Skip to content

The encyclopedia of event planning · Toronto & the GTA · Free and independentMy Planner Submit a listing Newsletter

Get quotes

Academy

Module 3: Budgeting

Building a budget, typical cost splits, contingency, HST and gratuities, tracking actuals, pricing your fee.

Budgeting is part of the free Event Planner Academy. It has 7 lessons, about 1.8 hours of study in total, and every lesson comes with a narrated video, a printable worksheet and a short quiz.

How to work through it

Watch the narrated video at the top of each lesson, then read the lesson itself. The video covers the key points; the page has the tables, examples and checklists.
Complete the worksheet for your own event, or for the running Harbour Gala example.
Take the quiz and mark the lesson complete. Your progress is saved in this browser.
Finish all twelve core modules and pass the final exam to print your free certificate.

Hands sorting blank receipts into piles beside a calculator

Building the budget from the goal

Module 3: Budgeting · 15 min

Start from the envelope, split by category using GTA ratios, then price line by line. Use the budget calculator and learn when…

Four event props beside different-sized stacks of coins

Typical cost splits by event type

Module 3: Budgeting · 15 min

A holiday party, a gala, a kids' party and a conference spend differently. Memorise the four shapes and you can sanity-check any…

Hand tucking a reserve cash pouch into a planner's bag

Contingency and the reserve

Module 3: Budgeting · 15 min

Ten percent, held by the planner, released only for scope that was not in the brief. Learn what it covers, what it…

Bill folder passed across a bar top with a pen and card terminal

HST, gratuities and service charges in Ontario

Module 3: Budgeting · 15 min

Thirteen percent HST on most lines, 18% gratuity on food and bar at most venues, and service charges that are not gratuity.…

A planner's hands sorting receipts into a coloured accordion folder at a home-office desk in Toronto

Tracking actuals and cash flow

Module 3: Budgeting · 15 min

Deposits, milestone payments, final balances and the week after. Build a payment calendar so nothing is late and nothing is paid twice.

Handshake over coffee in an empty restaurant before opening

Negotiating with venues and vendors

Module 3: Budgeting · 15 min

Dates, minimums, inclusions and payment terms are negotiable; quality rarely is. Learn the asks that work in Toronto and the ones that…

Two planners seen from behind walking through a Toronto hotel ballroom set for a gala, pointing at centrepieces

Module 3 workshop: the gala budget, line by line

Module 3: Budgeting · 15 min

Build the full line-item budget for the 200-guest Harbour Gala with HST, gratuity, contingency and a payment calendar at a $40,000 envelope,…