Budget Template Instructions
Before building your budget:
 Be sure you understand the principles outlined in the video course.
 Complete your budget narrative in the News Website Budget Worksheet
 Review the fictional example budget for “Cabot Cove Chronicle” and its
accompanying overview text, contained in your CJET course material.
The Excel News Site Budget Templates (basic or detailed) are functioning budget
template containing categories of revenue and expense typical of nonprofit and forprofit news websites.
To use the Basic Annual Budget template:
First, copy it, label it as your own, and replace the zeroes on Planned with your
budget.
You’ll develop the budget in a series of passes.
Working from your Budget Worksheet, first put everything in: expenses and
revenue. Undoubtedly you’ll have more expense than revenue, maybe far more, and
the year-end result will be nowhere near the bottom line you have decided.
Do not recalculate revenue upward until you’ve done your best on squeezing expense
downward.
When you’re ready to revisit revenue, be extremely cautious, because the natural
tendency is to pump up revenue projections to fill expense gaps.
Save versions of your budgets as you go through these iterations, and remember to
always try to reduce expense first before pumping up revenue projections.
Resist the temptation to give up and rely on wishful thinking. Keep at it – especially
dialing back expenses – until you have a budget that meets your bottom-line
commitment.
To use the Detailed Monthly Budget template:
This template is adapted from a template provided free publicly by Microsoft. For
CJET purposes, we have added an “Income” section to the original template, and
populated the spreadsheet with relevant categories of income and expense.
To use this template to create your operation’s budget, simply copy it, label it as
your own, and replace the zeroes on Planned with your budget.
As you input values into the various categories and months, totals and subtotals will
calculate automatically.
CAUTION: The spreadsheet is full of interlocking formulas. Do not add
columns or rows, or edit any formulas, unless you have the appropriate Excel
skills. A relatively minor typo can cause serious problems.
You can change labels easily, but be sure your edits show up on all three
sheets: Planned, Actual, Variances.
You’ll develop the budget in a series of passes.
Working from your Budget Worksheet, first put everything in: expenses and
revenue. Undoubtedly you’ll have more expense than revenue, maybe far more, and
the year-end result (bottom right corner - row 50, column 0) will be nowhere near
the bottom line you have decided.
Adjust expense downward, guided by your must-should-nice decisionmaking. If that
doesn’t do enough, try staging certain expenses later in the year, such as making
hire later than you’d planned.
Feel free to make copies as you go, creating different scenarios that you can
compare with each other.
Do not recalculate revenue upward until you’ve done your best on squeezing expense
downward.
When you’re ready to revisit revenue, be extremely cautious, because the natural
tendency is to pump up revenue projections to fill expense gaps.
First make sure your assumptions are correct and that you aren’t being too
optimistic already. Then look to see if you’re underpricing advertising and
sponsorships. Then look at the growth month-by-month to see if it could grow more
rapidly. Don’t be overly optimistic in projecting growth, but success does tend to
breed success. Advertisers are easier to sell once other businesses are on board;
events tend to become more well-attended after the first couple.
Save versions of your budgets as you go through these iterations, and remember to
always try to reduce expense first before pumping up revenue projections.
Resist the temptation to give up and rely on wishful thinking. Keep at it – especially
dialing back expenses – until you have a budget that meets your bottom-line
commitment.
How to use the “Actual” tab of the spreadsheet.
The budget template is set up for a calendar year (the month labels can be changed
if you’re on a different fiscal year). When January ends, go into the Actuals sheet and
input the actual spending in each category. BE SURE to capture all spending. If
something doesn’t fit perfectly into a category, pick one. Ditto for any income for
January. Repeat each month.
How to use the “Variance” tab of the spreadsheet.
As you input numbers into the Actual sheet, calculations will be made automatically
that compare the Planned and Actual numbers, and the results show up on this
sheet. A Variance of zero means the Planned and Actual for that month, in that
category, are exactly the same. Monitor each category of revenue each month, and
look carefully into trends, good or bad. It’s worthwhile to prepare a written report
explaining each significant variance by category. This bit of discipline has two
benefits:
 It forces regular introspection and discussion about what’s working or not in
the enterprise, especially as it relates to customers, members or funders.
 When creating next year’s budget, you’ll have information readily available to
explain the ups and downs of the year: Are there seasonal variables to take
into account when planning for next year? Was there a one-time expense that
won’t be repeated?
Budgeting can be intimidating at first, but once you’ve created one budget, you’ll
find the process easier for the next. Coming up with credible numbers will always be
a challenge, but at least the spreadsheet process gets easier!