Overhead is what it costs to keep the business running between events, like rent, insurance and licenses. EventSage turns each yearly cost into a per-event amount, so every quote carries its share.
Steps
- Open Operating costs. It's under Settings, then Pricing. The Overhead card sits below Travel & prep costs.
- In the Overhead card, click Add. The New Overhead Item window opens. You can also click a chip under Commonly forgotten.
- Enter a Name, like "Rent".
- Enter the Cost ($) and choose /year or /month. A monthly cost shows its yearly total beside it.
- Set Lifespan (Years). Use 1 for something you pay every year, like rent. For something you pay for once that lasts several years, like a 5 year license, enter 5 here. The cost box then reads Total paid ($), so enter the whole price.
- Click Save.
By default only the owner and admins see Events per year, the per-event figures and the current service fee. The window shows Per event as you type, which is that cost divided by its lifespan, then across your events per year. To bring in many expenses at once, an Overhead sheet in a spreadsheet import takes Item, Annual Cost ($) and Lifespan (Years) columns. Put a multi-year cost in whole there too, with its years as the lifespan. Import items from a spreadsheet covers the import.
Two ways to cover overhead
The Covering your overhead panel at the top of the Overhead card offers two choices with different jobs.
- List your expenses
- Spreads each cost across your events, so every quote carries its share and your margins count it. The steps above use this one.
- Charge a service fee
- Sets your default service charge under Invoice defaults, a percentage or a set amount on every quote, shown to the client as its own line. It is not a gratuity and does not change what an event costs you.
If you charge a service fee and list no expenses, every margin reads too high. Listing the expenses keeps the margins true, and the fee is optional on top.
How a yearly cost becomes a per-event cost
Each item's per-event cost is its cost, divided by its lifespan in years, divided by Events per year. Events per year is on the same page, starts at 50, and the owner sets it by default. A monthly cost is multiplied by 12 first. For example, $36,000 of rent over 50 events a year is $720 per event.
The table shows each item's Annual, Monthly and Per Event amount. Annual is its yearly share. What it works out to shows the totals.
Events per year is a pricing choice when part of your work never gets booked here. A number matching your booked events makes each carry all your overhead. A larger number makes each carry less.
Charge overhead on a quote, or not
A quote charges overhead and prep unless you switch them off. The default is Charge overhead and prep on new quotes, on Pricing structure, and it starts on. Each quote also has its own Charge overhead and prep switch.
Switching it off removes overhead and prep from the client's bill. Mileage still bills. Your margin still counts overhead as a cost. Your markups apply to overhead as they do to other costs.
Something look off?
Work through each check in order. Most fixes take under a minute.
Per-event overhead looks too high
- 1 · Check Events per year first. A small number there makes each event carry more.
- 2 · Look at the Annual column for an item you entered as monthly by mistake.