Build it month by month for the next 12 months in a spreadsheet, starting from what you know rather than what you hope. 1) List one-time startup costs (deposits, equipment, registration) apart from ongoing monthly costs. 2) Split the ongoing costs into fixed (rent, salaries, software) and variable (materials, shipping, payment fees, ads that rise with sales). 3) Forecast revenue from real inputs: customers or orders a month times price, not a share of the market. 4) Find your break-even point, the sales at which revenue covers all costs; the SBA's free calculator does the arithmetic. 5) Add GST, TDS and tax outflows and a buffer for what you forgot. 6) Each month, put actuals beside the budget and change the plan where it was wrong. Excel has free business budget templates; Zoho Books builds budgets with budget-versus-actual reports from your own accounts on its Premium plan, Rs 2,999 a month billed yearly.
Zoho Books' help page on building a budget inside your accounts: pick a financial year, a monthly, quarterly or yearly period, the income and expense accounts, and pre-fill from last year's actuals.
A behavioral, dead-simple cash-management system used by over a million businesses to stay permanently profitable. Perfect for bootstrappers and solo founders who need discipline, not spreadsheets.
Microsoft's free business budget templates for Excel, structured for monthly budgets, operating costs and cash flow checks, which you can open online and share.
Accounting software made in India with GST invoicing; it produces the profit and loss statement from your entries. There is a free plan for solopreneurs and micro businesses, and Standard is Rs 749 a month billed annually (Rs 899 monthly).
