What do you include in your Finance Spreadsheet.

Alex92_2

A lot of people (including me), have a finance spreadsheet on excel. I've done this for years as it helps me budget, save, invest and keep on track of all my personal finances.

I am constantly striving to improve it. Add new features that will somehow help me. I thought I would do a quick thread to see what people include in theirs and see if I can add any features, or help anyone improve their spreadsheet.

Below is what my consists of.

Balance of all my bank accounts broken down and then total of all of them added together. I write this out manually at the start of each month. This allows me to see how much I have where and see the difference between months.

Each month has a new sheet at the bottom that I can flick through.

I have a calendar column showing the days and months of each month, and also showing the weekends. Next to this I have a column for important dates and another for finance notes (e.g. if I spend £200 on something and forget what it is, I can write "for car repairs" or something.)

the big, main section is outgoings. This is broken down into all my variable out goings. Food/Drink, entertainment, Travel, toys, Fitness, Car/motorbike (and petrol), ATM withdrawls and Misc.

Income section includes my main salary and any overtime or comission. It also includes "other" which is for any side income or petrol money from parents for driving them places and interest from bank.

Monthly Finance quota. This is where I put all my financial targets I have to meet for the month. Save £1500+ per month, Generate £500+ from side business etc.

Aims. This is where I put my aims for each month, not necessarily finance, but anything. Do cardio 4x per week. Increase water intake to 6 Pints a day. Work 10 hours overtime.

Monthly review. A textbox that says did I meet my aims? yes/no. If I didnt meet them, why didnt I meet them and how could I prevent this frmo happening again in the future. It isnt a mistake if you learn not to repeat it.

Standing orders/direct debits showing who to , what for and the total price and what accounts its coming from.

£500 Challenge, showing how much Im investing, how much im making, how much the total repayment is what it is for, then total income to date.

Networth. This adds up savings, assets, property, pension, debt. Shows total breakdown of each and total percentage and then the total for all of them giving me a nice round figure.

Owed. Who im owed money by, what for and when payment has been promised for.

islandgirl8

Thank you Alex, I am newish to MSE and am finding it difficult to get my spreadsheets working for me. I would love to see a visual example if that is possible?

Nuncle

I keep a financial sheet using Google Docs so that I can access and update it from any computer. I mostly use it to track spending. All expenditure goes on one page, line by line. It's usually easy to fill this in from online banking, but requires good discipline to note down all my cash spending. Then each line of expenditure is labeled in the next column for what kind of spending it is, such as work food, fuel (for the car), car spending (repairs etc.), take away meals, etc. I use a few more columns and then can throw it into a pivot table, and it gives me a great way of watching where all the money went, and setting targets for next month.

I also use another page to denote savings for different reasons. I put money away each month, some for buying a car, some for an emergency fund, some for life savings etc. This means it's just one standing order to a decent savings account, and the diving up is done on my spreadsheet.

I like your idea about writing comments each month.

Anthorn

A spreadsheet is too much work for me. I just know the total amount including savings I pay out every month exclusively by direct debit and set aside that amount. Whatever is left I can spend on Mars Bars, Snickers, Crisps and little luxuries like proper food.

Gizmo247

I've had various spreadsheet incarnations over the years but I began to find that the benefit I received diminished as my financial position improved. I'm fortunate that all payments are automated so I'm just concentrating on paying off the remainder of my mortgage.

So what I calculate and what the OP does not mention is "Net Worth" and "Net Worth Delta". Net Worth is a very useful long term indication of the state of your finances and the delta on the direction it is going.

chucknorris

Non Isa savings accounts
Cash Isa's
Stocks and shares Isa's
Non Isa shares
Property equity
NSI certificates

libra10

I have a simple Finance spreadsheet.

The left hand side details all our bills and outgoings, large purchases detailed separately, along with date of purchase.

The right hand side lists date interest received, bank/dividend, then Total, Gross, Tax payable.

I total every 6 months, print out, and add to my Savings book.

evenasus

Try to get your hands on a programme called Quicken. You can probably pick one up on Ebay.

I've been using Quicken for some years now. I'm still using Quicken 2001 and can see all my financial transactions going back to 1994.

I don't know how I'd manage without it.

iclaudius_2

OP, you track so much of your life on the spreadsheet it would appear that this level of control gives you general pleasure. We are what some would describe as 'nerds' when it comes to budgeting. Nice to see there is a community out there...

1. Budgeting. We have a MSExcel spreadsheet which has a front sheet for the budget. Each month is a new column because the rows generally don't change month by month and easier to copy these across and do annual tallies. We agree the next month's budget in writing the weekend before each payday. Besides all SOs and DDs we take the rest out in cash and place in envelopes. There is less manual accounting this way.

2. Second sheet tracks a breakdown of our 'sinking fund' (held in second savings account) including emergency fund, car, healthcare, holiday, xmas and home repairs.

3. Third sheet is our debt snowball - the most important one currently as we are currently cleaning up a major financial mess!

I've tried quicken and other fancy spending tracking software out there such as Mint etc. But to be honest, all that synching and labelling never works and is way too time consuming. I prefer the flexibility of my own spreadsheet.

Also, using cash means we take a proactive approach to spending. The accounting after the spend means you don't really have any control over your money.

hope this helps

mhmmhm

I also use a spreadsheet on Google Drive - means I can update it via my mobile phone as well as on any computer.

I have a front page that shows my account balances, which is updated at the start of each month (more often in the case of a big expenditure or additional income).

I then have a sheet for each month of the year - tracking everything I spend in the month. The balance on here should always be the same as my current account balance (subject to timing of transactions being reported). I don't track what I spend cash on, but then I average under £40 of cash spending each month so I'm comfortable with this just being logged as 'cash spending'.

The monthly sheet lists the transaction date, description, amount and 'category' - I then have a calculation that keeps track of how much I have spent (or earnt) in each category that month, vs the budget figure (which is set at the start of the year).

My spending categories are quite high level: income, groceries, cash, car, petrol, house, misc. I also have savings categories which track into the balances of my savings accounts.

I love my spreadsheet. I look at it every day.

Idiophreak

I, like others, have spent quite a lot of time getting this to a state where it works for me. What I have at present is:

1) A printed spending diary, which gives monthly allowances for spending, food and petrol. The allocation is filled in at the start of the month, then decreases as spending continues. I also have a google docs "buffer" document I use if I'm away for a couple of days or am spending a lot.

2) A budget spreadsheet. This consists of

A) A monthly tab, with current account balances, expected income, all expected outgoings (direct debits, standing orders, the allocations from 1, above), totals, loan and CC balances, minimum payments and 0% expiration dates.

A projection tab, which shows a summation of the data for each month across the year, tracking how much can be saved each month, when the big expenses are due and (crucially) when savings will overtake debts.

The second half of this has only been added recently, but I find it by far the best part of the thing...it really works to keep me focussed about how spending a little money today will push back our debt free date, whether I can afford something next month, or whether I'd better wait til later in the year for it....It also allows a sense of "realism" that wasn't possible with just the monthly view...I used to think "well, I saved 1k this month...if I do that every month, I'll be done in X months"...but actually *knowing* how much I should save each month (around holidays, new cars, changes in income etc) makes me feel much more in control.