A blank England training budget that keeps every cost unit and VAT basis visible

Use this template only after fixing the learners, workplace task, evidence standard and delivery period. It contains no benchmark values. Each England buyer must populate it from a current quote, invoice, contract or its own approved payroll method.

What to take away

Populate every cost line from a current quote, invoice, contract or approved payroll method.
Keep net charge, VAT treatment, gross outflow and recoverable input tax in separate cells.
Build base, adverse and approved-limit views using buyer-evidenced quantities, not invented probabilities.
Name who can commit spend, release it and pause work for every phase.
Keep accessible content and testing rows even when a supplier headline excludes them.

Set the cost-record rules

Give every line a unique owner and source. Do not accept an amount without currency, VAT treatment, unit, quantity, billing period, commitment, evidence date, inclusion list and exclusion list. Mark confidence as verified, provisional or unknown. An unknown mandatory field pauses approval.

The Cabinet Office Sourcing Playbook uses whole-life costing in central-government procurement and includes mobilisation, running, transition and exit. Other organisations can use that cost structure without claiming that the Playbook governs their purchase.

Copy the blank schedule

Phase	Cost item	Unit
Define	task diagnosis and learning specification	role-hour
Buy	procurement, diligence and contract review	role-hour
Create	course design, examples and licensed media	deliverable
Deliver	facilitation or hosted access	quoted service unit
Learn	attendance, practice and manager cover	role-hour
Assure	assessment, moderation and evidence	assessed learner
Include	adjustments, captions and accessible testing	accepted deliverable
Protect	privacy, security and access controls	approved work package
Maintain	support, correction and source updates	service period
Leave	export, deletion and continuity	accepted exit package

For labour rows, use the organisation's documented loaded-cost method and state what it includes. Under HMRC's minimum-wage manual, approved training can count as working time for minimum-wage analysis. A payroll or employment specialist must apply that UK rule to the workforce and arrangement.

Keep tax fields separate

Record the supplier's net charge, its stated VAT treatment, gross cash outflow and buyer-approved recoverable input tax in different cells. HMRC's education and vocational training notice distinguishes circumstances affecting the supply. Its reclaim page requires attention to registration, business use, evidence and partial exemption.

Do not calculate recoverability from the course title. A qualified VAT adviser should record the relevant entity, supply, invoice and recovery reasoning. Finance should decide accounting classification and funding treatment separately.

Add three decision views

Calculate a base case, an adverse case and the approved spending limit with the same scope. Vary buyer-evidenced quantities such as attendance, repeat assessment, rework, user overage and exit effort. Do not invent probabilities.

Add a funding-control line per phase naming who may commit spend, the documentary threshold to release it, and who may pause work.

A change request must name the altered unit, affected learners, new evidence, tax impact and exit consequence before finance accepts it. This separates contingency from a supplier's informal request and keeps an audit trail.

Use line total = verified unit amount x approved quantity. Then add all accepted lines to the whole-life cash requirement. Keep recoverable VAT outside operating benefit and avoid netting speculative savings against cost.

The NCSC's supplier assurance questions identify ongoing risk change and secure return or deletion at exit. The government's accessibility resources show that accessible content and testing require planned activity. Preserve those rows even when the supplier's headline excludes them.

Release funds only when the scope, competence evidence, tax review, specialist gates, sensitivity triggers and exit obligations all have named owners. The completed schedule should let an independent reviewer trace every accepted amount to its source.

Before you act

Fix learners, task, evidence standard and delivery period first.
Give every line a unique owner and source.
Pause approval when a mandatory field is unknown.
Use the documented loaded-cost method for labour rows.
Ask a qualified VAT adviser to record recovery reasoning.
Release funds only when all owners are named.

Common questions

What must each cost line include before approval?

Every line needs currency, VAT treatment, unit, quantity, billing period, commitment, evidence date, inclusion list and exclusion list. Confidence is marked verified, provisional or unknown. An unknown mandatory field pauses approval, and each line needs a unique owner and source.

How should VAT be handled in the schedule?

Record the supplier net charge, stated VAT treatment, gross cash outflow and buyer-approved recoverable input tax in different cells. Do not calculate recoverability from the course title. A qualified VAT adviser should record the entity, supply, invoice and recovery reasoning, while finance decides accounting classification separately.

What three decision views should be calculated?

Calculate a base case, an adverse case and an approved spending limit with the same scope. Vary buyer-evidenced quantities such as attendance, repeat assessment, rework, user overage and exit effort. Do not invent probabilities. Add a funding-control line for each phase naming who commits, releases and pauses spend.