Free tool · Budgeting
A simple monthly budget worksheet for your business.
Enter your monthly revenue and three expense lines — cost of goods, fixed costs, and everything else — and see your total expenses, monthly surplus or deficit, and net margin. It’s plain arithmetic on your own figures, not advice: nothing is sent anywhere, and a Certified ProAdvisor can build a full budget with you.
This is a working budget worksheet, not a download. Enter your monthly numbers and it shows total expenses, surplus or deficit, and net margin live. It’s a model of your own inputs — plain math, run entirely in your browser, nothing stored or sent. It’s a starting structure, not financial advice; a Certified ProAdvisor can turn it into a real budget and forecast on your actual books.
TechBrot Inc. · independent Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor firm — not affiliated with Intuit Inc.
Business budgeting, in five questions.
How do you build a simple business budget?
Start with monthly revenue, then total your costs in three buckets — cost of goods/services, fixed operating costs, and other/variable costs. Surplus or deficit = revenue − total expenses, and net margin = surplus ÷ revenue. This worksheet does that live on your own numbers as a starting structure.
What’s the difference between fixed and variable costs?
Fixed costs stay roughly level month to month regardless of sales — rent, salaries, software, insurance. Variable costs move with activity — materials, marketing, travel, supplies. Cost of goods is the direct cost of delivering what you sell. Bucketing costs correctly is what makes a budget meaningful.
What is a good net margin?
It varies widely by industry — a services firm and a product reseller have very different healthy margins — so there’s no single right number. What matters more is the trend: whether margin is stable or improving against your own history. A Certified ProAdvisor can benchmark yours in context.
Is this worksheet financial advice?
No. It’s a model of the numbers you enter, run entirely in your browser, and it’s a single-month snapshot. A real budget is tracked against actuals each month and forecast forward. Use it to frame the conversation, then book a free discovery call for a proper budgeting model.
Why does my budget need accurate books?
A budget built on guessed numbers is worse than none — it gives false confidence. When transactions are categorized correctly and reconciled, your cost buckets are real and the surplus the worksheet shows is trustworthy. That accuracy is what monthly bookkeeping delivers.
Work out your monthly budget.
Enter your figures; the result updates as you type. Everything stays in your browser — nothing is sent until you decide to book a call.
Monthly surplus / deficit
—
- Total monthly expenses—
- Net margin—
Enter your monthly revenue and the three expense lines above.
This is a model of your own inputs, not financial advice. A real budget tracks against actuals each month and forecasts forward — a Certified ProAdvisor can build that on your books.
Book the discovery callHow the worksheet works.
The arithmetic is deliberately simple so you can trust it. Total expenses = cost of goods + fixed operating costs + other/variable costs. Surplus or deficit = revenue − total expenses. Net margin = surplus ÷ revenue, shown as a percentage. Splitting costs into those three buckets is enough to see whether the month works and where the weight sits.
Cost of goods (or cost of services) is what it directly costs to deliver what you sell. Fixed operating costs stay roughly level month to month — rent, salaries, software, insurance. Other/variable costs are everything that moves with activity — marketing, travel, supplies. Getting transactions into the right bucket is exactly the discipline good bookkeeping provides, which is why a budget is only as honest as the books under it.
This worksheet is a single-month snapshot. A real budget is built once, then tracked against actuals every month and rolled forward as a forecast — that’s a budgeting-and-forecasting engagement, not a one-page tool. Use this to frame the conversation, not to replace it. It’s a model of your inputs, not advice.
Your own numbers
in your browser
Surplus & margin
instant, honest math
Free discovery call
30 min · no obligation
A tracked budget
on your real books
Where to go next.
Questions about budgeting.
Is this a downloadable template?
Does this store or send my numbers?
How detailed should my expense buckets be?
How is this different from a forecast?
How can TechBrot help beyond the worksheet?
Is TechBrot affiliated with Intuit?
From worksheet to working budget
Build a budget you’ll actually use.
A worksheet is a start; a budget that drives decisions is built on accurate books and a forward forecast. A free 30-minute discovery call with a Certified ProAdvisor turns your numbers into a real budgeting and forecasting model. No hourly billing, no obligation.