Built on Real Event Experience
We started because someone kept asking why budgets fell apart after the contracts were signed. Turns out, that happens more often than people want to admit.
How We Got Started
Back in 2019, a mid-sized corporate event in Sydney ran 40% over budget. The culprit? Hidden vendor fees that nobody caught during planning. The finance director asked us to figure out what went wrong and how to prevent it happening again.
That investigation turned into a framework. The framework became workshops. And by early 2023, we'd taught over 200 event coordinators across Australia how to spot budget traps before they become disasters.
We're not financial advisors in the traditional sense. Most of our background is in event management and operational planning. But we've seen enough budget blowouts to know where they come from and what actually works to prevent them.
The biggest lesson? Most budget problems aren't about the numbers themselves. They're about understanding what questions to ask vendors and when to ask them.
What Drives Our Work
These aren't corporate values someone wrote on a wall. They're principles that came out of actual conversations with clients who were trying to fix expensive mistakes.
Realistic Planning
We teach people to build buffers based on actual event data, not wishful thinking. A 15% contingency sounds boring until the venue changes their staffing fees three weeks out.
Vendor Clarity
Most contract surprises come from assumptions. We walk clients through the questions that reveal hidden costs early, when there's still time to negotiate or pivot.
Practical Tools
Our resources work in spreadsheets, not fancy software. Because when you're stressed about numbers at 11pm, you need something simple that makes sense immediately.
Who's Actually Here
We're a small team based in Melbourne. Most of us came from event coordination or hospitality management backgrounds before moving into financial planning for events specifically.
What binds us together is probably the shared frustration of watching preventable budget disasters unfold. Once you've seen a charity fundraiser lose money because nobody budgeted for payment processing fees, you can't unsee it.
Saoirse Dunlevy
Financial Planning CoordinatorSpent seven years managing corporate conferences before realizing the real challenge wasn't logistics but helping clients understand where their money actually went. Now focuses on teaching realistic contingency planning and vendor contract reviews.
How We Actually Work With Clients
Our approach developed from trial and error. Here's what we've found helps people most when planning event budgets.
1Foundation Phase
- Review past event budgets to identify recurring problem areas
- Map out vendor relationships and contract terms
- Establish baseline costs using Australian market rates
- Create initial planning templates customized to event type
2Active Planning
- Weekly budget reviews during high-activity planning periods
- Vendor proposal analysis for hidden costs
- Contingency scenario planning for common issues
- Documentation systems that track decision rationale
