Free business budget template for Excel (12 months, budget vs actual)
A business budget is a plan for the year's income and costs, month by month, and it's only useful if you compare it with what actually happened. This free Excel template does both on one sheet: a 12-month budget for every income, cost of sales and expense line, the actuals as each month closes, and a budget vs actual table for the year to date with the variance, an over or under status and a full-year outlook. Below: what's in the file, a worked example for a small design studio, how to build the budget from last year's numbers, how to fill in actuals from your books or bank statements, and how to read the variances.
Short answer: download the business budget template (.xlsx). Pick the first month of your budget year, list your income and expense lines with a budget for each month, then type each month's actuals as it closes. The template totals income, gross profit, expenses and net profit, compares the year to date line by line (variance where + always means better than budget, status Over budget, Under budget, On plan, Above plan or Below plan) and projects the full year. The Example is a fictional studio's 2026 budget through September: net profit 63,767.12 against a budget of 60,297.00, 3,470.12 ahead, with Subcontractors the biggest overspend.
Download the free business budget template (.xlsx)
Three sheets: a blank Budget with 25 starter lines (room for 40), a filled-in Example budget and How to use. Budget, actual and budget vs actual blocks, key figures, a status line and check columns. It uses only SUM, SUMIF, COUNT, COUNTIF, ROUND, IF, AND, OR, N, ABS, MAX, MIN, INDEX, MATCH, TEXT, DATE, YEAR, MONTH and TODAY, so it works in Excel, Google Sheets (File, Import), LibreOffice and Numbers. No sign-up, no email, no macros.
- What's in the template
- The three blocks: budget, actual, budget vs actual
- Worked example: a studio's 2026 budget through September
- How to build a business budget from last year's numbers
- Filling in actuals from your books or bank statements
- Reading the variance and the status
- The checks, and what to do about each
- Budget, P&L, cash flow forecast or expense tracker?
- FAQ
1. What's in the template
- Inputs at the top: the business name, the first month of the budget year (blank means January this year; a July to June year works too), actuals through (blank means the last month with any actuals) and the on-plan range, 5% by default.
- Budget: one line per item with its type (Income, Cost of sales or Expense, from a drop-down), 12 monthly budgets and the annual total, then totals for income, cost of sales, gross profit, expenses and net profit.
- Actual: the same lines (names copy down from the budget), 12 monthly actuals and the year to date, with the same totals.
- Budget vs actual (year to date): budget, actual, variance, variance %, annual budget, full-year outlook, what's left in the annual budget and a status for every line and total.
- Key figures: the year-to-date months, net profit actual and budget, the net profit variance, income actual vs budget, lines over budget and income lines below plan, and the full-year net profit outlook.
- Status line, such as Through Sep 2026: net profit 63,767.12 vs budget 60,297.00 (+3,470.12); 5 over budget, 0 income below plan; biggest gap: Subcontractors -3,400.00.
Yellow cells are inputs; everything else is a formula. Two grey helper rows (the month number and which months have actuals) drive the year to date; leave them alone.
2. The three blocks: budget, actual, budget vs actual
| Block | What you type | What it calculates |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | Type, line name and a budget for each of the 12 months | Annual budget per line; monthly and annual totals, gross profit and net profit |
| Actual | Each month's actual for each line, once the month is closed | Year to date per line (through the last month with actuals); the same totals |
| Budget vs actual | Nothing | Year-to-date budget and actual, variance (+ = better), variance %, annual budget, full-year outlook, left in the annual budget, status |
Year to date compares like with like: if actuals run through September, the budget side adds up January to September too, not the whole year. Full-year outlook is the actual to date plus the budget for the months still to come, which is a quick re-forecast without a second sheet.
3. Worked example: a studio's 2026 budget through September
The Example sheet is the fictional design studio from our profit and loss template. Its actuals are that template's monthly P&L for January to September 2026 (interest income counted as income, depreciation as an expense), so net profit is the same 63,767.12. The budget is a made-up plan: service income of 28,000.00 to 34,000.00 a month (360,000.00 for the year), wages rising from 12,650.00 to 13,150.00 a month in July, rent at 1,850.00 and subcontractors at 2,000.00 a month. Year to date through September:
| Line | Budget YTD | Actual YTD | Variance (+ = better) | % | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service income | 264,000.00 | 272,540.00 | 8,540.00 | +3.2% | On plan |
| Interest income | 27.00 | 28.77 | 1.77 | +6.6% | Above plan |
| Subcontractors | 18,000.00 | 21,400.00 | -3,400.00 | -18.9% | Over budget |
| Advertising and marketing | 3,600.00 | 3,860.00 | -260.00 | -7.2% | Over budget |
| Bank fees | 135.00 | 135.00 | 0.00 | +0.0% | On plan |
| Car and truck expenses | 1,350.00 | 1,210.45 | 139.55 | +10.3% | Under budget |
| Contract labor | 6,750.00 | 6,525.00 | 225.00 | +3.3% | On plan |
| Insurance | 3,600.00 | 4,000.00 | -400.00 | -11.1% | Over budget |
| Legal and professional fees | 2,700.00 | 2,750.00 | -50.00 | -1.8% | On plan |
| Interest expense | 810.00 | 742.18 | 67.82 | +8.4% | Under budget |
| Office supplies | 1,800.00 | 1,964.32 | -164.32 | -9.1% | Over budget |
| Rent | 16,650.00 | 16,650.00 | 0.00 | +0.0% | On plan |
| Software and subscriptions | 2,250.00 | 2,267.91 | -17.91 | -0.8% | On plan |
| Supplies | 2,700.00 | 2,846.10 | -146.10 | -5.4% | Over budget |
| Telephone and internet | 1,710.00 | 1,704.06 | 5.94 | +0.4% | On plan |
| Utilities | 3,825.00 | 4,000.34 | -175.34 | -4.6% | On plan |
| Wages and salaries | 115,350.00 | 115,370.55 | -20.55 | -0.0% | On plan |
| Payroll taxes | 9,450.00 | 9,236.84 | 213.16 | +2.3% | On plan |
| Employee benefits | 13,050.00 | 12,888.90 | 161.10 | +1.2% | On plan |
| Depreciation | 0.00 | 1,250.00 | -1,250.00 | No budget | |
| Total income | 264,027.00 | 272,568.77 | 8,541.77 | +3.2% | |
| Total cost of sales | 18,000.00 | 21,400.00 | -3,400.00 | -18.9% | |
| Gross profit | 246,027.00 | 251,168.77 | 5,141.77 | +2.1% | |
| Total expenses | 185,730.00 | 187,401.65 | -1,671.65 | -0.9% | |
| Net profit | 60,297.00 | 63,767.12 | 3,470.12 | +5.8% |
The studio is 3,470.12 ahead on net profit because service income ran 8,540.00 (3.2%) above plan, more than the overspends. Subcontractors are 3,400.00 (18.9%) over, the biggest gap; insurance is over because the renewal in September cost 800.00 instead of 400.00; depreciation shows No budget because it was budgeted for December but booked in September. Car expenses and interest came in under budget. The full-year outlook is a net profit of 88,366.12 against the annual budget of 84,896.00.
4. How to build a business budget from last year's numbers
- Start from last year's actuals, month by month. A P&L by month from your books is ideal. No books? Your bank and card statements have every payment in and out: group them by line (the bookkeeping template does this with a 12-month summary).
- Income first. Take last year's monthly income, keep the seasonal pattern, and adjust for price changes, clients won or lost and capacity. Budget income when it's earned, not when the cash arrives.
- Fixed costs at their amount: rent, salaries, software, insurance. Put a known raise or price increase in the month it starts.
- Variable costs (subcontractors, materials, supplies) as a share of income or a rounded average of last year.
- Annual and lumpy items in their month: an insurance renewal, a yearly plan, a tax or license fee. Budgeting them evenly hides a known spike; budgeting them in the right month makes the variance mean something.
- Check net profit per month and for the year. If it isn't what you need, change the plan (prices, hiring, costs) now rather than in October.
5. Filling in actuals from your books or bank statements
At each month-end, type the month's actual for every line. Where the numbers come from:
- From accounting software: run a profit and loss report for the month (or a P&L by month for the year) and copy each line's total. Use the same line names in the budget as in your chart of accounts so this is a straight copy.
- From bank and card statements: download the month's transactions as CSV or Excel from online banking, or convert the PDF statements (see bank statement to Excel), categorize each line and total by category. Leave out transfers between your own accounts, credit card payments (the card's purchases are already counted) and loan principal: they aren't income or expenses.
- Close the month first. Reconcile the bank account (the bank reconciliation template helps) so a missing or doubled transaction doesn't show up as a variance.
Leave future months blank. Year to date moves forward by itself when you type the next month's actuals, or you can fix it with Actuals through at the top.
6. Reading the variance and the status
Variance is signed so that + is always good: for income it's actual − budget, for cost of sales and expenses it's budget − actual. Variance % is the variance divided by the year-to-date budget. The status uses the on-plan range at the top (5% by default):
| Status | Income lines | Cost and expense lines |
|---|---|---|
| Above plan / Over budget | Actual more than 5% above budget (good) | Actual more than 5% above budget (look at it) |
| On plan | Within 5% of the year-to-date budget either way | |
| Below plan / Under budget | Actual more than 5% below budget (look at it) | Actual more than 5% below budget (good, or a cost that's late) |
| No budget | An actual on a line whose year-to-date budget is 0 | |
A variance has one of three causes: timing (a cost landed in a different month than budgeted, like the studio's insurance and depreciation), volume (more work means more subcontractors) or a real change in price or spending. Only the last needs action; timing differences wash out over the year, which is why the full-year outlook matters more than one month's gap. On small lines a few dollars can exceed 5%: widen the on-plan range if that's noise.
7. The checks, and what to do about each
| Check | Means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No line name | A budget row has amounts but no name | Name it, or clear the amounts |
| No type | A budget line has no type, so it's in no total | Pick Income, Cost of sales or Expense |
| Unknown type | A typed type that isn't one of the three | Pick from the drop-down |
| Amount after year to date | An actual in a month after Actuals through, so it's left out of the year to date | Move Actuals through forward, or clear the amount |
| No budget line | Actual amounts on a row whose budget line is empty | Add the line in the budget block |
8. Budget, P&L, cash flow forecast or expense tracker?
| Use | When |
|---|---|
| Business budget (this page) | You want a profit plan for the year and to see each month whether income and costs are on track. |
| Profit and loss template | You need the actual income statement: what was earned and spent, with margins and a prior-period comparison. |
| Cash flow forecast template | You need to know whether there will be enough cash each month or week. A budget counts income when earned; a forecast counts cash when it moves. |
| Expense tracker template | You want to log individual expenses and keep monthly spending categories inside a budget. |
Actuals stuck in bank statement PDFs?
Utilly's converter reads a bank or credit card statement PDF, downloaded or scanned, into Excel, CSV, QuickBooks or Xero files and checks the rows against the statement's beginning and ending balance, so the month's income and expenses you total for the budget start from complete data. The preview is free with no sign-up. Try it on the sample bank statement first: every download of the sample is free because the data is fictional.
Method: year-to-date budget = the budget for the months up to the last month with actuals (or Actuals through); variance = actual − budget for income and budget − actual for costs; status as in section 6; full-year outlook = actual to date + budget for the remaining months. The business and budget are fictional; the actuals are the profit and loss template's example for January to September 2026. Template built and checked November 4, 2026: the Example recalculates in LibreOffice to the figures above and the status line quoted in section 1.
FAQ
Is the business budget template free?
Yes. Download the .xlsx with no sign-up or email address. It has a blank Budget sheet with 25 starter lines (room for 40), a filled-in Example budget and instructions, and it works in Excel, Google Sheets (File, Import), LibreOffice and Numbers.
How do I make a business budget in Excel?
List your income, cost of sales and expense lines down the side and the 12 months across the top, budget each line month by month starting from last year's actuals, and total income, gross profit, expenses and net profit. Then add each month's actuals as it closes and compare the year to date. The template is laid out this way with the formulas done.
What is budget vs actual?
A comparison of what you planned (the budget) with what happened (the actuals) for the same months. The difference is the variance. In the template + always means better than budget, so income above plan and costs below budget are both positive.
What is a good variance threshold?
Many small businesses look only at lines more than 5% or 10% off the year-to-date budget, and at large dollar gaps. The template's on-plan range is 5% by default; change it at the top. Small lines can swing by a large percentage for a few dollars, so read the amount too.
Can I fill in actuals from bank statements?
Yes. Download or convert the month's bank and card statements, categorize each transaction to a budget line, total by line and type the totals into the Actual block. Leave out transfers between your own accounts, credit card payments and loan principal. Reconcile the account first so a missing transaction doesn't look like a variance.
Does the budget year have to start in January?
No. Type any first month at the top (for example July 1 for a July to June fiscal year) and the 12 month columns, the year to date and the outlook follow it.
Related guides
- Free profit and loss template for Excel (monthly P&L, income statement)
- Free cash flow forecast template for Excel (12-month and 13-week)
- Free expense tracker template for Excel (monthly budget vs actual)
- Free small business bookkeeping template for Excel (income, expenses and a bank check)
- Free balance sheet template for Excel (small business, with formulas)
- Free bank reconciliation template for Excel (with a worked example)
Related tools
- Bank reconciliation checker: compare a bank statement to your books and list missing, duplicate and mismatched transactions.
- Receipt to CSV: turn PDF or photo receipts and invoices into CSV, Excel, or QuickBooks and Xero bill imports.
