Excel project budget templates are one of the most popular tools to create a project budget. However, Excel isn’t the best tool for project budgeting as it doesn’t allow project team members to collaborate online, sharing files among team members it’s a time-consuming process, among other productivity drawbacks.

Because of the hurdles of using Excel for project budgeting, many project teams are now using Google Sheets to create their project budgets and collaborate online.

Why Should You Use This Project Budget Template for Google Sheets?

A project budget template for Google Sheets allows multiple team members to work simultaneously on a project budget online and eliminates the need to download and email multiple Excel files.

This Google Sheets project budget template can be accessed anytime by project managers and team members by just clicking on a link. You can manage the permissions of your team members to define who can review the project budget on a view-only mode and who can make changes to it.

While a project budget template for Google Sheets is better than an Excel template, it’s still not a project management tool. If you want to get the best project budgeting tool for you and your team you should use ProjectManager instead. ProjectManager is a robust project management software that is equipped with project management tools such as Gantt charts, kanban boards and project dashboards to track all your project tasks and their costs online while allowing teams to collaborate in real time.

How to Use This Project Budget Template for Google Sheets

The first step to use this project budget template for Google Sheets is to make a copy of it. By default, the Google Sheets link will only allow you to view the project budget template, but you won’t be able to make any changes to it unless you make a copy of your own.

Once you’ve made a copy, you’ll be able to enter specific information such as a work breakdown structure, tasks, subtasks, assignees, labor and material details and more. The data that you enter will automatically calculate whether your project budget is under or over balance according to your budgeted and actual numbers.

To ensure you and your team are on the same page, you can share the project budget template with them so they can reference it throughout the project. As we mentioned, feel free to adjust the sharing settings on the document so everyone on the team is set up with the proper permissions.

What Is Included in This Project Budget Template for Google Sheets?

This free project budget template for Google Sheets includes all the basic elements that you need to factor in when creating a project budget.

Project Tasks

Projects consist of many tasks that involve the use of resources such as labor, raw materials and equipment. These resources cost money, so knowing what your project tasks are is the key to estimating the total cost of your project.

Work Breakdown Structure

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a project management tool that allows you to break down the scope of your project into individual tasks and establish their hierarchy. This project budget template for Google Sheets includes a simplified version of a work breakdown structure, which lets you enumerate tasks and subtasks on the WBS column.

Task Assignee

Understanding who’s responsible for each project task is important to estimate labor costs, as different members of your team will likely have different hourly rates.

Labor Costs

Labor costs are one of the key project costs that should go into a project budget. This project budget template for Google lets you track the planned and actual labor costs for each task based on the hourly rate of each task assignee.

Material Costs

Project teams require raw materials to produce physical deliverables. If you’re managing a project like that, this project budget template for Google Sheets lets you track the costs of all your raw materials by listing their measurement unit and cost rate per unit.

Equipment Costs

These are all the costs that are related to equipment that’s needed to execute projects. Equipment costs can take many shapes such as rental fees, maintenance expenses or even the cost of fuel that might be required to run a piece of machinery.

Travel, Fixed and Misc Costs

Use these columns to count all the costs that don’t not fall under the labor, material or equipment categories. There’s a variety of such costs such as utilities or travel expenses for some of your project team members.

Estimated & Actual Project Cost

This project budget template for Google Sheets has two columns that allow you to compare the estimated costs against the actual costs of your project. The difference between these two columns will be automatically calculated under the balance column which will indicate whether your project is over or under budget.

Other Project Management Templates for Google Sheets

We’ve created other project management templates for Google Sheets to manage other areas of your project. If you find them useful, you’ll need to click on the link below and then create a copy so you can edit them.

Task Tracker Template for Google Sheets

This task tracker template for Google Sheets is ideal for tracking all your project tasks and listing down details such as their priority level, who they’re assigned to and their due dates.

Timesheet Template for Google Sheets

This timesheet template for Google Sheets is a great tool to monitor labor costs as you execute your projects. You can use it in conjunction with the project budget template for a more detailed view of the performance of your team and labor expenses.

Status Report Template for Google Sheets

Reporting is one of the most important responsibilities of project managers. This project status report template for Google Sheets lets you take a snapshot of the progress of your projects so you can share their progress with stakeholders.

ProjectManager Is Ideal for Tracking Project Budgets

ProjectManager is a project management software that allows you to plan, schedule and track projects, programs and portfolios with a robust set of project management tools. Here are some of its key features for project budgeting.

Manage Tasks with Multiple Project Views

ProjectManager lets you assign tasks to your team members and visualize them through multiple project views such as Gantt charts, kanban boards, task lists and project calendars. These project planning tools allow you and your team to manage work online and collaborate by leaving comments, sharing files and getting email notifications.

Track Costs With Real-Time Dashboards

ProjectManager automatically tracks the costs of your project as you assign tasks to your team members on any of the project views mentioned above. Then once you’ve added all your project tasks to the system, there’s a real-time dashboard that shows you all the project costs, the status of your tasks and your team’s workload in one place.

ProjectManager is cloud-based project management software that connects teams whether they’re on the factory floor, in the office or anywhere in between. Share files, comment at the task level and more to foster greater collaboration. Join teams at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our software to successfully manage their projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.