End of Month Process?

pilesofstones

Right,

I have fond memories of my Dad always having his accounts box out at the end of the month and having big lists and ticking.

I don't seem to do anything at the end of a month. All bills are paid automatically and the consumer generally needs to do nothing.

Here is the question. Do you have a monthly process for your accounts? For budgeting? Something to do so you have an idea of how much money you have?

Lokolo

Before I moved out, all my bills came out of one account and when I got paid, I put money to cover the months worth in that account (payday money went into a different account). I don't need to then remember dates as I know I have money in the account ready to take out at any time.

The rest of the money would then be spent on everything else, such as food and good old alcohol.

Most people do a SOA though.

glider3560

My parents do an "end of month" thing when their bank statement arrives. As they don't use online banking (yes, I know!) they have to check every transaction on their statement and match this up to receipts/bills/etc.

I don't do this as:
1. I have too many accounts to have a single end of month date, and
2. With online banking, Microsoft Money and my multi-function spreadsheet, there is absolutely no reason why I would need to do anything. My spreadsheet does everything for me, which I'll check every now and then.

anna42hmr

I dont have an end of month process, but a start of month one, which on the 1st or 2nd of the month i move £1000 through all the accounts that need it (ie my 3 halifax reward accounts and my lloyds vantage accounts)

I update a spreadsheet with the balances of my current and savings accounts

I check all my credit cards on line to check that the balence on them is as i expect and is as it should be (i keep a note of what has been spent on them as i spend anyway)

i also grab the most recent copy of my current account statements and double check that what has gone out is what i expect

glennc1981

I get paid on the 15th of the month, which isn't too bad. I have all my DD's and Standing orders go out on the 20th (though one DD goes out on 25th). I have a spreadsheet on my computer to budget all of my outgoings, so I can work out what I have left before payday comes around. I love using online banking, as I can keep up to date with where my balance is and amend the spreadsheet to work out what I have left. I have noticed with NatWest online banking that it shows the debits from your account pretty much immediately. Very useful, especially preparing for things like my upcoming holiday in October.

td_007

As mentioned before easiest way is to use a money manager software like Money and you can track to the last penny. Alternatively, if you have just one or two a/cs to track then you just need to look at the end of the month balance. You could ofcourse start an excel sheet that captures fixed payment and income and update variable spend each month.

DizzleUK

I run a spreadsheet that has 5 sheets.

Curernt account, credit cards, savings and money in my pocket. Each sheet is linked up and I can easily keep track of every penny on a daily basis.

Works very well for those times when transactions don't show up online for a couple of days.

Olipro

I use Gnucash, all I do is click a dialog at the start of each month called "Close Book" which transfers all income and expenses accounts over to equity and therefore resets everything.

One thing I never bother to track is my cash spending, instead, I simply treat all cash as an expense the moment it comes out of the ATM since you always tend to lose receipts or cash (or just don't get any at all) so I find simply writing it off at the point of withdrawal a much more reliable method of tracking your spending.

Evilm

I sit down once a month and file the credit card and bank reciepts with the relevant statements (although we do also look them over when they arrive as well to make sure there are no odd transactions we don't recognise). Filing the receipts with the statements has saved me more than once when I've had to return something - I always knew where the receipt was even if it was three months ago!