Would you like to keep track of your expenses and manage your finances better? Excel budget templates can help you manage your budgets, systematically giving you control over your entire finances.
The big question then is what is an Excel budget template? What are the benefits? And how do you use them? In this guide, we will answer all your questions.
What is an Excel budget template?
Excel budget template is a financial tool you can use to manage budgets. It’s an easy-to-use template that gives you an overview of your spending and helps you take action to manage spending where spending deficiencies appear over certain periods.
It provides you with detailed reports of your fiancé/budget status helping you make more detailed decisions regarding your finances. You can use the Excel budget template for free as individuals and as an organization.
Is the Excel budget template really free to use?
Yes, excel budget templates are free to use. You can download the Excel budget template for free and use it for the best result. The interesting part is if you don’t find a template you like, you can always create one from scratch.
Who can use an Excel budget template?
Everyone. If there is a finance to track, then you can use the Excel budget template. Household budgets, wedding budgets, and company expenses are some financial issues you can track with the Excel budget template, which means everyone can use this Excel budget template for free.
How to create a monthly budget in Excel for free
Creating a monthly budget in Excel is relatively easy, depending on how good you are with spreadsheets. However, even if you are new to it, you can follow these steps to create a monthly budget in Excel with ease.
Download the Excel budget template.
The first step to creating a monthly budget in Excel for free is to download the budget template. There are many free personal budget templates you can download from Microsoft Excel on the Microsoft Create page.
Input the income figures in your template.
The second step is to input your income on the income sheet. The income sheet has several categories (Salary, rent income, freelance income), which you can customize to suit your preference. And if the need arises, you can add as many income sections as you need to.
Input the expense figures in your template.
The third step is like the second, all you do is to open the expenses sheet and input all your expenses. Like the income sheet, you can customize the categories (rent, food, utilities, etc.) to suit your reality.
Add an extra column for comparison purposes to your template.
Create a budget column so you can compare your actual expenses to your budget. Input the budget amount for each category, with that you can calculate to see the differences between your actual budget and expenses.
How to calculate your budget in Excel using the sum formula
To calculate your budget in Excel using the sum formula; follow the steps below.
- Select the cells (e.g., D2 to D12) you want to add.
- Type (“=SUM”) in an empty cell where the figure should appear
- Followed by the cell range parenthesis in the same cell above.
- The formula will add up all the budget from cell D2 to cell D12.
Example: in the empty cell “=SUM(D2:D12)”
Where do you find free budgeting templates in Excel?
To find a free budgeting template in Excel, click on the file tab, and you will notice a search bar. Search for budgets, and you will have numerous budget templates. Pick a suitable budget template that works for you, fill in the template to create, and start monitoring your budget and finances. In summary:
- Click the “File” tab.
- Search for budgets
- Choose a suitable template that works for you.
- Fill in the template.
How to turn an Excel spreadsheet into a template
It’s easy, first, you prepare a budget from scratch.
- Create budget headers.
- Input your income, expenses, and costs.
- Do the necessary calculations, based on what you want to achieve.
- Then you save your spreadsheet as a template.
If you’re saving as a template for the first time, you can create a default personal template destination for all your templates by following these next steps.
- Click on file>Options.
- Click save, then under the save workbooks patch, enter the path to the destination you created. It looks like this (c\users\Username\Documents\Custom office Template)
- Click OK. Once it is created every template you save will automatically save to this path. (“Personal on the New tab page”)
- Open the spreadsheet you want to use as a template,
- Click file>export.
- Click Change file type under the export option.
- In the dropbox, click on template
- Then you type the name you want to save the template as
- Click save and you are good to go.
More related questions
Does Excel have more than one budget template?
Yes. There are many options you can choose from. Pick the one that’s most suitable for you.
Is Excel good for personal budgeting?
Yes. Excel is good for personal budgeting; it is low-cost and helps you track your finances effectively.
Do financial managers use Excel?
Yes. For financial managers, Excel is a must-have skill to do any financial-related activity like analysis, modeling, and reporting.
Conclusion
Now you know all about Excel budget templates. You can leverage this tool to stay in charge of your finances. It may not be easy at first, but with consistency and practice you will become an expert at it.
Likewise, if you’ve always struggled with budgeting or keeping track of your inflows and expenses, you should give this template a try and regain control of your finances. Thanks for reading.
