Expense Categorization And Control
Sorts all business expenses into categories and departments, then compares them against budgeted amounts. Produces variance reports and percentage breakdowns so you can identify where spending is off track.
Accounting - Expense Categorization And Control.xlsx
Excel (.xlsx) — No macros — Works in Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice
What This Spreadsheet Solves
- Identifying which department or category is overspending
- Replacing manual expense classification with a structured system
- Tracking budget variance by category on a monthly basis
- Producing expense breakdowns for management review
- Spotting expense trends that may require policy changes
Who This Is For
- Controllers managing departmental budgets
- Office managers categorizing recurring expenses
- CFOs reviewing expense control across the organization
- Bookkeepers preparing expense reports for clients
Inputs
- textExpense description
- $Expense amount
- textExpense category
- textDepartment
- $Budget per category
- dateMonth
Outputs
- Total spending by category
- Total spending by department
- Budget variance per category (dollar and percentage)
- Percentage of total expenses per category
- Month-over-month expense trend per category
How Calculations Work
Each expense entry is tagged with a category and department. The template aggregates amounts by these dimensions and compares them to the budgeted amounts entered for each category. Variance is calculated as actual minus budget, with the percentage expressing the overage or underage relative to the budget. Trends are tracked month over month to surface patterns.
Example Use Case
Scenario: A company budgets $5,000/month for marketing and $3,000/month for office supplies. In March, marketing actual spending is $6,200 and office supplies is $2,400.
Result: Marketing is $1,200 over budget (24% overage). Office supplies is $600 under budget (20% underage). Marketing now accounts for 34% of total monthly expenses, up from 28% the prior month.
What You Get — 5 Sheets
Technical Details
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add custom expense categories?
Yes. Add new categories on the CONFIG sheet. The LOGIC sheet will automatically include them in aggregations.
How do I handle an expense that spans two categories?
Split it into two line items on the INPUT sheet, each assigned to the appropriate category with the corresponding portion of the amount.
What does a negative variance mean?
A negative variance means actual spending is below the budget for that category. A positive variance means overspending.
Can I import expenses from accounting software?
Export your expenses as CSV with columns for amount, category, department, and date, then paste them into the INPUT sheet.
How far back should I track expenses?
The template works best with 3 to 12 months of data. Less than 3 months makes trend analysis unreliable; more than 12 months makes the INPUT sheet unwieldy.
Download Expense Categorization And Control
Ready to use immediately. Enter your data in the INPUT sheet, see results in OUTPUT.