Commercial and leadership decision tools
Event outsource-or-keep-in-house worksheet
Your team is deciding whether to run the event itself or buy help, and wants the decision to rest on the work rather than on a sales conversation.
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The short answer
The worksheet compares each task with the hours your team can give and the skill it holds. Each task lands as in-house, hybrid or external, with the reason written beside it.
Doing everything in-house is a valid answer. Proposals you have received are listed next to the findings and are never scored or ranked.
What to enter
- Objectives: two or three lines on what the event must achieve, so the comparison is about delivery of those outcomes.
- Tasks: one row each, with the hours needed and the hours your team can realistically give. Leave an hour figure blank if you do not know it.
- Skill: whether the team has the skill, part of it or none, and whether the task needs a qualified specialist.
- Proposals: any quotes already received, with the price and whether the scope is confirmed in writing.
How each task is sorted
A task is in-house when the team has the skill and the hours cover the need. It is hybrid when the skill is there but hours fall short, or when only part of the skill is held. It is external when the team lacks the skill, or when the task needs a qualified specialist the team does not have.
A task with a blank hour figure or no skill choice is marked unknown and left out of the finding. It is never counted as zero hours.
Reading the finding
If every task with known data is in-house, the finding says no external support is needed. That result stands even when proposals are on the table.
A hybrid finding shows the total hours short, so you can ask for help with a bounded gap instead of the whole event. An external finding names the tasks and the reason for each.
What the worksheet does not do
It does not score or rank proposals, because a score built on a seller's own description would only reflect the pitch. Compare proposals against the gaps the worksheet found: which tasks they cover, what is confirmed in writing and what they leave with you.
Hours and skills are your own judgement. Tie them to the plan with the event brief builder, record who decides with the decision log, and check people's time with the calendar capacity planner.
Worked example · Fictional example
A fictional members' forum
Fictional organisation and figures, to show how the sorting works.
A fictional association plans a one-day forum for about 150 members. The programme task needs 30 hours and the team has 40, with the skill, so it stays in-house. Registration needs 25 hours but only 10 are free, so it is hybrid with a 15-hour gap.
Live-stream production needs a qualified specialist the team does not have, so it is external. Venue negotiation has no hours entered and is marked unknown. The two proposals are listed with their quotes and are not scored.
Use this yourself
Keep or outsource worksheet
Fill one row per task, then apply the rule in the last column. Write a reason for every task.
| Task | Hours needed | Hours we can give | Team skill (has, part, none) | Specialist needed? | Result (in-house, hybrid, external, unknown) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Handle it in-house, or bring in help?
Your team can usually handle this when
- The team has the skill and the hours for every task, and the finding says no external support is needed.
- The only gaps are small and a colleague or volunteer can cover them.
Outside planning help earns its fee when
- Hours are short on several tasks at the same time and nobody has room to coordinate them.
- A task needs a qualified specialist, and the team needs a clear brief and supplier requirements to buy it well.
- The team wants a written scope that separates what it keeps from what it hands over.
Want the keep-or-hand-over decision written into a plan?
An Event Blueprint can set out the scope, the tasks the team keeps, the tasks that need outside input and the supplier requirements for those, so proposals are judged against a brief. You decide what to buy, or whether to buy anything.
Questions organisers ask
Can the worksheet conclude that no outside help is needed?
Yes. When every task with known data is in-house, the finding says no external support is needed.
Why are proposals not scored?
A score drawn from a provider's own description would reflect the pitch. The tool lists proposals beside the gaps so you can compare scope, written confirmation and price yourself.
What happens if I do not know the hours?
The task is marked unknown and left out of the finding. Unknown is never treated as zero.
Related resources
Content record: Draft. Written from the cited sources and checked by automated rules; not yet independently reviewed.