Passporters budgeting question

[FutureMrs.B]

Ok I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question. I'm looking at the budgeting page on the passporters e-book and I'm a bit confused about the minimum expenditure box. The first one says it's the minimum expenditure but the 2nd one says it's the tax and service fees. So do I just subtract the 2nd box from the the first and that's the actual minimum expenditure? I've tried adding up the service fees and tax columns but they don't seem to come out to the same number that's in the 2nd box. I'm really confused. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm over my minimum by a lot or I'm close to it. Thanx and sorry again.

 

[sissy_ib]

Tax or service fees count toward the minimum.

 

[FutureMrs.B]

I just checked the contract and it says the minimum must be met exclusive of the service fee and tax.

 

[pixie921]

I just checked the contract and it says the minimum must be met exclusive of the service fee and tax.

Yes, that's how I understand it as well. I have the ebook, too, but I found it easier for myself personally to put all of our budget estimates into an Excel spreadsheet with a column for items included in the minimum expenditure and one for the fees, taxes, etc. Hopefully someone who's used the book's forms (or better yet, Carrie herself!) can answer your question specifically.

 

[lurkyloo]

Ok I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question. I'm looking at the budgeting page on the passporters e-book and I'm a bit confused about the minimum expenditure box. The first one says it's the minimum expenditure but the 2nd one says it's the tax and service fees. So do I just subtract the 2nd box from the the first and that's the actual minimum expenditure? I've tried adding up the service fees and tax columns but they don't seem to come out to the same number that's in the 2nd box. I'm really confused. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm over my minimum by a lot or I'm close to it. Thanx and sorry again.

As previous posters said, the tax and service fees do NOT count toward your minimum. This means that the total you see in the first box (labeled "Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings Minimum Expenditure") is exactly how much you're spending that counts toward the minimum—no subtraction required. If that number is more than $10,000/$12,000/$15,000 (whatever your minimum should be), you're doing fine!

Does that make sense?

 

[FutureMrs.B]

As previous posters said, the tax and service fees do NOT count toward your minimum. This means that the total you see in the first box (labeled "Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings Minimum Expenditure") is exactly how much you're spending that counts toward the minimum—no subtraction required. If that number is more than $10,000/$12,000/$15,000 (whatever your minimum should be), you're doing fine!

Does that make sense?

Yes it does. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

 

[sissy_ib]

I just checked the contract and it says the minimum must be met exclusive of the service fee and tax.

So sorry! I meant DON'T count!

 

[Firefly09]

my Wishes minimum towards DTFW is coming up $1000 more using the Passporter budgeting sheet than when I manually add everything up myself. Anyone else encounter this? Is there extra padding automatically added in?

 

[lurkyloo]

The budget sheet doesn't add padding — we want the total you see to be as accurate as possible. I'll take a look at the worksheet and see if it does the same thing for me....

 

[lurkyloo]

OK, I have an idea where the problem might be: Any line-item in the budget that is shaded pink will be added up as part of the DFTW minimum expenditure, including events that actually only count if they're held on the same day and things that might not come from Disney (like if you're using an outside florist). So if you put amounts for events/items that don't count in the pink areas, they will show up in the DFTW Minimum Expenditure total.

For example, say you're having a dessert party but NOT on the day of the wedding. If you input the expenses in the pink-shaded area, the worksheet won't know that the DP doesn't count toward your DFTW minimum, so the expenses will be added to your DFTW Minimum Expenditure total.

So you need to either leave these expenses out of the worksheet, or put them in but be aware that your DFTW Minimum Expenditure number will be off by the cost of the dessert party/bridal tea/outside floral/etc.

Let me know if this is still unclear!

 

[Firefly09]

Thanks for looking into it Lurkyloo, but for some reason my total is still coming up high. I add up all the numbers in the first column, including the dessert party which I need to get to my minimum, and it's still coming up over 1K less than what the spreadsheet says. I even re-downloaded the e-edition and entered only the pink boxes to make sure nothing else was being added in.

I'm not quite sure what's going on but I'm also getting 2K more in service fees and taxes than when i manually add up the columns and there's a total under "all other expenses" which I know includes things like the wedding dress and non-disney expenses but I haven't entered any of those so I'm not sure where that number comes from.

Is the event total supposed to be the combined total of the DFTW minimum, service fees and taxes, and the all other expense totals? It's not adding in the service fees and taxes at all.

I'm not complaining as the book itself has been beyond helpful in our wedding planning. I can always just go back to using my Excel spreadsheets. I just wanted to know if there was something I was doing wrong or perhaps others have had the same experience and it's something that needs to be fixed in the book itself.

 

[lurkyloo]

Is the event total supposed to be the combined total of the DFTW minimum, service fees and taxes, and the all other expense totals?

Yes—Total Event Cost should be the sum of those three.

So, I've identified a problem with three of the fields on the first page of the budget and have asked the person who created the form to fix them.

Can you do me a favor and try removing all the info you've put in the "Ceremony" section on the first page? Everything else in the budget should then add up—or at least, it does in my version. But if you can let me know what happens in yours, it will help me pinpoint the problem.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

 

[Firefly09]

Ok, so here are the problems that I identified, sorry if you've already addressed these:

Ceremony venue fee: the *price & tax* total is being added to the service fees and tax total which is why it is $2K more than what I was expecting.

In all the other areas that I entered (reception, floral, photography, DP) both the price and tax are being added to the DTFW minimum rather than just the price itself.

So... if I subtract the price and tax amount of the ceremony venue from the service fees and taxes total (SFTT), then subtract the correct SFTT from the DTFW minimum, I arrive at the same DTFW minimum as my Excel spreadsheet! Yay!

Hope that makes sense. I'll be happy to share the actual numbers if it helps.

 

[lurkyloo]

OK, this is very helpful! Hopefully I will be able to adequately describe the problems to our worksheet guru so we can get it fixed ASAP!