Start with payable items
Create a cash budget with separate lines for the selected pass, transport, accommodation, local travel and any meals or activities outside the pass. Use the currency and tax treatment shown by the seller. Record the date of each quote and whether it is refundable. A headline admission price cannot establish your total spend. Equally, an unverified price should remain an empty field that needs checking, rather than becoming zero in a calculator or an unexplained estimate.
Keep time visible
Add a separate time estimate for preparation, travel, attendance and the follow-up work needed to use what was learned. If your organisation values that time in dollars, label the hourly rate as an internal assumption. Do not present it as an additional supplier charge. Showing cash and time separately lets an approver understand both the purchasing requirement and the capacity commitment. Include only the working hours that your chosen budgeting method genuinely treats as displaced; document that choice.
Use a range responsibly
Prepare a base case and a higher-cost case using identifiable changes, such as one additional hotel night or a more expensive fare. Do not add a mysterious percentage merely to make the number look prudent. Explain which inputs are quotes, which are assumptions and which remain unknown. This worksheet is a planning method, not a forecast of commercial return. Recheck the final pass inclusions and travel terms before an approved budget becomes a purchase.
Read with the relationship in view.
This publication is produced by the team behind Open Summit AI. This is editorial guidance, not a claim of independent attendance or testing. About the publisher.