# Business Budget Template

**Businessman Talk · businessmantalk.com/finance/business-budget-template/ · v1.0 (September 2026)**

Paste the table into a spreadsheet, or save it as a CSV and open it there. Three kinds of line, each with twelve monthly budget figures and a year total: revenue lines, fixed-cost lines that stay the same each month, and variable-cost lines that move with the work. The figures shown are the planner's worked example, a four-person design studio budgeting its next year; overwrite every number with your own, then add an "Actual" row under each line as the months happen. Variance is actual minus budget on every line, so the column adds up.

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## Budget, month by month

| Line | Kind | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retainer clients | Revenue | 18,000 | 18,000 | 18,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | 22,000 | 22,000 | 22,000 | 22,000 | 22,000 | 22,000 | 246,000 |
| Project work | Revenue | 4,000 | 8,000 | 10,000 | 12,000 | 12,000 | 14,000 | 10,000 | 8,000 | 14,000 | 16,000 | 12,000 | 6,000 | 126,000 |
| Salaries | Fixed cost | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 | 180,000 |
| Rent | Fixed cost | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 30,000 |
| Software | Fixed cost | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 7,200 |
| Insurance | Fixed cost | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 250 | 3,000 |
| Contractors | Variable cost | 3,000 | 4,000 | 5,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 | 7,000 | 5,000 | 4,000 | 7,000 | 8,000 | 6,000 | 3,000 | 64,000 |
| Marketing | Variable cost | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 18,000 |
| Travel | Variable cost | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 400 | 4,800 |
| Contingency | Variable cost | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 12,000 |
| **Total revenue** | | 22,000 | 26,000 | 28,000 | 32,000 | 32,000 | 34,000 | 32,000 | 30,000 | 36,000 | 38,000 | 34,000 | 28,000 | **372,000** |
| **Total costs** | | 24,250 | 25,250 | 26,250 | 27,250 | 27,250 | 28,250 | 26,250 | 25,250 | 28,250 | 29,250 | 27,250 | 24,250 | **319,000** |
| **Profit** | | -2,250 | 750 | 1,750 | 4,750 | 4,750 | 5,750 | 5,750 | 4,750 | 7,750 | 8,750 | 6,750 | 3,750 | **53,000** |
| **Cumulative profit** | | -2,250 | -1,500 | 250 | 5,000 | 9,750 | 15,500 | 21,250 | 26,000 | 33,750 | 42,500 | 49,250 | 53,000 | |

## Budget against actual, one line

Copy this block under every line once the month has happened. Variance is actual minus budget; variance % is variance divided by budget. The example is the studio's marketing line for January to March.

| Marketing | Jan | Feb | Mar | To date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 4,500 |
| Actual | 1,500 | 2,300 | 1,900 | 5,700 |
| Variance | 0 | +800 | +400 | +1,200 |
| Variance % | 0% | +53.3% | +26.7% | +26.7% |

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### Rules for a budget that gets used

- **One owner per line.** Every line has a named person who explains its variance at the month-end review. A line nobody owns is a guess that nobody corrects.
- **Fixed means fixed.** A fixed-cost line carries the same figure every month unless a contract says otherwise. If a figure moves with sales or workload, it is a variable-cost line.
- **Budget the contingency, expect to underspend it.** A contingency line is money set aside for what the plan missed. Spending under it is favorable; spending none of it in a year suggests the plan was padded elsewhere.
- **Sign the variance the same way on every line.** Actual minus budget, always. Revenue over budget is a plus and favorable; a cost over budget is a plus and unfavorable. Keeping the sign fixed lets the column add up.
- **Decide on the big ones only.** A line needs a decision when its variance to date is unfavorable, at least 10% of its budget to date, and at least 500 in money. Smaller gaps are noted and left alone.
- **Re-forecast, never rewrite.** The budget stays as it was set. Put the new expectation in a forecast column beside it so the original plan is still visible at year end.

### Filling notes (delete after use)

- Enter revenue as invoiced (or as earned, if you recognize revenue that way), not as cash received. Cash timing belongs in a cash-flow forecast, not here.
- Enter costs excluding recoverable sales tax; enter them including it if your business cannot reclaim it.
- Leave a month's actual blank until the month has closed. A blank actual is treated as "not yet"; a zero actual is a real zero.
- Keep the year to twelve columns. A budget that runs across a year end is two budgets.

*How the planner computes profit, break-even and the variance that needs a decision, with the reasoning behind every rule above: businessmantalk.com/finance/business-budget-template/ · Free to copy and adapt for your own business; please keep the source line if you share it.*