Development to green-light — readiness, packaging, financing, handoff

# Development to green-light

This is the arc a project travels in Forbairt before it becomes a financed
production, and the surfaces Togra gives you at each step. The pieces are
joined: the packaging strength feeds the green-light gate; the gate snapshots
dev spend; that snapshot surfaces on the production finance plan; and the gate's
record drives the slate conversion metrics.

Readiness score

Forbairt → Readiness & green-light scores a project across the dimensions a
complete development package usually has — logline, synopsis, comparable titles,
writer + director attachments (by LOI status), pitch deck, source-rights option,
an open funding application, and a milestone calendar. Each dimension reads from
the surface that owns the data, so the score is always live. Talent attachments
are read from the relational talent register.

Packaging

Forbairt → Packaging pulls the financeable elements into one view —
underlying rights, attached creative + cast (with live-LOI flags), buyer /
broadcaster interest, and the financing / co-pro partner — and scores the
package strength as weak / building / strong. Pillars that don't apply (an
option on an original work) are excluded from the denominator. A unified editor
moves each element along its interested → LOI → deal ladder inline, writing
back to the talent, pitch and co-pro records. The strength score is what the
green-light gate reads.

Development financing

The Dev spend page (Forbairt → Money) carries two dashboards above the cash
ledger:

• Dev budget vs actual — a dev budget target (read from the Screen Ireland development application if one exists, else a target you set inline) against actual dev spend: spent / remaining / % used, with the recoupable figure highlighted (the slice carried into production at green-light).
• Dev funding pipeline — this project's funder applications rolled into applied / pending / awarded by currency, with the next deadline.

You also capture the development-began date here — the start of the S487A
development-cost window.

The green-light gate

Green-light is the formal decision to move a project out of development. It is
advisory, not blocking: an admin or lead may green-light with readiness
dimensions still partial or missing, and those are recorded as acknowledged
overrides against the decision, with a rationale. This matches how producers
actually green-light — on judgement, not a perfect checklist.

Green-lighting runs a surface-only handoff (it records and surfaces; it does
not silently mutate finance or contracts):

1. advances the project stage;
2. stamps the green-light date and the development-began date;
3. snapshots the recoupable dev spend — which then appears on the project's finance plan as a "development costs to recoup" note;
4. shows a handoff checklist — finance plan → production contracts for the attached talent → budget lock → chain of title.

The decision is a permanent record (greenlight_decisions) and can be
reversed, which rolls the stage back. A green-light with overrides shows
exactly which dimensions were not ready.

Slate conversion

The Slate development funnel carries a conversion panel built on the
green-light record: in-development → green-lit → produced → shelved, with the
green-light rate, green-lights by year, reversal rate, and median time
in development. So the slate doesn't just show its current shape — it shows how
much development actually converts.

Because the gate shipped mid-2026, historical green-lights are inferred from
stage history so the metrics are meaningful immediately. Inferred events are
flagged as estimates and are distinct from decisions made through the gate.

Deadline nudges

Three development deadlines surface in the approvals inbox (and as optional
email, opt-in on the Notifications page):

• writer-deal steps still commissioned and coming due;
• market submission deadlines (the Market Planner also shows an upcoming-deadlines banner);
• option reversion / turnaround dates — option agreements carry structured reversion date + terms fields, so the countdown to rights reverting is tracked, not buried in notes.