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Business budgets

Create free business budgets online to efficiently manage and review cash flow and expenses with Microsoft Excel.

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Power smart financial decisions with small business budget templates

Easily customize a range of free business budget templates in Excel to monitor income and expenses. Estimate your expected revenue and costs for a period, then compare your plan to actuals with Excel formulas. Link spreadsheets to consolidate multiple budgets into a centralized view.

Free monthly budget templates

Choose from easy-to-customize templates for monthly time periods.

Basic monthly budget green modern simple
Simple budget
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Business monthly budget green modern simple
Business monthly budget
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Monthly company budget green modern-simple
Monthly company budget
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Free cash flow templates

Use cash flow budgeting Excel templates to track how funds move over time.

Small business cash flow forecast blue modern simple
Cash flow forecast
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Small business cash flow projection blue modern simple
Small business cash flow
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Cash flow statement green modern color block
Monthly cash flow statement
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Use business budgeting templates to save time

Select from a range of free customizable monthly, annual business budget or expense tracker templates. Update the time period, income streams, and expenses as well as utilize separate columns or sheets to track department specific financials.

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Bar chart and pie chart on a white background with green accents representing business budget data.

Apply core budgeting functions

Estimate revenue and track expenses with the help of built-in accounting and finance formulas. Calculate accurate financial forecasting based on your sales volume, service hours, and completed projects to effectively visualize the business incomings. Detail and manage operating business costs like rent and salaries as well as track capital expenditures when upgrading equipment or investing in new systems. 

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Link spreadsheets for centralized data management

Perform more complex budgeting tasks by linking sheets in single or across multiple workbooks. This allows separate teams to manage their respective budgets while maintaining a centralized file with aligned calculation formulas. This allows you to consolidate data in a master view that updates automatically when cells change in linked sheets. 

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Two overlapping documents labeled ‘Centralize Data’ representing linked spreadsheets.

Compare budget to actual finances

Use Excel variance analysis in budget spreadsheets to compare forecasts with actuals. Visualize analysis with charts and graphs designed for small business reporting to understand the data at a glance. Uncover patterns in costs or revenue over time. 

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Use Copilot for budget creation and analysis 

Start by asking Copilot in Excel to create a type of budget in a blank sheet. Add financial data and have Copilot suggest formulas or formatting options for the statement. Get help setting up a range of different financial analysis insights including scenario, break even, trend analysis, and variance based on your added data. 

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Microsoft Copilot interface assisting with budget creation and data analysis in Excel.

Plan scenarios to set the right goals

Use What-If analysis tools in Excel to explore results between different sets of data. Create a scenario to store alternate values for best-case, optimistic, or worst-case versions of your budget. Use Goal Seek to see what your budget would have to look like to get a desired result. 

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Customize spreadsheet colors and share 

Polish budgets with brand colors and logos when you’re ready to share. Control who can access and edit your workbook via the permission settings. Save reports as PDF to present digitally, print, or share as an email attachment. Share your budget report with stakeholders and team members via OneDrive links. Highlight specific data points within a presentation with embedded data tables from Excel into PowerPoint to share data that stays up to date. 

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Company Budget Excel sheet with customizable color options for visual personalization.

Helpful reasons to use business budget spreadsheets

  • Small business owners: managing expenses and cash flow.

  • Agencies: overseeing project costs.

  • Startup founders: tracking product development costs.

  • Freelancers and consultants: managing expenses and quarterly taxes.

  • Entrepreneurs: tracking ad spend and monthly income.

Three Microsoft Excel templates with common business budget spreadsheet use cases.

How to build a business budget in Excel

  1. Choose a business budget template or ask Copilot to generate a budget table 

  2. Add columns for monthly, quarterly, or annual budgeting time periods  

  3. Add rows for revenue streams, fixed expenses, variable expenses, capital expenditures, and taxes 

  4. Total net profit or loss or projected income with formulas 

  5. Add actuals and variance columns with conditional formatting to track performance over time

User interface for creating a blank spreadsheet

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Frequently asked questions

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Create a budget spreadsheet