Business Budgeting can be easy

picture via auntsmack4u

Having a budget is usually one the first things a business owner should think about even before starting the business. In most cases the recourses someone is prepared to put into the business are limited. By recourses I mean mainly money and time, so a budget outlining the financial side is important to begin with.

Business link website has a very useful spreadsheet which forms part of the Profit and Loss account of a business and can be successfully integrated into the business accounts and budget. 

You can either prepare the budget working out your gross and net profit including sales, cost of sales or expenses or simply track the sales and expenses of the business.

Either way you will be able to provide your accountant with very precise information and at the same time see how the business is doing against your budget plan.

How to prepare Your Business Budget

Follow these steps…

1. Using the “Money in and Out” spreadsheet work out what and how much you are spending money on and what sales you are generating. Ideally you should be able to track a month or two worth of sales and expenses.
2. Using the “Budgeting” spreadsheet input the budget figures for the sales and expenses (“February 2010” sheet). The sales and expenses actual totals take the information from the total sales and expenses daily tracking sheet (“February – daily” sheet) changing after each day the data is inputted.

You can expand the spreadsheet and include various types of sales and cost of sales as well as more expenses if you wish. If you decide to do that, you will need to change the graph to match the changes as well as build the daily tracking sheet to include the changes, which would look like a Profit and Loss Account and can help your accountant prepare your accounts.

Let us know how you get on.

Budgeting.xls (31.00 kb)