How to Make a Budget Report
- 1). Gather all receipts, income statements and banking statements that apply to the particular period you are discussing in the budget report. If there are any receipts or statements that do not apply to the period, do not include them. The report will not reflect an accurate financial budget if you include data from previous months. For example, do not include receipts from March if the budget report covers April to July.
- 2). Divide the financial information you have into two distinct piles. One is meant for fixed expenses that you pay each month on a consistent basis. This can include rental fees, bank loan payments and car insurance payments. The other pile is for flexible expenses and should include business dinners, gas receipts, travel and office supplies. Flexible expenses are those that change from month to month.
- 3). Create a chart for each of the piles so the fixed expenses are in one chart and the flexible expenses in the other. The charts should have the months you are covering down the left-hand side panel, while each individual expense is located along the horizontal line at the bottom of the chart. This means you can plug in the appropriate values in the chart so the reader can see how much was spent on rent during June, for example. While the fixed expenses will not change much month to month, the flexible expenses will change often.
- 4). Add up all of the flexible expenses in the appropriate sections. For example, all the business dinner receipts should be added up in the dining category, while all travel expenses should go under the travel section.
- 5). Add up all of the flexible expenses into one large lump sum. Do the same for the fixed expenses. Add the flexible expenses sum to the fixed expenses sum to get one collective sum of spending. Subtract the total sum from the total budget allowance to see if the company is overspending according to the budget limits.
- 6). Go through the budget and highlight any expenses that need to be changed to meet the budget limits. This can be extensive travel or dining expenses. Provide a description explaining that the expense was necessary during the month but may need to be cut down the following month.
