Add every cost for an upcoming show. See your total expenses, break-even sales target, and where your money goes.
This free convention expense tracker helps craft show and convention vendors add up every cost for an upcoming event and see their true break-even sales target. Add expenses by category — booth fee, travel, hotel, food, supplies, printing, shipping, marketing, insurance, and miscellaneous — then enter your average item price and card processing rate to see exactly how many items you need to sell to cover your costs.
The visual breakdown shows where your money goes by category, making it easy to spot which expenses are eating into your margins. Most vendors discover that the booth fee is rarely their biggest cost — travel, lodging, and cost of goods sold often add up to far more.
A complete show expense calculation includes the booth or table fee, round-trip travel (gas, tolls, parking, flights), lodging, meals and incidentals, cost of goods sold (materials or wholesale cost for items sold), payment processing fees (2.6-3.5% per card transaction), display and setup costs (amortized across shows), marketing materials, shipping and packaging supplies, and miscellaneous costs like permits, insurance, and assistant pay. The simple rule: if you spent money because of a show, it is an expense for that show.
True profit equals gross revenue minus cost of goods sold minus all event expenses. Revenue minus booth fee is not profit — it ignores 70% of your real costs. For a complete picture, also calculate your profit per hour by dividing true profit by total hours invested (prep, travel, setup, selling, teardown, and follow-up). This metric lets you compare shows of different lengths on equal terms.
After tracking expenses for a full season, patterns emerge quickly. Shows with a true profit margin above 30% are worth repeating without hesitation. Shows between 10-20% deserve one more chance with tighter cost control. Shows below 10% margin should be dropped — your time and money go further elsewhere. The vendors who grow their businesses fastest are the ones who ruthlessly cut unprofitable shows and double down on winners.