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Free business budget templates

Dawn Daniels
Dawn Daniels is a deputy editor at LendingTree. In addition to editing a number of books on business and personal finance, she has previously worked at Finder covering personal finance, investing and lending content.
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Content was accurate at the time of publication.

A small business budget template is essential for managing your business’s finances. It can help you keep track of your cash flow, plan for the future and clarify any potential funding needs. If you’re looking for a free small business budget template, one of the following options may be worth exploring.

A business budget template can make it easier to manage your business’s finances. More specifically, it can help you:

Excel has been around a long time, and most people know how to use its basic functions. If you’re a regular Microsoft Office user, there are several Excel business budget templates available.

Using Excel for the web can allow you to share your budget with your team and collaborate in real time. Most Excel spreadsheets are also compatible with Google Sheets.

  • Business monthly budget: Basic monthly budget that allows you to compare your projected business costs to your actual expenses.
  • Business expense budget: Comes formatted with typical business categories like employee wages and marketing costs — and generates customized charts and graphs.
  • Small business cash flow projection: Allows you to focus on the inflow and outflow of cash over a specific period of time.
  • Small business income statement: Highlights your business’s annual revenue and expenses.
  • Small business sales invoice: Template for billing customers and vendors that can be customized with your business’s logo.
  • Startup expenses: Estimates startup business costs and includes tips for small business owners who are at the starting line.
  • Vertex42 templates: Vertex42 offers a basic business budget template and a 12-month business template. (Some of these templates are also available for use in Google Sheets.)
  • Capterra business budget template: Business software resource Capterra offers a free template that includes space for your business’s income sources, fixed costs and variable costs. The template also shows the difference between your estimated income and expenses versus the actual numbers. You’ll need to provide your email address to access the template.

If you prefer using Google Drive for your business, a Google Sheets small business budget template may be a good option. It’s especially useful for small business owners who want to collaborate with their team.

Google Sheets allows you to build a budget that’s also a live document. Authorized editors can make changes and update the budget as they go. You can also sync your business budget to other important files you may have on your Google Drive. Most Excel files can be opened in Google Sheets, and vice versa, so you can also choose from the Excel templates.

  • Annual business budget by Intuit Quickbooks: This is the only business expense spreadsheet offered in the Google Sheets template gallery, but it’s comprehensive. It has dedicated tabs for income and expenses, and it also provides a basic 12-month financial summary complete with a graph. There are two ways access the Google Sheets template gallery, depending on whether you have “Display recent templates on home screens” checked or unchecked in your Google Sheets settings:
    • Click on “template gallery” in the top right corner and scroll down to the “Work” category.
    • Hover over the plus-sign button in the lower right corner, click on “choose template” and scroll down to the “Work” category.
  • Monday.com budget template. Project management company Monday.com offers a streamlined budget template that can be used to keep projects on track.
  • Zapier’s budget templates. Software company Zapier has several free Google Sheets templates available on their website.

It’s worth noting that Google Sheets also offers templates in its template gallery for invoices, weekly timesheets, expense reports, purchase orders and employee shift schedules.

SCORE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting small business owners through a network of mentors, educational courses and other resources. It’s also a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), which helps deliver most of its content for free. SCORE offers a variety of free financial templates for small businesses. That includes templates to create:

SCORE also offers a business loan estimator tool, as well as marketing and sales templates and management templates.

Smartsheet offers a wide range of free business budget templates you can use with Excel or Google Sheets. That includes a:

  • Basic business budget template
  • 12-month business budget template
  • Business budget template for multiple products
  • Startup business template

Smartsheet also offers a template that’s designed to measure your business’s overall financial health on an annual basis.

If you’re already using accounting software, check to see if it comes with a free business budget template. If so, it could make it easy to integrate your budget into your other business records. The following accounting software programs include budgeting templates:

  • QuickBooks Online: QuickBooks offers a downloadable Excel business budget template. Depending on your plan, you could also use free QuickBooks tools to tackle invoicing, track your expenses, manage your cash flow and more.
  • Xero: This popular accounting software program offers a free income statement template and balance sheet template. Xero can also provide a customized overall budget for your business.
  • FreshBooks: FreshBooks offers a variety of free financial templates. That includes a general ledger, as well as templates to create a profit and loss statement, expense report, simple balance sheet, billing statement and bank reconciliation.
  • Zoho Books: This accounting program has a built-in budgeting tool that allows you to enter your business’s income, assets, liabilities and equity accounts. You’ll then get a visual snapshot of your budget.

Things may feel hectic if your business is in startup mode. Aside from creating a strong business plan, you’ll want to set realistic expectations for your finances. That can help clarify your funding needs and ensure that your new business is positioned to thrive.

Most business owners can use a basic budget outline and then customize it as needed. But an industry-specific template can help you save time and think of expenses you may not have considered, like marketing, professional services and other indirect costs.

Budget templates for restaurants

These templates can help you break down expenses related to food, drinks, utilities, wages, employee benefits and more. They can also clarify the difference between your estimated income and expenses versus your actual income and expenses.

You may need to provide an email address to access the templates.

Budget templates for food trucks

With a food truck business, you’ll want to start with a strong budget. These free templates account for permits, licenses, food, fuel, marketing and more.

Budget templates for Etsy shops

Running an Etsy shop is an online business like any other. In addition to managing inventory and fulfilling orders, you’ll also need to keep track of your finances and marketing costs. That includes your income, expenses, cash flow and taxes.

Budget templates for freelancers

Freelancers might prefer project-based budgets that can be customized for each new contract. The following free resources may be helpful if you’re a business of one. (Just remember that it’s always wise to maintain a master budget, too.)

Again, if you’ve already invested in accounting software, you may have access to the program’s budgeting templates — so start there. But you can also explore a paid option if you want a more detailed budgeting template, or one that’s tailored to your industry. Asking around among your peers and mentors can be helpful. With that said, here are some paid options to consider.

You may find that none of the free templates are the right fit for your business. In this case, you might consider creating your own small business budget. This will be a live document you can edit on an ongoing basis. To build an effective budget:

  1. Choose a budgeting method: That might be an Excel spreadsheet or a new Google Sheets document. Choose whichever one you think will work best for you and your team.
  2. Update your expenses: Include every regular and irregular business expense. That may include things like maintenance costs and annual licensing fees. If your business has separate departments with their own budgets, add those expenses here, too (more on this below).
  3. Clarify your revenue: Where is your business income coming from? Clarify your revenue streams and make realistic projections of what’s to come.
  4. Subtract your expenses from your income: This should tell you if your business is profitable or running a deficit.
  5. Create sub-budgets: You might build a separate budget that’s dedicated just to marketing. You can do the same for recruitment and specific projects that are in the works. The final costs associated with these sub-budgets can be added to your master budget.
  6. Factor in your business goals: Start by looking at your balance sheet, which provides a snapshot of your business’s finances. This financial statement reflects current assets, liabilities and equity. Now think about your short- and long-term business goals and how they fit into your business’s financial outlook. This can help you take action toward these goals in a way that’s compatible with your budget.

You can create a business budget in a few different ways. Going with a free business budget template can make things easier. Simply download it and fill in the blanks. If you want to create your own using a spreadsheet, make sure to include revenue, fixed expenses and variable expenses.

A business budget should include your revenue, income, expenses and business goals. Overlooking these details will likely lead to an incomplete financial picture for your business — the clearer you get here, the stronger your budget will be.

After making a business budget, you’ll need to follow it. The first few months of using your small business budget template should reveal if it’s missing any vital information. For example, if you’re continually running a deficit, is there a recurring expense that you neglected to include in your budget? Is overspending the culprit, or perhaps lower revenue than expected? It’s important to regularly check with your budget to make sure it reflects your business’s reality and priorities.

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