An IT budget template is a spreadsheet for planning a year of technology spend across hardware, software, cloud, staff, security, support and training. It sets each cost against the plan, so you can track variance and defend the numbers.
It is the planning sheet that lists every technology cost the business expects next year, line by line. Each line carries a category, a cost type, an owner and an annual amount, and the sheet totals them by category and by type.
IT leaders build it with finance during annual planning, then use it all year to compare actual spend with the plan. Finance wants it because technology costs sit in many places: some are capital purchases that depreciate, others are monthly bills that hit the P&L straight away.
Smaller companies often run the whole IT budget from a template like this. Larger teams use one per department or entity and roll them up, because a shared sheet makes it easy to see which software contracts renew next and which projects are new spend.
Laptops, servers and networking gear, usually bought once and treated as capital spend.
SaaS subscriptions billed per seat or per year, plus any perpetual licences you still pay maintenance on.
Hosting and infrastructure on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, which moves with usage rather than headcount.
IT support, administrators, developers and contractors, often the largest single line.
Monitoring, backup, audits and certifications that protect data and keep you audit-ready.
Vendor support contracts, warranties and the courses or certifications that keep the team current.
Ready to use in Excel and Google Sheets. Fill it in, save it, reuse it.
List what you pay for today: every app, contract, device and person. Pull it from the AP ledger and card statements, not memory.
Price next year line by line. Use renewal quotes, seat counts and planned hires rather than last year plus a percentage.
Tag each line as CapEx or OpEx and as run, optimise or innovate. This is what finance and the board ask about first.
Agree the total with finance and name an owner for each line. Owners answer for their variance.
Log actuals monthly, review variance and reforecast each quarter. Cut or move money before the year ends, not after.
Start with five columns: Category, Line item, Type, Annual budget, Actual. Add run, optimise and innovate tags and the monthly phasing once the basics hold.
Build every line from a unit cost and a quantity, not a lump sum, so the budget explains itself when finance asks why software grew. Use 12 periods for monthly bills and 1 for annual or one-off costs. The sample covers one line per category for a 250-person company.
| Category | Line item | Type | Unit cost | Qty | Periods | Annual budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software and licences | Brightline Software CRM seats | OpEx | 75.00 | 120 | 12 | 108,000.00 |
| Cloud services | Kestrel Data hosting | OpEx | 9,500.00 | 1 | 12 | 114,000.00 |
| Hardware | Laptop refresh, Acme Office Supply | CapEx | 1,400.00 | 40 | 1 | 56,000.00 |
| Cybersecurity | Orbit Analytics endpoint monitoring | OpEx | 6.00 | 300 | 12 | 21,600.00 |
| Staff and labour | Contract developer, Northwind | OpEx | 9,000.00 | 1 | 6 | 54,000.00 |
| Maintenance and support | Network support, Harbour Facilities | OpEx | 18,000.00 | 1 | 1 | 18,000.00 |
| Training | Cloud certifications | OpEx | 1,200.00 | 8 | 1 | 9,600.00 |
| Total | 381,200.00 |
Illustrative data for a fictional 250-person company, not real vendors or prices.
Works in Excel and Google Sheets. Headers in row 1, data from row 2, formulas copied down.
| Col | Header | Entry or formula | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Category | Drop-down: Hardware, Software, Cloud, Staff, Security, Support, Training | Groups the line for totals |
| B | Line item | Text | What you are paying for |
| C | Vendor | Text | Who you pay |
| D | Type | Drop-down: CapEx, OpEx | Capital purchase or operating cost |
| E | Bucket | Drop-down: Run, Optimise, Innovate | Keeps the lights on, improves, or is new |
| F | Unit cost | Currency | Price per seat, device, month or course |
| G | Quantity | Number | Seats, devices or units |
| H | Periods | 12 for monthly, 1 for annual or one-off | How many times you pay in the year |
| I | Annual budget | =F2*G2*H2 | The planned cost for the year |
| J | Share of total | =I2/SUM($I$2:$I$200) | This line as a share of the IT budget |
| K | Owner | Text | The person who answers for variance |
| L | Renewal date | Date | When the contract renews or the purchase lands |
| M | Days to renewal | =IF(L2='', | Flags renewals to price before they arrive |
Put these on a summary tab. They read columns A, D and I of the plan.
| Total | Formula |
|---|---|
| Software and licences | =SUMIF(A:A, |
| Cloud services | =SUMIF(A:A, |
| Total CapEx | =SUMIF(D:D, |
| Total OpEx | =SUMIF(D:D, |
| IT budget per employee | =SUM(I:I)/Headcount |
Name a cell holding your headcount "Headcount" for the last formula. In the sample, 381,200.00 across 250 people is 1,524.80 per employee.
Variance is budget minus actual, so a negative number means overspend. Compare year to date with the plan for the same months, not the full-year figure, or one-off purchases and late starters will distort the picture. The sample is at the end of September.
| Category | Budget YTD | Actual YTD | Variance | Variance % | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software and licences | 81,000.00 | 86,400.00 | -5,400.00 | -6.7% | Over |
| Cloud services | 85,500.00 | 89,500.00 | -4,000.00 | -4.7% | Watch |
| Hardware | 56,000.00 | 52,500.00 | 3,500.00 | 6.3% | On plan |
| Cybersecurity | 16,200.00 | 16,200.00 | 0.00 | 0.0% | On plan |
| Staff and labour | 54,000.00 | 45,000.00 | 9,000.00 | 16.7% | Under |
| Maintenance and support | 18,000.00 | 18,000.00 | 0.00 | 0.0% | On plan |
| Training | 4,800.00 | 2,400.00 | 2,400.00 | 50.0% | Under |
| Total | 315,500.00 | 310,000.00 | 5,500.00 | 1.7% |
Illustrative figures to 30 September. Software is over because eight CRM seats were added in January.
Log every invoice on an Actuals tab (A Category, B Date, C Amount) and a monthly plan on a Phasing tab (A Category, B Month end, C Amount).
| Column | Formula |
|---|---|
| B Budget YTD | =SUMIFS(Phasing!C:C, |
| C Actual YTD | =SUMIFS(Actuals!C:C, |
| D Variance | =B2-C2 |
| E Variance % | =IF(B2=0, |
| F Status | =IF(E2<-0.05, |
| G Full-year forecast | =C2+SUMIFS(Phasing!C:C, |
Finance cares about the CapEx and OpEx split because it changes reported profit. Leadership cares about the run, optimise and innovate split because it shows how much money is left for new work. Tag every line in columns D and E and both views build themselves.
Sample plan of 381,200.00. Run covers CRM, hosting, laptops and support; optimise covers security monitoring and training; innovate is the contract developer.
| CapEx | OpEx | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Assets you own that last more than a year | Costs you consume in the period |
| IT examples | Servers, laptops, network switches, some perpetual licences | SaaS seats, cloud hosting, support contracts, contractors |
| How it hits the P&L | Spread over the asset's useful life as depreciation | In full in the month it is incurred |
| In the sample | 56,000.00 (laptop refresh) | 325,200.00 (every other line) |
Your accounting policy sets the capitalisation threshold and useful lives. Check them with your controller.
| View | Formula |
|---|---|
| Run total | =SUMIF(E:E, |
| Innovate share of budget | =SUMIF(E:E, |
| CapEx share of budget | =SUMIF(D:D, |
A SaaS budget works seat by seat. Record what you bought, what is actually used and when you must give notice, then budget next year on the used number plus planned hires. The SaaS budgeting guide covers the wider method.
| App | Seats | Used | Cost / seat / yr | Annual cost | Unused cost | Decide by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brightline Software CRM | 120 | 96 | 900.00 | 108,000.00 | 21,600.00 | 02 Dec 2026 |
| Orbit Analytics BI | 40 | 38 | 600.00 | 24,000.00 | 1,200.00 | 16 Oct 2026 |
| Pinecrest Chat | 300 | 262 | 96.00 | 28,800.00 | 3,648.00 | 01 Dec 2026 |
| Total | 460 | 396 | 160,800.00 | 26,448.00 |
Illustrative data. Decide by is the renewal date minus the notice period.
| Column | Formula |
|---|---|
| Annual cost | =B2*D2 |
| Utilisation | =C2/B2 |
| Unused cost | =(B2-C2)*D2 |
| Decide by | =RenewalDate-NoticeDays |
| Next year's seats | =C2+PlannedHires |
Before each decide-by date, check the per-seat price against pricing benchmarks for that app. Cutting Brightline to 100 seats alone would take 18,000.00 out of next year's software line.
Most IT budget surprises come from costs nobody listed: a renewal with a price rise, a tool bought on a card or a contractor extended without a new approval. The checklist forces each one into the plan. The download adds an owner and a due date to every check.
Unplanned software spend starts with unapproved requests. Spendflo routes purchases through intake first.
See how it worksSpend on assets that last more than a year, recorded on the balance sheet and depreciated.
Day-to-day costs such as subscriptions and support, expensed in the period they occur.
Spreading a capital asset's cost over its useful life, for example three years for laptops.
A bill for seats or usage above the contracted amount, often charged at renewal.
Tags for keeping systems running, improving them, or funding new capability.
A mid-year update of the full-year number, based on actuals so far plus the remaining plan.
| Item | Formula | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of 40 laptops | =1400*40 | 56,000.00 |
| Annual depreciation over 3 years | =SLN(56000, | 18,666.67 |
| Monthly depreciation | =SLN(56000, | 1,555.56 |
| Same spend leased as OpEx at 1,600.00 a month | =1600*12 | 19,200.00 |
Illustrative straight-line example with no residual value. Your controller sets the useful life.
Cash and P&L tell different stories here. Buying outright uses 56,000.00 of cash in month one but only 18,666.67 of depreciation reaches the P&L each year, while leasing keeps cash in the business and puts 19,200.00 a year into OpEx.
Seats times price explains every change, where a lump sum explains nothing.
A renewal you did not see coming arrives with its price rise already agreed.
Plan next year from active users plus hires, not from what you bought last year.
Mark underspend that is only late, so the forecast keeps that money.
Update the full-year number every quarter so finance is never surprised in December.
It carries forward every unused licence and hides real growth.
A single total makes it impossible to see which app is driving the increase.
Hosting moves with usage, so budget a monthly range and watch it, not a fixed figure.
Without a named owner, variance gets explained by nobody and fixed by nobody.
Pull IT vendors from the AP ledger and expense reports and paste them into the plan tab.
Assign a category, CapEx or OpEx, and run, optimise or innovate to every row.
Replace totals with unit cost, quantity and periods, using renewal quotes and hiring plans.
Spread each line across the months it is paid, then log actuals and review variance monthly.
Brightline Software renews on 31 Jan 2027 with 60 days' notice, so the decision is due by 2 Dec 2026. Only 96 of 120 seats are used. Renewing at 100 seats and 900.00 each budgets 90,000.00 instead of 108,000.00, saving 18,000.00. Figures are illustrative.
Every part on this page, in Excel and Google Sheets, with the examples filled in.
Use the plan and SaaS tabs only. Software and laptops are most of the spend, so budget seats carefully and check every renewal date.
Add monthly phasing and budget vs actual, and give each department head their own software lines to own.
One plan per entity in its own currency, rolled up on a summary tab. Shared platforms need an agreed cost allocation key.
Best for finance teams and multi-tab models.
Best when budget owners edit their own lines.
Best for startups whose IT spend is mostly software.
Check software lines against benchmarks from $3.7B in software spend processed.
See pricing benchmarksA good IT budget template explains every number from unit costs, shows the CapEx and OpEx split and flags variance before it compounds. The biggest swings usually come from software renewals and unapproved purchases, so that is where control pays off first.
Seven categories, each built from unit cost, quantity and periods.
Open the plan →2Budget vs actual with a status flag and a full-year forecast.
Open budget vs actual →3Seats, usage and decide-by dates for every SaaS renewal.
Open the SaaS budget →Quick answers to what people ask most about the it budget template.
List every IT cost as a row with category, type, unit cost, quantity and periods, then multiply them for the annual budget and total by category with SUMIF. To skip the setup, download the free Excel template on this page with the formulas already built.
Hardware, software and licences, cloud services, staff and contractors, cybersecurity, maintenance and support, and training. The download groups lines into those seven categories and tags each as CapEx or OpEx.
CapEx buys assets you own and depreciate over several years, such as servers and laptops, while OpEx covers costs expensed as they occur, such as SaaS and cloud. The template you download tags every line so both totals calculate automatically.
Start from the seats each app actually uses, add planned hires, and price them at the renewal quote with the notice date recorded. Download the template and use the SaaS tab, which calculates unused cost and the date each renewal must be decided.
You can download a free IT budget template from this page in Excel or Google Sheets. It includes the annual plan, budget vs actual, the CapEx and OpEx split, a SaaS tab and a planning checklist.
Budgets and business cases
Purchase orders
Contracts
Vendor management
Sourcing and RFx
Procurement
Accounts payable
Purchasing
Software buying
Supply chain
Spendflo runs intake and approvals so new software is agreed before it is bought, tracks renewals and shows benchmark prices. Budgets are coming soon.
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