Business template

Business Startup Cost Estimator

One-off spend and monthly running costs separated out, then turned into how long your funding lasts.

$12one payment, yours to keep

✓Instant download
✓Every later version free
✓Commercial use
✓No signup, no watermark

41: live formulas, each one recalculated and checked
6: columns: Item, Category, Type, Amount, Year one cost, % of year one
10: figures worked out for you

Someone about to start a business · Pre-launch ventures — usually looking for this when the idea is ready but the money needed to open has never been added up.

Need more than one? All 10 Business templates for $39 — $121 bought separately. All 66 for $99.

Works in Excel 2013 and later, Microsoft 365, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc. Set up to print on one page wide. Version 1, updated 25 September 2026.

There are free templates. Why this one?

There are, and some are fine. The difference is what has been checked. This file was built from scratch, then every formula in it was recalculated by a separate checker that compares each result against an independently worked-out answer — 41 of them here. A template that looks right and totals wrong is worse than no template at all, and that is the usual failing of one downloaded from a search result.

It also opens with sample rows already filled in, so you can see every formula working before you touch it, and it is set up to print without fighting the page setup. No email wall, no signup, no watermark, and you can use it commercially.

About this Business Startup Cost Estimator template

Most new businesses underestimate how long their money has to last. This Excel startup cost estimator separates one-off costs, like equipment and a website, from monthly running costs, like rent and software, and turns them into a year-one total.

Enter the money you have to start with and it shows what is left after the one-off spend, how many months that lasts with no sales, and the monthly sales you need to cover your costs.

Good for

→Planning a new business before committing money
→Preparing figures for a start-up loan application
→Checking whether savings will cover the first year

What it works out for you

Can you afford to start?

→One-off costs to open the doors
→Monthly running cost
→Year one total
→Left after the one-off spend
→Months of runway with no sales
→Shortfall against year one
→Monthly sales needed to cover costs
→Largest single line
→Lines budgeted

What is inside the Business Startup Cost Estimator template

The table has 6 columns. Calculated columns fill themselves in; the rest are yours to type over.

→Item
→Category
→Type
→Amount
→Year one cost
→% of year one

Settings in the “Funding” box

→Money available to start

How to use the Business Startup Cost Estimator in Excel

Mark each line One-off or Monthly. Year one adds twelve months of anything recurring, and the runway comes from the funding figure below.

The file opens with sample rows so you can see every formula working before you change anything. Type your own figures over them. When you need more rows, insert them inside the existing block rather than underneath it, so the totals keep covering every row.

Shaded, boxed cells below the table are settings the formulas read from. Change those first — every row that depends on them updates at once.

Functions and formulas it uses

Every one of these exists in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice, so the file behaves the same wherever you open it.

COUNTIFIFERRORMAXMINSUMSUMIF

Questions about the Business Startup Cost Estimator

What is runway?

How many months your money lasts before it runs out, assuming no income. Here it is the money left after one-off costs divided by the monthly running cost.