The Rules of the Road (and the Digital Experience Rules in the case of the Digital Open) include the rules on what a team can spend on a solution and how to report it.  Check the rules for a section called Team Budget and the Expense Report. 


In terms of describing your expenses in the Resource Area, think of each expense as having the following components:


  • category
  • method
  • description
  • cost


Category can have one of the following values:

  • clothing
  • equipment
  • prop
  • common
  • trash


Category gives the appraisers a clue as to where they might see the item.  Common and Trash suggest the item might appear in one or more areas.  Category also indicates special rules that apply.  For example, clothing that does not contribute to the solution or is for safety is exempt (ie has a cost of zero and thus does not contribute to your expense total).  Equipment has a whole list of items that are exempt such as Audio/Visual equipment.  Check the rules for all the details.  These rules do vary from year to year.


Method tells the appraisers the method you will use to assign a cost. The section in the rules that covers this topic is Determining the Value of Your Solution.  The rules cover the methods in detail and include such gems as if you buy a gallon of paint but only use a pint, your cost for the paint is 1/8th what you spent for the gallon.

  • new-receipt
    The item is new and you have a receipt that is attached showing the cost.
  • new-estimate
    The item is new but you have no receipt.  The cost supplied is an estimated cost most teams would need to pay for the item.
  • used / garage sale
    The item is used and the cost is what you (or anyone else) would spend for the item at a garage sale.
  • one day rental
    You have a receipt or quote indicating the item could be rented for a day for this cost.
  • trash
    This is for discarded items that would have a value less than $1.00USD.  Give these items a cost of $0.00.
  • exempt
    This is for an item that is exempt from cost by the rules.


Description is the key component for identifying what you are trying to value.  It can be general such as newspaper indicating you are valuing all of the newspaper in your solution.  It can be very specific such as batman cape indicating the value is just for this cape.


Cost is the value you are assigning to the item using the method listed.  Your costs will be summed to calculate the cost of your solution.