Budget planner: how to make a budget planner

A budget planner is an essential component of business or personal financial development. Here we provide some tips about creating a planner.

Details
A budget planner isn’t just a document to give you pointers about your business, neatly summing up your financial outlays. It must be a detailed plan (possibly reflecting the direction you wish your business to progress). The ultimate aim will be to provide you with some exact figures to reflect how your financial situation is faring.

Your planner must show income and outlays. It should demonstrate exactly where you’re receiving money, and equally importantly, where it is going. It will help pinpoint weak areas as well as your business strengths.

Contents
Your budget planner will require as much information as you can gather. Dig out every financial statement, whether that’s bank account summaries, details of investments, receipts for bills you’ve paid and for goods purchased. All this will help you identify the monthly averages which are an essential part of longer-term budget planning.

All your income must be recorded, whether that’s regular monthly pay or miscellaneous amounts. It’s best to note the net figures (that is, after tax) as this will help when averaging the disparate totals.

Your expenses will also require listing – that’s everything from mortgage to loan repayments to groceries. Categorise these as fixed or variable.

Now work out totals, ideally using a spreadsheet on your computer. You’ve now created your budget plan, which you can review and update on an ongoing basis.