Small-business sustainability budget worksheet

Keep the owner and evidence on the 90-day tracker. Calculate simple payback without copying the year into this sheet. Record one asset decision before approving a replace line. Read the claims guide before describing spending as a result.

Four money states that must stay apart

estimate_gbp is what you expect to spend. approved_gbp is what an authorised person has approved. actual_gbp is what was spent. Do not copy estimate into approved or actual. Do not add estimate and actual. Pound inputs must be finite and nonnegative. There is no savings or grant column.

Fill in the budget lines

Download both files. Save a copy of the blank sheet and type into that copy.

• Blank budget, budget-blank.csv
• Fictional example, budget-example.csv

The files are plain CSV. You type every cell. The spreadsheet does not add rows.

Columns: line_id, task_name, tracker_task_id, cost_kind, period_label, period_start, period_end, vat_basis, estimate_gbp, approved_gbp, actual_gbp, approval_role, approval_date, approval_reference, actual_reference, money_status, exclude_from_total, owner, outcome_note, row_status.

cost_kind is one_off or recurring. When the cost is recurring, identify the actual period with a label such as 2026-03, 2026-Q1 or 2026, or with start and end dates. If a label and dates are both filled, they must describe the same period. Do not mix a March actual with an unrelated April estimate on the same comparison line. vat_basis is vat_inclusive or vat_exclusive and stays consistent on that line.

A typed number does not create approval or prove payment. Approved pounds need a usable approval role, date and reference. Actual pounds need a usable invoice or payment reference. Missing approval evidence is a failure only when the row claims an approved amount. An estimate alone can be estimate_only. References may be fictional in the labelled example only.

money_status is deterministic:

• incomplete when a required input or evidence is missing, a pound is negative, non-finite or nonnumeric, or an approved amount is typed without the approval record
• estimate_only when only the estimate is a valid amount and approved and actual are blank
• approved when approval evidence is present and actual is blank, whether or not the estimate equals the approved amount
• spent when payment evidence is present, whether or not estimate or approved equal the actual amount

row_status is recorded when task_name, cost_kind, money_status and the owner, period, VAT basis and evidence that status requires are filled. It is incomplete when those required cells are missing. exclude_from_total is yes or no. Use yes for an annual summary or quote-only line that must not be added to monthly details or to a purchase already entered. Comparison totals need the same period and VAT basis. Completing a tracker row is not spending.

Do not double count across tools

If the same lighting job has a calculator result, write the purchase and installation pounds only once, copied from the invoices or left blank. Do not enter the calculator’s annual money saving as actual pounds. Repair and replace quotes stay on the repair record until one is approved here.

Worked example: fictional Northgate Services

The example is fictional. Northgate Services is the invented 12-person office already used on the 90-day tracker. It is not Millbridge Outfitters.

Do not add 250, 220, 40 and 510.

Limits

This sheet is not government green budgeting and not investment advice. Refunds and credit accounting are outside scope. A spent line is not a public environmental claim.

Your next action

Keep the owner and evidence on the 90-day tracker.

Sources

• 90-day sustainability action plan template.
• Record a repair or replace decision for one asset.