Free tool — no signup required
Free Tour Budget Template & Calculator for Bands
Estimate what the run will earn and what it will cost — profit or loss, plus how many shows it takes to break even.
Income
Costs
Budget summary
Tour Budget
— shows · — days
Income
| Guarantees | 0 shows × $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Door / ticket estimates | 0 shows × $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Merch | 0 shows × $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Total income | $0.00 | |
Expenses
| Fuel | 0 mi × $0.70/mi | $0.00 |
| Lodging | 0 nights × $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Food per diems | 0 people × $0.00 × 0 days | $0.00 |
| Van / backline rental | flat | $0.00 |
| Total expenses | $0.00 | |
Add per-show income to compute a break-even show count.
Made with tourcog.com/free/tour-budget-template
Most tours don't lose money on stage — they lose it in the van, the hotel lobby, and the gas station. A tour budget forces the question before you route the run: does the money coming in beat the money going out? This free tour budget template does the math the way working tour managers do it — average nightly income times the number of shows on one side, and the four costs that actually sink DIY tours on the other: fuel, lodging, food, and rentals.
On the income side, enter your average guarantee, a realistic door or ticket estimate, and a conservative merch number per show. On the cost side, estimate total miles for the routing and a per-mile rate (the default $0.70/mi approximates the IRS mileage rate — fuel plus wear and tear), nights of lodging, a food per diem for each person, and any van or backline rental. Add anything else — trailer hitch, tolls, parking tickets you know are coming — as line items.
The calculator returns total income versus total expenses, the profit or loss, and the number most bands never compute: the break-even show count. If the run is 12 shows and break-even is show 14, the routing needs work — add dates, cut hotel nights, or raise the guarantees. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is stored; print the summary for the band meeting.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a DIY tour cost?
A rough rule of thumb for a van tour in the US is $250–$500 per day for a 4–5 piece band: fuel (figure $0.60–$0.80 per mile all-in for a van or a van + trailer), $80–$150 a night for lodging if you're not crashing on floors, and $10–$20 per person per day for food. Two weeks of shows can easily run $4,000–$7,000 before anyone gets paid.
What is a break-even show count?
It's how many shows at your average nightly income it takes to cover the whole tour's costs. If the tour costs $5,000 and an average night brings in $850 between the guarantee, door, and merch, you break even during show six — everything after that is profit. If the break-even count is higher than the number of shows booked, the routing loses money on paper before you leave.
What per-mile rate should I use for fuel?
Divide your expected fuel price by your vehicle's real mpg. A loaded Sprinter or E-350 gets 12–16 mpg, so at $4/gallon that's roughly $0.25–$0.33 per mile in fuel alone. Many bands budget $0.65–$0.70 per mile to also cover oil, tires, and the inevitable repair — the IRS standard mileage rate is a sane default.
How much merch will we sell on tour?
A common planning number is $1–$3 per paid attendee for developing bands, more if your merch game is strong. If you expect 100 people a night, estimating $150–$250 per show in merch revenue is conservative and keeps the budget honest.
Should the band get paid before or after expenses?
Pay the tour first. Route all income into covering fuel, lodging, food, and rentals; split what's left at the end. Bands that pay members nightly off the top routinely come home to an empty tour fund and a repair bill.
Is this tour budget template free?
Yes — free, no signup, no watermark, and nothing you enter leaves your browser. Print the summary or save it as a PDF for the band meeting.
TourCog does this automatically for your whole band — free.
TourCog tracks real income and expenses show by show, so the budget updates itself while you're on the road.
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