# The Race Budget Template That Fills Itself In > Run This Sheets gives your race a budget template that fills itself in: live registration revenue, breakeven runners, shirt counts and more. - **Author:** Kelby Dover, Founder, Run This - **Published:** 2026-10-06 - **Category:** Race Directors - **Topics:** race budget template, race budget, race director spreadsheet, shirt order, breakeven, race planning, race director tools, live race data - **Reading time:** 6 min - **Article:** https://runthis.run/articles/the-race-budget-template-that-fills-itself-in Every race director has a budget spreadsheet. Most of them are wrong by Tuesday. Registration revenue lives in one place. The budget lives in another. Somebody copies the numbers over when they remember, and the shirt order gets placed off last week's export. Run This Sheets ends the copying. Your sheets know your race, and the numbers fill themselves in. ### What's in it - **A race budget that fills itself in.** Registration revenue, donations and sponsor payments, live. - **Breakeven, worked out for you.** How many runners you need, and how many you still need. - **Orders that count themselves.** Shirts by size and distance, medals, and aid station supplies. - **24 live formulas.** Registrations, spots left, volunteers, check-ins and money, in any cell. - **8 sheet templates built for races.** From the race budget to the race-day timeline. - **Everything you know from Excel and Google Sheets.** Formulas, charts, shortcuts, and Excel files in and out. ### The race budget, done for you Start from the Race budget template. The income lines are already wired to your race: registration revenue is =SALES(), donations are =DONATIONS(), and sponsor payments collected through Run This are =SPONSORS(). Cash sponsors and vendor fees get their own line for you to type in. The costs are laid out the way a race actually spends money: timing, permits and police, insurance, the venue, portable toilets, shirts, medals, bibs, aid station supplies, food at the finish, signs, tents, sound, medical, a photographer, marketing and volunteer shirts. Type what you budgeted and what you spent, and the difference works itself out. At the bottom, the net to your event comes straight from your Finance page, after fees and refunds. Income fills in from your race. You add the costs. ### Know your breakeven, every day The Summary tab answers the question every director asks: how many runners do we need? It divides your registration revenue by your runners to get the average price paid, then works out how many runners cover your budgeted costs and how many you still need. Days to race day sits right below. Every one of those numbers moves on its own as people register, and the chart redraws with them. Breakeven, worked out from your real registrations. ### Your shirt order counts itself Shirt order day usually means exporting registrations, building a pivot table and hoping the sizes come out right. The Shirt and giveaway order template lays out every shirt size by distance, plus your volunteers, plus totals, straight from your registrations. It adds 10% extra so late sign-ups get their size (change it to whatever you like), rounds up, and shows the days to race day so you can order by your vendor's lead time. Shirt sizes by distance, live, with a chart that keeps up. ### Medals and awards, counted The Medal and award order template counts your registered runners, adds 5% for race-day sign-ups, and lays out registrations by distance, age group and gender beside it. Set how many places each age group gets, and the counts you need are right there. ### Aid stations, worked out from your runner count How many cups at mile 3? The Aid station plan does the math: your runner count times cups per runner (1.5 to start, two in heat), then gallons of water and sports drink and the coolers to hold them, station by station. Bananas too, half per runner. When 50 more people register, the order grows with them. ### Volunteers and sponsors, tracked The Volunteer roster pulls every role, shift and sign-up from your Volunteers page, with each role's check-ins and how many you still need. A second tab is your own roster, with a shirt size dropdown and a Checked in box for race morning. The Sponsor tracker lists every sponsor with their level, what they pledged, what they've paid and what they still owe. Sponsor payments collected through Run This add up at the bottom on their own. ### Ahead of last year, or behind? Every race director asks it. Few can answer it without digging up last year's exports. Most live formulas can count an earlier race too. Add "at this point" and they count it only up to the same number of days before race day as today. =SALES("last", "at this point") is last year's revenue on this exact day of the countdown. Put it beside =SALES() and you'll know where you stand before your next committee meeting. ### 24 live formulas, in any cell Press Live data and click one, or start typing an equals sign. A few favorites: - **=REGISTRATIONS("5K")** counts one distance. - **=SPOTS_LEFT()** shows how close you are to selling out. - **=VOLUNTEERS_NEEDED()** shows the gaps in your volunteer plan. - **=PACKETS()** counts the packets picked up. - **=MONEY_BY("week")** lays out registration revenue week by week. - **=DISCOUNTS()** adds up what your coupon codes gave away. - **=DAYS_TO_RACE()** is your countdown. The ones that make a table fill the cells below and to the right, and grow as your race does. The money formulas match your Finance page. ### Start from a sheet that's already built Eight Run This templates open ready to go, with your race's live numbers wherever they help: the Race budget, a Planning timeline that runs from twelve months out to after the race, the Shirt and giveaway order, the Medal and award order, the Aid station plan, the Volunteer roster, the Sponsor tracker and a Race-day timeline with an owner and a Done box for every step. Blue cells are yours to type in. The rest works itself out. Built one you love? Save it as your own template and use it at every race you direct. 8 sheet templates, built for races. ### Everything you know from Excel and Google Sheets Formulas work the way you expect, SUM, AVERAGE, IF and the rest, with the keyboard shortcuts you already know. AutoSum, dropdown lists, color rules, tabs, charts, and F4 to lock a cell with $. Blocks drops a ready-made table into any sheet: budget lines, a sponsor table, aid stations, a timeline, a volunteer roster or a task list. Already have a budget in Excel or Google Sheets? Open the .xlsx (from Google Sheets: File, Download, Microsoft Excel) and it keeps its tabs, formulas, colors, borders, dropdowns and color rules. Need it back out? Download any sheet as Excel or a tab as CSV, with the live numbers as they are at that moment. ### One budget for your whole team Your co-directors can work in the same sheet at the same time, with each person's selected cells outlined in their color. Version history keeps the earlier versions, and your treasurer never has to ask for the latest copy again. Sharing, privacy and the rest of Files are in [We Built Google Drive for Race Directors](https://runthis.run/articles/we-built-google-drive-for-race-directors). ### Set up your budget in five minutes - Open your race's dashboard. Under Setup, click Documents. - Press New, then Sheet from a template, and pick Race budget. - Type your costs under Budget. Income fills in on its own. - Open the Summary tab to see your breakeven. - Add the Shirt and giveaway order next, and check it the day you order. Sheets are included with Run This, with no extra subscription. They're on the Run This website, for every race that takes sign-ups through Run This. ### Ready? Open your dashboard, pick your race, and click Documents. Every live formula is listed in the help center: [Sheets](https://runthis.run/help/directors/sheets). Writing the plans too? Read [The Document Builder for Race Directors](https://runthis.run/articles/the-document-builder-for-race-directors). Something you wish it did? [Tell me](https://runthis.run/contact). I read every one. --- Source: [https://runthis.run/articles/the-race-budget-template-that-fills-itself-in](https://runthis.run/articles/the-race-budget-template-that-fills-itself-in) — data from Run This (runthis.run).