July 25, 2023

As a small business owner, it's crucial to have a financial plan in place to ensure the long-term success of your business. Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool that can help you create and manage your financial plan. Learn how to use Microsoft Excel to create a small business financial plan on your Surface laptop or 2-in-1 PC.

What’s a financial plan?

A financial plan is an outline that includes every way your small business hopes to earn and spend money. It includes data on how your small business has handled money in the past, and you can use that information to plan how the finances may work in the future. A detailed financial plan can help your small business grow.

Ways to create a small business financial plan using Microsoft Excel

A typical financial plan may include income statements, balance sheets, cash flow records, and other data-heavy paperwork for your small business. Because you’ll be organizing and analyzing a lot of numbers, it’s helpful to have a tool like Excel that does the math and sorting for you. To use Excel for creating your small business financial plan, do the following:

1. Create a budget for your small business

The first step in creating a financial plan for your small business is to create a budget. To do this in Excel, open a new workbook and add columns for income, expenses, and totals. Then, input the estimated income and expenses for your small business for the past 12 months. You can use the sum formula feature in Excel to calculate the totals.

2. Use financial projections

Financial projections are estimates of your small business’s future financial performance. Just like you can use Excel for sorting your business’s historical financial records, you can use this program to plan your business’s future. Open a new worksheet in Excel. In the first column, input the months of the year. In the second column, input your estimated sales for each month. In the third column, input your estimated expenses for each month. Use the sum formula feature to calculate your estimated profit or loss for each month. As you work toward your business goals, check how your small business is performing against your financial projections. It’s okay if the numbers don’t align because you can adjust them accordingly.

3. Estimate your business’s cash flow

Your financial statements should include things like a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement for your small business. The balance sheet will show your small business’s assets, liabilities, and equity. The income statement will show the revenue, expenses, and net income. The cash flow statement will be based on the numbers you found in your historical financial documents.

To create financial statements using Excel, create another new worksheet in your spreadsheet. List all your business accounts in the first column. In the second column, input the balances for each account. Use the sum formula feature to find out how much the total assets, liabilities, and equity are for your small business. Repeat this process in two more worksheets for your income statements and cash flow statements.

4. Review and update your financial plan regularly

Once you have created your financial plan using Excel, it's important to review and update it regularly. Reviewing your financial plan regularly can help you identify areas where you need to make adjustments and ensure that your small business grows according to its goals.

When you buy a new Surface laptop or 2-in-1 PC, you won’t have to download a ton of other software to keep your small business on track. The latest Surface devices, like Surface Laptop 5, come preloaded with Microsoft 365 apps¹ like Excel, OneDrive to save your financial records in the cloud, and more. If you’re unsure of which Surface to buy, use the Help me choose tool to decide which one may best benefit your small business.