Fixed Cost Tracker

About this template

Only the money that leaves every month

Three sheets: ‘Dashboard’ · ‘Input data’ · ‘Usage guide’. ‘Input data’ is the register, one row per item. Thirteen columns run No. · Cost item · Account · Counterparty · Contract term · Payment cycle · Monthly cost · Annualized · Prior year monthly · Change (%) · Share (%) · Next renewal · Owner, with nine sample items in rows 2-10.

Filling order

1. Enter Cost item (column B) and Account (column C). Account is the grouping key, so use the names you close the books with — Rent expense · Salaries · Employee welfare · Vehicle expense · Service fees · Communications · Insurance.
2. Copy Counterparty, Contract term and Payment cycle from the contract.
3. Put one month’s worth in Monthly cost (column G). Items paid once a year go in as the annual amount divided by 12, with the real timing left in Payment cycle — the groupware SaaS and the insurance are both of that kind.
4. Enter Prior year monthly (column I) and the change works itself out; leave it empty and it reads 0%.

How the formulas run

• Annualized =G2*12. Row 2, head office rent, is 8,400,000 a month, 100,800,000 a year.
• Change =IFERROR(ROUND((G2-I2)/I2*100,1),0) — movement against the prior year monthly amount.
• Share =IFERROR(ROUND(G2/SUM($G$2:$G$21)*100,1),0) — the ratio against total monthly fixed cost. Permanent staff pay takes 71.3%, head office rent 9.7%.
• The metric cards read column G: 9 rows · total 86,950,000 · average 9,661,111 · max 62,000,000. Summary by account pulls the same account together — Rent expense 9,660,000 across two rows, Service fees 2,050,000 across two.

Where the line between fixed and variable falls

Anything that grows as you sell more stays out: materials, subcontracted processing, sales commission, freight. Keeping the table to fixed costs is what lets it drop straight into a break-even calculation. Permanent staff pay and the employer share of national insurance (KR) go out regardless of volume and are fixed; in the sample the two come to 68,820,000 a month, 79% of the total — which is why a decision to cut fixed costs so often turns into a decision about people.

Reading the trend table with the dashboard

‘Monthly fixed cost total (KRW m)’ holds Mar 84 · Apr 85 · May 87 · Jun 87. The four value rows are typed in; only Total 343 and Average 85.75 are formulas. Nothing links it to ‘Input data’, so carry the month’s total across at each close. Summary by account collapses scattered rows onto one line, which is the quickest way to spot an account such as Service fees creeping up in small pieces.

What the change column tells you

The groupware SaaS leads at 17.3%, then the office service charge at 6.8%, permanent staff pay and the employer national insurance share at 6.2% each, rent at 5% and communications at 4.8%. The car lease and the tax advisory retainer sit at 0%. What is locked into a contract does not move; what renews each year does. Where an increase is steep, ask for the basis of it and take a fresh quote elsewhere — that is your negotiating material. Where usage has fallen, renewing at a smaller size beats terminating.

What goes wrong

• Putting the full annual amount of a once-a-year item in Monthly cost — the monthly total inflates twelvefold and every break-even figure built on it is wrong.
• Extending the input rows past row 21 without widening the $G$21 range in the share formula. The new rows drop out of the total.
• Leaving Next renewal (column L) empty. Miss the notice deadline and an unwanted automatic renewal ties you in for another year. Sort by renewal date and start with anything falling inside three months.