As a small business owner, you are likely familiar with Microsoft Excel. However, many people are not aware that there are a variety of Excel templates available. These templates will allow you to use Excel to its full potential, ultimately improving your productivity and organization. You already have enough on your plate, so instead of spending time developing your own templates, you should take advantage of these free templates to make everyday tasks much easier and quicker.
In this post, we’ll discuss our favorite list of Excel Templates. Whether you’re starting a new business, managing a project, or tracking your expenses, these templates will give you back valuable time that you can use to focus on growing your business.
Project Management
Budget Template
When you’re managing a project, it’s important to keep close track of your budget, continuously tracking fixed costs, labor, and materials. With a template, you will be able to closely monitor your spending and give your team visibility into where you stand relative to the budget. If this would be helpful for you, download SmartSheet’s Excel Project Budgeting Template.
To-do List Template
No matter what industry you work in, it’s important to keep an up-to-date to-do list to help you know what’s on your plate and prioritize the more important tasks. With a to-do list template, you can add and update due dates in real-time and organize your tasks. SmartSheet offers a great Excel To-Do List Template.
Timeline Template
Timelines and schedules are also an important part of project management. They can give you a high-level overview of the key milestones, keeping your team in the loop of major events. Take a look at Vertex42’s useful Excel Timeline Template if you don’t have time to create one for yourself!
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) tracking template
As a small business owner, you know the importance of setting goals. However, it’s often hard to have a real-time understanding of how you’re tracking against these goals. SmartSheet’s KPI tracking Excel template helps you measure your progress and performance to make sure that you’re reaching your project goals and objectives.
Business Management Templates
Accounting Journal Template
If you’re managing your own accounting, an accounting journal template could help you save valuable time. With SmartSheet’s Accounting Journal Excel Template, you can track each step of the accounting process, record debits and credits, and access pre-built formulas to measure total balances in real-time.
Balance Sheet Template
With a balance sheet template, you can get a quick overview of your financial position. With SmartSheet’s Excel Balance Sheet Template, you can record your assets, liabilities and equity. This not only keeps you up to date, but can be a great thing to show investors to give them an idea of your company’s financial standing.
Invoice Template
If you don’t have a simple template to use to invoice your customer, you should take a look at this free Excel Invoice Template from SpreadSheet 123.
Time card Template
SpreadSheet 123’s free Excel Timecard Template allows you to keep track of your employees’ time sheets in an organized and efficient way. You can simply ask your employees to log their hours each day, and by the end of the week, you can easily manage payroll.
Business Planning
Startup business planning template
To start a great business, it’s important to have a solid product or service, as well as a clear business plan. This SmartSheet Excel Planning Template can show you each of the key items to include in your business plan.
Financial plan projection template
If you’re starting a business and need help planning for your finances, this SpreadSheet 123 Excel Finance Plan Template is a great place to start.
Marketing Calendar Template
Once you’ve mapped out your business and marketing plan, you can put together a marketing calendar that outlines key activities in your advertising and PR strategy. This Marketing Calendar Template by SmartSheet will make this task much easier.
SWOT Analysis Template
To make sure that your business is tracking in the right direction, it is important to assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within your competitive landscape. Every few months, you can leverage this SWOT analysis template which will help you do the job.
With these templates, you can take advantage of all that Excel has to offer. Take some time to consider which of these templates would work best for you based on your specific business and day-to-day tasks.
