Top 5 Tools for Small Business Budgeting
Every small business needs a budget, but many business owners are at a loss as to how to create one (and stick to it). Granted, it’s not easy tracking how much you spend on certain business expenses; plus, you can’t predict what the future holds to accurately gauge how much you need to spend on certain areas in the future.
These five tools make budgeting more straightforward and less stressful to help you create a helpful budget to guide your financial decisions:
1. Quickbooks
An all-in-one bookkeeping tool for small businesses, Quickbooks is an essential part of the budgeting process. It helps you track all expenses so you can see exactly where your money goes. When developing a budget, you can use this intel to set realistic spending limits in specific categories.
Over time, you can gauge your spending to see how well it aligns with your budget. You can try Quickbooks free for 30 days; after that, plans start at just $10 per month.
2. Freshbooks
Similar in size and scope to Quickbooks, Freshbooks is ideal for small businesses and startups that do a lot of invoicing. Its intuitive user interface makes it easy to create attractive invoices and reports; plus, you can use it to accept credit cards to get paid by clients faster. Because it’s a comprehensive bookkeeping tool, it helps you track your money so you can accurately forecast your spending.
Freshbooks offers a free 30-day trial, with plans starting at $15 per month.
3. PlanGuru
If you don’t need a full accounting software suite, PlanGuru is a powerful standalone budgeting tool for small businesses. You get all the basic features you need to build a powerful budget, including a balance sheet, income sheet, and cash flow report. PlanGuru also created more than 20 forecasting methods to help you project expenses using your own data.
4. Capterra Small Business Budget Template
Software review site Capterra developed its own free downloadable template for small business budgeting. It’s made for Excel and contains just the basics (ideal for solopreneurs, freelancers, and small operations). Just input your expected revenue, list out expenses for the next year, then see how the spreadsheet breaks down your monthly budget.
5. Microsoft Office Business Expense Budget Template
If you want an even simpler budgeting tool, try Microsoft Office’s business expense budget template, which is free to download. It tracks your actual expenses and compares them to your estimated expenses so you can see where any deviations occur.
Include Your Office Space in Your Small Business Budget
As you’re developing your new business budget, you’ll want to include all of your overhead expenses. Many businesses find that their office rental accounts for a large portion of their budget, but you could lower your expenses by using a private office in a coworking space like Office Evolution.
Rather than paying unpredictable costs for utilities, maintenance, and surprise expenses with a traditional office, Office Evolution offers space for a flat monthly fee to help you stay on budget.
Find the Office Evolution location nearest you and see how our office space rentals will fit right into your business budget without problem.