Small business paperwork

Small Business Income and Expense Spreadsheet

Simple books for a small business — money in, money out, categorised, with a monthly profit line and a year-end category breakdown.

Download the spreadsheet · 22 kB

.xlsx · 4 tabs · opens in Excel, LibreOffice, Numbers and Google Sheets · no sign-up

What it works out for you

Profit for every month — income less expenditure
Totals for each expense category across the year
Running year-to-date profit
The best and worst months, and the average

Who it is for

Sole traders, freelancers and side businesses that do not need accounting software.

What is inside

4 tabs: Read me, Income, Expenses, Summary. The first is a Read me that explains the file in plain words and says what it deliberately does not contain.

Cells come in two colours. Cream cells are yours to fill in. Grey cells work themselves out — leave them alone unless you want to change the sum, in which case go ahead, nothing is locked.

It opens blank, and that is correct

This is an empty workbook, so every grey cell is empty until there is something to work from. Type into two or three cream cells and the grey ones beside them fill in straight away. If you download it, open it and see nothing but headings, nothing has gone wrong — the sheet simply has no figures yet.

One thing worth knowing: a file preview — in Google Drive, in a phone’s file browser, in Windows Explorer — often shows calculated cells as blank even after you have filled the sheet in, because a preview does not run formulas. Open the file properly in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice or Google Sheets and the figures appear.

Amounts and figures

Amounts are plain numbers with no currency symbol, so the same file suits any country. Format the column as your own currency if you would rather see one. There are no rates, intervals or targets of ours anywhere in the file — every figure of that kind is a cell waiting for the one that applies to you.

The printable versions

The same job on paper, for a folder or a clipboard. Free PDFs, A4 and US Letter.

Budget Tracker Sheet

Set a budget out on paper and record what actually happened next to it, so the gap is visible line by line rather than only at the bottom.

IM-10 1 page

Petty Cash Sheet

Keep a small cash float straight: every movement on one line, a running balance down the page, and a count at the end that either matches or does not.

WT-10 1 page

Invoice and Payment Tracker

See at a glance which invoices are out, which are late and when each was last chased, which is the information that actually gets invoices paid.

IM-07 1 page

Questions

Is it really free?

Yes. No sign-up, no email address, no trial. Download it, use it, change it, keep it. The site is paid for by advertising elsewhere on it, not by this file.

Will it work in Google Sheets?

Yes. Google Drive → New → File upload → pick the file, then open it with Google Sheets. Every formula is deliberately a plain one, so nothing breaks in the move.

Does it work in Excel, LibreOffice or Numbers?

Yes. It is an ordinary .xlsx file with no macros and no add-ins. Anything that opens spreadsheets will open it.

Can I change the formulas?

Please do. Nothing is locked or password protected, and the formulas are ordinary ones you can read. If your situation needs a different sum, change the sum.

Are there any figures built into it?

No rates, intervals, targets or thresholds of ours. Where a figure like that is needed there is a cell for you to enter your own, taken from your handbook, lender, insurer or tax authority. We do not know your circumstances and will not guess at them.