Building and Managing a Budget

Start With a Real Budget Document#

A budget is a plan for money: what you expect to bring in and what you expect to spend, laid out before the season. Build it in a shared spreadsheet (Google Sheets works well) with two sections:

• Income — registration grants, sponsorships, fundraisers, school/PTA support, carryover from last year.
• Expenses — registration, events, robot parts, tools, travel, apparel, outreach.

Use FIRST's Median Team Budget resource (Rev. Aug. 2025) as a starting point so you do not forget categories.

Budget by Sub-System#

Veteran teams break the robot budget down by sub-system (drivetrain, intake, arm, electrical) and give each a cap. This is part of why business tracks "sub-system budgets" and "order schedules." Sub-system caps prevent one mechanism from eating all the money and force engineers to make cost-conscious design choices.

Tracking Spending#

A budget is useless if you do not track actual spending against it. Set up:

• A purchase request process — anyone wanting to buy something fills out a simple form (item, vendor, cost, why), and a finance lead or mentor approves it.
• A running ledger — every purchase logged with date, vendor, amount, and category.
• Receipt collection — keep every receipt; you will need them for reimbursements, sponsor reports, and grant accounting.

Order Schedules#

During build season, business often manages an order schedule: consolidating part requests from sub-teams, placing orders with vendors like AndyMark, REV Robotics, CTR Electronics, McMaster-Carr, and WestCoast Products (WCP), and tracking shipping so nothing blocks the critical path. Late orders are a top cause of build-season delays, so a disciplined ordering cadence (for example, daily order cutoffs) matters.

Financial Stewardship and Compliance#

Many teams operate under a school, a booster club, or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Whatever the structure:

• Keep team funds separate from personal money.
• Reconcile your ledger against bank/account statements regularly.
• Maintain transparency so mentors, the school, and sponsors can see where money goes.
• Save records for grant reporting (some grants, like NASA's, require an annual report and surveys).

Carryover and Reserves#

Aim to end each season with a reserve, ideally enough to cover next year's registration. A team that spends to zero every year lives one bad fundraising season away from folding. Building a reserve is one of the most concrete ways business contributes to sustainability.

Why This Matters for Awards#

A documented budget, clean records, and a reserve are evidence of a well-run organization, which is exactly what Impact Award judges and grant reviewers want to see.