# A layout for writing a budget?

I have to write the costs of a project in a budget. I would like to learn a fancy way to do it in LaTeX. Does anyone know where to find a layout for that? :)

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Can you direct us to an example somewhere in the web which design you'd like? There may be differences between countries and cultures as well. –  Keks Dose Nov 24 '11 at 9:54
The spreadtab package, which gives you some spreadsheet-like functions in a tabular, such as summing the values of cells, may be of interest. –  Torbjørn T. Nov 24 '11 at 10:39
The code Yiannis answered is OK for me. Anyway, if you know of any other layout I'd like to have a look too :) –  Roman Rdgz Nov 24 '11 at 11:18

Best solution is to use, a tabular environment and for longer ones, longtable. Here is a scan of an actual example extracted from a report of mine,

I just use a simple fbox to box some numbers and \undeline to underline them. For some recurring items I use the fp package for automatic calculations (not in the example below). Here is the code for the above.

\documentclass[a4paper, oneside,imperial]{octavo}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} % set input encoding to utf8
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{longtable}

%% Set some local commands and colors
\usepackage{colortbl}
\definecolor{green}{rgb}{0.1,0.1,0.1}
%\color{green!40!yellow})

\newcommand{\done}{\cellcolor{teal}done}  %{0.9}
\newcommand{\hcyan}[1]{{\color{teal} #1}}

\begin{document}

\leftskip-1.5cm\begin{tabular}{lrlr}
\toprule
Details      & Amount  & Amount & 30 Jan 2011\\
\midrule
Materials received to-date              &              &148,349,154.57           & 149,387,782.00 \\
Materials awaiting delivery             &              & 20,779,350.27           &  22,074,223.60 \\
Materials still to be ordered by HS     &                                                         \\
\phantom{ZZ}Mechanical                  &    158,030.10&                         &      38,351.40 \\
\phantom{ZZ}Electrical                  &    344,162.53&                         &     287,394.98 \\
LPOs to be released by HLG              &  3,337,934.08&                         &   1,276,883.12 \\
Materials with HOK issues etc.,         & 22,692,102.00&                         &  22,692,102.00 \\
\textsc{Sub-total}                      & & \underline{24,517,848.38} & \underline{24,294,731.50} \\
\textsc{Contingency}                    &  2,000,000.00&                                          \\
\textsc{Total Projected Materials Cost} &              &197,660,733.55           & 197,660,733.55 \\

Materials used in Phase II              &(2,000,000.00)&\\
Materials damaged in fire               &(2,130,000.00)&\\
Scrap recovery                          &(2,000,000.00)&\\
Salvage value on ending stock           &(3,000,000.00)&\\
\textsc{Sub-total}                      &(9,130,000.00)&\\

\textsc{Total Projected Materials Cost (PhaseIII)} & &\fbox{188,530,733.55} &\fbox{188,530,733.55}\\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}


Note I cut the code a bit to change it to a minimal. I normally use the tufte-latex class or Octavo, depending on the nature of the report.

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I think that a zebra effect would help the reading of the table. Don't you ? –  projetmbc Nov 24 '11 at 13:09
@projetmbc Zebras have stripes to camouflage themselves from predators, they don't look good in type neither do they help readability. Generally use Tufte's advise to minimize the ink to data ratio:) –  Yiannis Lazarides Nov 24 '11 at 13:16