Cost every garland down to the balloon. Track helium, labor, and drive time. Send proposals that price for profit — and finally know what each installation actually made you.
Here's what a typical workflow looks like for balloon artists.
Share your booking link on Instagram and your website. Clients fill in event date, venue, theme, color palette, and guest count — and the inquiry shows up in your pipeline ready to qualify.
Latex balloons, foils, helium, frames, ribbon, vinyl, labor — enter the cost of each ingredient once. Markup cascades by category: high on consumables, lower on rentable equipment. See the true cost before you quote.
Entrance arch + photo wall garland + ceiling cluster — each priced from its own recipe. Add color upgrades, custom vinyl, and silk floral add-ons. Send the proposal with a deposit schedule and watch it get signed online.
Inflation, build, setup, strike — every minute logged against the event. Mileage to wholesalers, helium runs, and venues. Equipment that goes home, equipment that doesn’t.
Deposit on booking, balance after the event. Your client portal shows the contract, signed agreement, and invoice in one place. After strike, see your true margin per installation — not just per event.
Proposals, contracts, time tracking, invoicing, expenses, and tax prep — all in one place.
Per-balloon costs, per-tank helium, frames, ribbon, vinyl, labor. Update one ingredient cost and every recipe — and every quote — updates. No more guessing what an organic garland actually costs you.
Latex, foil, helium, frames, ribbon, vinyl. Each category carries its own markup percentage. High markup on consumables, lower on rentable hardgoods. The math works itself out.
A wedding rarely needs one garland. Quote arch + backdrop + ceiling cluster + table accents on a single proposal, each pulling from its own recipe. Optional add-ons for color upgrades and custom vinyl.
Track tank purchases as vendor expenses. When helium spikes again, update your cost and every future quote reflects it instantly. See your effective helium cost over time.
Consultation, color approval, supply order, build day, setup, strike. Templates for weddings, corporate activations, and kids’ parties. Nothing gets forgotten.
Inquiry → Design → Booked → Built → Setup → Strike → Complete. Drag events through your workflow. See the whole month at a glance.
Record purchases from balloon distributors, helium suppliers, and rental partners. See spending trends across the year so you can negotiate better terms.
Log trips to venues, distributors, and consultations. IRS standard rate applied automatically for tax deductions.
Cancellation policy, weather contingency, equipment return responsibility, latex allergy disclosure, helium safety. Built-in templates with e-signature and a full audit trail.
Explore a demo account pre-loaded with realistic balloon artistsdata — proposals, invoices, expenses, and profitability reports.
Explore the demoThe biggest mistake new balloon decorators make is underpricing — not accounting for helium, labor, breakage, drive time, and overhead. Professional decorators use cost-plus pricing: total true cost plus a 30-50% margin. Clearmargin's recipe costing handles the math automatically — enter your balloon, helium, frame, and labor costs once, and every quote pulls from it. Your margin is built into every proposal.
Track helium tanks as a vendor purchase. When prices jump, update your recipe cost and every future quote reflects the new pricing automatically. Clearmargin keeps a history of your purchases so you can see your effective helium cost over time and decide when to raise prices — and have data to back it up when clients ask why.
Not traditional accounting software. You need recipe costing for materials, proposal and contract management, time tracking for installs and strikes, vendor purchase tracking, and tax exports. Clearmargin combines all of these without requiring any accounting knowledge — you stay focused on the artistry, not the books.
Balloon decor contracts need cancellation policies, weather clauses for outdoor events, equipment return responsibility (frames, lighting, poles), latex allergy disclosure, helium hazard acknowledgment, and exclusivity (no other decorators bringing balloons). Clearmargin's contract editor includes templates for all of these and sends them for e-signature with a built-in audit trail.