Managing project budget is one of the daily chores for any project manager, If you have a simple project with a medium sized team then this excel template will help you to estimate and track the budget on regular basis. The excel sheet also contains simple formatting which makes it easy to track.  |
| Project Budget Excel Template |
Features of the Project Budget Excel Template
- Based on MS Excel so you will not need any other software.
- Both the estimation and tracking is done in the same spreadsheet.
- Has two sections - one for human resources or project team and one for other resources.
- Resources are allocated on weekly basis.
- Resource rate can be set at on a daily rate basis.
- Considers real life situations like vacations and adding contingency.
- Highlights when the actual spend exceeds the the estimated spend.
Different Sections of the Project Budget Template
- The excel template contains two sheets - Budget - Estimation and Budget - Actual.
- The budget estimation sheet should be updated before the project starts and NOT changed once the project starts.
- After you are confident about the estimation you can update the Budget Actual sheet with the same numbers as estimation.
- You also have the option to copy the estimates sheet and create an actual sheet but then the formulas and conditional formatting will not work.
- The first section in the each of the sheet is Project Team Section. In this section you need to have the name of resources and their daily rates. Then you have to enter their availability on a weekly basis.
- By default everyone is considered for be working full time which is 5 days a week. If you have someone working for 50% time then you would enter 2.5 days or if someone is working for 80% then you would enter 4 days.
- After the data is entered the sheet calculates the cost for each of the resources and then displays a total for each week as well as a grand total.
- The Other Resources Section is similar to the project team section but can be used to calculate costs for other resources required for the project.
- At the bottom of the sheet there is a Totals Section which displays the key totals of the project which includes - Human Resources Costs, Other Resources, Other Expenses and then other totals.
- There is an option to enter a Contingency. Depending on the standards followed in your company you may select 10%, 20% or a different number.
- In case of the the Actual sheet there will be an additional column to the totals section which will indicate what the estimated value.
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| Project Team Section |
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| Other Resources Section |
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| Totals Section |
Estimation and Tracking your budget
The process of estimation and tracking is simple. During the estimation process always use the Budget Estimation Sheet. After the estimation is complete you should not make any changes to the estimation sheet.As you progress with the project you should update the Budget Actual sheet with the actual time spent by the resources. In some cases a resource might spent less time which will save money. But if the time spent is more then the project budget can go up. When updating the Actual sheet keep an eye on the Totals Section.
So, if a team member takes leave for one day then the total days worked in that week will be four. If someone work for one day additional then the total days for that week will be 6.
So, if a team member takes leave for one day then the total days worked in that week will be four. If someone work for one day additional then the total days for that week will be 6.
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| Totals Section with over budget warning |