Do you need an Excel template to help you plan your budget? Our Excel template budget planner is free and simple to use. It has everything you need to create a detailed budget, including categories, expenses, and income. Plus, it's 100% customizable so you can tailor your budget to your own needs.
Whether you manage the finances at your work or at home, adequate communication is essential. Accurately keeping track of financial data is not only critical for running the day-to-day operations of your small business, but it is also important when seeking funds from investors or lenders to grow your business to the next level. Having correct and accurate information exchange enables and ensures you, you can make the right decisions. For those working in Finance, it's important to be accurate and always double-check every detail.
What is a Budget Planner?
Budget planning is simply an organized way of managing your finances. It enables you to identify and balance money coming in (income) and money going out (expenditure). A budget assists you in planning for the week, month, or year ahead and identifying the type of lifestyle you will be able to afford. A more convenient
Budget Excel sheet can be found here.
Who needs a Budget Planner?
Virtually everybody should work with a budget since most people don't have the luxury to make use of a bottomless wallet! As a student with a very limited income, you might think that budgeting is a pointless activity. The less money you have to live on, the greater the necessity to budget. Budgeting enables you to make the best use of the limited resources you have. Steps in working out a budget
1. You first need to identify where your money is going so that your budget will be based on realistic estimates of your expenses. In a diary, record for one month exactly where every cent of your money goes.
2. Keep an accurate record of your income for the same month. Write down any income on the day that you receive it – this can include salary, government assistance, assistance from parents/partners, etc.
3. In your diary also keep track of your bank balance. Record your balance at the beginning of each week. Then you can tell whether you are relying on savings at any time during your pay periods.
4. Use the above information to work out your budget on the Budget Planner over the page. Budgeting Tips
- Begin by overestimating your expenditures – focus on wants as well as needs. Once you compare this with your income, make some decisions about where to cut back as needed. The fallback position is “What do I need?”
- Don’t make your budget too inflexible or too tight – if you do, the time will come when you won’t be able to stick to it any longer.
- Follow your budget for three months and then review – can it be improved?
- Budgets often fail because people don’t plan for irregular predictable expenses. Plan for unexpected costs (medical, car repairs, etc.) by regularly putting money aside for ‘emergencies’ (miscellaneous, unsure cost).
- If your budget ends up in the red, don’t panic!! Ask yourself the following questions and make the necessary adjustments:
- Can you remove any of the expenses?
- Can you reduce some of the expenses?
- Could you handle a part-time job?
- Could you ask your family for some (more) money?
- Would a Student Loan be of any help?
- Would you consider being a part-time student for a while and working fulltime? This may allow you to accumulate some savings.
Using this Budget Worksheet Template template guarantees that you will save time, cost, and effort and enables you to reach the next level of success in your project, education, work, and business. These financial templates also work with OpenOffice and Google Spreadsheets, so if you are operating your business on a very tight budget, hopefully, you'll be able to make these financial templates work for you as well. This Budget Planner contains the following common categories:
- Housing (fortnightly) Rent/Board or Mortgage Electricity Gas Water Telephone
- Other Personal (fortnightly) Mobile Phone Cigarettes Hobbies/Sport Alcohol Entertainment Other Other
- Food (fortnightly) Lunches Supermarket Butcher Market Takeaway Pet food
- Debts (fortnightly) Personal loan Car loan Credit card Rent of TV/ fridge/computer Other
- Education (fortnightly) School books Stationery Photocopying Child Care Other Other
- Transport (fortnightly) Public transport Petrol
- Annual Expenses: calculate fortnightly costs of yearly and irregular expenses
- General Expenses (yearly) Car registration Car insurance Car maintenance House insurance Council rates Health insurance Other
- Education Expenses (yearly) University fees Textbooks Uniforms Course materials School fees
- Personal Expenses (yearly) Haircuts Clothes Shoes Medical Dental Other Other
This Free Budget Planner in Excel puts you in control of your household spending again and analyses your results to help you take control of your money.
Follow these steps to put a solid budget plan into action:
- Calculate expenses. First, you need to determine exactly how much you're spending each month.
- Determine your income.
- Set savings and debt payoff goals.
- Record spending and track progress.
- Be realistic. Better to prepare for the most worse situation
- Include the following:
- Budget planner
- Summary
- Income
- Outgoings
- Programs
- Income
- Total income
- Customizing
- Outgoings
- Financials
- etc
Using this printable Budget Planner guarantees that you will save time, cost and effort and enables you to reach the next level of success in your project, education, work, and business! Download this Home Budget Planning template now!
Looking for more? Our collection of financial documents, templates, forms, and spreadsheets includes templates designed specifically for small business owners, private individuals, or Finance Staff. Find financial projections to calculate your startup expenses, payroll costs, sales forecast, cash flow, income statement, balance sheet, break-even analysis, financial ratios, cost of goods sold, amortization and depreciation for your company. These financial templates also work with OpenOffice and Google Spreadsheets, so if you are operating your business on a very tight budget, hopefully, you'll be able to make these financial templates work for you as well.