Business Personal Budget Template Instructions
Follow the business and personal budget template instructions to set up and use your spreadsheet.
Once you have downloaded the spreadsheet, please save it to your computer twice giving it different names, the first copy will allow you to use it for future years and the second for the current year.
Set-up – Instructions page
There are a few simple things that need to be entered to start. On the instructions worksheet, you need to complete the green boxes. Add your business or personal name; this will post it to the top of each page.
Decide what date you want to start posting your bank transactions from if it is 1st January choose the month of January and enter the opening balance from the bank statement for the 1st of January.
Everything is all ready to get started.
Set-up Categories
On the Categories tab, you will find a list of 5 income codes and 13 expenditure codes. These are named income 1, income 2… And can be renamed to suit your needs. Some examples are:
| Personal | Business |
|---|---|
| Income | Income |
| Salary | Sales Hardware |
| Bank Interest | Sales Software |
| Tax Credits | Consultancy |
| Expenditure | Bank Interest |
| Rent/Mortgage | Expenditure |
| Council tax | Cost of sales |
| Insurance | Equipment |
| Utilities | Salaries |
| Loan | PAYE |
| Food | Rent |
| Car expenses | Insurance |
| Entertainment | Office Supplies |
| Pension | Business Expenses |
Personal Budget Template Instructions – Setting Budget
Setting your budget allows you to see if you are overspending or underspending during the year.
The best way to set the budget is to look at a couple of months of bank statements and take the figures from there. You may know of additional expenditure during the year like car MOT or car service, holiday, Christmas Birthdays, etc. As a business, you may have some months that have fluctuations if you know when these are, enter your expected figures.
On the left, you will see the categories that you entered previously. Enter each of your budget figures against each category for every month. If you are starting partway through the year, you only need to enter the months remaining, e.g., if starting in April only post April to December.
If you are a small business running from April, use our spreadsheet here.
Entering your Bank Figures
Once everything has been set up, you are ready to start posting your actual Amounts. Open up the tab for the month you wish to commence. At the top, you will see the bank balance brought forward; this is the balance entered on the instruction page. From now on, this will be the figure from the previous month.
Using your bank statement, enter each item on a new line. Details required are the date, customer or supplier name, any reference you want to add (can be a good reminder as to what it was for) and amount. Use the drop-down list to select the best category. The figure will post to the correct column.
IMPORTANT – as you go along check the balance is the same as the bank statement – this ensures everything is entered.
Continue to enter your figures for the rest of the month.
Comparing Budget to Actual Figures
At any time, you can look at the comparison between budget and actual amounts. There are a couple of places to review differences; each month at the bottom of the worksheet, there is a total for the month, budget and difference.
The actual v Budget worksheet shows the whole year with the budget, actual and difference. It is easy to see and overspending or savings that you have made. If you are part of the way through the month, the difference will show the amount of money you should have left to spend or receive.
Personal Budget Template Instructions
Adjusting your Budget
You may need to adjust your budget during the year, perhaps due to a wage increase or additional expenditure. It can be completed anytime using the budget sheet and changing the figures.
Personal Budget Template Licence Agreement
By downloading our free templates, you agree to our licence agreement, allowing you to use the templates for your own personal or business use only. You may not share, distribute, or resell the templates to anyone else in any way.
Return from Business personal budget template instructions to Free Excel Bookkeeping Templates page.
