Budget & Travel Itinerary – Digital Game Development Grant

Use this scribe to help you complete your budget for the Digital Game Development Grant Budget Tips: - Use the official template for the current fiscal year - Include only eligible costs - Use actual prices and currency conversion if needed Itinerary Tips: - Use it to calculate fees for hired staff - List each day of travel and event participation with their expenses Cash Flow Tip: - Use it to identify when the expenses of the project need to be paid and plan to ensure the funds are in place

Sharepoint

Navigate to <https://creativesask.smartsimple.ca/>

Once logged into GMS, go to the top left part of the screen and click on “Templates & Additional Materials”

Then click “Digital Game Development”

Then click “Application Templates”

From there, download the budget for the current fiscal year.

Templates are updated annually, so ensure that you are working with the most up-to-date version of the template that is available

If you don’t use the template provided by Creative Saskatchewan, your application will not be accepted

Ensure the expenses you intend on putting into the budget template are eligible - Eligible and ineligible expenses are outlined in both the [Creative Saskatchewan General Program Guidelines](https://www.creativesask.ca/general-program-guidelines/) and [Digital Game Development Grant Guidelines](https://www.creativesask.ca/digital-game-development-grant-guidelines/) - Any questions can be directed to a Program Advisor at [About](https://www.creativesask.ca/about/#staff)\ \ NOTE: If ineligible expenses exceed 50% of the total project budget, the whole application will be deemed ineligible

Begin by clicking on the “Budget Tab”

If travel is part of your project, you would first start by completing the Travel Itinerary, which automatically populates some of the travel expenses in the budget.\ \ Select either “Travel Itin Same Travellers” or “Travel Itin Diff Travels” and fill in the necessary fields using your Travel Plan - Expense notes and calculations - Budget Line Support Documentation\ \ *As this example doesn’t include travel, this step will be bypassed. However, the [Showcase or Sell Grant Budget How-To](https://scribehow.com/viewer/Budget_and_Travel_Itinerary__Showcase_or_Sell_Travel__YEgPFZNsQ4ySqrWxC122hw) is a great resource for travel*

**Prepare Your Plan and Expenses** - Summarize your project plans and begin gathering what you will need to complete the Budget and Travel Itinerary for your application. - Organize your Budget Line Support Documentation for all line items $500 and over. - NOTE: If support documentation has not been provided for more than 50% of line items $500 or more, the application will be deemed ineligible. - Examples of budget line support documentation include:\ o Estimates or invoices from vendors and service providers\ o Calculated breakdown of applicant/staff labour (# of hrs x rate = total)\ o An email, text message, price list, or website screenshot from the vendor or service provider confirming their rate

Remove GST/HST from your expenses as it is an ineligible expense. (PST and all other taxes can be included, just not the Canadian federal sales tax).

All amounts must be in Canadian Dollars. For international amounts, use the “Exchange Rates” tab. To get the correct international rate, use the[Currency Converter - Bank of Canada](https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/exchange/currency-converter/) found in the [Creative Saskatchewan Applicant Travel Policy](https://www.creativesask.ca/travel-policy/). Demonstrate the exchange rate calculation in the budget line column “Expense Calculation”. (Ex: $1.00USD x 0.7294 (exchange rate per July 15, 2025) = $0.7294 CDN)

Based on the project expenses, begin by entering the amounts for the activities you will undertake for the project

Enter in the "Expense Description" and "Expense Calculation" for each line item

And then enter in the eligible amount into the "Budgeted Amount" column

Also, a few of the expenses are being spent In-House and in Saskatchewan, so those amounts should also be entered in the "In-House” and “Sask Spend" columns

The “Sask Spend” amount indicates the amount of the budget item that will be spent in the Province of Saskatchewan

If any of the expenses are In-House (money spent within your own business, organization, or group), the amount will also have to be entered into the "In-House Spend" column. An example of In-House activities would be editing, design and layout within the company by salaried staff

Once the Marketing expenses have been entered into the budget, compare the total to the 10% cap for marketing to be claimed

In this example, the total marketing expenses are slightly over the 10% amount, so the eligible to be claimed will be added to the “Total Before Marketing” for the “SubTotal”

Click on the "Grand Total" amount. The expense portion of the Budget is now complete! You can see that the Admin Fee has automatically been added to the SubTotal. In this example, 15% of the total expenses was used as the Admin Fee amount, as it is less than $5,000.00. If 15% of the total expenses is more than $5,000.00, the maximum of $5,000.00 would have been added to the SubTotal

The Admin Fee is to re-imburse you for your time administering the grant from application through to reporting if approved, as well as the project itself. This money can be paid to yourself or the applicant company, or to a third-party if you so choose

The “Amount Requested from Creative Saskatchewan” has been auto-populated to the maximum eligible amount, either: - 50% of the Grand Total OR - The maximum eligible amount for the grant In this example, 50% of the Grand Total is less than $50,000.00 (the maximum eligible amount for the Digital Game Development grant), so the eligible amount has been auto-populated

Next is the "Project Financing" structure which outlines how the project will be paid for. The "Amount Requested from Creative Saskatchewan" has been auto-populated into the Project Financing structure, so if you are requesting a lower amount, the adjust both cells accordingly

In this example the applicant is contributing the other 50%, so enter in the name, and remaining amount. And be sure to select "Confirmed"

NOTE: Incomplete project financing will result in the application being deemed ineligible

The "Total Financing" should match the "Grand Total" of the budget

The last step is completing the "Revenue Projections" Enter in the source, the low estimate(s) and the high estimate(s)

The Investment Summary is then auto-populated with the amounts based on the Total Expenses and the Revenue Projections

Now it’s time for the “Project Cashflow”, so click open that tab. This is to identify when the expenses of the project will need to be paid and the plan to ensure the funds are in place to cover them

All expenses from the Budget tab have been auto-populated into the Budget column (“C”) of the Project Cashflow

The Project Cashflow is for third-party expenses (money being paid to other companies and service providers), so begin by removing all In-House expenses – the expenses you are paying directly to your company from the Budget column (“C”)

**When and How In-House expenses would be included in the “Project Cashflow”**\ \ In-House expenses (expenses the applicant is directly paying to their company) that are in the budget, are not included in the “Project Cashflow”, as typically applicants pay themselves after all is said and done.\ But if the applicant company is paying their staff, that is a hard expense just like a third-party vendor’s. And although the staff salary would be listed as In-House in the budget, it would need to be in the “Project Cashflow”. *In this example, the applicant company doesn’t have any hired staff (just 2 stakeholders), so it's not in the “Project Cashflow”.*

Be sure to also remove the “Admin Fee”, as it isn't a third-party expense

The “Total Outflows” amount will be the total expenses needing to be paid to third-parties

If the total amount being spent on Marketing exceeds 10% of the Project Budget, reduce the marketing expense(s) in the Marketing Activity area to total the amount eligible to be claimed for marketing

Next assemble your Payment Timeline: - Make a copy of your Project Timeline (the projected start and end dates for all budgeted activity) - Add in the dates you expect money coming in will be and when the Final Report will be due (2 months after completion of the last budgeted activity) - Remove all In-House budgeted activity - Adjust any dates where the payment due is different than when the activity will be taking place\ \ *Note: A "Payment" Timeline is a tweaked "Project" Timeline that is focused on the dates of money coming in and out, rather than when project activity will be happening*

Then enter your Payment Timeline into the date ranges (Rows 1-2). This is when the project expenses need to be paid, and when your “Projected Cash Inflows” (money coming in to pay for the project) will be

Use both the expected start and end date for each period

Take each amount of the budget column and the Projected Cash Inflows and enter it into the appropriate date range row

When complete, ensure all amounts in the “Total” column at the end are correct, as well as the “Total Outflows” and Projected Cash Inflows” rows

If you have In-House expenses, be sure to that the amount of the applicant contribution in the “Projected Cash Inflows” is the amount needed only for third party expenses. \ *Example: If the applicant contribution in the “Project Financing Structure” of the budget is $25,000.00 and the In-House expenses total $5,000.00, then the amount to be used in the “Projected Cash Inflows” is $20,000.00*

Now go through and enter in all the payments you expect to receive in the "Projected Cash Inflows" rows

Once all data is entered, the final Cumulative Cash Position amount should be $0.00

”Net Projected Monthly Cash Positions” refers to the projected amount of cash a business can expect to have at any given time, considering its inflows and outflows over a specific period

“Cumulative Cash Position” is the total amount of cash generated or consumed by a business over a specified period of time. It takes into account both the inflow (income) and outflow (expenses) of cash, providing a running total of the net cash position

Ta-Da! You're now finished! 👏 - Save the file in Excel or as a PDF - they are the 2 accepted file types. All other formats are not accepted - Upload the completed Budget and Travel Itinerary in the “Upload” tab of your application within GMS - Use the totals in the correlating fields of the “Project Summary” tab