The entry fee comes out of the budget£10.00 suggested
£8.39 to break even over 420 entries.
- Fixed costs 3850.00.
- Per-entry costs 1.80 × 420 entries = 756.00.
- Per-dancer costs 1.90 × 160 dancers = 304.00.
- Total cost 4910.00, less 1390.00 of other income, leaves 3520.00 to raise from entries.
- Over 420 entries that is 8.39 to break even.
- Adding a 500.00 surplus target and rounding up to the next 0.50 gives 10.00.
The working is returned, not just the number. A treasurer has to defend this to a committee that will ask where it came from, and “the system said £7.50” is not an answer. Rounded up, never down: a fee rounded down turns a budgeted surplus into a shortfall nobody notices per entry.
- 3 of 9 cost lines are still estimates. The fee is only as good as they are.
- Most of the cost is fixed, so the fee is very sensitive to turnout. Look at the shortfall at a smaller field before setting it.
The committee charged £7.50
Both are kept. Next year wants to know what was charged and what would have covered it — which is why the P&L below is the specification for the budget after this one.
What happens at a smaller fieldBreak even at 495 entries. Below that the event loses money.
| Turnout | Entries | Income | Cost | Surplus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -30% | 294 | £3595.00 | £4592.00 | −£997.00 |
| -15% | 357 | £4067.50 | £4751.00 | −£683.50 |
| As expected | 420 | £4540.00 | £4910.00 | −£370.00 |
| +15% | 483 | £5012.50 | £5069.00 | −£56.50 |
The question nobody asks until it is too late. Fixed costs do not shrink when forty dancers stay home, so a hall costs the same for eighty as for four hundred and medals do not — which is why a cost line carries a behaviour and not just an amount. Getting this wrong is how a committee loses money on a sold-out event.
Trophies, against the lead timeover budget
- dueSix perpetual cups, engraved: order by 2026-01-03.£510.00 · order by 2026-01-03
- due300 medals: order by 2026-01-31.£540.00 · order by 2026-01-31
- orderedTwo replacement shields: ordered from Trophy World, expected 2025-11-15.£120.00 · order by 2026-01-24
- Six perpetual cups, engraved: nobody has approved the engraving yet. The order goes in, the names are wrong, and the lead time starts again.
A reminder that fires late is a feis with no trophies. The order-by date is derived from the supplier’s lead time and the event date, never stored — a feis that moves takes its deadlines with it, and a stored date is the one that goes stale in silence. An accepted quote counts as money spent, because a treasurer who only counts placed orders finds the overspend after it is unfixable.
The governing body will invoice£438.75
| Per-dancer levyAn Coimisiún | 160 dancers at 1.50 each | £240.00 |
| Annual affiliationAn Coimisiún | Flat fee per event | £120.00 |
| Regional levyRegional council | 2.50% of 3150.00 entry income | £78.75 |
Every body charges something and none of them charge it the same way. The working is kept because the invoice will not match unless the basis matches.
Counting the cash£5.00
745.00 in cash against 740.00 expected, most of it in the door tin.
| Tin | Counted | Float | Takings | Expected | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| door | £455.00 | £50.00 | £405.00 | £380.00 | £25.00 |
| programme | £120.00 | £20.00 | £100.00 | £120.00 | −£20.00 |
| vendor | £240.00 | £0.00 | £240.00 | £240.00 | — |
- Has anything been paid in that was not expected — a late entry, a raffle?
- Recount the largest denomination first: one £20 note explains most variances.
- Has anything been taken out for change, or to pay somebody on the day?
- Is there a second tin, or a bag somebody is still holding?
- Recount the largest denomination first: one £20 note explains most variances.
Counted by denomination, not as a total: somebody with a float bag counts notes into piles, and asking for one number makes them do arithmetic they will get wrong and makes a miscount impossible to find. The float comes out before anything reconciles — the commonest “we are £50 down” at a feis is a float nobody subtracted. A variance is a number with a reason next to it, never an error: cash events run one every time, and a screen that treats it as a fault gets a fake number typed into it.
Profit and loss−£899.80
Loss of 899.80 against a budgeted loss of 282.80.
Where the difference came from
- Entry fees: 2850.00 against 3150.00 budgeted (worse by 300.00).
- Sponsorship: 500.00 against 650.00 budgeted (worse by 150.00).
- Three adjudicators, fees and travel: 1045.00 against 960.00 budgeted (worse by 85.00).
Costs
| Line | Budgeted | Actual | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ulster Hall, one day | £1420.00 | £1420.00 | £0.00 |
| Three adjudicators, fees and travel | £960.00 | £1045.00 | £85.00 |
| Two musicians | £360.00 | £360.00 | £0.00 |
| Perpetual cups and shields | £510.00 | £510.00 | £0.00 |
| Public liability | £180.00 | £180.00 | £0.00 |
| Programmes and signage | £420.00 | £478.00 | £58.00 |
| MedalsRestated at 380 entries. | £684.00 | £684.00 | £0.00 |
| Number cardsRestated at 152 dancers. | £60.80 | £60.80 | £0.00 |
| Governing-body levyRestated at 152 dancers. | £228.00 | £228.00 | £0.00 |
| Total | £4822.80 | £4965.80 | £143.00 |
Per-entry lines are restated at the turnout that actually happened — 380 entries and 152 dancers, not the 420 and 160 budgeted. A committee that got fewer dancers did not overspend on medals by getting them, and a P&L that says it did sends them looking for a saving that was never available. This is the one arithmetic decision a spreadsheet usually gets wrong.
Does it tie back to money that moved?
- checkEntry fees against Stripe: 2835.00 settled against 2850.00 recorded — 15.00 less. Refunds and settlements in transit are the usual explanation; check the payout dates before anything else.
- checkOther income against cash: 745.00 counted against 716.00 recorded — 29.00 over. A tin that has not been counted, or a float nobody subtracted.
Card and cash checked separately. Netting them hides which half a discrepancy is in, and they have completely different explanations: a card variance is a settlement timing question, a cash variance is a tin somebody has not handed in.
Year on year
| Year | Entries | Surplus | Per entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast Feis 2024 | 340 | £320.00 | £0.94 |
| Belfast Feis 2025 | 365 | £410.00 | £1.12 |
| Belfast Feis 2026 | 380 | £100.20 | £0.26 |
Surplus per entry has fallen by 0.68 since 2024, from 0.94 to 0.26. Surplus per entry is the comparable number: an event that grew by a hundred entries and made the same money got worse, and a total hides that completely.
Sponsorship400.00 agreed of 650.00, 250.00 short, with 100.00 still out for an answer.
- chaseÓ Dálaigh Family: agreed and not yet paid.
- chaseAntrim Bakery: offered 26 days ago, no answer.
- chaseMcTeggart Shoes: agreed and then fell through. Replace or rebudget.
Offers are counted separately from what is agreed. A committee that budgets on offers is a committee that budgets on hope, and the budget above reads the agreed figure.
The fulfilment report1 outstanding
Byrne Motors was named from the stage 9 times during Belfast Feis 2026, alongside 3 other placements.
| Promised | Delivered | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Named from the stage, six timesmc mention | 9 of 6 | 9 sponsor announcements naming Byrne Motors were read from the stage. |
| Half page, inside back coverprogramme ad | 1 of 1 | Proof programme-p7.pdf signed off on 2026-02-28. |
| The Byrne Motors Perpetual Cupaward naming | 1 | 1 award carrying Byrne Motors’s name was presented. |
| Banner behind stage 1banner | 0 | No record of this being delivered. |
- Banner behind stage 1 — no record of this being delivered.
This is what renews a sponsorship, and no spreadsheet-based committee can produce it. The counts come from what the platform recorded happening — announcements actually read, awards actually presented, proofs actually approved — never from the agreement. A report restating what was promised proves nothing, and a sponsor can tell the difference immediately. Shortfalls are in the report: hiding one is how a sponsor finds out from somebody else and does not renew.