Definition:
A budget is a financial document used to project future income and expenses. The budgeting process may be carried out by individuals or by companies to estimate whether the person/company can continue to operate with its projected income and expenses.
A budget may be prepared simply using paper and pencil, or on computer using a spreadsheet program like Excel, or with a financial application like Quicken or QuickBooks.
The process for preparing a monthly budget includes:
- Listing of all sources of monthly income
- Listing of all required, fixed expenses, like rent/mortgage, utilities, phone
- Listing of other possible and variable expenses.
Create a start-up budget using the step-by-step instructions.
