How to Convince Your Finance Team to Approve an Offsite (And Prove the ROI)
Offsite clients trust us with tens of millions of dollars every year to plan team retreats globally. Here are some "pro tips" we've learned about how to get Finance to approve your offsite budget.
Let’s be real.
Every great offsite starts with someone excited to bring their team together.
(That’s you!!!)
But before you can snag your room block, book flights, and make any fancy dinner reservations or contract with your fave outside speaker/facilitator, there’s always one hurdle: Finance.
They’re the guardians of the budget, the gatekeepers of cash.
And they’re the ones who’ll decide if your offsite dream turns into a reality or gets slashed in the next budget cut.
So, how do you win them over?
With Finance, it’s not about “fun” or “team-building.”
You need clear data, tangible ROI, and a solid plan that shows how your offsite isn’t just a corporate boondoggle of yesteryear, but rather an investment in your people and your company’s future.
Let’s break down exactly what they want to hear (and how to deliver it like a pro).
Speak Their Language: ROI, Not Vibes
Finance teams don’t get warm and fuzzy over s’mores by the fire or your dreamy notion of team bonding.
They want to know:
What’s the goal? Are you solving for misalignment, burnout, or missing targets? Tie it back to real business challenges, OKRs, and upcoming strategic planning sessions.
What’s the expected outcome? Better collaboration, faster decision-making, reduced turnover?
What’s the payoff? Show how the offsite will improve metrics they care about like employee engagement and retention rates, as well as boosted productivity.
For example:
“We’re seeing burnout and unclear priorities across departments. A 2-day offsite will help us realign and reset.
If we can keep talented team members for an extra 6-12 months longer than they would otherwise stay at the company, and/or increase project delivery speed by 20%, this pays for itself.”
Show Them the Numbers
Numbers talk. So bring data to the table.
Cost per head: Show a breakdown of all potential expenses including venue, flights, activities, meals. Keep it transparent.
Offsite has a free budget spreadsheet to help you with this!
Comparison to normal workdays: Finance may say you’re losing 2-3 times of someone’s time working on normal tasks. Make the alternative case, and explain the investment. Perhaps you can compresses weeks of debating and confusion for a Product and Engineering team into a few days of product roadmapping, for example.
Use pre/post offsite feedback forms to build data from previous offsites, to pitch your next one: Begin building a data set around your time together IRL. Every offsite you plan should be used to track the meaningful improvements in employee engagement and alignment, increases in trust, and projects that formed as a result of your offsites.
Propose a Clear Plan
Finance teams hate ambiguity. Make your pitch rock-solid:
Agenda: Include the purpose of each day, including strategy sessions, team-building, and decision-making. Show them how you’re planning to maximize everyone’s time together.
Outcomes: Define what “success” looks like, and potentially collaborate with your C-Suite and/or Finance to learn what would make an offsite successful in their eyes. For example, “We’ll come back with a list of potential marketing campaigns, stack-ranked for likelihood of success, with expected MQLs we’ll generate from each campaign in addition to ‘next steps’ if we wish to execute these campaigns.”
Follow-up: Show how you’ll measure the impact post-offsite (surveys, project delivery, engagement scores).
This builds trust that you’re not just planning a company-sponsored vacation…you’re driving real business outcomes.
Anticipate Their Concerns
You know the objections:
“It’s expensive.”
“This seems like a nice to have.”
“We’re too busy for this right now.”
Counter these head-on:
Expensive? Break down how misalignment and poor morale cost more in lost productivity and turnover.
Nice to have? Explain how all the pioneering remote-first and hybrid companies like Automattic, GitLab, Buffer, Zapier, and Airbnb have invested continuously in offsites in order to build award-winning, highly effective company cultures.
Too busy? Argue that taking time now to realign saves far more time (and money) later.
Explain the Risks of Not Taking Action
If all else fails, turn the conversation around: What happens if you don’t do this?
Team morale takes a hit. Your people are likely stressed and overworked. Without a dedicated space to reset and recharge, burnout spreads. Once that happens, it’s a lot harder (and more expensive) to fix.
Alignment suffers. Distributed teams can only “sync” so much in Slack threads and Zoom calls. An offsite helps them get back on the same page. Skip it, and you risk cascading miscommunication and missed targets.
Your employer brand erodes. When you’re looking to hire (and keep) top talent, your team expects more than just a paycheck. They want to feel like part of something bigger. An intentionally planned and executed offsite signals that you invest in your people.
Retention costs skyrocket. Replacing a burned-out, disengaged employee can cost 1.5–2x their salary between recruiting costs and paying top dollar for a replacement, as well as lost productivity. A strategically-timed offsite can reduce churn by up to 20%, which adds up to real dollars saved.
When you highlight these risks, it flips the finance conversation: it’s not just about spending money. It’s about avoiding bigger, harder-to-fix problems down the line.
Getting On The Same Page With Your Finance Team
Look, I get it.
Selling an offsite to your finance team can feel daunting.
But when you position it as a savvy investment…complete with clear outcomes, measured impact, and hard ROI…you’ll find that even the most skeptical finance team can’t argue with the numbers.
At Offsite, we’ve helped over 350 companies plan high ROI and transformative team retreats, all within budget. We’ve saved our clients over $6,000,000 (and counting) as well as thousands of hours they’d otherwise spent to plan team retreats.
If you’re ready to plan an offsite and want help crafting a compelling budget, agenda, and more to pass along to Finance for approval, let’s talk.
Thanks
Jared
PS - When you are ready to plan your next offsite, make a free account at offsite.com to search our curated marketplace with thousands of amazing offsite venues, up to 50% savings on room blocks, meeting space, and more.
Plus, we offer end-to-end offsite planning services if you want a “done for you” experience. See why companies like Remote, Buffer, 15Five, Linear, Hampton, and others trust Offsite for their team retreats.