Modules · Budget & money
Festivals rarely fail on the idea and often on the money. The budget lives here alongside everything you do: every quote, every contract and every invoice counts in straight away.
A glimpse of this module
with sample data, liveBudget & money shares data with Suppliers & contracts, Food & drink and Tickets. Change one thing and they move with it.
Nineteen modules, one system. Change it here and it stays right everywhere.
What it does
Stage and tech, site, food and drink purchasing, marketing, permits, contingency. As detailed as you want, with a total that always adds up.
A signed quote is not yet an invoice, but it is committed money. The system knows the difference and shows what is really still free.
What do 350, 500 or 650 visitors mean for your revenue and your break-even? One slider and you see it.
When does which deposit have to go out, and when does the ticket money come in? The calendar shows whether you are tight anywhere.
VAT neatly split, export in one go. The bookkeeper gets a file, not a shoebox.
Tickets, sponsors, grants, food and drink revenue and donations sit next to the costs. Break-even is a fact, not a feeling.
The music royalty is a percentage of your total income or fees. The system factors that reservation in live, so this item never surprises you.
After edition one, edition two knows what food and drink per visitor did and where the budget was too optimistic.
A festival budget is the full overview of what your festival costs and what it brings in, built up per line item and balanced against your break-even. On the cost side you have, among others, stage and technical production, the site, hospitality purchasing, marketing, the permits with their fees and a contingency item. On the income side you have tickets, sponsors, grants, hospitality revenue and donations.
The trap is that a budget in Excel stays a snapshot, while reality shifts every day. A signed quote is not yet an invoice, but the money is already committed. Whoever tracks the difference between committed and actually spent budget knows at any moment what is really still free. Also count in the payment to Buma/Stemra, the Dutch music copyright body, up front: it is a percentage of your total income or of the artist fees, and otherwise it surprises you afterwards.
With scenarios on your visitor count, for example 350, 500 or 650 visitors, you see at once where your break-even lies. The budget is one part of festival.productions and it shares its data with the rest: every signed quote from the suppliers module and every euro of hospitality revenue counts automatically, so the total always adds up.
Frequently asked questions
First list all costs per line item, from stage and technical production to site, hospitality purchasing, marketing, permits and a contingency item. Next to that, set your income from tickets, sponsors, grants and hospitality. The difference determines whether your festival breaks even and at which visitor count it does. This module keeps costs and income side by side in real time, so the total always adds up.
That varies enormously with size, location and programme, so there is no single figure. The big items are almost always stage and technical production, the site and infrastructure, hospitality purchasing, marketing, the permits with their fees and a buffer for contingencies. This module lets you build those items up as coarse or as fine as you like, with a total that runs along automatically.
Buma/Stemra collects the copyright fee for the music you play at your festival. The payment is a percentage of your total income or of the artist fees paid, depending on the rate that applies to your event. Reserve that amount up front. This module calculates the reservation live, so the item does not surprise you at the end.
Break-even is the point where your income exactly covers your costs, usually expressed as a number of tickets sold. Below that number you run a loss, above it you make a margin. This module works out your break-even in scenarios on your visitor count, for example 350, 500 or 650 visitors, so it is a fact and not a feeling.
Spent budget is money that has actually been invoiced and paid. Committed budget is money already locked in by a signed quote or contract, but not yet invoiced. Whoever steers on invoices alone thinks there is more room than there is. This module knows the difference and shows what is really still free.
A go/no-go moment is a fixed decision point, often a few weeks before the festival, where you put the advance sales next to your break-even and decide whether to carry on, adjust or stop. That way you avoid rolling on into a loss-making edition. This module keeps advance sales, costs and break-even together, so you make that decision on figures.
Everything in one place
In festival.productions, Budget & money feeds straight into Suppliers & contracts, Food & drink and Tickets. You change it in one place and it stays right everywhere, from the budget to the event day.