Free Business Forms

Welcome to The Frugal Entrepreneur’s collection of free business forms, letters, and templates for small and home-based businesses. While there are currently numerous sites online offering “thousands” of printable business documents and templates that are free to download, I have found that most of these offerings are poor in quality or are unsuitable to the needs of either small and home-based companies or the self-employed.

I therefore decided to put together this collection of essential business documents. I hand picked and adapted all of these forms, templates, and sample business letters to specifically suit the needs of small and home businesses. Most of these documents are from my growing personal collection of files that I have used over the years for my own business transactions. (Where any document is from an outside source, the source and link are provided.)

If there are any small business templates, forms, or letters that are not listed here, but you cannot find a suitable example or free, printable download of it anywhere, then let me know, either by leaving a comment in the box below or by sending an email (you can click the email icon on the upper right-hand side of this page), and I’ll see what I can do.

And a final note… You may notice that I have conspicuously left out most legal-type business documentation. When it comes to these kinds of forms, which as mentioned above, are freely available on several websites, my advice is: do yourself a favor and hire a qualified attorney or CPA to make sure you don’t make a regrettable mistake down the road.

Free Business Forms, Letters, & Templates for Small Businesses by Category

If you are starting a new business or are in the early growth stage, then check out The Frugal Entrepreneur’s Free Small Business Start-up Guide and Start-up Checklist.

- Use this startup cost budget worksheet to estimate the amount of money needed to start a new business and run it for the first 3 months to a year

- Estimate the amount of money needed to get a business up and running

-  Courtesy of SCORE. Includes helpful instructions and definitions

- Easy-to-use income statement template broken down by quarters

- Use this yearly income statement template to compare actual versus budgeted values

- Yearly income statement for small and home businesses

- An easy-to-use yearly cash flow statement in Excel

-   A yearly cash flow statement with formulas, broken down by month

- Use this daily cash flow sheet with embedded formulas to keep track of you daily cash flow position

- Courtesy of SCORE. Includes helpful instructions and definitions

-  Courtesy of SCORE. Includes helpful instructions and definitions

-  An easy-to-use operational budget template for small and home businesses.

- Easy-to-use petty cash journal

- Use this 1 year sales forecast template to project monthly sales over 7 product groups

-  Calculate your break-even point based on fixed and variable costs

- Use this form to reconcile actual cash on hand with the expected cash amount

-  Reconcile company financial records with monthly bank statements

- Make a yearly budget for your marketing initiatives broken down by month

- Use this form when employees recommend someone for a position in the company

- Send out this reference request letter to a potential hire’s former employers

- Use this generic template to create a job desciption for a new position.

- Use this short, clear example of an employee application to hire workers for your small business

- Use this phone script to call a job applicant’s former employer for a reference check

- Use this employee record template to record pertinent information about your workers

- This agreement form allows your business to make direct payroll deposits into an employee’s bank account

- A simple employee performance assessment that evaluates employees in several key areas, including time management and communication

- Use this form to record your employees’ contact information in case of emergency

- This form can be used to record accidents or injuries on the job as well as the actions that were taken after the fact

- A simple daily time sheet template to log in worker hours

-  Business consultants, freelance workers, and small businesses looking to hire an independent contractor, can use this sample freelance worker agreement. But make sure to have it checked over by a legal professional to ensure that you are in line with federal and state laws.

- Record or post employee hours with this simple table

- A simple letter to job applicants who are not being hired

-  A sample paycheck stub for employees who receive electronic payments

- An example of a business drug testing policy

- A simple spreadsheet to record items in inventory

- Use this inventory count template to record your inventory on hand

- Keep track of your equipment on hand with this spreadsheet

- Use this check list when considering an equipment lease to pick out any obscurities or predatory elements

- Simple travel reimbursement form to track miles traveled.

- Simple travel expense report template ideal for small and home businesses

- Use this packing list template when shipping products to customers

- Keep track of auto-related expenses with this auto expense report

- A simple bill of sale contract

-  Track mileage, gas, and tolls with this auto expense form.

- Employees who earn a commission can use this form to record the transaction

- Use this simple customer information template to keep a record of your customers’ important information. This document is also called a customer profile sheet.

- This cost estimate form is for a small painting or repair business. You can customize the items to suit your particular business.

-  Show the cost breakdown to customers for a completed job with this service invoice form

-  Simple sales receipt template ideal for small and home businesses

-  Simple sales order form template for small and home businesses

- Businesses can use this purchase order form template to send to vendors

- Vendors can use this purchase order template to send to customers for repeat orders

- Easy-to-use customer invoice for small and home businesses

- Another simple template for a customer invoice

- This formal business letter template is a standard form that can be used for your written business communications. There is also a place to add a your company’s logo.

- Use this business letter to thank new customers for patronizing your business

- This letter informs a customer that an accounting error in the customer’s favor has been discovered and that corrective action is being taken

- Send this returned check notice out to customers when their checks bounce.

- Send this letter to customers with overdue accounts

- This is a follow-up letter to a customer who’s account is past due and who has already received a preliminary collection letter

- Use this letter to reject a customer’s request for an extended billing period

-  Use this letter to inform a customer that further deliveries will be halted until full payment of an outstanding balance is received

- This is the final letter to send out in a business collection strategy to recover an outstanding customer debt

- A simple form to use when sending a fax

-  A simple form for recording phone messages

- A simple form for recording memos within your business

- A simple, clean template to write down your meeting agendas

- Record meeting minutes and meeting agenda summary

- This free partnership agreement is an example for reference only. Please make an effort to consult with a qualified professional if you need this form for your business.

7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success- An overview of the Duct Tape small business marketing system, by marketing expert John Jantsch

Business Plan for an Established Business- Courtesy of SCORE. Includes helpful instructions and definitions

→For More Small Business Tips

→Other Online Resources for Small Businesses

If you have any questions or comments regarding this collection of free business forms, documents, and templates for entrepreneurs,  and small and home-based business owners, please let me know.

Disclaimer: I’m not a certified legal or financial professional. “Frugality” does not mean you skimp in those areas where a qualified professional, such as an attorney or CPA should be consulted. The small business tips, small business resources, and other information on this site including this collection of free business documents, templates, and forms are for educational purposes; they are meant to get you started in the right direction; but it’s up to you to do the appropiate research.