Free Startup Budget Templates

By Andy Marker | October 28, 2020

Quickly determine your startup’s available financial resources and track potential revenue with one of these free startup budget templates, available in Excel, Google Sheets, and PDF formats.

Included on this page, you’ll find the most useful startup business budget templates, including a simple startup business budget template, a startup expense template, a startup equipment budget template, a first-year startup budget calculator, as well as tips for creating a startup budget template.

Startup Business Budget Template

Startup Business Budget Template

Use this basic startup business budget template to identify available financial resources and determine the amount of revenue needed to meet business goals. Fill in your budgeted and actual expenses and funding to gain a solid picture of your actual month-by-month operating costs and revenue. Enter startup funding details, including investor contributions, loans, and additional funding. This template is the perfect tool for any startup looking to ensure that its funding less expenses accurately reflects true fiscal health. 

Download Startup Business Budget Template

Excel | PDF | Google Sheet

To learn more about the importance of startup business planning, visit our page on startup plan, budget, and cost templates.

Business Startup Costs with Monthly Overhead Expenses Template

Business Startup Costs with Monthly Overhead Expenses Template

Use this budget templates, designed specifically for startups, to determine whether or not your business has adequate resources to meet financial obligations. Enter budget goals and estimated expenses and losses to determine a total estimated budget. Itemize expenses (e.g., office space cost, domain name, business cards, etc.) and their associated costs to identify any potential cash-balance shortfalls. All entries help generate accurate totals of estimated startup costs and budget figures.

Download Business Startup Costs with Monthly Overhead Expenses Template

Excel | Google Sheets

 

For a variety of free, downloadable startup business plan samples, visit our comprehensive template roundup.

Startup Expenses Template

Startup Expenses Templates

Gain an understanding of how much it will cost to start a business with this basic startup expenses template. Itemize startup expenses (real estate, equipment costs, inventory, promotional expenses, etc.), to compare total expenses to working capital. Detail sources of capital (investors, bank loans, etc.) to determine your burndown rate as it relates to expenses. This template also offers a unique security and collateral for loan section that allows you to list available collateral against potential loans, as well as loan guarantors.

Download Startup Expenses Template 

Excel | Google Sheets

Business Startup Costs with Variable and Fixed Expenses Template

Business Startup Costs with Variable and Fixed Expenses Template

Use this simple business startup costs with variable and fixed expenses to estimate costs and funding requirements. The template includes sections for funding details (investor funding, loans, and others), as well as costs (fixed and average monthly expenses). Taken together, these details provide an accurate picture of your startup’s projected month-by-month resources vs. funding, so you can identify and address any potential costs that could jeopardize your business’ sound fiscal footing. 

Download Business Startup Costs with Variable and Fixed Expenses Template

Excel | Google Sheets

Startup Equipment Budget Template

Startup Equipment Budget Template

An itemization of your startup’s equipment costs is often the most valuable analysis that you can provide. Until you list individual equipment for your startup venture — and their various costs — you most likely won’t have the big picture of what equipment costs will entail. Simplify and expedite the process with this equipment budget template: You’ll find a breakdown of the line-by-line, item-by-item expenditures, and how they affect available financial resources. Once complete, you can compare budgeted equipment totals to estimated annual service revenues. 

Download Startup Equipment Budget Template 

Excel | Google Sheets

Business Startup Costs Template

Business Startup Costs with One Time and Monthly Expenses Template

Keep accurate tabs on budgeted vs. actual funding compared to expenses with this easy-to-use business startup costs template. Use the funding section to itemize investors’ budgeted (promised) vs. actual initial or second-round funding, capital, or loans to determine the line-by-line or total difference in funding. Enter details of all expenses (budgeted compared to actual) to quickly assess how your funding relates to required expenses. 

 

Download Business Startup Costs Template 

Excel | Google Sheets

First-Year Startup Budget Calculator

First Year Startup Budget Calculator Template

See the big picture of your budget with this first-year-specific startup budget calculator. This template focuses on ensuring that your first-year budget calculations (including startup costs, operational expenses, estimated and actual income, and personal expenses) are as accurate as possible — so that your venture succeeds. You can save this first-year startup budget calculator template as a unique file with customized entries, or share it with other team members who need details of your startup’s financial viability. 

Download First-Year Startup Budget Calculator

Excel | Google Sheets

Annual Startup Business Budget Template

Annual Startup Business Budget Template

Compare month-by-month and quarter-by-quarter revenue to cost of goods sold (COGS) and other expenses (sales, marketing labor, etc.) with this annual startup business budget template. Create a comprehensive, 12-month budget for your startup, and compare your financial details with the previous year’s performance. This template provides ample space to include earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) budget and actual details, as well as comprehensive profit and loss and balance sheet category sections to thoroughly plan and track your startup’s financials. 

Download Annual Startup Business Budget Template 

Excel | Google Sheets

For more annual business budget templates, see our article “Free Annual Business Budget Templates”.

Startup Website Budget Tool Template

Startup Website Budget Tool Template

Manage your website-specific startup budget with this unique, all-inclusive template for web-based services. Track initial investments against year-by-year financing compared to line-by-line startup costs. Use the unique benefits section to list reductions in specific costs to get a comprehensive picture of your web business’s budget, and see if it matches actual investments and other resources’ contributions. 

Download Startup Website Budget Tool Template

Excel | Google Sheets

Tips for Creating a Startup Budget Template

A strong startup budget template provides a framework to plan your business operations by comparing expenses with projected and actual revenue sources. 

To account for your startup’s operational costs, compared to potential and actual revenue, you should include the following sections in a startup budget template: 

  • Budgeted and Actual Expenses: Fill in budgeted and actual expenses to see if any line items are over or under budget. 
  • Budgeted and Actual Funding: Enter projected funding (revenue, investors, loans, etc.) and compare it to the actual funding amount for any given time period (monthly, quarterly, or annually). 
  • Broad Expenses Categories: Create expenditure categories to house other, smaller items (e.g., create broad cost categories such as administrative, location, hardware, licenses, marketing, etc.). 
  • Itemized Expenses: Enter budgeted and actual line-by-line items for each and every expense (e.g., instead of merely entering a figure for “location,” include line-items such as rental cost, internet set-up, furniture costs, security, etc.). 
  • Variable Costs: Include fluctuating expenses that may vary monthly or annually. 
  • Fixed Costs: Include costs you can confidently forecast due to their lack of variation. 
  • Startup Budget Overview: Review the autocalculated broad strokes of your budgeted vs. actual expenses, and your funding less expenses. 
  • Startup Funding: List the total amount of your budgeted vs. actual startup funding (investors, loans, additional funding, etc.) to ensure you have adequate funding. 

In short, using a startup budget template can help expose your company’s expenditures with revenue (and other income sources, such as investments) to determine the cost of your operations compared to the resources you have to justify those operational expenses. 

While annual startup budget templates provide you with annual insights into the fiscal health of your company’s budget, it’s also important to have shorter (month-by-month and quarter-by-quarter) perspectives, so that you aren’t surprised by unforeseen operational costs. Shorter-term startup budget templates enable you to accurately calculate your venture’s true budget, and also serve as a document for banks or other lenders to review, if you’re seeking a loan.

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