PTO budget builder
Put your year in line by line and watch the bottom number move. The categories match the ones in our budget template guide, so the two agree. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Income
Expenses
Enter your expenses and this will check your contingency line for you.
Budget the net, not the gross
The most common error on a PTO budget is putting $18,000 in the income column for a fundraiser that grosses $18,000 and costs $7,000 to run. Put the vendor fees, the prizes, and the printing in the expense column where they belong, or put the net in income. Do one or the other consistently and say which on the sheet, because the next treasurer will not be able to tell.
Only budget money you have reason to expect
Confirmed grants go in. Grant applications still pending do not. A donation that arrived once, three years ago, from a family that has since moved does not either. A budget that assumes optimistic income is how a board ends up cancelling the spring assembly in April.
A surplus is not automatically good
Money raised from this year's families is generally meant for this year's students. Carrying a large surplus year after year invites the fair question of why you are still fundraising. Hold a deliberate reserve, name the amount, write down what it is for, and spend the rest. The treasurer guide covers how much to keep and why.
Then put it somewhere parents can read it
A budget approved at a meeting eight parents attended is not a budget your community has seen. Publishing it is the cheapest trust you will ever buy, and it shortens the conversation when you ask the same families for money again in March.
Publish the budget where families can find it
SchoolRelay gives your group a public page for the budget, the calendar, and the volunteer slots. Free, and parents read it without an account.