Event Profit & Loss Tool

When to use this tool

Use it when planning an event — a function, private hire, pop‑up or ticketed night — to work out your ticket price, model your budget, or check whether expected covers will cover your costs.

Currency, tax & royalties

These live in the toolbar and work the same on every tool:

Currency

Pick your currency from the selector — it relabels the tax field to match your region.

Tax rate

Type your tax rate in the field beside the currency, or set it to 0 if you don’t want to factor in tax.

Royalties / commission

Optional. Switch on “Factor in royalties or commission” to open a panel where you set the rate with the slider (or type it exactly), rename it Royalty or Commission, and charge it on net or gross sales.

Event profit & loss features

What you enter for this tool, and what it gives back:

Ticket price

The price per person inc tax — say £75 for a Christmas dinner. The total event price auto‑fills from your covers, or type the total and the tool works out the per‑person price.

Covers

The guests you realistically expect — the figure that drives the P&L. Set min and max covers to frame the break‑even chart.

Budgeted C.O.S / GP

How much of food and drink revenue goes on product, as a cost‑of‑sales % (a food COS of 30% means £3 of every £10). Prefer gross profit? Flip the switch — COS 30% and GP 70% are the same thing.

Revenue allocation

The ticket price split into what it covers — e.g. a £100 ticket as £50 food, £30 drinks, £20 entertainment. Your COS applies to the food and drink slices only; allocate until Unallocated reaches £0.00.

Variable costs

Any cost that changes with guest numbers — a welcome drink, a favour, a per‑head charge. Enter each per person (ex or inc tax — the other auto‑fills); the tool multiplies by your covers.

Fixed costs

Any cost you pay once whatever the turnout — venue hire, a band, AV, printed materials. Enter each as a total (ex or inc tax); because they don’t move with covers, they weigh heavily on break‑even.

Event labour

Optional. The cost of the team you schedule — chefs, servers, agency or casual, managers — as a total or a % of net revenue. It’s deducted just before profit and counts toward break‑even (don’t also list it under fixed costs).

Break‑even slider

Drag “Adjust forecasted covers” to test turnouts live — it overwrites the covers figure up top and updates the P&L, verdict and every figure instantly.

Your data

These buttons sit in the “Your data” panel at the foot of the page and work the same on every tool:

Download template

Downloads a blank Excel template you can fill in offline.

Upload template

Reads a filled‑in template back in and fills the tool in one go.

Save scenario

Saves everything you’ve entered to a file you can back up or share.

Load scenario

Re‑opens an event you saved earlier.

PDF report

Generates a clean PDF of the analysis, ready to save, print or share.

Jargon buster

Contribution

Net revenue less cost of sales and any royalty or commission — what a sale adds before labour and overheads.

Cost of sales (C.O.S)

What the product costs you to make or buy — ingredients, packaging and waste — usually shown as a % of net revenue. Excludes labour and overheads.

Gross profit & %

Net revenue less cost of sales; the % expresses it as a share of net revenue — the mirror of cost‑of‑sales %.

Gross revenue

The total the customer pays, including tax.

Labour

The wage cost of the staff involved, usually shown as a cash figure or a % of net revenue.

Margin of safety

How far sales could fall before you stop making a profit — the cushion between your forecast and break‑even.

Net revenue

Gross revenue with tax removed — all the margin maths is worked on this figure.

Royalty / commission

A fee paid as a % of each sale, charged on net or gross. Optional — switch it on only if your business pays one.

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