Excel has long been the spreadsheet of choice when it comes to organizing finances of any type both personal and for business. The very first Excel templates were developed by Mac in 1985 and were soon followed by a new series from Microsoft in 1987. Since then Microsoft has asserted itself as king of the software world and Excel is in its 12^th version under the banner of Microsoft Office Excel 2007. With all of the advantages offered by Excel, free templates are available to help you customize your version to suit your specific needs.

If you are setting up a home budget, chances are that the standard template that comes with Excel is not going to have the right template to handle the type of information you need to track. There are literally dozens of different Excel templates designed to make tracking your home budget a breeze. These templates not only allow you to enter and track your recurring monthly bills, but some of them can help you to save money by comparing brands of the products you buy to see if the cheaper one really does save you money.

A small business is only as successful as the software that tracks the money. If the template you are using is not showing you where your company could be saving money, it should be. There are free Excel templates for small businesses that can help you to calculate your breakeven point by simulating your sales and comparing them to you fixed costs. This can help you see where you need to be at to make a profit.

Keeping track of your employees and when they are absent can be a challenging task if you have several employees. There are free Excel templates the allow you to not only track employee absence but give you places to explain why they were absent such as medical leave or a family funeral. You can use this information in combination with an overall job performance template when it is time for your employees to receive their performance evaluation.

No matter what type of spreadsheet you need to create, whether it is to analyze data or keep track of finances, somewhere there are free Excel templates that have been designed to make the job easier. While the basic ones included in Excel may work for some people, being able to use one that has been custom designed for your specific needs makes the task much more pleasant and faster.