Budget & Travel Itinerary – Sound Recording Grant

Use this scribe to help you complete your Budget and Travel Itinerary, as well as the Musician Fees Budget Tips: - Use the official template for the current fiscal year - Use actual prices and currency conversion if needed Musician Fees - Use it to calculate fees for In-House and Hired musicians Itinerary Tips: - If there's travel, use it to calculate the expenses

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 “Sound Recording”

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 [Sound Recording Grant Guidelines](https://www.creativesask.ca/sound-recording-grant-guidelines/) - Any questions can be directed to a [Program Advisor](https://www.creativesask.ca/about/#programs) Be sure to read the [Creative Saskatchewan Applicant Travel Policy](https://www.creativesask.ca/travel-policy/) found under “Resources”

If ineligible expenses exceed 50% of the total project budget, the whole application will be deemed ineligible

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

Promotional/marketing expenses directly related to the event/market are eligible for this grant, up to 10% of the total project budget

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)

The first step is “Musician Fees” If you are hiring musicians for the project, or paying yourself or your stakeholder band members for the recording sessions, complete the “Musician Fees” tab

If you are not paying yourself or any hired musicians fees, then you would skip this step and leave the “Musician Fees” tab blank

In this example, Musician Fees are being paid, so we'll begin by entering the Musician Name

Their Role (Instrument)

From the drop-down menu, select an option from “In-House?” - Applicant/Stakeholder Bandmember - Hired Third-Party Musician

Then enter the Number of Sessions

And the Rate Per Session

Musician fees for both stakeholders and hired musicians are to be based on average industry rates, with the exception of: - Higher fees justified in the application - Union rates for CFM union members

The Total Payment for that Musician will then be automatically calculated

Continue as needed

The Total Fees for Musicians will be automatically calculated and populated into the Budget tab for you

If Travel is part of the project, then the next step will be the “Travel Itinerary” tab, which automatically populates the travel expenses for you 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

Eligible travel for the Sound Recording Grant: - Applicant and hired musicians (who are Saskatchewan residents) travel expenses to record at any Saskatchewan recording studio greater than 50km away - Travel expenses and professional fees of a non-Saskatchewan producer, as long as the recording occurs at a Saskatchewan facility and all other staff hired for the recording process are Saskatchewan residents

As this example is for people travelling separately, we’ll open the “Travel Itin Diff Travels” tab

If you're project is for the same people all travelling at the same time, you would fill out the "Travel_Itin_Same_Travellers” tab

First, enter in the traveler’s name

And their position

Then enter the first date

Using the drop-down menu, select what you will be doing that day - Travel - Performance - Press - Day Off

Then the City/Town they are departing from, and the country they will be in

If driving your personal vehicle at all, enter the kilometers. You can use google maps (or a similar program) to determine the kilometers. The mileage rate is then calculated based on the current Government of Saskatchewan approved rate

If renting a vehicle and buying fuel, do not use the kilometers travelled column, those amounts are to be entered in the "Cost of Other Travel" column

If you are flying, the next step would be entering the airfare for that leg of the trip. If it's a round-trip flight, divide it by 2 (after removing any GST and HST expenses)

Then enter the cost for "Other Travel" such as train, ferries, and other modes like tolls, subways, buses, and taxis/ubers. Larger trips (like a train or long bus ride) should be determined with estimated screenshots or booking receipts.\ \ (This example doesn't include anything for "Other Travel")

Next, enter the nightly accommodations rate for that traveler

If the traveler is sharing accommodation expenses, divide the nightly rate by all guests. If the expense is for several days, divide the total charge (minus GST/HST) by the number of nights

For this example: - Number of eligible nights: 11 - Number of nights in booking: 12 - Number of guests: 5 - Number of Saskatchewan travelers: 4 - Total expense: $3,726.90 - $3,726.90/12 nights = $308.18 per night - $308.18/5 people = $61.64 per person (amount for Travel Itinerary) - $61.64 per person x 4 people = $246.56 per night - $246.56 x 11 nights = $2,712.16 Total Eligible Amount for Budget

If traveling abroad, look up the exchange rate at Currency Converter - [Currency Converter - Bank of Canada](https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/exchange/currency-converter/) and enter it in the "Exchange Rate" column here

Then select the daily Per Diem rate. As all travel is in Canada for this trip, the exchange rate will remain at 0 and the rate of $130.80 will be used for work and travel days

"0" should be selected as the per diem rate for days off

And enter the daily Per Diem rate in the last column. You can also hit "enter" and the CAD rate will be automatically populated.\ \ Continue on for each day of travel.

Next, move on to the next traveler and continue as needed

Remember: Expenses for days off and unconfirmed performance dates are ineligible

When finished, the amounts will be auto-populated into the Budget for you! The Travel Itinerary is now complete!

Open the "Budget" tab

As you can see, all of the amounts needed for Section D’s “Travel” have been auto-populated from the Travel Itinerary

Same goes for Section A’s “Musician Fees (calculated in the "Musician Fee" tab)

So then it's a matter of entering in all other Budget Line Items. For each, enter in the description in the "Expense" column

And then the "Expense Calculation". This is a great way to demonstrate how you determined the "Budgeted Amount" such as an expense with GST/HST to be removed, or an hourly calculation

Then enter the total amount for the Budget Line Items in the "Budgeted Amount" column

If a Budget Line Items amount is to be spent “In-House” and/or in the Province of Saskatchewan, also enter the amount in those column(s)

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

Continue adding Budget Line Items until all your expenses have been entered

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 under the 10% amount, so the eligible amount has been automatically added to 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 more than $15,000.00 (the maximum eligible amount for the Micro Marketing grant), so the amount of $15,000.00 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, you’ll need to adjust both cells accordingly In this example the applicant is contributing the remaining financing so enter in the name, and amount. And be sure to select "Confirmed"

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

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