Focus on managing your budget, not creating a spreadsheet to do so. For a great start, check out these best Excel budget templates for most any type of budget.

For instance, if your holiday shopping budget is $1,500 but your expenses creep up to $1,800, the surplus becomes immediately evident in your spreadsheet, prompting adjustments elsewhere.

Excel Monthly Budget Spreadsheet TL;DR Key Takeaways : Input actual operating expenses in Excel, organized by department, using data validation to ensure accuracy and consistency.

Create a new spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. Enter headers over the first four columns titled "Revenue," "Cost," "Profit" and "Profit Margin." Enter the sale price in the next row under the ...