Guides › Band tour budget template for a van tour
Band tour budget template for a van tour
Updated October 7, 2026 · 3 min read
Most bands on their first few tours don’t need an accountant’s budget. They need to know, show by show, whether tonight covers gas, a room and food, and how much is left to split. This guide is for that kind of tour: a van, a few people, club and DIY shows, and every dollar counted.
The free template below lays out one row per show so you can see the tour build day by day instead of only as a total.
Free templates for this guide
Download and edit these for your own tour. No sign-up, no email required.
Band tour budget (van tour)
Per-show math for a small band: guarantee, door, merch, gas from miles and MPG, lodging and food, with net per show and per member.
First tour and packing checklist
What to sort out before you leave and what to pack: documents, money, gear spares, merch, van kit and personal items.
See the complete free resource library for budgets, riders, checklists and more.
Why a per-show budget works for bands
A big-picture budget tells you the tour total. A per-show budget tells you which nights lose money and why. That matters when you are deciding whether to take a low-guarantee Tuesday that fills a routing gap or drive straight through. It also makes it easy for everyone in the band to understand the money, which prevents arguments in week two.
The columns that matter
- Date and city.
- Guarantee / door: what you expect from the show. For door deals use a cautious estimate.
- Merch (net): what you expect to keep after the cost of the shirts and any venue cut.
- Gas: miles from the last city divided by your van’s miles per gallon, times a fuel price estimate.
- Lodging: a hotel, a friend’s floor or nothing if you are driving overnight.
- Food: a per-person allowance times the number of people.
- Other: tolls, parking, strings, laundry.
- Net: income minus costs for that day.
A running total column shows where the tour stands after each day. If it dips below zero early, plan for the cash you will need to float before the good nights arrive.
Building it step by step
- Fill in every date, including off and travel days. They have costs and no income.
- Enter what is in writing first. A booked guarantee is real; a promise of "probably a good crowd" is not.
- Work out driving distances from your route and enter gas per leg.
- Decide your lodging plan honestly. Floors save money, but a burned-out band plays worse. Budget a few hotel nights even if you hope not to need them.
- Set a food allowance and stick to it.
- Estimate merch from past shows if you have them. If not, be conservative.
- Look at the running total and decide what float you need to start the tour.
Example (EXAMPLE numbers)
| Date | City | Guarantee | Merch net | Gas | Lodging | Food | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri | Columbus | $300 | $250 | $60 | $0 | $60 | $430 |
| Sat | Pittsburgh | $250 | $300 | $70 | $120 | $60 | $300 |
| Sun | Off / drive | $0 | $0 | $90 | $110 | $60 | -$260 |
The numbers are made up. The template calculates the net and running total for you.
Splitting the money
Agree before the tour how money is split and when. Common approaches are paying a fixed per diem daily and splitting what is left at the end, or setting aside a band fund first for repairs and the next record. Write the agreement down. A simple budget plus a written split avoids most money fights.
Tips that save van tours
- Fill your tank where fuel is cheapest on the route, not when the light comes on.
- Keep a cash float separate from merch cash so you always know which is which.
- Count merch in and out every night. Missing shirts are missing money.
- Book the hard-to-find hotel nights early; leave flexible nights open.
How TRMNGR helps
Put the tour on the TRMNGR Calendar with show, travel and off days so everyone sees the same schedule. Each show day has Tickets Sold (with percent of capacity), a guest list, notes and lodging. After the show, the settlement worksheets record what you were actually paid, and Square-connected merch shows sales by day. TRMNGR doesn’t replace the budget spreadsheet; it gives you the actual numbers to compare against it.