Free Business Templates for Excel & Google Sheets
Operating cadences for a small firm in Excel — weekly cash, monthly P&L, and a one-page KPI list — using the bookkeeping files already published on TemplateHub.
A business 'dashboard' with twelve charts and no cash figure is decoration. The operating rhythm that actually keeps a small Indian firm alive is: invoice quickly, record cash daily, read a P&L monthly, and know two or three numbers (receivable days, cash on hand, gross margin) without opening Tally.
Weekly: update the cash book, list invoices older than 15 days, and note GST payable if you are monthly. Monthly: complete the profit and loss, reconcile the bank to the cash book, and lock last month's files so they cannot be quietly edited. Quarterly: skim whether one customer is more than 30% of revenue — concentration is a risk even if the P&L looks fine.
Project timelines and meeting notes can live in Excel, but they are not a substitute for the three financial files. If you only have time for one habit, keep the cash book. Businesses fail from cash, not from an unfilled Gantt chart.
Use the Invoice, Cash Book, and Profit and Loss templates as the spine. Add a one-tab KPI sheet with opening cash, closing cash, revenue, and expenses for the month — four numbers, not a BI tool.
Downloadable files
There is no .xlsx in this category yet. The guide above is still meant to be used: copy the column layout into a blank workbook. Related downloads are linked at the bottom of this page.
What to look for in a business template
- A weekly cash number taken from the cash book, not from memory
- Aged invoices (0–15 / 16–30 / 30+ days) next to the invoice register
- A monthly P&L that uses the same revenue figures as the invoice list
- Bank reconciliation at least monthly
- One page of KPIs, not a dashboard that nobody updates
- Locked prior-month copies so history cannot be rewritten
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum Excel stack for a new private limited or proprietorship?+
GST invoice (or self invoice under RCM), cash book, and monthly P&L. Add an expense tracker if the cash book is too noisy. Add a salary slip when you hire. Everything else waits.
Can I run a Pvt Ltd on Excel alone?+
You can for books and invoices at low volume. You still need a CA for company filings, and you should move to accounting software when more than one person must post entries at once or when GST return preparation from Excel becomes error-prone.