Business Finance Articles

Bookkeeping, invoicing, payroll, forecasting, and financial models for small businesses and freelancers. Articles covering business finance topics with practical guides, calculators, and spreadsheet templates.

25 articles

Profit and loss dashboard with an alert banner and seven KPI tiles reading annual revenue 768,181, gross profit 612,381, net income 194,138, net margin 25.3 percent, gross margin 79.7 percent, operating margin 34.5 percent, and operating income 264,731, above a monthly bar chart

Sep 4, 2026

How to Build a Profit and Loss Statement in a Spreadsheet

How to build a profit and loss statement in a spreadsheet: a 12-month forecast, monthly actuals, a variance sheet, three scenarios, and a worked example.

A payroll dashboard with four KPI tiles reading gross pay YTD 347,489, net paid YTD 277,493, tax withheld YTD 55,226, and employer cost YTD 374,072, above a second row of tiles for headcount 8, cost per period 26,719, and average cost per employee 46,759, with the top of a bar chart labelled Where Payroll Goes.

Sep 3, 2026

How to Run Payroll Records in a Spreadsheet

How to run payroll records in a spreadsheet: a roster, one pay period from gross to net pay and employer cost, plus year-to-date totals and a pay stub.

Bookkeeping dashboard with KPI tiles reading total income 96,800, total expenses 63,215, net profit 33,585, cash on hand 45,585, 40 transactions, 34.7% profit margin, and top expense Payroll, above an income versus expenses by month bar chart.

Sep 2, 2026

How to Do Bookkeeping in a Spreadsheet

How to do bookkeeping in a spreadsheet: a transaction ledger, chart of accounts, monthly and P&L reports, and a dashboard, for Excel and Google Sheets.

Invoice tracker dashboard with KPI tiles reading total invoiced 87,200, collected 23,900, outstanding 63,300, overdue 30,800, open invoices 9, collection rate 27.4%, and average invoice 6,708, above the start of a receivables-by-age bar chart

Sep 1, 2026

How to Create and Track Invoices in a Spreadsheet

How to create and track invoices in a spreadsheet: a fillable invoice, a register that flags overdue automatically, an aging report, and a dashboard.

A business valuation dashboard with composite equity value tiles reading low 14,800,000, mid 24,546,845 in green, and high 37,850,000, above four per-method mid tiles for DCF, EV/Rev, EV/EBITDA, and Comparables, with the top of an Equity Range by Method football-field chart below

Aug 31, 2026

How to Value a Business in a Spreadsheet

How to value a business in a spreadsheet: one inputs sheet feeding a 5-year DCF, EV/Revenue and EV/EBITDA multiples, comparables, and a composite equity range.

5-Year Financial Projections dashboard with Y5 revenue, EBITDA, net income and cumulative free cash flow tiles above a revenue and EBITDA line chart running 2026 to 2030

Aug 30, 2026

How to Build 5-Year Financial Projections in a Spreadsheet

How to build 5-year financial projections in a spreadsheet: opening balances, per-year drivers, and a three-statement model that ties out over five years.

Restaurant Financial Model dashboard with period revenue 184,914, covers 6,097, avg ticket 30.33 and EBITDA 33,694 in the top tile row, cost of sales 37.5 percent, labor cost 31.8 percent, prime cost 69.3 percent and EBITDA 18.2 percent below it, an operating metrics list reading break-even revenue 131,003, covers per day 203.23, seat turns 3.18 and cost per cover 24.80, above a daily sales bar chart with tall paired weekend bars

Aug 28, 2026

How to Build a Restaurant Financial Model in a Spreadsheet

A restaurant financial model spreadsheet turns a daily covers and sales register into food cost, labor cost, prime cost, EBITDA, and break-even revenue.

E-commerce Financial Model dashboard with eight KPI tiles reading revenue 398,212, orders 4,598, blended AOV 86.61, blended conversion 2.8 percent, contribution margin 50.8 percent, CAC 20.57, ROAS 7.4x and LTV:CAC 3.8x, above a Revenue by Channel bar chart

Aug 27, 2026

How to Build an Ecommerce Financial Model in a Spreadsheet

An ecommerce financial model spreadsheet turns channel traffic into revenue, then into contribution margin per order, CAC, ROAS, and an LTV:CAC verdict.

SaaS metrics dashboard with ARR 2,141,835 and MRR 178,486 tiles beside NRR 99.4 percent and GRR 97.4 percent, a second row of LTV, LTV:CAC, payback and runway tiles, and a rising twelve-month ending MRR line chart

Aug 26, 2026

How to Track SaaS Metrics in a Spreadsheet

How to track SaaS metrics in a spreadsheet: an MRR waterfall with churn, NRR and GRR, cohort retention, LTV and CAC payback, in Excel or Google Sheets.

Seven spreadsheet dashboard tiles reading opening cash 250,000, raise in plan 2,300,000, initial burn 62,000, months cash positive 20 in red, headcount M24 of 12, final cash -615,000 in red and founder 75.0 percent, above a 24-month cash projection line that spikes at 2027-03 and crosses zero at 2027-09

Aug 25, 2026

How to Build a Startup Financial Model in a Spreadsheet

How to build a startup financial model in a spreadsheet: funding rounds, a hiring plan, a 24-month burn and runway grid, and a cap table, with a worked example.