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How to use this business budget template
This simple Excel template makes business planning simple. To create your budget plan, simply follow these steps:
First, download the Excel template and open it with Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or another preferred platform.
Next, enter the previous year's spend for each cost centre (where applicable). This gives you a clear benchmark for the coming year.
Add the projected monthly budget for each cost centre. You can either set a guideline projection from the top down, or let budget managers create more detailed, itemised budgets. The latter is better, if you have the time and commitment from other team members.
Use the cost centre tabs to track spend as you go. This could be managed centrally by the finance team, but ideally each budget owner will take control of their section.
At the end of each month, compare the projected monthly budget with actual spend.
Look for inconsistencies and opportunities to either save money or re-allocate cash to more urgent projects.
Communicate regularly with other stakeholders, and if appropriate give updates to the entire company.
Use the actual spend figures for each cost type to update your cash statement (see below).
The budget worksheet is built as an annual budget, but can also be used as a monthly budget template.
Track cash flow easily
The chief budgeting goal for most businesses is to allocate funds to the right projects. You need to know that funds are spent efficiently and effectively, and on the programs they were set aside for.
But this is far from easy. The budget planning process is typically long and fairly complex, requiring input from all over the organisation. Simply projecting your annual budget is a huge task.
Many companies also fail to keep close enough track of expenditures as they occur. They wait until the end of the month, quarter, or year, and then try to map their actual spending against what was predicted. Even on a monthly basis, this is too delayed to be truly useful.
We recommend you combine a clear business budget plan with technology which monitor costs automatically. Every credit card payment and expense claim should be tracked instantly. And you shouldn't have to wade through bank and credit card statements every month.
You could enter items individually into this spreadsheet, or you could use dedicated spend management software which does all of this for you.
Learn more about spend management.
How the budget impacts your financial statements
There are three critical financial statements most businesses produce on at least an annual basis. These are:
Balance sheet
The balance sheet is your company's list of assets, liabilities, and equity at the end of the fiscal period. Assets include cash, inventory, and future receivables, while liabilities include taxes, payables, and outstanding debts.
At a glance, the balance sheet should tell you how strong your financial position is, or whether you're facing major financial risk when debts come due.
Income statement
Also known as the "Profit and Loss" statement (or "P&L"), this statement sets out your company’s earnings against its losses. It basically shows your bank balance at the end of a specific period, once you've paid your suppliers and been paid by customers.
Cash flow statement
This key financial document tracks your cash inflows vs cash outflows, and gives your overall cash balance. This is different from the income statement because it reflects your actual cash position today. Outstanding debts and future payments you expect to receive are not taken into account.
This statement tells you whether you have a cash surplus in the bank account, or if you've spent more than you've made in real terms.
Your cash budget isn't itself one of these key financial statements. These are largely backward-looking documents - reports on the previous month, quarter, or year. Whereas an annual or monthly cash budget is forward-looking - you project costs and then measure spend against these projections.
But your cash flow budget does work hand-in-hand with these other documents. For one, by accurately tracking costs in a budget worksheet, you can easily create your balance sheet and cash flow statement at the end of the fiscal period.
And the starting point for your next budget should always be to analyse what was spent in the previous period. These figures can either come directly from your financial statements, or you can get the figures and then update all documents at once.
