Small Business Bookkeeping Spreadsheet

About this template

This small business bookkeeping spreadsheet keeps a whole year of your books in a file you own outright. Record money in and money out, and it produces your profit and loss, sales tax, quarterly set-aside and a live dashboard without a subscription.

Please read: This is a tracker tool only, not financial, tax, legal, medical or any other professional advice or advisory service. It records and calculates what you enter; you are solely responsible for checking all figures, rates, dates and results and for every decision you make. By purchasing, downloading or using it, you accept these terms (your statutory consumer rights are not affected).

The dashboard

Choose Full year or any month and the whole page follows. Nothing on the dashboard is typed; it fills itself from your two registers.

• Five live cards: income, expenses, profit, margin and tax to set aside, each with twelve-month bars
• Income against expenses every month, with your profit so far this year drawn as a line
• Sales tax collected, tax claimed back and what is left owing
• Spending by category: the eight biggest and the rest
• Quarterly tax set-aside: what to put aside each quarter, with its due date
• Business miles by month and what they are worth
• Profit margin: how much of each month's income you kept
• Top clients: who pays you most, and how much of your income the top one makes up
• Invoices paid, waiting and overdue, and how many are still open

Two registers in, seventeen tabs out

You enter money in on one tab and money out on another, pick a tax rate for each line, and everything else reads those two. The monthly view, the quarterly view, the profit and loss statement, the sales tax worksheet and the dashboard all recalculate. Nothing is typed twice, and no number on a report can disagree with the ledger it came from.

• Income: 500 rows, with the tax split out on every line
• Expenses: 500 rows, split the same way
• Setup: your categories, your tax rates and your set-aside percentage
• Monthly: twelve months of income, spending, profit and margin
• Quarterly: the four quarters, with tax due and tax to set aside
• Profit and Loss: every category with its share and the margin
• Sales Tax: collected against paid, by rate and by quarter
• Custom Range: pick any two dates and everything follows
• Comparison: this year against last, month by month
• Balances: what each account took in and paid out
• Clients: billed, jobs, average and last paid, read from the ledger
• Invoices: an invoice tracker for what is out, what is paid and what is overdue
• Inventory: unit cost, sell price, margin and stock value
• Mileage: logged at your own rate
• Dashboard and Start Here

It is built for anyone running a small business, or self employed, who wants their own numbers in an income tracker and expense tracker they control. It splits sales tax out of every line, nets it quarter by quarter, and compares any two years month by month.

Light and dark editions

Every download has a light edition and a dark edition, with every tab restyled, not only the dashboard, and the same formulas in both. The filled copy holds two full years of demo data, so the comparison view has something real to compare.

Works with

• Microsoft Excel 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365, on Windows and Mac, and LibreOffice. No Microsoft 365 subscription needed, and no Google account needed for the Excel files.
• Google Sheets with a free Google account. You get real spreadsheet files, not a PDF with a link in it.
• No add-ins, no macros, no subscription and no bank connection

What you download

• Light edition: the Excel workbook filled with a worked example, and a blank one
• Dark edition: the same two files in the dark design
• The instruction guide, with one-click links to the Google Sheets versions (light and dark, filled and blank)
• The terms of use as a PDF

Your files are ready as soon as payment clears. The template is for use in your own business; please do not share or resell the files. Questions before or after you buy? Use our contact page and we will help.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work in Excel and Google Sheets?

Yes. The Excel workbooks run in Excel 2016 or later on Windows and Mac without a Google account, and the instruction guide has one-click links to the Google Sheets versions.

How much do I have to type?

Only two registers: money in on the Income tab and money out on the Expenses tab, 500 rows each, with a tax rate picked per line. Every other tab is calculated.

Does it handle sales tax?

Yes. It splits sales tax out of every line, nets tax collected against tax paid quarter by quarter, and shows what is left owing.

Can it help me put money aside for income tax?

Yes. It turns your real profit into a quarterly set-aside at the percentage you choose, with each quarter's due date on the dashboard.

Is this accounting advice?

No. It is a bookkeeping tool that records and calculates what you enter, not tax or accounting advice.