In my personal spreadsheet, I’ve got more than 5 years of data tracked down to the penny. You can download the spreadsheet by clicking the links at the top of this post, or by clicking here for the Excel version or the Google Sheets version (both have the same features, but the google version sometimes runs a bit slower). I’d like to offer you a simple spreadsheet that you can use to track your budget, and visualize where your money is going each month. If you only have a vague sense of how much you spend in an average month, chances are that you’re underestimating the actual figure. Most of us have a laundry list of small or infrequent expenses that add up into a meaningful total - the lunches out, drinks with friends, new clothing, impromptu weekend trips, and the like… While it’s easy to list off monthly rent, internet, or Netflix bills, it’s harder to keep tabs on the “one-off” items. Many of us keep track of our budgets in our heads, often using a mix of precision, guesstimates, and “voodoo math”. Keeping track of your budget is the single most important step towards taking control of your financial well-being.īefore you can draw up a plan for a home down payment, debt pay-down, or retirement, you’ll need to understand how much money comes in, and how much money goes out. Why Should I Use This Tool For My Budgeting?.After that, the 'Dashboard' tab will update all of the summary charts automatically.

On the 'Budget Targets' tab, enter your target monthly amounts for your expenses and income by category.

On the 'Income' tab, please enter all of your income transaction data (same process as the 'Expenses' tab).

Copying and pasting from there will make inputting your transactions much easier - please paste as values when possible (edit > paste special > paste values only) Note that most banks will let you export / download your transaction data. The intention is for you to enter each expense transaction as a separate row (e.g., $2 coffee, $10 lunch, $50 clothing, etc.).

On the 'Expenses' tab, please enter all of your expense transaction data.

I've already included default categories which will hopefully work for most people, so there is no need to make changes here unless you'd like to

On the 'Category Setup' tab, you can modify the labels used to categorize your expense / income transactions.

To edit this file and make your own version, click File > make a copy, and then save to your own Google Drive folder (you need to be logged in to do so).

Before you start, here are a few notes on how to best use this tool:

Income tracker google sheets