A person sitting in a living room working on a laptop.
funding

Small Business Budget Template

Many businesses can agree that the golden rule of budgeting is to not go over the budget. But what happens when you don’t have a budget, to begin with? Small business owners in need of a comprehensive budget can find what they are looking for here.

Keeping reading to learn more about budgeting spreadsheets, and take advantage of the downloadable small business budget template we’ve created for you!


Next: Top Small Business Budget Tips>>

Benefits of a Business Budget

The benefits attached to budgeting are immense. As a small business owner, you can reap great rewards from the proper budgeting, as the document provides you with deep financial insight and holds you accountable to your spending habits.

Take advantage of what this document can tell you and gain these benefits of a business budget:

  • Properly manage cash flow
  • Improve income and profits
  • Decrease expenses and fixed costs
  • Monitor performance
  • Track slow seasons and peak seasons
  • Discover industry insight
  • Determine your best selling product or service
  • Improve decision making
  • Prepare for emergencies

Budgeting should not just happen at an owner’s level or with management. Business owners should consider budgeting for employee incentives, too, to improve your worker’s morale and output. Budgeting should always take into account your budget goal, comparing projected numbers of goods sold and variable costs against actual expenses and revenue, covering all aspects of your business.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the business budget template provided below.


Business Budget Template

Creating budget templates in Microsoft Excel can be tricky if you aren’t sure what to include in the document. That’s why we have created a business budget spreadsheet for you.

With this downloadable PDF business budget template, you can tailor this document to suit your business’s financial needs so you won’t have to waste time creating a budget in Excel yourself, or spend money on budgeting software.

Business budget template

This downloadable budgeting template can be used as an overview sheet for your current financial standing as well as a reference for your future financial goals.

However, if you would rather structure your own budget how you see fit, check out our how to create a small business budget article for some extra pointers. From there, tailor the various business budget templates available online and through Excel or Google Sheets, to suit your business needs.

How to Budget a Small Business

Creating a budget is the first step in budgeting, but it is by far the last. You will need to continuously monitor your finances and update your budget to ensure the projected numbers fall in line with your realistic spending and savings.

Your business’s financial statements will help you in creating your budget, as well as in monitoring your finances alongside the budget. The figures in your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement are the numbers you will use when generating your small business’s budget. But you can also use cash flow projections to see how your budget holds up for future income and expenses.

Cut costs

As a small business, you will want to try and limit your expenses and overhead costs as much as possible. If, in the process of creating your budgeting spreadsheet, you realize you have too many expenses, here are some line items you can cut from your budget.

By cutting down on unnecessary business expenses, you will improve your net income, providing you with further finances to reinvest back into the business. Compare your actual expenses to your projected expenses by month, and determine how you can cut back on variable costs and fixed costs.

However, we understand that if you are just starting out, it is hard to cut down on startup costs. Large expenses are necessary when it comes to startup costs, so your startup budget will need to reflect the available cash required to handle these costs.

Implement a financial safety net

Don’t forget to budget for emergencies. Both the market, and the future, are unpredictable, so it is best to prepare a safety net for your business in case of an unexpected financial crisis. An emergency or rainy day fund can make all the difference to small businesses when they encounter financial pitfalls. So prepare yourself as best you can by budgeting appropriately for a cash safety net.

Accounting Software and Business Budgeting

Take your business budgeting to the next level by using quality accounting software to keep yourself accountable to your small business budget templates. Add in your figures to the small business budget template provided, and then use QuickBooks Online to track and sort expenses and revenue to help you keep tabs on your financial reporting.

Improve your spending habits and start tracking today to implement your budget right away!

<

Next: Top Small Business Budget Tips>>


Related Articles

Your privacy

We collect data when you use our website to improve its performance. Doing so also helps us provide a secure, personalized experience. Select 'Accept cookies' to agree or 'Cookies settings' to choose which cookies we use. You can change your preferences anytime by clicking the 'Manage cookies' link in the footer.

Choose your cookie preferences

Some cookies are needed to make our website work and can't be turned off. But we need your consent to use others that are not essential. You can make your choices below and update them at any time using the 'Manage Cookies' link. To find out more, visit our Cookies Policy.

These cookies are necessary for the site to function. They also help us keep your data safe.
These cookies allow us to enhance your experience and remember your preferences, region or country, language, and accessibility options.
These cookies tell us how customers use our website. We study and organize this data to help us optimise our content and provide you with personalised experiences.
These cookies help us provide you with relevant communications and ads in our products and on other sites.

Looking for something else?

Get QuickBooks

Smart features made for your business. We've got you covered.

Firm of the Future

Expert advice and resources for today’s accounting professionals.

QuickBooks Support

Get help with QuickBooks. Find articles, video tutorials, and more.