You want to know where the shop's cash went this month and how much is in the drawer now, without a pile of receipts and a calculator. A cash book is the plain answer: one line for every amount that comes in or goes out, a balance after each line, and a monthly total per category. This free Excel sheet is built exactly that way. (The template and its page are in Arabic.)
What the template gives you
- Start here. A short guide.
- Settings (الإعدادات). The year and the opening cash balance, meaning what was in the cash box before the first entry.
- Categories (التصنيفات). Your own list of income and expense categories, up to 40, each marked as income or expense.
- Journal (اليومية). Each entry: date, description, category, then the amount in the "in" or the "out" column. The cash balance after the entry appears by itself, and turns red if it goes below zero.
- Monthly summary (ملخص شهري). For every category, what came in or went out in each month of the year, with income, expenses and net per month.
A walkthrough with the sample numbers
This is sample data that ships with the template. The opening balance is 10,000. The journal holds entries for September and October 2026.
| Category | Type | September | October | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash sales | income | 14,800 | 12,200 | 27,000 |
| Collected from customers | income | 2,400 | 2,600 | 5,000 |
| Rent | expense | 3,500 | 3,500 | 7,000 |
| Electricity and water | expense | 640 | 710 | 1,350 |
| Salaries | expense | 6,000 | 1,500 | 7,500 |
| Goods purchased | expense | 4,200 | 3,800 | 8,000 |
| Transport | expense | 250 | 300 | 550 |
| Other expenses | expense | 180 | 220 | 400 |
| Net | 2,430 | 4,770 | 7,200 |
Check September by hand: income is 14,800 + 2,400 = 17,200 and expenses are 14,770, which leaves 2,430. October's salaries line is only 1,500 because the sample records a salary advance, which is a good reminder that the summary shows what was paid, not what is owed.
One subtle detail: the journal also holds a 4,000 sale dated 28 December 2025. It raises the cash balance but does not appear in the monthly summary, because the summary covers only the year written in Settings. After all the sample entries, the cash balance is 21,200 (10,000 opening, plus 4,000 from December, plus the 7,200 net).
Features and why they matter
- One entry, two results. The running balance and the monthly summary both come from the journal, so they can never disagree.
- Your categories, your reports. Change the category list and the summary follows. A home budget works as well as a shop.
- Negative balance in red. You see a cash shortfall the day it happens, not at month end.
- No manual totals. Income, expenses and net per month are calculated.
- Works in Excel 2016 and later, Google Sheets and LibreOffice, free and without sign-up.
Using the online version
The template page opens directly on a worked example with numbers. Edit the white (input) cells right in the page and the grey calculated cells update immediately. You can import your own .xlsx made from this template, export your work to .xlsx, or download the original Excel file. Your data stays in your browser and is not sent to the server, so export before you close the page.
Open the cash book template page, or browse the free templates list.
Common mistakes, and when a sheet stops being enough
- Entries out of date order, which makes the running balance wrong.
- A category typed differently from the list: the entry is left out of the monthly summary.
- Looking at a year other than the one in Settings and wondering where the figures went.
The sheet holds 40 categories and 2,000 entries. Its limit is that you must open it and type every expense. If that is the part you skip, MyAccBot is the Softwiro answer: you send a photo of the receipt, a typed line or a voice message on Telegram and the rest is handled. To weigh options like this, see how to compare business software on evidence.
FAQ
Can I use it for personal expenses? Yes. Change the categories in the categories sheet to suit you and the monthly summary follows.
Why is an entry missing from the monthly summary? Either its category is not in the categories sheet, or its date is outside the year written in Settings.
What is the opening balance? The cash you had before the first journal entry. Without it the running balance starts from zero.
Next step
Open the template page, write your opening balance and your categories, and record today's entries.