Consulting Budget Template

Once the categories look right, enter your projected revenue and expenses for the current month. If you're not sure what to project, start with committed retainers as your base revenue, then add in likely hourly billings and any fixed-fee projects you've already scoped. On the expense side, your contractor costs should be the first thing you fill in — they're often your largest variable expense and the hardest to forecast. The Annual Summary and Dashboard update automatically as you work through each month.

The cost structure of a consulting firm is deceptively simple on the surface — most of your money goes to people and travel — but it rewards close tracking. Contractor and subcontractor fees are your biggest variable cost, and their relationship to revenue directly determines your gross margin. For most firms, target gross margin is 50–70%, and it slides fast when you over-staff a project or use contractors at rates that don't leave room for markup. The other number worth tracking closely is billable utilization: if your consultants are billing less than 60–65% of available hours, you're paying for capacity that isn't generating revenue.