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Budget Planner Discussion Area

This discussion relates to the Budget Planner guide.

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Former MSE team member
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Comments

  • Anwen_2
    Anwen_2 Posts: 234 Forumite
    I downloaded the budget planner, but it says I need a password, I'm not sure if this is cos I'm using Open Office :confused: It doesn't even give me the option of putting one in, just says that it's password protected...
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    Proud to be dealing with my debts
  • Tony_H_3
    Tony_H_3 Posts: 2,643 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    This downloadable version is exclusively for MS Excel, at best it can only be viewed using alternative software. It works as it does using VBA code and as a result has to be locked to protect the code, this is an incompatability with Open Office.

    Click Here to use the alternative Online Version which works in the same way.

    EDITED - I hope that additional spreadsheets (for different software) will be added to the site in due course, there is another thread about this on the Techie Board and people would like to see versions for Open Office, Microsoft Works etc!!
  • I have been using the spreadsheet for some time, keeping it up to date as much as possible, but I find it annoying that once you have created a budget there is no way of comparing your actual spending with your budget. Does anyone know if there is any way of linking actuals to budget
  • Darryl
    Darryl Posts: 218 Forumite
    Would something like MS Money or Quicken do this (allow comparison of budget to actuals)? I'm not a fan of these apps, but just thought it worth mentioning them. There might be other software that lets you do this - and if not, why don't we create some?

    All we need to be able to do is download and classify items from a bank statement and link them to budget entries.... gulp, not so easy when you type out the spec...

    That said we have some decent excel progammers on these chat boards, and it would be a good MSE branded product if it worked! (all profits to 'get out of debt' charities of course...)
    ... Fool's Gold ...
  • Darryl
    Darryl Posts: 218 Forumite
    Darryl wrote:
    There might be other software that lets you do this...

    And a quick google search reveals...

    Accounts Express

    Darryl.
    ... Fool's Gold ...
  • Hi
    I am a new poster having been recommended this site by a colleague. I have tried the budget planner but I am told the zipfile is invalid or corrupted, Can anyone help?


    Thanks

    Celt
  • crana999
    crana999 Posts: 573 Forumite
    lillford wrote:
    I have been using the spreadsheet for some time, keeping it up to date as much as possible, but I find it annoying that once you have created a budget there is no way of comparing your actual spending with your budget. Does anyone know if there is any way of linking actuals to budget

    I have a spreadsheet that does that. It's very basic, but every week I track my spending, then put the totals in another table, which compares them with the "budget values" for each catagory. If the spending is over budget, the value turns red, if not it turns green. It also calculates the mean spending for each catagory so I can see how to make the budget values more realistic.
  • Tried to download budget planner today but cannot open the Winzip file. Error message reads 'does not appear to be a valid archive'. Has the file got corrupted?
  • Curry_Queen
    Curry_Queen Posts: 5,589 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I've just downloaded it without a problem, although I had to change the security settings in Excel to allow the macros to be enabled. I'm using Office Pro 2003 so not sure how older versions might work.
    "An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will"
    ~
    It is that what you do, good or bad,
    will come back to you three times as strong!

  • Is it possible to unprotect the work sheet. I know that it is protected to ensure that it works correctly however I would like to modify the titles of some of the catagories and add a few of my own.
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