How to Make a Budget in Excel (2 Easy Methods)

In this article, we will learn to make a budget in Excel. A budget is an important tool that keeps track of income and expenses. These days we can use different apps to create a budget. But in Microsoft Excel, we can make a budget easily from scratch. Today, we will demonstrate 2 easy methods. After going through these methods, you can easily keep track of your income and expenses.

Download Template

You can download the template from here that we have used in this article.

What Is a Budget?

A budget is a plan where you can list your income and expenses. You can not only include the past and present but also the future income and incomes in a budget. Income means your salary and returns from all kinds of investments. Expenses are the money that you spend to lead your life. In these expenses, you need to add everything from taxes to small things like buying drinks. You can also add different types of savings to your budget.

Basic Components of a Budget

To make a budget, you need to keep certain important things in your budget. They are:

• Financial goal.
• Period of the budget.
• Income chart.
• Expense chart.
• Savings chart.
• Calculation of total income and expenses.

You may need to include different fields or sections in the budget depending on your expenses. And you may get extra charts in different types of budgets. But these are the basic components of a budget.

2 Easy Methods to Make a Budget in Excel

Today, we will demonstrate 2 ways to make a budget in Excel. In the first method, we will make a budget manually and in the second case, we will use excel templates to create a budget. So, without any delay, let’s start the discussion.

1. Make a Budget in Excel Manually

In the first method, we will make a budget manually in Excel. In our case, we will try to make a monthly budget. You can use this budget for yourself or the company. Hopefully, after learning the methods, you will be able to make any budget according to your needs. So, let’s follow the steps below to see how we can create a budget in Excel.

STEPS:

• First of all, you need to make a chart to track your income.
• For that purpose, we have created a chart where we have the Date, Source of income, Desired income, Actual income, and the Difference between actual and desired income.

• After that, we have inserted the list of income.
• To calculate the difference between the Actual and Desired income, we have used the formula below:

• Also, to calculate the total amount, we have used the SUM function.
• For example, we have used the formula in Cell E10:

• Secondly, you need to make a chart to list the expenses.
• In the Expenses chart, you must keep the Date, Type of expense, Desired expense, Actual expense, and the Difference between them.

• We can list the expenses like the picture below.
• In the Expenses chart, we have used the formula below to calculate the Difference:

• Again, we have used the SUM function to calculate the total amount of Desired and Actual From the chart, we can see the Actual expense is $200 more.

• Thirdly, you may have different kinds of savings accounts where you need to keep money every month. So, these Savings are expenses.
• In the Savings chart, we have the Last Checked date, Account type, Desired, and Actual amount.

• We don’t need the Difference column in this section.
• In Cell E25, we have used the formula below:

• And drag the Fill Handle to the right.

• You can also add another section for the Donations. It will also add to the expenses.
• In the Donation section, keep a column to type in which field you donated.
• Also, keep the Desired and Actual amount column.

• Like the previous sections, we need to sum up the Desired and Actual amounts here.
• To do so, we have used the below formula in Cell E31:

• After inserting the formula, drag the Fill Handle to the right.

• Finally, we need to add the Total Spending and Final Balance to our budget.
• Here, we need to calculate the Desired and Actual total spending.
• After that, we can calculate the Final Balance.

• To calculate the Total Spending, you need to add all the expenses.
• For that reason, select Cell E33 and type the formula:

• Then, drag the Fill Handle to the right.
• Also, to find the Final Balance, we need to subtract the total Actual income from the total Actual expenses.
• In order to do that, select Cell G36 and type the formula below:

• Press Enter to see the result.
• From the result, we can say, we have a deficit of $650.

Read More: How to Prepare Annual Budget for a Company in Excel

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2. Use Excel Templates to Create a Budget

In Microsoft Excel, you find different templates and you can use them according to your purposes. In this method, we will find a template to create a budget in Excel. So, without any delay, let’s follow the steps below:

STEPS:

• Firstly, click on the File tab in the ribbon.

• Secondly, click on New and select Budgets. This will open many Budget templates.

• After that, click on the template you want to use.
• We have selected the Personal monthly budget in this case.

• As a result, a window will appear.
• In the following step, select Create from there.

• Finally, a new workbook with the Personal Monthly Budget template will appear.
• As a result, you can start inserting your income and expenses into this budget.

Read More: How to Do Budgeting and Forecasting in Excel (2 Suitable Ways)

Some Other In-Built Budget Templates in Excel

In  Excel, there is a huge collection of the Budgets template. For this reason, you can find every kind of template according to your needs and use them. However, we will mention some important budget templates:

• Monthly Company Budget
• Wedding Expense Budget
• Business Budget
• College Budget
• Monthly Food Budget
• Holiday Budget
• Travel Expense Budget
• Website Budget
• Event Budget etc.

Things to Remember

You must remember certain things while you are trying to make a budget in Excel.

• That is, you need to use the formulas correctly in the right cells.
• Sometimes the budget may get bigger. In that case, you can create the Income chart and the Expenses chart on different excel sheets.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say that we have demonstrated 2 easy ways to Make a Budget in Excel. I hope this article will help you to perform your tasks easily. Moreover, we have also discussed different types of budgets found in Excel. Furthermore, we have also added the template at the beginning of the article. To use the template, you can download it. Visit the ExcelDemy website for more articles like this. Last of all, if you have any suggestions or queries, feel free to ask in the comment section below.

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