Small Business Annual Budget and Forecast

Most small businesses either have no budget or a spreadsheet that stops being useful in February. This workbook keeps working all year: plan once, then enter actuals each month and it tells you where you're off and where the year is heading.

Enter an annual amount for each income, cost-of-sales and overhead line (up to 40) and pick how it spreads: evenly or by one of three seasonality profiles you can edit. Fix known months, such as an annual insurance premium in January, and the rest spreads over the open months automatically. Each month, type the actuals from your bookkeeping. The Variance sheet compares year-to-date actual with budget per line, marks it favourable or unfavourable and flags lines past your threshold. The Forecast sheet keeps a rolling full-year view: actuals for closed months, and budget or run-rate (budget × year-to-date actual ÷ budget) for the rest. A Monthly P&L shows budget, actual and forecast side by side, the Annual Summary gives quarterly totals with a planning tax set-aside, and the Dashboard shows the headline numbers with two charts.

Included: worked-example and blank workbooks (10 sheets, 2,503 formulas; the example is a fictional coffee roaster with 20 lines and actuals to September), plus a 5-page PDF guide in US Letter and A4 with a quick start, how the spread and forecast work, a worked example and a budgeting checklist. Google Sheets copy: pending.

General information, not tax, accounting or financial advice.