Which software for calculating interest over several accounts?

mooch

Hi,

I've always used a simple spreadsheet to track my bank accounts, but for the coming tax year 2010/2011, I'll need to keep close track of my interest payments to make sure I don't go over the personal allowance limit as a non tax payer. I'll do this by balancing funds between my account and my wife's (who is a tax payer).

Can anyone recommend any software that will do this simply and accurately? Preferably free or cheap as this is the only reason I need it. I can do the updates manually as the money won't be moving around much. Basically I need to be able to see at any point during the year a figure for the interest earnt so far across all bank accounts (I know it won't be 100% accurate but should be enough to keep me witin my personal allowance).

Thanks.

RayWolfe

So, you will reduce your savings or go to a worse rate to avoid paying some tax? Why?
It's not software you need.

mooch

RayWolfe wrote: »

So, you will reduce your savings or go to a worse rate to avoid paying some tax? Why?
It's not software you need.

We just sold our flat. The cash is being spread over several bank accounts so as not to go over the £50k govt protected limit. I am a non-tax payer since I don't work. Since the tax year ends soon, the interest on these funds will not exceed my personal allowance for 2009/2010. However if I were to leave them in my accounts all year next tax year, I would exceed my personal allowance, in which case I would need to change all of my accounts to taxable and then fill in a self assessment to get the overpaid interest refunded.

Rather than do that, it makes sense to me to transfer some of the money to my wife's accounts and keep myself within my personal allowance.

We need the cash available to buy a house when the time comes, so it will probably remain as savings until that time.

Hope that makes sense.

glider3560

A simple spreadsheet should be able to keep track of all your interest received.

Do you actually need something to predict your interest? If so, you could probably do this very quickly on a calculator.

mooch

glider3560 wrote: »

A simple spreadsheet should be able to keep track of all your interest received.

Do you actually need something to predict your interest? If so, you could probably do this very quickly on a calculator.

I am using a spreadsheet atm but I just keep totals and not individual transactions. I'm not confident with spreadsheets, so I was hoping to get an fool-proof application that would calculate cumulative interest on changing account balances.

I wouldn't exactly need to predict my interest, but I would want to know the ongoing total interest earned to date. Of course it's easy to calculate a predicted annual interest now on a fixed amount, so I could just use that to limit my personal savings, but that might mean that we lose out on my better (non-taxed) interest rates if say we buy a house 3 months or 6 months from now i.e. spend the money. It would also mean my wife opening several new accounts straight away, with diminishing interest rates on each one.

RayWolfe

mooch wrote: »

The cash is being spread over several bank accounts so as not to go over the £50k govt protected limit. <snip> Rather than do that, it makes sense to me to transfer some of the money to my wife's accounts and keep myself within my personal allowance.<snip>
Hope that makes sense.

Now it does. Sorry.
Also sorry that I don't know of any specific software to do what you want.

Lokolo

mooch wrote: »

I am using a spreadsheet atm but I just keep totals and not individual transactions. I'm not confident with spreadsheets, so I was hoping to get an fool-proof application that would calculate cumulative interest on changing account balances.

I wouldn't exactly need to predict my interest, but I would want to know the ongoing total interest earned to date. Of course it's easy to calculate a predicted annual interest now on a fixed amount, so I could just use that to limit my personal savings, but that might mean that we lose out on my better (non-taxed) interest rates if say we buy a house 3 months or 6 months from now i.e. spend the money. It would also mean my wife opening several new accounts straight away, with diminishing interest rates on each one.

I have a spreadsheet which each line you enter a new transaction, and it still works out the final total.

Is this something would be good?

I'll try and dig it out, put it on Google Docs and you can have a go with it.

---

edit

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApdsTwViTizPdFJqTmg5Ri1SOXVEY3pUUWdielhCYXc&hl=en_GB

There you go.

1) On the right (Egg Cash ISA 2), the latest date is 13th January 2009. Change that to 13th February, and you can see the total interest change. The date is in US format (so MM/DD/YYYY)
2) I think you can download it, not sure though!

The only columns you need to manually edit are the rate and the date. Everything else is drag down and calculated for you.

mooch

Lokolo wrote: »

I have a spreadsheet which each line you enter a new transaction, and it still works out the final total.

Is this something would be good?

I'll try and dig it out, put it on Google Docs and you can have a go with it.

---

edit

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApdsTwViTizPdFJqTmg5Ri1SOXVEY3pUUWdielhCYXc&hl=en_GB

There you go.

1) On the right (Egg Cash ISA 2), the latest date is 13th January 2009. Change that to 13th February, and you can see the total interest change. The date is in US format (so MM/DD/YYYY)
2) I think you can download it, not sure though!

The only columns you need to manually edit are the rate and the date. Everything else is drag down and calculated for you.

Thanks mate, that's truly excellent. :j I'll give it a go.

cloud_dog

There are a numnber of free personal finance apps available listed below:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-personal-finance-software.htm

Not sure if these cover far more than you are looking to do?