Costs and pricing
Part of Building a retail media budget in which every amount can be traced to a document
A retail media budget template that keeps unknown values unknown
Retail media budget template for England: map costs to documented inputs, preserve unknown values and separate cash, VAT and economic-cost calculations.
A retail media budget template should preserve the link between a proposed activity, its charging basis and the evidence supporting it. This blank structure is for an England retailer operating controlled advertising inventory or an advertiser buying that inventory. Choose the payer's perspective before completing any row.
No verified prices, quantities or tax assumptions were obtained for this template during research on 6 September 2026. UNKNOWN entries are deliberate missing-input states. The template is proposed modelling practice, not a quotation, forecast or record of a real campaign.
Complete the cover record first
Record the retailer property, paid format, payer, supplier and service period. Add the decision owner and the date at which the model will be reviewed. Describe which implementation, media, reporting and support activities belong inside the budget.
Keep the source currency and the chosen reporting currency together. Use GBP for the England planning account once any necessary conversion has been documented. Preserve the authoritative source and date of an exchange rate if one is later needed; no conversion is supplied here.
Build the input ledger
| Proposed cost row | Quantity | Rate or fixed amount | Term | VAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implementation work | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN |
| Agreed media purchase | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN |
| Advertising service fee | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN |
| Reporting or evaluation task | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN |
| Operational support | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN |
Every completed row also needs a document reference, evidence date, currency and responsible owner. State the billable event beside a variable charge. A fixed amount should name its deliverable and period rather than use an unexplained quantity entry.
Criteo's account fee documentation distinguishes platform and professional-services fees and explains the working-media basis. It illustrates why fee categories and bases need recording; it does not populate the blank ledger or establish an England rate.
Assign a calculation rule to each row
For an evidenced per-event price, multiply the documented rate by the eligible quantity, adjusting for any contractually defined bundle size. For a fixed service, take the agreed amount for the stated term. For a spend-linked fee, use only the eligible spend specified in its terms.
Keep rounding, minimum charges and exclusions with the relevant formula. Calculate a partial subtotal only from validated rows and label it accordingly. If an essential value remains UNKNOWN, keep the complete budget UNKNOWN instead of letting a spreadsheet treat text or empty cells as nil.
Add an event dictionary
Maintain separate fields for ad requests, served impressions, viewable impressions and clicks. Attributed sales belong to the stated attribution rule; incremental sales require causal evaluation. Record the adopted metric specification and filtering method beside every quantity used in costing.
The IAB Europe V2.1 measurement document, issued in May 2026, covers media, attribution and incrementality. Treat it as industry measurement guidance, not a mandatory UK invoice format or proof that suppliers count events identically.
Separate cash from economic cost
HMRC's VAT guide explains input-tax conditions. Ask a qualified accountant to determine the invoice treatment and recoverability for the actual purchase. Record VAT cash movements independently from any confirmed recoverable amount and retain UNKNOWN where the position is unresolved.
Add the contractual invoice and payment dates when available. A management allocation across periods does not change when the supplier is entitled to payment. This template provides no tax advice, statutory rate or assumed recovery percentage.
Preserve the decision trail
Keep approved assumptions separate from measured quantities and invoiced actuals. When evidence arrives, update the relevant row and retain the earlier version so the change is traceable. Record who accepted each assumption and whether a budget decision depends on it.
Before presenting a complete total, review omissions, duplicated charges and mismatched periods. Require real named finance and specialist review before publication, then refresh sources. The useful output is an auditable model whose unresolved values remain visible, not a polished total unsupported by evidence.