10 free time-saving Excel templates every business needs

Whether you're running a startup, an enterprise, or a small team at a Fortune 500 company, you may need to keep track of sales, customer lists, projects, expenses, employee timesheets, or other things. While there are several tools to handle such tasks, nothing comes close to Microsoft Excel when it comes to analyzing data and crunching numbers. However, creating complex spreadsheets from scratch can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

This is where Excel templates come in, providing a ready-to-use framework for all kinds of business tasks, from project management to financial tracking. In this post, we'll go through the top Excel business templates that will help you streamline your operations in no time.

10 Quarterly sales report

This is one of the must-have templates for sales managers and small business owners. It allows you to track your quarterly sales report by product type so that you can plan your inventory and sales goals accordingly. You can enter product name, quantity, and total sales and break down the sales numbers in the sidebar. This template represents a toy company in the basic template, but you can customize it to suit your own needs.

9 Inventory list

This is a great Excel template to help your small business track inventory. It also includes information about backorders and total value using conditional formatting. You can enter inventory ID, name, description, unit price, inventory value, backorder quantity, and other details. Once you make the necessary changes, save the template file to your OneDrive library so you can use it as a “custom template” in the future.

8 Simple customer invoice

Although there are dozens of invoicing apps, most businesses stick with Excel. Instead of creating a new invoice with a blank spreadsheet, choose this template and leave a solid impression on your customers. It includes all the necessary details like item name, description, unit price, discount, price, tax rate, selling price and more. Creating an invoice doesn't require rocket science, but with this template, you can easily give your invoice a professional look.

Microsoft Excel is an ideal solution for creating advanced databases. It helps businesses track customer information more efficiently. Instead of settling for a boring-looking spreadsheet, use this template to track your customer information like a pro. You can add customer ID, company name, contact name, billing address, zip code, region, email, fax number, and other details. Once the data is ready, share it with your sales and marketing staff.

6 Sales pipeline

The sales pipeline is another handy template to visualize how many of your leads are turning into sales. It's effective, visually stunning, and will impress your board members. You can track how many potential leads you have and how many have been contacted, discussed, and won. You can also check this from a traditional database view.

5 Regional Sales Chart

This is another time-saving template to track regional sales graphically. You can simply enter your data by region and month and Excel will create it for you in a chart. The template is a must-have for sales managers who want to track sales by month in different regions like Asia, North America, Africa, Europe and more. The template automatically calculates the total sales and percentage to help you make informed decisions.

For example, regions with more than 25% of sales can receive more customized products in the future. Based on the live chart, you can also insert notes for your team members.

4 Employees’ timesheet

This is another must-have template for warehouse and store owners who do payroll manually. This easy-to-use employee time tracking template lets you monitor both regular and overtime hours on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. The company has perfected the design; it's elegant and professional, making it an ideal solution for employee time tracking. It calculates total hours automatically.

3 Four-week project schedule

Thanks to this project schedule template, you don't need to invest in special project management software to track overall progress. It uses a Gantt chart and allows you to track project deadlines and status in a professional manner. You can enter relevant details like project start date, team member name, tasks, and more. It is beautifully designed, has cool graphics, and allows you to manage any kind of monthly business or personal project without breaking a sweat.

2 Credit Analysis Worksheet

Are you planning to take a business loan? Instead of using simple software, you can do a complete loan analysis using this Excel spreadsheet. It basically lets you analyze different loan scenarios by entering interest rate, repayment period and total amount and then take a look at the monthly payments, total payments and interest amounts over a specific period of time.

You can compare the different loan offers from different banks and thus make an informed decision.

1 Budget for business trips

As the name suggests, this Excel template helps you keep track of your expenses while traveling for business. You can set a travel budget and enter relevant expenses such as flight, hotel, food, gas, rental car and more to ensure that the total amount does not exceed the allocated budget. It is a simple yet effective template that will get your job done in minutes.

Optimize your business

Microsoft Excel is a true workhorse for any type of business. These templates provide businesses with an effective way to streamline everything from financial management to project tracking. What are you waiting for? Choose your favorite templates, customize them to your unique needs, and get your tasks done in no time.

If you work with large data sets in Excel, you'll probably want to use an interactive dashboard to gain valuable insights. Check out our dedicated post on creating interactive dashboards in Microsoft Excel.