How to build an event budget you can invoice from

What an event budget has to do

A budget does three jobs. Before the event it tells the client what the event will cost and tells you what margin you will make. During planning it shows where costs are moving against the estimate. After the event it is the basis of the invoice.

A budget that only does the first job, written once for the proposal and never updated, is how agencies find out their real margin weeks after the event, when nothing can be done about it.

An event budget template you can copy

The columns every line needs:

• Category: venue, accommodation, catering, AV and production, transfers, staffing, print and branding, entertainment, fees.
• Item: what it is, specific enough that someone else could order it.
• Supplier: who you are buying it from.
• Quantity and days: people, rooms or units, and how many days or nights.
• Unit price, ex VAT.
• VAT rate: per line, because not every cost carries the same rate, and overseas costs may carry none.
• Commission: the rate the supplier pays you, if any.
• Estimated total and actual total, side by side.
• Client price: what the line is charged at, if it differs from cost.
• Status: quoted, approved, booked, invoiced, paid.

Estimated against actual

Keep the estimate when the actual arrives; do not overwrite it. The difference between the two, line by line, is the variance, and it is the only honest way to see where an event went over. Add a projected outturn (actual where you have it, estimate where you do not) so you know where the total is heading before the last bill arrives.

VAT and commission

Work in ex VAT figures and add VAT per line. A single VAT calculation at the bottom of the sheet is wrong as soon as one line is zero-rated, exempt or overseas.

Commission is income from the supplier, not a discount for the client, so record it per line at the rate each supplier pays and raise commission invoices from those lines. A venue at one rate and a hotel at another should sit in the same budget without a side calculation.

Agree it, then lock it

Move the budget through clear stages, for example planning, draft, review, approved and actual, so everyone knows which numbers are agreed and which are still moving. Keep a copy of the approved version. When the client asks why the final figure differs, you can show them line by line.

Common mistakes

The ones that cost the most money:

• VAT added once at the bottom instead of per line.
• Commission worked out by hand after the event, and some of it never invoiced.
• Estimates overwritten by actuals, so the variance is lost.
• No contingency line, so every surprise comes out of the margin.
• The invoice typed up separately from the budget, and the two not matching.

How eventru handles it

eventru keeps the budget on the event, with quantity, days, VAT rate and commission rate on every line, estimated and actual. The budget moves through Planning, Draft, Review, Approved and Actual, and the client can see their lines on a live link. Client bills, commission bills and copy bills come from the same lines and sync to Xero or QuickBooks on paid plans.