What's In Your Spreadsheet?

DevCoder

Geeky, but then I like geeky, especially spreadsheet geeks

Chris9674

I have various columns (date, income from different sources (I have more than 1 job), all expenditure in one column except credit cards and supplier's accounts, with different columns and types of text (italic and 'strikethrough') for various payables/settled accounts), and a new tab for every month, reconciled monthly or yearly (only just started so haven't decided yet!)
This is not the correct way to do it according to my accountancy degree I am currently studying for, but it works temporarily and usually a month's accounts fits snugly on one sheet of A4 printout with a small zoom-out factor.
Ideally, and hopefully, I would like to put it all in a program like Sage or Quickbooks, when I have expanded my business as I am planning to do over the next 10 years.

As an aside (and sorry this is totally off topic) to those who comment with things like 'debt free and staying that way' etc. its not all about debt or non-debt, it's whether the debt is sustainable and manageable over a period of time. A credit in one part of the economic system is a debit in another part.

seriousDFW

I have a main sheet which works like a cash flow forecast - it has a column for each week and starts at the current week and goes 2 years into the future (it's all formulas so can just drag and fill the formulas as much into the future as I want).

I have a list of income and outgoings, and a final balance at the end for our main account. I put the monthly amounts in and the due dates and because of the date formulae I've put in, it puts all the debits in the right week.

Underneath I have savings accounts balances and credit card balances and then a 'net worth' sort of cell which takes into account current balances, savings and credit card debts. All this information then fits nicely on one page so I can see instantly how much debt and savings we have (all debt is 0% which is why I'm also saving).

This also acts as my monthly tracker - at the start of the month all rows are showing, then I delete the amount going out each month it leaves and I update the 'start balance' on the account which takes this payment into account. Then I hide the row, so any rows showing I know still have to be paid. This system has helped me to identify payments that haven't been made for whatever reason.

I have a 'misc' row at the bottom for any expenses not included in the monthly list, and an 'expenses pot' outgoing which goes into savings for non-monthly items like water bill and car maintenance.

There are rows at the bottom so I can see what % of our credit available we're using in a given week.

I then have a separate tab for my expenses pot showing how much is in each 'pot', even though this amount is all in one savings account.

I have a tab listing all my accounts so I can keep track of what I've got and the 0% offers and when they end, interest rates on savings accounts, overdraft limits etc.

I have a few others for working out savings interest amounts etc.

The main budget spreadsheet is great for making sure I've got enough money for things and for seeing quickly if we stick to whatever budget we've set how much we'll have. You can play with the monthly amounts because it updates automatically. Because it reflects a calendar in its format, you can put in 'odd' expenses when they crop up like holidays and Christmas, so in theory everything is taken care of and you can see the actual amounts of what you'll have. The credit card balances even take into account interest that will be applied to the account (rough estimates) as I like it to be as realistic as possible.

At the start of each month I used to put any 'leftover' money towards paying off credit cards so in essence my monthly budget was always 'zeroed', and any extra spending not in the budget took me into overdraft and so was a deterrent. Now the leftover will go into savings ready to pay off credit cards when 0% offers end.

That probably doesn't make much sense - I'd love to see everyone's spreadsheets as it's hard to imagine!

seriousDFW

Chris9674 wrote: »

As an aside (and sorry this is totally off topic) to those who comment with things like 'debt free and staying that way' etc. its not all about debt or non-debt, it's whether the debt is sustainable and manageable over a period of time. A credit in one part of the economic system is a debit in another part.

Some people would like 'their' part of the system to remain in credit!

I know Martin's saying is 'debt isn't bad, bad debt is bad' and in theory that is true, but good debt can turn into bad debt depending upon circumstances which can't always be foreseen and some people want to protect themselves from that as much as possible.

Remember too it's a psychological thing - to some people they can manage having debt easily and logically. To others having any debt means they can't control their finances in the same way and end up getting in more debt. It's different for different people.

marvin

I have 14 tabs

5 related to my shares (current value/transactions/historical weekly values/variation month by month and dividends)
1 related to a loan
1 related to mortgage
1 related to pension
1 related to banks
2 related to the sharesave schemes I am in or have been in (one for current schemes and one for charting when the shares I have bought become tax free and the free shares given with them become mine to keep. TBF these were share purchase scheme not sharesave)
1 to hosting income/expenditure (I have websistes on which i carry some advertising the aim being to cover the costs not make a profit and this it does but need to keep an eye on it.)
1 to liabilities (this is what my monthly fixed costs are)
1 to charts

It grows a new tab at times it was mainly started to keep an eye on my investments but has grown from there to encompas everything.

nzseries1

Tabs in my budget excel spreadsheet (which grew into more than just a budget):

1. Full summary with up-to-date "total of how much money I have right now" and a summary of what my planned expenditure is for the month
2. A summary of the balance in each account I have
3. Details of "miscellanous large unavoidable expenses I have coming up"
4. A savings graph of my savings progress since Aug. 2006 when I got my first job in this country
5. My weight each day - best place to put it I figured because I look at my budget every day!
6. Calculation of the interest that I'm owed on a daily basis from my two accounts that pay yearly interest
7. Records of actual interest I've been paid for my self assessment
8. How much friends and family owe me (fortunately, it's currently zero and will be forevermore if I have my way)
9. A list of all my disposable email addresses that I create when I put them into web forms and don't want to get spam, so I can identify who caused the spam in the first place and then get the email address blocked
10. How long I've spent out of the country so that the Home Office don't cancel my visa if I'm out for too long
11. A stoozing spreadsheet when interest rates were higher and I actually used to do it
12. How much I'm owed by clients for whom I do software development
13. A list of my shares and how they were performing (sold them last year at the start of the Eurozone crisis so now it's purely historical)

I thought I had a lot of tabs but seems people out there have far more than me! 99 tabs... WOW

wannabehermit

I love my spreadsheets but I'm really not as hardcore as some on here .

I have:

My budget. This is updated as any changes occur, i.e. changes in wages or benefits or if there is anything new that we are spending out on.

Actual spending. I have a year to view and it runs from DHs payday each month. I log every spend in the relevant section with everything broken down, so I don't just have 'car', I have oe for finance, MOT, tax, diesel, repairs, Green Flag and aything else I've forgotten. This is great as we can see EXACTLY how much we are spending from month to month, I can make adjustments to the budget where necessary and I have a few columns at the end - average weekly spend, average monthly spend and, the scary one - total annual spend.

Then I have one that is simply a few columns which I do quarterly. It is my budget compared to the last quarter and the previous quarter. Then I have a column which is colour coded depending on whether it is above or below budget and previous quarter. So green cell with green text would mean below budget and below previous quarter. Red cell with green text would mean over budget but below previous quarter.

I've been looking at various ways of doing a debt one too but still trying to figure out which will be the best way to do it.

agrinnall

I'm feeling very inadequate now! I only have 4 spreadsheets (although the bulk of my financial transactions are in MS Money):

1) Share record
2) Payment calendar showing pre-planned spending for each month of the year
3) Information required for my tax return
4) Record of savings accounts showing interest rates and when any bonus rate is due to end, although I've taken to including that on the account description in Money so this sheet is a bit neglected

mr_fishbulb

Fantasy Football scores

cod3

Loving the phrase "digital crochet" :rotfl:

Just two spreadies here...

One which follows my bank statement and breaks down purchases such as food, petrol, phone etc so I can now see a mile away where the overspending is :shocked:

The second is a shiny new mortgage overpayment spreadsheet designed by Financial Bliss.