The Top Event Budget Expense Categories to Track

The best way to visualize your event budget? Categorizing your expenses. Organizing your event costs into clear categories — such as venue, catering, and marketing — is a simple way to see where your budget is allocated, and where you can capitalize on cost-saving opportunities. 

In this guide, you’ll discover the key expense categories you’ll need to include in your budget — as well as tips on how to strategize your spending, save costs, and boost your Return On Investment (ROI). 

Key takeaways

• There are a variety of categories to factor into your budget for an accurate overview, including: event-related categories (such as venue, talent, marketing, and so on) as well as business vs. personal expenses, and fixed vs. variable costs

• To minimize costs, make sure to strategize your spending by keeping your financial objectives — and your event’s SMART goals — front and center of your decisions

• Ensure every cent of your budget works for you by creating a document that is flexible and adjustable, so it can grow with your events — and work to grow your business

Understanding budget expense categories

As well as categorizing your expenses into event-related groups (such as venue and marketing), it’s also vital to categorize by type so you have a clear picture of your spending. In your event budget template, make sure to keep track of personal and business expenses, as well as fixed and variable costs. 

Personal vs. business expense categories

Whether you’re a small event business or working with a large team, it’s important to split your costs into personal and business expenses. This will help you manage your business finances accurately — so you can see exactly where your event budget is going.

A good grasp of these categories can help you to leverage tax benefits, minimize the tax burden, and foster optimal financial growth for your events business. When creating your budget, make sure to keep receipts for all of your business expenses to deduct from your overall taxation liability — this will make your financial admin much easier later on. 

Personal expenses

Think of personal expense categories as your personal travel itinerary. They cover individual or household spending on essential items like:

• Housing

• Transportation

• Food

• Utilities, such as mobile phone bills or internet for personal use

Business expenses

In contrast, business expense categories are all about fueling the growth and success of your business. They include costs related to operating a business, such as:

• Rent of an office or workspace

• Utilities, such as internet for business use

• Office supplies or equipment

• Employee wages

Fixed vs. variable expenses

When creating your budget, you’ll need to factor in fixed and variable costs. Fixed expenses are costs that do not change based on the number of attendees (such as the cost of venue hire). 

Variable expenses do alter depending on the number of attendees, and can be based on demand, seasonality, or usage; these are often costs that are calculated on a per-person basis (such as food per head). 

It’s important to factor in the different expenses in order to create an accurate budget. For instance, if you’re expecting 50 attendees, you’ll need to factor in the cost of catering per head for this number — as well as consider how you will absorb the cost of a greater number of attendees on the day. For variable costs, you may decide to budget for more than you anticipate in a contingency fund to allow for any changes. 

Essential event business budget expense categories

From venue hire to catering costs, here are the six key expense categories (and cost-saving tips) you’ll need to factor into your budget. 

Venue and logistics

First up: venue hire. This can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the size and scale of your event, but in most cases, this is likely to be one of your biggest expenses (and understandably so: venue marketing can draw the right crowd, and can form a large part of your USP). There are several factors you’ll need to take into account when setting your venue budget, including:

• Facilities: What’s included in the cost of hiring the venue? Make sure to check whether amenities such as seating, sound systems, and equipment are included, or if you’ll have to factor in additional costs. 

• Refreshments: Many venues will offer food and drink supplies as add-on options. Make sure to do your own research into whether providing your own refreshments using external suppliers would be more cost-effective. 

Tip to strategize your spending: Many venues will offer different rates for events depending on whether you opt for a direct hire — a flat fee for hiring the space — or a percentage split of tickets (often set by the venue owners, but may be open to negotiation), so it is worth investigating this option to minimize costs. 

Talent and entertainment

Next, you’ll want to set a budget for talent and entertainment. Whether you’re booking high-profile celebrities or local bands, you’ll need to factor in the costs of their appearances at your event. You may want to consider the following: 

• Appearance fees: Fees for appearances will vary hugely depending on the speaker or performer, so make sure to approach a variety of talent to obtain accurate performance quotes. 

• Travel expenses: Will you need to cover costs such as accommodation or travel for your talent? If so, make sure to research hotel prices and train/cab fares for specific dates, and factor these into your overall talent budget. 

• Riders: Will you need to provide a rider or refreshments for your guest speakers? If so, consider food and drink costs for each guest. 

Tip to strategize your spending: Make sure to consider the realistic size of your budget when approaching talent. For instance, booking major celebrities will come with a bigger price tag but may draw a bigger crowd — so remember to weigh up the price (and potential return) of booking larger artists versus smaller ones. 

Food and drink

Whether you’re hosting a big food and drink festival or offering snacks at your film screening, food and drink make up a significant proportion of an event budget. You may want to consider some of the following (and don’t forget to factor in Goods and Services Tax (GST) into your costs): 

• Staff: Whether you’ll need expert bartenders, skilled chefs, or a team of waiters, you’ll need to factor in the costs of staff to your catering budget. 

• Service style: The way refreshments are served will likely have a big impact on the price. For instance, a sit-down meal with table service will come with a bigger price tag, whereas a finger-food-style buffet will minimize costs. 

• Licenses: If you’re planning to serve alcohol, keep in mind that this will require an alcohol license — this may be covered by the venue, but if not, this is something you will need to factor in. 

• External suppliers: If you’re working with external food and drink suppliers — for instance, food stalls at a fair — make sure to discuss pricing options. It may be that they are happy to operate on a profit split basis, or a flat fee. 

Tip to strategize your spending: Many suppliers (and vendors, if food is supplied in-house) will offer a discount for food or drink purchased in bulk — so, depending on the size of your event and attendee numbers, you may be able to purchase refreshments at a reduced rate.

People and staffing

From kitchen staff to marketing pros, your team are the superstars of your event — so make sure your event budget takes their compensation into account. You might want to consider the following (and remember that, if you’re hiring employees, you’ll need to factor in the relevant worker’s compensation insurance to your costs): 

• Salaries: Whether you’re hiring bartenders or PR assistants, make sure to include their salaries and rates (calculated using their hourly or daily rate multiplied by the length of time they’ll be working for you) in your budget. 

• Uniforms: If your team requires specific uniforms — such as logo-print T-shirts, jackets, or aprons — you’ll need to factor in the cost of supplying these to each staff member. 

Tip to strategize your spending: Make sure your hiring processes reflect your event goals. Especially if you’re working with a limited budget, you can strategize your spending by hiring staff where it really matters — perhaps a PR expert to craft the perfect pitch, or skilled bartenders to design great cocktails to delight your attendees. 

Marketing and promotion

Marketing often tops the list of budget expenses for event organizers and it’s no surprise: the right marketing strategy can skyrocket your ticket sales, so it’s essential to spend time crafting the right messaging. You may want to consider the following things when deciding your marketing budget: 

• Social media: Will you be creating social media ads? Make sure to investigate the costs of running your ad for a specific amount of time, targeting a specific audience, and the cost per click (CPC). 

• Media coverage: There are a number of ways to get media coverage on a budget. Prioritize quality over quantity and draw up a select media list — and funnel your budget into the publications where it will make the biggest impact. 

• Influencer marketing: If you’re planning to work with influencers via sponsored content or paid ads, make sure to factor this into your marketing budget. Again, you may want to focus on quality over quantity, narrowing your focus to micro-influencers with higher levels of audience engagement to maximize your ROI. 

• Marketing tools: Whether you’re using email marketing apps or social media scheduling platforms, don’t forget to include the cost of event marketing tools in your budget.

Tip to strategize your spending: Make sure to allocate marketing budget where it will be the most effective; this is usually where your target audience will be. For instance, if your target audience spends the most time online on TikTok, allocate your marketing budget to sponsored influencer content on TikTok and hiring a video creator to design your own content. 

Ticketing and software

Every event organizer needs powerful software at their side to make their events a success. When crafting your budget, remember to include the price of any event management software, apps, and programs:

• Pricing plan: Whether you’re paying monthly or annually for your event management tools, you’ll need to ensure the cost of your pricing plan or subscription is included in your budget. 

• Domain fees: If you’re using custom email domains or a domain for your website — again, either charged annually or monthly — make sure to include this.

Tip to strategize your spending: Make sure the ticketing tools you use are tailored to the size and scale of your events. It’s worth exploring different ticketing software options, so that you only pay for what you need — whether this is custom ticket types or an advanced marketing suite. 

Tips for organizing and tracking your budget expenses

As well as clear categorization in your budgeting template, there are a number of other ways you can stay financially organized. Here, discover tips on using tools and apps, reviewing your budget accordingly, and using your goals to inform your financial planning. 

Using budgeting tools and apps

Wish you could make your budgeting process more efficient? One of the best ways to do this is to incorporate budgeting tools, apps, and software to help streamline and automate your tasks. Discover some key budgeting tools for event planners below:

• Quickbooks: This tool allows you to create monthly, quarterly, or yearly budgets based on your accounting data — so you can create accurate budgets in line with your sales and expenses. 

• Toshi: This tool is marketed for personal use, but has a number of features you can use for your business — including creating budgets with tags and categories, as well as visualizing your budget with charts and graphs.

• Quicken: This tool can be used for personal and business use and has a number of budgeting features, allowing you to automatically track bills and invoices, and stay organized with vendor directories and customer lists. 

Regularly review and adjust your budget

Think of your budget not as a static document, but a flexible one that evolves over time. For example, a last-minute surge of ticket sales might require you to spend more on catering — or a lack of sales might mean you re-allocate your merch budget to your marketing spend. 

The key to successful event planning is being flexible with your budget to allow it to grow with your event. This can account for last-minute changes as well as allowing you to re-focus on your priorities and goals. 

To do this, make sure you regularly review and analyze your budget: are you getting the desired results from your spending in each category? Would your budget be better placed elsewhere? By looking at your budget with a critical eye, you can allocate your money where it will make the biggest impact — and most delight your attendees. 

Setting financial goals

Your ambitions for your event should be a key driving force behind your budget. Keep your financial goals front and center when making your financial decisions. Whether you’re allocating resources or pinpointing cost-saving areas, your decisions should be made strategically to facilitate your goals. 

Your financial goals might be figures or percentages for:

• Revenue from ticket sales

• Services, products, or subscriptions sold or pre-ordered 

• Donations received

• Merchandise, food, and drink revenue generated

• Fundraising targets met 

• Sponsorship funding received

Once you have pinpointed your goals, make sure you use your budget accordingly. For instance, if meeting a specific fundraising target for a charity gala is a priority, how can you use your budget to facilitate this? You may choose, for example, to spend your budget on donation incentives, while limiting spending on other areas like catering. 

When creating your event budget, organization is key — and dividing your expenses into clear categories is a great way to stay on top of your spending. Not only does it allow you to see exactly where your budget is being allocated, but also empowers you to make strategic decisions about where to cut back and where to invest. 

By strategically splitting your budget across all categories according to your goals, you can deliver a successful event your attendees will love. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the four types of expenses in a budget?

The four types of expenses in a budget are fixed, variable, intermittent, and discretionary. Fixed expenses remain the same each month; variable expenses can usually change based on demand, seasonality, or usage; intermittent costs include surprise or emergency expenses; and discretionary expenses are costs that are desirable rather than necessary. 

What is the 50-30-20 rule?

The 50-30-20 rule suggests allocating 50% of your income to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings, including future goals. It's a simple and effective way to manage your finances and can easily be applied to event budgeting to grow your business. 

What are the benefits of categorizing event expenses?

Categorizing event expenses is an effective way to quickly see how your budget is being spent. For instance, you may see that you are spending 20% of your budget on catering, while only 7% on marketing — this can help you to make decisions about where to increase and decrease your spending, and to track your spending accurately to boost your profits. 

What are some tips for organizing and tracking my budget expenses?

To effectively organize and track your expenses, use an event budget template, as well as budgeting tools and apps. You’ll also want to regularly review and adjust your budget, and set financial goals to help guide your spending strategy. These steps can help you stay on top of your finances and achieve your financial objectives.