Event Budgets v3.0

Event Budgeting

imperialcollegeunion.org/trainingimperialcollegeunion.org

Event Budgeting2012/13 Edition

Event Budgetingimperialcollegeunion.org/training

Contents

Contents 2

Introduction 3

Background 4

eActivities 5

Setting up your event budget 6

Expenditure 7

Income 9

Breakeven analysis 11

Submitting your event budget 12

Approving event budgets 13

Summary 14

Help and assistance 15

© 2012 - Imperial College UnionVersion 3.0 - 01 June 2012

Event Budgeting

imperialcollegeunion.org/training

Introduction

What is this booklet for?

The Event Budgets booklet is a guide to constructing budgets for individual one off events and the approval process for those budgets. It also contains information about navigating and using eActivities to submit your event budget for approval, and for Chairs and Treasurers of Clubs, Societies & Projects how to approve the proposed budgets.

This booklet assumes you are familiar with basic use of eActivities - logging in and selecting roles. It also assumes familiarity with online transaction pages, Transaction Codes and Activity Codes as described in the Core Finance booklet. Until you pass the Core Finance and Event Budgets quizzes you will not be able to use the functionality described in this booklet.

Further inquiries

If you have any difficulties with eActivities, or there is a problem with the system you should contact the Union’s Systems Coordinator by emailing [email protected].

When constructing an event budget it may be useful to refer to the training about Requesting Spaces and if your event is taking place in the Union Building speak to the Union’s Events Coordinator.

Stefan NubertDeputy President (Finance & Services)E: [email protected]: 020 7594 8060, extension: 58062


Background

For any event your Club, Society or Project organises you are required to submit an event budget (showing a breakdown of your expected Income and Expenditure) to the Union.

With total expenditure: • Less than £20 – Budget needs to be

approved within your Club, Society or Project.

• £20 -£1,000 – Budget also needs to be approved by your Management Group Treasurer.

• More than £1,000 – Budget also needs to be approved by the Deputy President (Finance & Services).

Submission Procedure

Your budget must be submitted using eActivities. Once it has been submitted it will receive online approval by the relevant people and you will receive an email to confirm this. More details on the submission procedure are given in the Submitting your event budget section.

Why use eActivities?

The event budget tools in eActivities automatically calculates the VAT and net amounts for items in the budget; it will also calculate the breakeven numbers for you. We also know it is accurate and that it will give us all the information we need,

and so it is quicker for us to approve your budget.

Why submit a budget to the Union?

Expenditures must be approved, and so a budget shows how you will spend the money and how you will earn it back. In almost all cases of budget submissions, we are able to give advice e.g. with suppliers of goods, so that you can cut down your costs further and make more money for your Club, Society or Project to spend. A budget is required in order to approve expenditure for an event when the funds are not currently available to cover the costs.

General basis

The expected number of attendees to an event is a key criterion in the financial success of an event. The expected number of attendees should be based on the lowest possible number of people that may attend.

Do not be over-enthusiastic with your numbers as otherwise you may make a loss. If your event runs over more than one day e.g. a play with three nights, then you will need to consider the total number expected over the three nights as your expected number and not that of each individual night.

Event Budgeting


eActivities

Navigating eActivities

First log into eActivities and select your role from the Club, Society or Project you are submitting the event budget for. Remember that until you have successfully passed the Core Finance and Event Budgets quizzes you will be unable to access to features described here.

Details of how to log into eActivities are given in the Core Finance booklet, the diagram below shows the basics though.

VAT

The Value Added Tax (VAT) calculations are made very simple when using eActivities. There are a few things to remember, the system assumes that your Club, Society or Project will be able to claim back all the VAT for all expenditure you don’t select as zero rated. This means you will need to ensure you collect the correct VAT receipts and invoices. More details are given in the Core Finance booklet.

With some Expenditure you may not be able to claim back VAT e.g. if you are paying a student DJ to DJ at your party, they will not be VAT registered and hence you will not be able to get a VAT receipt and will be unable to claim any VAT back. In this case change the ‘VAT Rate’ to zero.

Ensure you know whether your income is excluding or including VAT and select the appropriate code. Sponsorship for an event is subject to VAT, while a donation is not. More details are contained within the Core Finance booklet.

Click on the red Log in box to enter the eActivities site

Enter your College Username and Password


Setting up your event budget

When you are logged in to eActivities navigate to Finance, then Budgets and then Event Budgets. The screen will default to the New Submission page, as shown below.

Complete the details for the event, fill in the Name of the event, the venue, the date and expected number of attendees. If the event will be taking place over multiple days then put in the first day. Base the number of attendees on the lowest possible number that may attend. If the event is taking place on multiple days, for example a number of performances of a show, put in the total number of attendees over multiple nights.

Below this information is where you can enter details of the income and expenditure for the event and view a summary of the overall profit or loss the event will make. How to complete these sections will be discussed in the following sections.

Event name

Venue

Event date

Expected number of attendees

Event Budgeting


Fixed Expenditure

Fixed expenditure is expenditure that you have to make, regardless of how many people come to the event. For items such as programmes, you still need to order before you know the numbers who will be attending, so it is still considered as fixed expenditure. Fixed expenditures include venue hire, lighting, sound, ticket booklets, DJ and other entertainments, decorations, publicity materials, stewards, costumes, set/staging, make-up, programmes.

From the magenta menu half way down the page select the Event Expenditure tab, then Fixed Expenditure. Complete the boxes for each item, put in a description of the item, what the associated account code for the expenditure item would be (details are given in the Core Finance booklet), then fill in the Unit Price (including the VAT), the number of units of the item you are expecting to purchase and the appropriate VAT code.

The VAT and Net amounts are automatically calculated. Continue for the other fixed expenditure items you have.

Expenditure

Complete the fields on the form


Variable Expenditure

This is expenditure that depends on the number of attendees and is for items which you can order once you know how many tickets you have sold e.g. dinners, cost for entry.

From the magenta menu half way down the page select the Event Expenditure tab, then Variable Expenditure. Complete the boxes for each item, put in a description of the item, what the associated account code for the expenditure item would be (details are given in the Core Finance booklet). Then fill in the Unit Price (including the VAT), the number of units per attendee that you are expecting to purchase and the appropriate VAT code.

The total amounts are calculated by using the number of expected attendees which you have previously entered. The VAT and Net amounts are automatically calculated. Continue for the other variable expenditure items you have.

Expenditure cont...


Event Budgeting


Fixed Income

This is income that you will definitely get as long as the event goes ahead, such as sponsorship, donations and contributions from your Self Generated Income (SGI). You are allowed to use funds in your SGI to contribute to an event’s costs. Fill this in the same manner as for Fixed Expenditure.

From the magenta menu half way down the page select the Event Income tab, then Fixed Income. Complete the boxes for each income item, put in a description of the item, what the associated account code for the income item would be (details are given in the Core Finance booklet), then fill in the Unit Price (including the VAT), the number of units of the item you are expecting and the appropriate VAT code.

The VAT and Net amounts are automatically calculated. Continue for the other fixed income items you have.

Income



Variable Income

This is income that could vary and the total is not known. This category usually is ticket sales. The income per ticket is known, but you do not know how many tickets will be sold and so you do not know the total you will get until the event. Other variable income could include sponsorship/donation obtained per ticket sold, number of programmes sold, number of t-shirts sold etc.

From the magenta menu half way down the page select the Event Income tab, then Variable Income. Complete the boxes for each item, put in a description of the income item, what the associated account code for the income item would be (details are given in the Core Finance booklet). Then fill in the Unit Price (including the VAT), the number of units per attendee that you are expecting to purchase and the appropriate VAT code.

The total amounts are calculated by using the number of expected attendees which you have previously entered. The VAT and Net amounts are automatically calculated. Continue for the other variable income items you have.

Income cont...


Event Budgeting


By navigating to the Final Overview tab you can view and summary of all the income and expenditure for your event and the breakeven analysis.

The Profit/Loss section shows the expected profit or loss your event will make depending on the number of attendees. If the number is in RED then it means the event will make a loss if you only get those number of ticket sales (indicated on the left hand side).

Your Breakeven Number is the one you are concerned with. This shows the number of ticket sales needed so that your expenditures and incomes balance. Any more sales than this will mean a profit for your Club, Society or Project. This is the first number where the Profit/Loss column gives a positive number, in the example below 120 attendees. Important If your event makes a loss and your Club, Society or Project goes into debt, your group will have to pay it back and will be prevented from doing some activities until steps are made to pay back the debt - so do not make a loss with your event!

Breakeven analysis


Submitting the event budget

Once you have finished adding items to the event budget you will be able to vary the attendence numbers and see how this affects your profit or loss by changing the number in the attendees box.

When you are happy with the numbers you have entered in the event budget press the Commit button. The budget will then be reviewed by the necessary student officers and you will receive an email when it is fully approved.

Submitting your event budget

Viewing progress

Once you have submitted your event budget you can view progress by selecting the My Submissions in Progress tab in the top menu.

Event Budgeting


Approving event budgets

If you are the Chair or Treasurer of a Club, Society or Project you have the responsibility for approving event budgets. When you are logged into eActivities select Finance, followed by Budgets and then Event Budgets.

A new item will appear in the menu, click on List Requiring Authorisation. If you are happy to approve the event budget click Authorise. The event budget will require further approval; the person who submitted it will be able to view this information, as shown in the previous section.


• eActivities must be used to submit your budget. • Your event should be given an activity code (see Core Finance for details of activity codes). Make sure to assign income and expenditure to this activity code • Be realistic with your expected number of attendees, always go for the

smallest possible number that might attend. • Fixed Expenditure – any expenditure that is required for the event to go ahead,

regardless of the number of tickets that you end up selling e.g. venue, DJ, stewards.

• Variable Expenditure – expenditure that is dependant on the number of tickets you sell /number of attendees e.g. dinner cost per head.

• Fixed Income - any income that is guaranteed if the event goes ahead, regardless of the number of tickets that you end up selling e.g. sponsorship.

• Variable Income - income that is dependant on the number of tickets you sell/number of attendees e.g. income from ticket sales.

• The breakeven array show the number of tickets you need to sell in order for your incomes and expenditures to balance. Red indicates the loss you will make and black indicates the profit.

•Once the event budget has been correctly approved you can begin to make essential expenditure like venue hire, even while you may not have yet generated the income associated with the event. • Remember that you must not exceed your event budget and get your Club,

Society or Project into debt. • All contracts with external venues MUST be signed by the Deputy President

(Finance & Services), this is especially important when the venue is selling event tickets on your behalf

Things to remember • Get a VAT invoice or receipt for anything you want to claim VAT on. • You mustn’t overspend on your approved event budget. • The Union is here to help: we can give you advice based on our experience

of similar events, names of recommended suppliers, advice on publicity and sponsorship, as well as services that we can provide.

• Remember the financial regulations – you must NOT take large amounts of money home with you, we can provide safe storage.

• You must NOT pay cash in hand – you must bank the money first and pay them after.

Summary

Help and assistance

When constructing an event budget it may be useful to refer to the training about Requesting Spaces which discussed the rules and procedures regarding using spaces on the College campuses. The Marshaling training outlines the rules and procedures for providing marhsaling cover for your Club, Society or Project events using volunteer students. If your event is taking place in the Union Building speak to the Union’s Events Coordinator who can assist you with your arrangements.

The following contacts are likely to be useful in planning events.

Stefan NubertDeputy President (Finance & Services)[email protected] 7594 8060, extension 58062

Stefan is the sabbatical responsible for finances. He is also responsible for approving all expenditure over £1000

Ally CottSystems [email protected] 7594 6412, extension 46412

Ally is responsible for eActivities, speak to him if you discover an error with the system, he cannot help with financial content queries.

Functions [email protected] 7594 2560 extension 42560

The Functions Coordinator is responsible for all the events which are taking place within the Union Building in South Kensington.

Malcolm [email protected] of Finance020 7594 8069, extension 48069

Malcolm is the lead finance staff member. He can help with complicated finance queries.

Imperial College UnionBeit QuadranglePrince Consort RoadLondon SW7 2BB

Tel: 020 7594 8060Fax: 020 7594 8065Email: [email protected]: @icunionimperialcollegeunion.org

Event Budgets v3.0

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