the day before, the new window opens, and nothing inside the predecessor changes. History stays reprintable.

Destinations follow the same rule at the row level. A supersede closes the current address row and opens a new one from a future date; add exists only for a fund and agreement that has no open row at all, and is refused with a supersede hint when one exists. A destination's Starts on date has to be after today — "Starts on must be after today: a run already paid always reprints the address it went to." — and every write carries its evidence: a citation, a link to the source, one sentence quoted from it word for word, and the source's date. See Union Setup.

Editing a draft

A draft opens on the Rates tab, under the version bar, whose status line reads, for example, Jan 1, 2027 onward · Draft · payroll doesn't use it until it's published. A toolbar sits above its rules: the Source document line, Add a rule, Discard draft and Validate & publish. Each rule reads as it will once published, one line each, with a Counted in column for increments and overtime and a Fund column for fringes and deductions. Click a rule to open its form.

• Source document shows the citation with an Edit link, or a No citation recorded warning badge with Add one. A typo can be corrected in place while the version is a draft. Once published, the citation is frozen with the rates.
• Add a rule is a menu of the eight sections. The rule it adds opens on its form under its section, with a sensible starting shape: a fringe or deduction starts as a percent of gross, vacation as a percent of base salary, a media fee as a percent of the weekly minimum, overtime as dollars per hour, and a minimum, increment or leave rule as dollars per week. Only the sections that hold rules are shown, and a draft with none says This draft has no rules.
• Each rule has a Type ($ / week, $ / day, $ / hour, Percent, $ / performance, $ / role), a Rate / amount ("In percent: 2.5 is 2.5%." or "In dollars."), and for a percent rule a Basis (of gross, of base salary, of weekly minimum, of salary + vacation, of salary + premiums, of all covered pay). Depending on the section it also carries a job title, tier, Counted in (for a rule paid per hour, day, performance or role: whole units, or a part unit and which way a part rounds), Amount cap, fund, Pre-tax, Applies to (All, Employees, Loan-outs), and notes.
• A rule priced by an exact fraction shows the fraction read-only in Rate / amount: Local 802's Vacation reads 49/800 of base salary, with "6.125%. The editor can't change a stored fraction." under it. Its Basis can still be changed.
• Delete, at the foot of a rule's form, removes it. Changed rules are highlighted until saved.

Saving and leaving a draft

One Unsaved rule edits bar saves every change in one go (Save changes), or drops them all (Cancel). While anything is unsaved, Validate & publish is disabled, and the line under it says why: "Save changes first: publishing checks the saved draft." Otherwise it reads "Checks every rule and previews the pay impact before anything is published." A save too large to send at once is refused, and nothing is sent: "These changes are too large to save at once. Shorten long entries, or save fewer rules at a time."

Leaving the draft with edits unsaved, by a tab, another union or version, the app's own navigation or a reload, asks first: "Save your edits to this draft before leaving, or discard them.", with Discard changes and Save changes. Your browser's Back button doesn't ask, so save before you use it.

Every save writes an audit row per changed rule — before and after for the money fields, the names of any other fields that moved, and the citation as it stood at that moment. An edit that changes nothing writes no row.

What the editor tells you as you type

Two things, and neither blocks anything:

• Fund near-matches. The Fund field offers the union's existing fund names, and a typed name that nearly matches one gets a notice — "IATSE National Benefit Fund" already exists on this union and looks like the same name written out. Saving both cuts two separate checks. — with variants for a punctuation-or-spacing difference and for a name one or two characters away. A spelling that an alias already maps is stored as the canonical name, so a hand-typed "IATSE NBF" rides the same cheque as "IATSE National Benefit Fund".
• A rate in the label. A name like SDC Dues (3%) beside a Rate column already reading 3% gets "The Rate column already shows this rate — drop the parenthesised copy from the name." Two fund names, USA Pension (10%) and IATSE NBF Health (12%), are exempt because the parenthesis is part of the fund's identity for remittance.

What the editor can't change

A rule that is the greater of two formulas (IATSE Pink's Holiday pay) is copied into a draft with both formulas intact. Its Rate / amount shows the whole comparison read-only, Greater of 1/6 of base salary or 1/4 of weekly minimum/holiday, because the editor can't change a stored fraction. Its Basis, the first formula's, offers only base salary and the weekly minimum: a greater-of can compare only the weekly salary, a weekly minimum or another agreement's minimum. The second formula has no field; it is loaded by migration. What a producer sees of such a rule is on Adding Employees.

Two other properties travel the same way. A per-day benefit can be switched on to bill by itself on daily-paid engagements (SDC's daily pension and health are, on its Off-Broadway, Off-Broadway Developmental and Broadway League Developmental agreements), and a contribution can be owed once per production week instead of once per payee (IATSE Pink's Training Trust Fund is). A new version copies both from the version it started from, but the editor shows neither, and a rule added on the draft starts with neither: a per-day fringe added in the Studio stays a reference row that bills nothing until engineering switches it on.

Discarding a draft

Discard draft asks Discard this draft?, with "The Local 802 Broadway draft (Jan 1, 2027 onward) and its 42 rules are deleted. Published versions are not affected." Confirming removes the draft with every row on it. Only an unpublished draft can be discarded.

Validate & publish

Validate & publish opens a modal that is computed entirely on the server: every rule and the window are validated, then the impact is previewed. The Publish version button stays disabled until every error is cleared. Warnings are listed under "N things to know — you can still publish" and published past.

What blocks publishing

What warns but still publishes

With the errors clear, the modal shows three green checks — All 42 rules pass validation, Effective window clear: Jan 1, 2027 onward, and Current version (effective Jun 29, 2026) closes on Dec 31, 2026 (or No previous active version to close) — followed by the impact preview.

The preview is computed for one real sample payee (any active payee holding this union and agreement with a current weekly performance rate), current rules against the draft, as one table per engagement shape the edited rule types price differently. A sample whose title is Actor/Musician is priced against the Actor minimum, the same minimum a payroll uses for that title.

Part week appears only when a per-performance rule is involved, Hourly engagement only with a per-hour rule, and Daily engagement only when either version carries a per-day benefit that bills by itself. No performances or hours appears whenever a per-performance or per-hour rule is involved, because those are the rules that pair with a weekly one. Each row is a fund or rule with Before, After and the difference. A shape that moves no money says "No union fringe, deduction, or wage add-on moves in this shape." rather than disappearing, because "this edit changes nothing on an hourly engagement" is an answer. If no payee qualifies: "No active payee holds this union + agreement with a current weekly rate — publishing without an impact preview."

The footer states the consequence: "Publishing replaces the current version from the effective date. Published versions are immutable; the new version shows as “Not yet checked” until its rates are checked against the executed agreement."

Publish version does two things in one transaction: closes the predecessor at the day before the new effective date, and flips the draft to active. If another session published or discarded the same draft first, nothing changes and the modal says "This draft was published or discarded in another session — reload the Studio." The database's own no-overlap constraint is the last guard, reported as "Another active version overlaps this effective window — reload the Studio and re-check the dates." On success — "Version published — runs ending on or after Jan 1, 2027 use it" — an audit row records who published, the effective date, the rule count, which predecessor closed and on what date, and the citation.

Supersession pairs, and why half of one is refused

Two unions price one fund with a pair of rules and the engine picks between them per engagement. Local 802 health is a weekly amount beside a per-performance amount; Local 764's Guardian welfare is a weekly amount beside an hourly one capped at the weekly figure. When an engagement supplies a count — performances, or hours from the union report — the per-unit row bills; when it supplies none, the weekly row does. In the Studio the two halves name the same fund and look like duplicates.

Local 802's health fund also carries a third kind of row: a weekly health line scoped to Rehearsal Musician and Rehearsal Pianist (the agreement's HL-3 rehearsal rate). For those two titles it bills in place of the all-titles weekly row; every other title still falls back to the all-titles row.

Deleting either half moves money, in opposite directions:

• Drop the per-unit row and the weekly figure bills on every engagement again — the exact overbilling the pair was introduced to fix, silently re-shipped.
• Drop the weekly row and every engagement that supplies no count bills $0 to that fund — an under-remittance to a benefit fund, which is the direction that becomes a grievance.

So publishing checks pairs, by fund, in both directions:

• Per-unit rules with no weekly companion in the draft — “Health” is priced per performance (2 rules) but this version has no weekly rule for it — hourly and daily engagements count no performances of their own, so they would bill $0 to that fund. Restore the weekly rule, or remove the per performance rules too. Blocks. A weekly row is a companion only for the titles it covers: an all-titles weekly row covers every per-unit row on its fund, a title-scoped one only the per-unit rows for its own title. So a Local 802 draft that keeps the two rehearsal-title weekly rows but drops the all-titles weekly row is refused too, in a variant that names both sides: …but this version has weekly rules for it only for Rehearsal Musician and Rehearsal Pianist, none for … Restore the all-titles weekly rule, or remove those per performance rules too.
• The published version prices a fund per unit and the draft removes all of those rows while keeping the weekly one — …this version removes all of them and keeps the weekly rule “Health” — every engagement would bill the full weekly amount again. Restore them, or remove the weekly rule too. Blocks.
• Removing both halves is a deliberate retirement of the fund: allowed, and loud in the impact preview. Removing some of the per-unit rows is the warning in the table above.

Only that first check reads job titles. The second compares by fund alone, and neither looks at who a row applies to, so a weekly row limited to loan-outs still counts as the companion for employees. Today every per-unit row is covered: Local 802's per-performance health rows by the all-titles weekly Health row (and, for the two rehearsal titles, by their own weekly rows), and Local 764's hourly Guardian row by a weekly row scoped to the same Child Actor Guardian title. Keep that coverage when editing them.

After publishing

• The new version joins the Version choice, marked In force once its window contains today; the old version now ends the day before.
• Published versions are immutable. Any attempt to change one is refused with "Published versions are immutable — create a new version to change rates." A correction is another version with a later effective date, and the old version stays as history so past runs reprint faithfully.
• The exception is a figure that was transcribed wrong in the first place. Greenroom's engineering corrects that with a data migration rather than a Studio edit, on the version's own dates: AEA's Off-Broadway pension, for example, was corrected from 6% to 8% on 2026-09-18 in every version that carried it. A run already submitted keeps the figures it was priced with.
• The new version shows Not yet checked. Until engineering checks it against the agreement, payrolls in its window show the note above, and you confirm those amounts at Submit before sending, approving, or submitting.
• A rule set is platform-wide, not per company. The new version applies to every production that runs that union and agreement, from its effective date.

What the Studio shows versus the Union Rate Reference page

The Studio is the engine's own data: versions and rules exactly as a run prices them (for a company manager, those of your own contracts). Union Rate Reference is the human record around it: the document each figure comes from, the corrections made to them, and which lines of an agreement Greenroom's rule set does not carry at all. The Studio's badge shows the flag a payroll reads; the reference page is where the evidence lives. If the two ever disagree, the Studio is what a run used. Union rates is a dated export of the same published rate sets, one page per agreement, so they can be read and searched outside the app.

When a rate looks wrong

1. Check which version you are reading. The highlighted version is the one in force today, which is not necessarily the one a specific run used — a run is governed by the version containing its pay-period end date. Last week's run and this week's can legitimately differ.
2. Check the scoping. Many rules are scoped to a job title, a tier, or a payee type (Employees versus Loan-outs). A rate that "doesn't apply" to a payee is usually scoped to a different title. Search the rule name to see every row that carries it.
3. Compare with the reference page. If the Studio's figure and Union Rate Reference disagree, note both.
4. Tell Greenroom, with the document. Send support the union, the agreement, the version's effective date, the rule (name and job title), and the CBA article, memo or exhibit you believe is right. Staff create a new version citing that document. You cannot edit the rate yourself, and a rule change never re-prices a run that has already been submitted.

Common issues

A version reads "No citation recorded"

Expected for every version Greenroom loaded by seed or migration rather than authored in the Studio, which is all of the original rate books. A version created in the Studio cannot be born without a citation; the seeded ones keep the badge until a super admin adds one on a draft copy. A missing citation says nothing about whether the rates are right: the version's Checked against the agreement or Not yet checked badge, and the reference page, cover that.

I can see a draft

Then you are signed in as a super admin. Company managers never see drafts, and nothing in a draft touches payroll until it is published.

The Studio opened on a version that isn't the newest

By design — it opens on the version in force today. The newest version is a future step; choose it under Version to read it. An open-ended future step reads … onward rather than → present.

The same union appears with two sets of rates

Two agreements. Your production declared that union twice on the Production & unions stage of Company Setup, so Your contracts lists it twice, each entry naming its agreement, and each payee prices from the one their engagement names. Greenroom staff see the same split as two choices under Agreement.

A union we run isn't in Union Studio

Union Studio shows only the contracts your production declared in Company Setup. Ask an Admin to add the union on the Production & unions stage (see Union Setup); it appears the next time the page loads. If the page says No contracts yet, nothing has been declared.

A contract says it is outside our production's scope

"Outside the Off-Broadway scope." (or Broadway, or Development) means the contract's agreement isn't one Greenroom normally pairs with your production type, for example a Broadway agreement on an Off-Broadway production. In Union Studio it is information only: the contract stays listed and its rates still show. Check the production type and the contract on the Production & unions stage, and ask your Greenroom contact if the pairing is intentional.

Next steps

• Union Setup — declaring which unions and agreements your production runs under, and where each fund's cheque goes
• Union Pay Rate CSV Upload — how rates get loaded, and why there is no self-service upload
• Union Rate Reference — where each rate comes from, and the corrections made to them
• Union rates — every agreement's published rate sets, one page per agreement, exported for reading and searching outside the app
• Payroll Calculations — the notes a run shows when its rate set hasn't been checked against the agreement, or steps mid-period