Get your Free Excel Spreadsheet for Business Expenses 2023

An Excel spreadsheet for tracking business expenses can keep your finances in order. But unless you’re a bigger company with an entire accounting department on hand, you might not have a ready-to-go template for this.

In this article, we’ll look at the dcgridmod.com business expenses spreadsheet. First, we’ll dive into a few examples of expense tracking templates and highlight the major reasons why you need one. After that, we’ll review our own Excel spreadsheet for business expenses and show you how dcgridmod.com can help take the headache out of managing your company finances.

What is an Excel spreadsheet for business expenses?

A spreadsheet for business expenses is a standardized template that tracks and records a company’s expenses. Specifically, it details the “what,” “why,” “who,” and “how” of spending company money, so for example:

• what was the money spent on?
• why was it spent?
• who spent it?
• and how much was spent?

Some of these spreadsheets track specific company expenses, while others provide a simple, high-level summary of your expense history. For example, a travel expense spreadsheet tracks travel-related expenses, like lodging and meals. A monthly expense spreadsheet provides an overview of your total monthly spending.

Despite the variety of expense tracking spreadsheets, most of them have common features, including:

• a list of rows for each expense item
• columns specifying the date, vendor, expense description, amount, unit costs, method of payment, and other relevant data or notes, and
• formulas that automatically calculate expenses

In short, these spreadsheets help you understand how you spend money. And while it may seem tedious to track every penny, the benefits are worth it.

Download Excel Template

Why use an Excel spreadsheet for business expenses?

Let’s take a look at some of the key benefits of using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for your business expenses.

You’ll make better financial decisions

Knowing more about your business’ expenses lets you make better financial decisions. And having expense information distilled into an easy-to-follow spreadsheet is a critical step.

For example, let’s say you own a bakery and you’re trying to make a decision about whether shopping locally for your ingredients is saving you money. You might analyze your existing expenses and compare that against product estimates from foodservice wholesalers. With accurate expense data in front of you, it’s much easier to make informed decisions about your business.

You can visualize expense tracking in one place

Suppose George from sales jots down his expenses on diner napkins and Betty from HR plugs expenses in a Notepad file on her computer. They’re going to run into expense reporting problems sooner or later. With an Excel spreadsheet, you can standardize your expense tracking process to save and view all of your expenses in the same location. No more napkins. No more Notepad files.

You’ll save time and money

When you have a standardized spreadsheet for tracking expenses, you can save time by using built-in formulas to calculate totals and averages. This lets you focus on your financial goals instead of crunching numbers.

It’s easier to spot unusual or fraudulent expenses

Tracking your expenses can help you spot unusual changes. For example, if you usually spend $100 per month on office supplies but suddenly spend $500 the next month, an expense spreadsheet makes it easier to see this change. Spotting these “red flags” early makes it possible to identify and investigate fraudulent or unauthorized spending.

Now that we’ve covered the basics of what an expense spreadsheet is and why you should use one, let’s take a look at a few examples of how you might use them.

What are some examples of Excel spreadsheets for business expenses?

Basic business expenses spreadsheet

Not all expense tracking spreadsheets are complex tools with dozens of columns, categories, and formulas. Sometimes all you need is a simple list of your expenses and this is where a basic expense spreadsheet comes in handy.

These spreadsheets are usually “barebones” tools and only contain simple expense tracking information like the purchase date, payment method, a brief description, and the expense amount.

Let’s say you’re a small business or a “mom and pop” company that doesn’t have numerous departments, employees, and budgets to manage. In that case, a simplified spreadsheet for tracking expenses may work. Otherwise, you’ll need a spreadsheet with more features and functionality.

Travel expenses spreadsheet

A travel expense spreadsheet is designed to track all spending related to business travel. This might include airfare, hotel costs, car rental, food, credit card purchases, and any other expenses incurred while traveling for work.

The great thing about travel expense spreadsheets is that they often come with pre-built formulas that automatically calculate totals for each category as well as the overall trip cost. This makes creating a travel expenses report quick and easy.

Any business with employees who travel regularly — like sales reps or consultants — will benefit from using a travel expense sheet. Travel expenses are reimbursed faster and managers help prevent unauthorized claims.

Monthly business expense spreadsheet

A monthly business expenses spreadsheet summarizes your month-to-month spending in a single report. Not only do these spreadsheets give you a high-level overview of your monthly spending, but they’re also handy when you’re creating or adjusting your monthly budget. By seeing how much you spent last month, you can get a better idea of how much you should budget for this month. A simple monthly expenses spreadsheet contains:

• Columns for each month of the year
• Rows for total business income and expenses
• Rows for expense line items

These spreadsheets will often include income and expense summaries for the quarter, making them rather useful for quarterly reporting.

Almost every business can benefit from tracking monthly expenses. However, startups or small business owners with tight budgets will find these spreadsheets particularly useful because they can help guide decisions about the next month’s spending and create more realistic budgets.

Annual business expense spreadsheet

Similar to a monthly expenses spreadsheet, an annual expenses spreadsheet summarizes your spending for the entire year. This report is especially helpful for businesses that like to do a “year in review” to see where — or when — they made and lost money.

An annual expenses spreadsheet usually includes two main sections: income and expenses. The income section lists all the money your business brought in over the year, while the expenses section lists all the money your business spent.

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from using an annual expense spreadsheet. Still, it’s especially useful for businesses with a lot of spending spread out over the year, like a construction company or retailer.

dcgridmod.com’s Excel spreadsheet for business expenses template

When it comes to tracking your expenses, dcgridmod.com has you covered. For starters, you can try our free downloadable Excel spreadsheet for an easier way to monitor your expenses.

Our highly customizable template fits the needs of any business, whether you’re tracking expenses for a complex international corporation or a simple convenience store in a small town. And if you’re looking for a little more firepower, connect with Excel through dcgridmod.com and work directly on our platform. This means you not only get a highly customizable spreadsheet, but you’ll also enjoy the benefits that come with our powerful Work OS.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the advantages of using dcgridmod.com to manage your expenses.

Work with anyone, anywhere: dcgridmod.com is a cloud-based Work OS which means you can collaborate with team members anywhere in the world. Prepare expense sheets for your team in California, while you’re working remotely in Ontario, Canada.

Enhanced visualization: use dcgridmod.com to create powerful custom dashboards that contain all key expense information. Add graphs, charts, and tables so you can gather better insights about your business’ spending.

Time-saving automation: with dcgridmod.com, you can easily set up automations that not only send your documents to the right people, but also send them regular reminders until they’ve completed their tasks. You won’t need to play email tag trying to get expense information and updates from colleagues — dcgridmod.com takes care of it with the click of a button.