• Primary focus of this template is daily spending: credit cards and checking, but you can also track your investments and special projects. You can make copies of the Transactions sheet, or you can add your own sheets in your own format. All sheets can be linked to the Net Worth sheet to give you the overall picture. I can easily mass update budget categories or other fields, I can filter, I can create new sheets or customize provided sheets.

• Budgeting is key to financial independence. Two most important concepts:
  • Monthly Expenses should never exceed Monthly Income.
  • Balanced budget means spending money on the right things for you. Design your budget your way. Maybe you hate cooking – you need more money for eating out. Maybe you like day trips or just trips in general. That’s the beauty of Excel. You can easily redesign your budget as your spending habits evolve and you develop better understanding of where you spend.

• Budgeting needs consistent periods for comparison reasons. This template is built for Monthly Budgeting. Not payday to payday. Majority of bills come every month. Even if your income is by-weekly – you still have 2 paychecks each month. Except for 2 months a year. But this extra pay only happens once in 6 months. Your monthly expenses should be covered by 2 paychecks not 3. Or if your income is irregular – still you have to rely on the minimum monthly income to pay your rent and other monthly expenses. Anyway if you are looking for payday to payday budget – this is not your template. This template uses monthly budget buckets.

• Matrix view allows you to see individual account balances for easy reconciliation with your online banking or your banking app. You will also see the grand total – how much money you have, how much money you owe across all your accounts. All on one screen.

• One-click Filtering. Reducing clicking and typing became a passion for us. You can filter transactions by account, by budget, by vendor, by date, etc. – all with a single click on Cell Filter button (no need to type what you are searching for, just select the cell)

• Storing Excel files in Microsoft OneDrive local folder syncs the files to your private Microsoft Cloud. You can access the same Excel file from multiple laptops or even mobile devices including iPhone, iPad, Android phone, tablets, etc. Just download Microsoft Excel app on your mobile device. You can edit the file while you are offline. It will automatically sync it to the cloud when you are connected again.
  Keeping your Excel files in the cloud also creates a back up. Especially if you start building history – you want to protect your data from unexpected accidents.
  Additionally using Microsoft OneDrive enables Excel’s auto-save feature. It’s automatic. You don’t have to turn it on or anything. It just starts working for all Excel files stored in OneDrive.

• This is how Security works: Your financial data is stored in your own file. Only you have access to it. You can store it in your private cloud or just locally. Microsoft OneDrive works best with Excel as it enables autosave feature (very convenient). You can share with your spouse if you wish to do so. But again unlike using an app – you control who has access to your financial data. This Excel file is not connected to any online banking / does not require bank passwords.