Event Budgeting
Organize Finances With This Free Event Budget Template
The perfect event budget template can help streamline your finances and maximize your ROI. Discover a template to kick-start your budgeting here.
Creating a watertight budget is every event organizer’s dream: no unexpected expenses, all costs catered for, and an excellent return on investment (ROI). The one thing behind all effective budgets? Comprehensive planning — and that means using a great template.
The right template can supercharge your budget by helping you estimate costs ahead of time, manage your spending, and allocate your resources effectively. In this guide, you’ll learn how to make the most of your event budget template to streamline your event finances and create the perfect event.
Key takeaways
Creating an event budget is the foundation of any successful event, allowing you to streamline your finances, track your expenses, and identify key cost-saving opportunities
There are a range of factors you need to consider when creating your budget — including expenses (such as venue hire, catering costs, and staffing fees) and income (such as sponsorships, grants, and ticket pre-sales)
Utilize our free event budget template to simplify the planning process, organize your expenses into clear categories, and pull all of your research together into a single resource
Understanding event budgets
Whether you’re working with a similar budget or a smaller one, what’s vital is how you manage it. And this is where a robust budget comes in.
A good event budget helps you to keep your finances in check, including your expenses (such as your venue hire fee and catering costs) as well as your income (such as sponsorship or crowdfunding) to ensure you’re on track to make a profit. Your budget should be a well-organized and up-to-date resource, allowing you to see a comprehensive picture of your event expenditure — from a big-picture forecast to fine-detail calculations.
Why event budgeting matters
So — why does event budgeting matter? Beyond just crunching numbers, budgeting plays a key role in the success of your event, allowing you to stay in control of your spending. For many event organizers, budget restraints are the most common challenge to smooth-sailing events. Creating a budget can help, then, in one crucial way: it makes the funds you do have work harder.
In making your money go further, a strong budget allows you to:
Set realistic goals and expectations for your event
Plan all costs ahead of time
Track and categorize your expenses
Track and categorize your income
Analyze your spending
Allocate your resources effectively
Identify key cost-saving opportunities
Maximize your ROI
Key components of an event budget
There are several key components of an event budget; make sure you cover all bases when you begin planning so as not to overlook any key costs. Generally speaking, budgets can be split into two categories: expenses and income.
Expenses
Merchandise costs
Speaker or performer fees
Staffing costs
Technology, device, or equipment hire or purchase
Marketing costs (printed materials and paid advertising)
Event management tools, apps, and software
One-off costs, such as business licenses or permits
Income
Sponsorships
Ticket pre-sales
Crowdfunding
Investments
Grants
Introducing our free event budget template
Say goodbye to disorganized budgeting — and say hello to our event budget template. This template will help you to simplify your spending and provide an organized format for all of your event costs. The template is split into a range of categories, including costs for:
Venue
Refreshments
Program
Promotion
Other (merchandise, add-ons, and so on)
For each category, you have space to input the following:
Estimated costs: In one column, input estimated costs for the various categories. This is what you estimate you will spend on each item, in line with the constraints of your budget. Our template will automatically give you totals for each category, and for the event as a whole.
Actual costs: In the second column of each category, input the actual costs of each item. This can be done by obtaining quotes from different suppliers to find the confirmed costs you will be invoiced for. Our template will automatically give you totals for each category, and for the event as a whole — as well as putting your actual costs with a side-by-side comparison with your estimated costs, so you can identify any areas of shortfall.
Customizing the template for your needs
Your budget should be tailored to fit your event — whether you’re creating a large festival or a small dining experience. That’s why it’s easy to customize our event budget template for your needs. You can add rows for new categories (such as music or talent), modify existing categories, and remove any categories that don’t fit your event.
Tracking expenses with the template
It’s easy to track your expenses with our event budget template. Each category and its associated expenses are laid out in clear rows and automatically presented in a pie chart — so it’s easy to see at a glance where your budget is allocated.
You can also see an accurate expense breakdown for each category, which can help you analyze your spending and pinpoint cost-saving opportunities. Our comparison feature means you can compare your estimated and actual expenses too — simplifying your budget strategy by highlighting any discrepancies.
Download the event budget template here.
Breaking down the event budget categories
With rising costs of equipment and venue hire, it’s becoming more important than ever to make every cent of your event budget count. This is how your budget can help: a breakdown of your costs can help you use your funds wisely. Here’s how to track each one carefully across each expense category.
Venue
In the venue category of your budget template, you’ll need to obtain figures for the following:
Hire cost: The cost of hiring the venue, either a flat rate or on a per-hour/day basis.
Additional costs: The cost of any extras you require, such as in-house catering, equipment use, bar use, or other amenities (these may be included in the hire fee, but not always, so it is worth double checking).
Total: This is the total of the venue hire cost plus any extras. To compare multiple venues, you’ll need to repeat the steps above to ascertain which offers the best value.
Talent
In the talent category of your budget template, you’ll need to obtain figures for the following:
Appearance costs: The cost of the performer or speaker appearing at your event.
Additional costs: The cost of riders (such as supplying specific products or services), accommodation, or travel for the performer/speaker if necessary.
Total: This is the total cost of appearance fees, travel, accommodation, and rider for each performer. If you have multiple performers, remember to complete these steps as many times as necessary and add together to get the total entertainment cost.
Food and drink
In the catering category of your budget template, you’ll need to obtain figures for the following:
Food and drink costs: The cost of all the food and drink you will supply at your event. This might be buying specific items at a fixed price (for instance, 300 bottles of beer from one supplier, plus 200 popcorn boxes from another) or may be calculated on a per-head basis (for instance, a sum of $35 per attendee charged by the venue for in-house catering), so make sure to factor this into your calculations accordingly.
Additional costs: The cost of any catering extras, such as booking food trucks, caterers or staff (such as bartenders or waiters).
Total: This is the total cost of food, drink, and catering extras for your event (remember to include Goods and Services Tax (GST) to the total cost if it is not included in your other figures).
People and staffing
In the staffing category of your budget template, you’ll need to obtain figures for the following:
Staff costs: The cost of hiring the staff you need for your event. Input their daily or hourly rate, and multiply by the number of staff members to get the total figure.
Additional costs: The cost of any extras, such as uniforms (remember to calculate these per staff member, allowing extra for damaged/lost uniforms) or accommodation and travel (if necessary).
Total: The total cost of the above to give you an accurate figure for your staffing budget.
Marketing and promotion
In the marketing category of your budget template, you’ll need to obtain figures for the following:
Marketing costs: The cost of all marketing materials you will be using and campaigns you’ll be running, such as paid advertising (like social media ads, newsletter ads, and so on), sponsored content costs, influencer marketing costs, and marketing tool subscriptions.
Total: The total cost of each of the marketing items above.
Ticketing and software
In the ticketing and software category of your budget template, you’ll need to obtain figures for the following:
Software costs: The cost of any apps, tools, or event management software you use to sell your tickets, manage your event, or organize your team.
Total: The total cost of each of the tools above (remember to factor in how your subscriptions are paid for each tool — for instance, if you pay a monthly fee, how many months will you be using the software in the run-up to the event?)
Once you have obtained figures for each category, our template adds each total together to get the overall figure for your event expenses.
Additional event planning resources
Your event budget is the superhero of your event strategy, but streamlining your planning doesn’t stop there. From AI-powered software to actionable templates, there are a range of other tools that can save you time and resources — so you can spend your energy where it matters most: on delighting your attendees.
Streamlining event planning with technology
New technologies — in particular, big data and artificial intelligence (AI) — are transforming event planning for a new generation of event organizers. According to research by Ovation DMC, 21% of event organizers surveyed said they would use AI to streamline their event planning and logistics, while 15% would use it for data analytics, such as analyzing attendee behavior.
Incorporating new tech into your planning can be an effective way to save time, costs, and resources. There are a range of tools you can explore, including:
AI tools: AI-powered tools can help you to create compelling copy for your marketing campaigns, speed up your budget creation with predictive analytics and save time on manual data entry.
Automated software: From scheduling social media posts to sending email marketing campaigns, investing in software with automated scheduling features can help you stay organized with your attendee communications.
Team software: Get everyone organized using team software and apps, such as group calendars, shared resource platforms, and task boards (such as Trello, Monday, and Asana) — so that everyone in your team has full visibility for each element of the event.
Leveraging templates for efficiency
The best way to get organized? Compiling all elements of your event planning into easy-to-access resources. Whether you’re organizing your marketing strategy, your schedule, or your email launch copy, event planning templates are every organizer’s best friend.
The right templates are a great way to kick-start your planning and boost your efficiency. They also give your planning a well-defined framework so that you can track various moving parts of your event easily — allowing you and your team to stay on the same page. Below, discover a range of templates designed to power your planning process.
Event planning templates
The secret ingredient to any successful event is a strong, comprehensive budget. Paying attention to financial planning — from expenses to sponsorships — at the beginning can help to keep you on track and boost that all-important ROI. With our event budget template, you can organize your expenditure and your funding in one clear place.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an event budget?
An event budget is a comprehensive outline of an event’s financial plan, intended to facilitate making smart decisions. It gives a detailed breakdown of expenses and revenue, so you can keep track of all associated costs of running the event — and create clear strategies to maximize your ROI.
How can an event budget template assist in tracking expenses?
Using an event budget template facilitates staying on top of finances by providing a framework for tracking and monitoring expenses. By tracking and categorizing expenses in a clear format, you can pinpoint areas you can cut back on, where you can spend more, and how you can boost your profits.
What are the usual expenses linked to leasing a venue for an event?
The cost of hiring a venue can vary hugely depending on the size and scale of your event, as well as the venue’s capacity, amenities, and location. Some venues may also charge extra for equipment hire, catering, or bar use. You may decide to search for a venue on per-hour basis, or decide to pay a flat fee — so make sure you research thoroughly to find the best space for your needs.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of buffet service compared to served meals at events?
Buffet service can be an affordable catering option if you’re working with a limited budget. It tends to be typically cheaper than a served meal, while also suiting more relaxed events. Sit-down dining, on the other hand, comes with a higher price tag and tends to suit more formal events.
