When you are touring it is important to keep on top of all the cash ins and outs and all the other payments and receipts that you will have to deal with. As usual the same principles apply whether you have a tour manager to deal with the finances or the most responsible band person does it.

Income;

Your main source of income will be your gig fee. This will be stipulated in the contract if there is one or as per your verbal agreement  (see example) It may be for the full amount of the fee or the balance after the promoter has paid  a deposit in advance.

Your deal may also be structured so that you get a percentage of the door receipts after costs have been covered (see legal section). If this is the case carefully check receipts provided by the promoter against his figures and also his attendance figures against ticket stubs. Obviously it is difficult to do this in practice although it is perfectly acceptable to have one of the band’s crew “clicking the door” that is counting the number of people coming in. It is kind of understood that the promoter will fiddle the figures but not by much!

Often this settlement will be in cash, although bank transfer is much more used, if you trust the promoter! If you have any doubt get it in cash. Whilst most promoters are fundamentally honest there are rogues out there and sometimes promoters misjudge the market so if you are doubtful as to their ability to pay, a badly attended festival for instance try and get your money before you play. There have been may instances of tour mangers standing by the ticket office and taking the cash as tickets are sold and then letting the band play when enough money had been taken.  Remember your bargaining power is considerably diminished after you have played.

However even if you don’t think you are going to get your fee if you have all turned up it is probably worth playing as it is not going to cost you any more. If you don’t play then the punters will think it is down to you and will not know or care about the promoter. You will also be collecting money for the sale of your merchandise. This may be being sold by the venue on your behalf or by yourselves and paying the house a fee. Obviously be careful with counting stock in and out and the number of freebies you give away although a t shirt for helpful house crew always goes down well!

It is good to minimise the amount of cash you carry and to get into a routine of banking it regularly.

Expenses;

It is best to minimise the things you pay cash for and to use a credit card, if you have one for hotels, fuel, sticks and strings etc as you then have a backup of what's gone where and when.

You will probably have to pay per diems or pds in cash. This is a daily allowance for subsistence . The amount is around £15-£20, less if you are hard up and more if you are in an expensive country like Japan. It is important that everyone signs for receipt of the cash and the sheet they sign should state their name, address and self employed tax code, if they have one and sate that they are responsible for paying their own income tax. There will be other payments that have to be made such as purchase of tour supplies, accommodation equipment hire and so on.

You must keep a record of all transactions, you will need a paper receipt for each one with a description of what it is for! Ideally these should be put onto your expenses spreadsheet every day (see example) but often you wont have time so at the very least if you put all the receipts in daily envelopes you or your accountant will be able to sort them out.  Don’t get too far behind though.

Be careful with your cash on the road and you won’t suffer the same fate as Led Zeppelin who famously lost several hundred thousand dollars from the safe of the Drake Hotel in  New York . Cash they needed according to manager Peter Grant in case “they wanted to buy a guitar or a bit of blow in the night”

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