There’s nothing quite as stressful as starting a business, only for it to run into financial difficulty shortly thereafter. Hence, the need for budgets that don’t lie regarding your financial position at any point in time.
Here is our review of some of the best Google Sheets startup budget templates to copy over into your Google account to see you through the stressful stage of getting all your ducks in a row, so your new business can get off to a good start. And if the twelve spreadsheets we picked is not enough, browse our massive collection of over 50 free budget templates for Google Sheets.
1. Free Downloadable Startup Budget Template
Designed by Smartsheet
The Free Downloadable Startup Budget Template by Smartsheet is an online budget template that is expertly designed and lists all the startup expenses you might find at the start of your journey, with marketing, location, administrative, and pre-launch labor expenditures highlighted as the main category expenses.
There’s also a table to list funding opportunities, as well as a summary at the very top that provides an overview of the totals to help you identify and rectify a shortfall in time.
2. First Year Startup Budget Template
Designed by Smartsheet
The First Year Startup Budget Template by Smartsheet is a monthly budget template that shows personal and business income and expenditure side by side, as these can impact each other (for better or worse) during the first year of business when trying to forge a separate business and personal identity.
This budgeting template is excellent as a first-year start-up calculator, helping you keep expenses and income in check but, most importantly, aligned with your financial goals.
This spreadsheet also has a personal and business summary table to help you calculate your end balance (both business and professional) to see if you have a positive or negative balance left over at the end.
3. Fintech Startup Budget Template
Designed by Kira Deutch
The Fintech Startup Budget Template by Kira Deutch is ideal for Fintech startups and its related expenses. And since many of these expenses are technological in nature, it can be challenging to cast certain expenses in stone as these can change in the blink of an eye.
Taking this into account, you might find the Padding column helpful to help cushion the cost of unpredictable expenses as much as possible.
4. Hardware Startup Budget Template
Designed by Smartsheet
If you own a hardware startup business and are looking for a customized budget to work with to help you record materials and supplies, equipment, annual service contract quotes, and actual expenses over a lengthy period (which is quite handy if you have extended projects on the horizon) the Hardware Startup Budget Template by Smartsheet is the one to use.
This budget template will help you determine if you’ve reached your breakeven point, with a built-in formula that does the necessary calculations for you.
5. Annual Startup Business Budget Template
Designed by Smartsheet
If you’re looking for a budget that condenses the entire year’s transactions into one spreadsheet, the Annual Startup Business Budget Template by Smartsheet is an excellent choice.
With this annual budget template, you’re not just able to view transactions monthly, but you can also view your business’s progress quarterly too.
This detailed spreadsheet has a specific budget category for everything, including those normally associated with Profit and Loss statements and Balance Sheets, so that you can see how your income, expenses, and assets come together to help you meet your financial goals.
6. Startup Marketing Budget Template
Designed by Ganttpro
The Startup Marketing Budgeting Template by Ganttpro is a project tracking template that comprehensively lists all major startup category expenses with the relevant subcategories beneath these, in addition to detailed columns that enable you to track a task’s progress as per a predetermined timeline.
This budget template will not only help you stay within budget, but it’ll also help you monitor individual tasks much more effectively.
7. Tech Startup Budget Template
Designed by Spreadsheet Daddy
The Tech Startup Budget Template by Spreadsheet Daddy is a budget planner that caters to tech startups.
Simple enough to tailor to include relevant expenses specific to your industry, you can use the generalized categories provided on the spreadsheet to start off with before adding your own.
This spreadsheet is a simple template to understand and use while you’re still trying to find your feet, with a Budget table and an Actual Costs table to help keep these two more or less in line with one another as soon as business starts rolling in.
8. Nonprofit Startup Budget Template
Designed by Spreadsheet Daddy
Nonprofits usually require specialized budget templates to showcase transparency and accountability.
But sometimes, it is a non-complicated budgeting template like the one by Spreadsheet Daddy that can simplify the budgeting process, helping your nonprofit launch successfully.
9. Small Business Startup Budget Template
Designed by Spreadsheet Daddy
The Small Business Startup Budget Template by Spreadsheet Daddy is simplistic yet to the point, covering income, fixed and recurring costs in detail.
With this budget spreadsheet, you won’t lose sight of income-earning opportunities that could help launch your small business even further, while keeping an eye on expenses that could reduce your profits.
10. Restaurant Startup Budget Template
Designed by Spreadsheet Daddy
If you own a restaurant, the Restaurant Startup Budget Template by Spreadsheet Daddy can help you plan for total expenses much better because it includes most, if not all, of the most common restaurant setup costs, including costs associated with brand exposure.
11. Startup Budget Childhood Education Center Template
Designed by Spreadsheet Daddy
The Startup Budget Childhood Education Center Template by Spreadsheet Daddy is perfect for the setup of a children’s education center.
This budget includes three main category expenses that encompass the majority of expenses you’re likely to encounter upon setting up such an institution.
12. Ecommerce Startup Budget Template
Designed by Spreadsheet Daddy
The Ecommerce Startup Budget Template by Spreadsheet Daddy is the ideal budget to use for setting up a brick-and-mortar store if your e-commerce business has physical premises too.
This budget includes a Capital and Equipment list, Location and Admin expenses, Advertising/Promotional expenses, Building/Real Estate costs, Bank Loans, and Opening Inventory entries to ensure you’re all set up and good to go when the time is right.
How to Create Google Sheets Startup Templates
The following section contains a lot of valuable information to help you create your own startup template, so we advise you to read it in-depth to learn what you need to do in order to do so quickly and easily.
So, let’s get down to business!
Step 1. Fill out the template with text by adding text to the empty cells.
Step 2. Make changes to font size, style, color, and other settings as needed using the toolbar menu.
Step 3. Next, you will need to select the cells that you want to fill in with color. Once again, go to the toolbar menu and select the Fill color icon. From the palette that appears, you can choose the color you want to use for the fill.
Step 4. The next step in creating your template is to add borders. Simply select the template, go to the Border icon, and choose the border type, color, and style that you want.
Step 5. Finally, click on an empty cell and enter a formula that will calculate your data. In our case, this is the SUM(E3:E6) formula. Apply any formulas to any data.
Wow! You have done it!
FAQs
How do you create a budget for a startup?
Creating a budget for a startup can be a time-consuming exercise, at least in the beginning, when you’re trying to figure out which costs are fixed versus those that are variable, where all your financing is coming from, what your revenue is likely to be and what this means for you to be able to break even and generate a profit.
Since this can be one more thing to do on a busy entrepreneur’s list of things to get around to, it stands to reason why many business owners are opting for a shortcut in the form of ready-made templates to save on valuable time, knowing that their business finances won’t suffer in the interim.
Simply pick a template and make a copy. And start whenever you’re ready.
What should I budget for when starting a business?
Some of the main categories worth including in your startup budget are set-up costs, ongoing expenses, and projected revenue to assess if you’ll reach your breakeven point.
Including the relevant income and expenses under these headings should help streamline the entire process better, helping you manage your startup’s finances with a lot more accuracy.
