May is the craft vendor's truth-telling month. The spring shows are done. The application fees for fall have started arriving in your inbox. And somewhere in the back of your mind, a quiet question is forming: did I actually make money these past five months, or did I just stay busy?

The answer is usually unsettling — not because the numbers are bad, but because most vendors never look. They track the next show, not the last one. They compare gross revenue year-over-year instead of net profit. They remember the one great Saturday in April and forget the three mediocre Sundays in March.

This is the mid-year audit. It takes one hour. By the end, you will have a ranked list of every show you did, the exact Real Hourly Wage each one paid, and a clear Keep/Drop decision for every fall application sitting in your inbox.

Why do a mid-year financial audit for your craft business?

A mid-year audit reveals which shows are genuinely profitable and which are eating your time, preventing you from accidentally rebooking the same losing shows in the fall season. Spring's emotional memory (the one great sale, the nice organizer, the beautiful venue) fades — only the hard numbers should drive your fall booking decisions.

Without an audit, you make decisions based on feeling. The "best" show in your memory might have been a $32/hr Saturday market, while the show you vaguely remember as "fine" might have paid $14/hr across a 40-hour weekend. Feelings lie. Math doesn't.

The 3-Step Mid-Year Audit Framework

The mid-year audit has three steps: collect every show's data in one place, rank them by Real Hourly Wage, and apply the Keep/Maybe/Drop framework to every fall show you're considering. Each step takes about 20 minutes.

Collect

Gather every spring show — revenue, booth fee, mileage, lodging, meals, hours worked. Pull it from your Square dashboard, Google Calendar, and bank statements.

Rank

Sort every show by Real Hourly Wage — not by gross revenue. The show with the highest revenue is never the show with the best wage.

Decide

Compare each fall show's projected numbers against your spring benchmarks. Know exactly what to apply to — and what to skip.

Step 1: Collect every show's complete financial data

For every show you did between January and May 2026, collect: gross revenue, booth fee and application fees, round-trip mileage, lodging costs (if any), meals on the road, transaction fees (2.6% + $0.10 per swipe is a good default), and total hours worked including prep, travel, setup, selling, and teardown.

If you've been using BoothKeeper, this data is already in your dashboard — skip to Step 2. If you've been tracking manually, here is the minimum dataset you need per show:

Field	Where To Find It	Example
Gross Revenue	Square/Stripe dashboard + cash box count	$1,450
Booth Fee	Email receipts, PayPal records	-$250
Mileage	Google Maps history × $0.70/mi (2026 IRS rate)	-$84 (120 mi)
Meals + Lodging	Bank statement, credit card history	-$65
Transaction Fees	Square/Stripe payout reports (2.6% avg)	-$38
COGS (materials)	Total materials cost for what you sold — estimate based on your typical margin %	-$435
Hours Worked	Pack + Travel + Setup + Sell + Teardown	14 hrs

If you don't have exact numbers for an older show, estimate conservatively. Round mileage up. Add an extra hour for prep. The audit is about directionally correct decisions, not tax-level precision.

Step 2: Rank every show by Real Hourly Wage

For each show, calculate Real Hourly Wage using the formula: (Gross Revenue − All Expenses) ÷ Total Hours. Then sort your shows from highest hourly wage to lowest. The ranking will surprise you — the show that felt the most profitable rarely sits at the top.

Here is a real example from a BoothKeeper user who did five spring shows and ran this exact audit:

Show	Gross Revenue	All Expenses	Hours	Real Hourly Wage	Rank
Local Saturday Market	$920	-$531	13	$29.92	1
Art Walk Evening Series	$680	-$220	16	$28.75	2
Weekend Festival (3-day)	$2,150	-$1,275	55	$15.90	3
Craft Fair (Suburban)	$540	-$285	18	$14.17	4
"Prestigious" Arts Festival	$1,800	-$1,258	55	$9.86	5

Notice the pattern. The two highest-revenue shows ($2,150 and $1,800) ranked worst by hourly wage. The "boring" local Saturday market that grossed $920 was actually the best financial decision of the spring — because the booth fee was $40 and the drive was 20 minutes.

The user's instinct was to rebook the festival first. The data told her to rebook the Saturday market first and drop the arts festival entirely.

The Revenue Trap

If you only track gross revenue, the 3-day festival looks like your best show. If you track Real Hourly Wage, it looks like your worst. Every year, vendors rebook the wrong shows because they look at the top line instead of the bottom line. Don't be one of them.

Step 3: Apply the Keep/Maybe/Drop framework to your fall shows

Using your spring Real Hourly Wage rankings as a baseline, evaluate every fall show you're considering: if a show projects to pay above your Target Rate (e.g., $30/hr) → KEEP, between your Minimum and Target → MAYBE, below your Minimum → DROP. Use your actual spring data to ground the projections, not optimism.

Here is the decision matrix:

🟢
KEEP (Top 20%)
Shows that exceeded your Target Hourly Rate in spring. These are your anchors. Apply immediately. Prioritize them over everything else.
🟡
MAYBE (Middle 40%)
Shows between your Minimum and Target. Acceptable fill-ins, but actively look for better replacements. If you find a new show with better projected wage, drop the MAYBE.
🔴
DROP (Bottom 40%)
Shows below your Minimum Hourly Rate. Cut them. Do not rebook. The organizer will call and ask why — tell them. A free weekend to rest and make product is worth more than a show that pays less than your local coffee shop.

Apply this framework to every fall show before you pay a single application fee. If a fall show looks like a spring show that ranked in the DROP zone, skip it — unless the fall version has materially different economics (lower booth fee, closer location, more days).

What patterns should I look for in my show data?

The three most common patterns in mid-year show audits are: the "Travel Tax" (shows with more than 90 minutes of driving consistently pay below $20/hr), the "Booth Fee Ceiling" (when the booth fee exceeds 20% of gross revenue, the show is unprofitable), and the "Weekend Warrior Trap" (3-day shows look impressive but almost always pay less per hour than 1-day markets).

Here is what to look for in your own data:

🚗 The Travel Tax

Sum up all the shows where round-trip drive time exceeded 3 hours. Compare their average hourly wage against shows within 30 minutes of your studio. If there's a gap of $10/hr or more, those road trips are costing you more than you think.

💰 The Booth Fee Ceiling

Calculate your booth fee as a percentage of gross revenue for every show. If any show's fee exceeds 20% of revenue, that show has a structural profitability problem that no amount of "selling harder" can fix.

📅 The Weekend Warrior Trap

Compare the average Real Hourly Wage of your 1-day shows against your 3-day festivals. In most cases, the 1-day shows win by $10+/hr. The multi-day shows drain profit through accumulated expenses and exhaustion.

🔄 The Repeat Show Bias

Check whether shows you've been doing for 3+ years have declining hourly wages. Booth fees creep up, attendance sometimes plateaus, but your comfort with the familiar keeps you coming back. Let the data decide, not loyalty.

What if I only did 2 or 3 spring shows?

If you're new or did fewer shows, use the spring data you have as a baseline and supplement with the free BoothKeeper Profit Calculator to model fall shows before you apply. Even a 2-show dataset reveals useful patterns — like whether your booth fee ceiling is healthy or whether your local market outperforms destination shows.

You can also use our worked examples from the Real Hourly Wage Formula and Profit Spreadsheet Template posts as benchmarks. If a fall show you're considering looks structurally similar to one of the worked examples (same booth fee range, same travel distance), you can reasonably project its wage.

How do I use my audit to choose fall shows?

Before applying to any fall show, run it through a four-question screen: (1) Is the projected Real Hourly Wage above my Target Rate? (2) Is the booth fee under 15% of projected revenue? (3) Is the drive under 90 minutes each way? (4) Is this a known entity or a complete unknown? If it fails two or more, skip it.

Here is the exact screening formula we recommend:

Step 1: Project hourly wageUse spring data + Profit Calculator
Step 2: Check booth fee %Fee ÷ projected revenue. Under 15%?
Step 3: Count travel hoursRound trip × $0.70. Add to expense sheet
Step 4: Run the calculatorBoothKeeper Free Profit Calculator
Verdict: KEEP if 4/4 pass. MAYBE if 3/4. DROP if ≤2.

The Fall Application Deadline Trap

Many fall shows have June or July application deadlines. That means you have approximately 4 weeks to run this audit and decide. Don't rush. A $35 jury fee is cheaper than a $300 booth fee for a show you'll regret. Take the time to model each show's economics before you submit anything.

BoothKeeper Runs Your Audit Automatically

Every show you log in BoothKeeper is automatically ranked by Real Hourly Wage, color-coded Keep/Maybe/Drop, and compared against your Target Rate. Open your dashboard right now and your spring data is already sorted — no spreadsheet required. If your numbers aren't in yet, start with the free Profit Calculator.

Run the Profit Calculator → Start Your Audit Free →

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