Tool
Build and revise a spending plan without wrestling a spreadsheet. Put in the things you already know you want, then let the tool turn whatever budget is left into ongoing support — caregiver hours if you employ people, or hours, sessions and days from a vendor if you do not. Works for Co-Employer, Sole Employer and Bill Payer alike, applying employer burden only where there are employees to carry it.
Save the plan file when you finish. Spending plans get sent back for revision more often than anyone would like — a figure queried, a code changed, a service that has to be reworked — and plans change through the year anyway as circumstances do. We built this because rebuilding a plan from scratch each time is a waste of an evening. With the plan file you open it here, change what needs changing and print it again in a couple of minutes. The PDF cannot be opened back into the tool and the spreadsheet only carries the totals, so the plan file is the one that brings your work back. Your plan is also kept in this browser as you type, so a refresh loses nothing — but that copy goes with the browser. It will not be there on another computer, in a private window, or after clearing site data.
Your FMS provider's fee is paid by the regional center outside your individual budget, so it is not counted in this plan. Most plans list it for reference at zero.
Put in the things you already know the price of first — equipment, memberships, lessons, transportation. You do not have to work out the ongoing support yourself: the tool below takes whatever budget is left after these and turns it into hours for a caregiver you employ, or hours, sessions or days from a vendor.
Most plans get built in this order, and this is the second half of it.
First, the things you already know you want. A laptop. A gym membership. Horseback riding lessons. The transportation line. Each of those has a price you can look up, so you add them above and they stop moving.
Then whatever is left goes to the ongoing support — the hours someone works for you, or the hours, sessions or days you buy from a vendor. That is the number nobody can do in their head, because it has to divide evenly across the year and, if the person is your employee, carry employer burden on top of every dollar of wage. Work it out by hand and you land a few hundred dollars off, every time.
So let this do it. Tick the lines below that should absorb the remainder — one of them, or several sharing it. Say which number you already know: if you know the rate you can pay, it works out how many hours or units that buys; if you know how many you need, it works out the rate. Either way it lands on your certified budget, burden included where it applies.
It works the same whichever model you are on. Under Co-Employer or Sole Employer it solves caregiver hours with employer burden included. Under a Bill Payer you employ nobody, so tick a vendor line instead — there is no burden to carry, which makes the arithmetic simpler, but it is the same job and the same button. Each line below shows its provider type, and says “burden applies” only where it does.
Cannot be negative.
Laid out the way regional centers set out a spending plan, because that is an arrangement service coordinators read fluently. It is not an official regional center form, and it does not need to be. You write your spending plan — on your own, with an independent facilitator, or with your service coordinator — and the regional center certifies it. Print it landscape; the browser's print dialog has the setting.
Select all and copy, then paste straight into Excel or Google Sheets. Columns are tab-separated.