Best Bookkeeping Excel Templates for Small Business (2026)

How we compared bookkeeping Excel templates (and what 'best' means here)

This keyword cluster mixes free templates from Microsoft and Smartsheet with several paid options at very different price points: two Etsy listings ($21.81 and $15.36), one paid seller (Abby Organizes at $29, marked down from $49), and two Excel-based accounting software sellers (Simpleplanning at $59 one-time, and XcelBooks at an unpublished base price with 50 percent off shown).

We compared price, platform, and what each option actually maps to: a generic income-and-expense grid versus something tied to US tax categories (Schedule C) or built for double-entry bookkeeping. None of the pages we checked described a Schedule C mapping except our own product.

We make the Small Business Bookkeeping & Tax Dashboard listed below, so we have a stake in this comparison. Competitor descriptions below come only from what each page's title and description state.

The options, compared honestly

Etsy's 'Bookkeeping Template for Small Business | Excel Accounting Spreadsheet' is priced at $21.81 on the listing page. A second Etsy listing, 'Basic Income & Expenses Spreadsheet for Small Business,' is priced at $15.36 and appears to be a lighter, income-and-expense-only version rather than a full bookkeeping system.

Abby Organizes sells a 'Small Business Bookkeeping Spreadsheet for Google Sheets' at $29 (marked down from $49 on the page we checked), making it Google Sheets only rather than dual-format.

Simpleplanning's 'Simple Accounting Software' is priced at $59 as a one-time Standard License purchase, positioned as Excel-based accounting software rather than a template you fill in manually. XcelBooks advertises 'Excel Accounting Software' at 50 percent off, but the base price was not shown on the page we checked.

Microsoft's free accounting spreadsheet templates and Smartsheet's free Excel accounting templates are general-purpose, no-cost options with no US tax-category mapping described on their pages.

When a free template is enough

If you just need a running list of income and expenses with no tax-category mapping or automation, Microsoft's or Smartsheet's free templates are enough, and cost nothing.

Our own free templates cover narrower cases: a general excel-based accounting starting point (tabletemplates.com/free/excel-based-accounting-software), restaurant-specific bookkeeping (tabletemplates.com/free/restaurant-bookkeeping-templates), and a bookkeeping pricing template for service businesses figuring out what to charge clients (tabletemplates.com/free/bookkeeping-pricing-template-excel).

The gap in every free template we reviewed is the same: none map expense categories to Schedule C lines or calculate a quarterly estimated-tax set-aside — you would build that manually, or hand raw numbers to your accountant to sort at tax time.

What you actually get for the money

Our Small Business Bookkeeping & Tax Dashboard ($19, one-time, Excel and Google Sheets) maps expense categories to IRS Schedule C lines out of the box, calculates quarterly estimated-tax set-aside from your real net profit, and includes a CPA Export sheet your accountant can use as-is at tax time.

It tracks 500 income and 1,000 expense rows with validated dates and categories, and builds an automatic month-by-month profit and loss across 16 Schedule C categories on the P&L sheet — a level of tax-specific structure none of the competitor pages we checked describe.

At $19, it costs more than the cheapest Etsy listing ($15.36) but less than Abby Organizes ($29) and roughly a third of Simpleplanning's $59 one-time price, while being the only option in this comparison whose page states a Schedule C mapping and CPA export.

Our pick by use case

Just need a bare income-and-expense log with no tax structure: the $15.36 Etsy listing or Microsoft's free template are the cheapest ways to get that.

A US sole proprietor or single-member LLC filing Schedule C who wants categories that map straight to your tax return and a quarterly set-aside calculation: our $19 dashboard is the option built specifically for that.

Committed to Google Sheets specifically and comfortable paying more for it: Abby Organizes at $29 is Google Sheets only.

Want dedicated Excel-based accounting software rather than a template, and Excel-native double-entry structure matters more than price: Simpleplanning at $59 one-time is positioned for that, though check the vendor's page directly since we could not verify its Schedule C support.