Budget/Net Worth Spreadsheet Ideas (Post Yours Here)

[ReadySetMillionaire]

My current budget spreadsheet is below, but if you don't want to bother reading and just want to share your own, feel free.

My fiance and I are pretty good at budgeting, but we really want to start keeping track of everything in one place.  We are wary of using something like Mint and Personal Capital and, more importantly, we actually think we will enjoy doing things manually via Excel.

I've created a "draft" excel spreadsheet, but I feel like it could be better.  It's at home so I can't screengrab it, but it essentially looks like this:

SUMMARY
Income: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Savings: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Expenses: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Net: Jan/Feb/March/etc.

INCOME SUMMARY
Fiance Main Job Net Income: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Fiance Side Job Net Income: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
RSM Main Job Net Income: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
RSM Side Job Net Income: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
YTD Total: Jan/Feb/March/etc.

SAVINGS SUMMARY
Fiance 401k: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Fiance HSA: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Fiance Ally Cash Savings: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Fiance IRA Savings: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
RSM 401k: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
RSM HSA: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
RSM Ally Cash Savings: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
RSM IRA Savings: Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Savings Total: Jan/Feb/March/etc.

EXPENSES SUMMARY
Mortgage (broken down into mortgage, mortgage insurance, property tax): Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Utilities (brown down by type): Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Fiance's Expenses (broken down specifically): Jan/Feb/March/etc.
RSM Expenses (broken down specifically): Jan/Feb/March/etc.
Expenses Total:


Some concerns I have with this format:

(1) I really want to make us aware of small, dumb purchases (e.g., me forgetting my lunch yesterday and getting Subway). But it seems like the vertical axis would go on forever if I added every single purchase. Maybe make a separate excel sheet for each month and put every specific purchase there?

(2) I'd like to incorporate net worth into this. How best to do that? Add another "Summary" Section? Then list out assets and liabilities?

(3) I'd also like to add another section for debt. For instance, a column dedicated to "Balance on Fiance's Student Loans." Good idea or make a separate spreadsheet? Should I simply put this with #2 or have a separate section?

(4) I'd like to keep track of goals (e.g., we are saving to finish the bathroom in the basement). How best to accomplish that?

(5) Should we keep track of taxes? Part of me thinks there's already a ton on this spreadsheet, but another part of me thinks it would be beneficial to see that the more we are contributing to tax-advantaged accounts, the lower taxes we will pay.

Thanks in advance, and I'd love to see some screenshots of what you guys do.

[Rhoon]

Check out this thread and spreadsheet.

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/one-sheet-to-rule-them-all/

It takes a few hours to setup at first, but once you have it set, maintenance is about 10-15 minutes near the end of the month. I keep a separate spreadsheet for a rolling, live budget where we keep track of the daily purchases, but I add that up and transplant it into this master spreadsheet.

[RWD]

You may also be interested in GnuCash which can track everything you want but more organized, since it's designed specifically for accounting/finances. You can make some pretty charts and graphs too.

[milliemchi]

I actually read "Accounting for Dummies" for fun. Basically, there are three statements every business needs to have: cash flow, assets and liabilities, and net profit.  For your personal business of your life, this translates into A) cash flow, B) net worth, and C) income/expenses (incl. taxes)/savings breakdown. ("Budget" could be either the first or the third, depending on how you understand it and set it up.) This means you will have three separate spreadsheets, tracking three separate things.

I have one spreadsheet #1 for net worth, updated mid-January each year. That's simple enough. I have one #2 where I project income, retirement contributions, taxes, and savings for the following year, such that they match my projected expenses. At the end of the year I update with actual values. This one is super complicated, as I do my own tax calculation, with four different retirement accounts, etc. The third spreadsheet #3 tracks all expenses in 30 categories, in monthly columns, for the calendar year.  This allows projections for the following year, and for after kids/retirement expenses. This is the number I try to match with projected expenses in the second spreadsheet. My #2 and #3 kind of combine A and B, but that is a situation that evolved over the years.

Except for tracking expenses, which is done once a month (and currently I'm 4 months behind), everything is updated yearly. More often than that is like watching the stock market with all the ups and downs, which sucks up your energy and time and is distracting.

[Rosy]

Here are two spreadsheets that I am revamping a bit into an excel spreadsheet of my own. They are both from a blog called "Budgets are $exy".

1. The budget - networth sheet -  http://www.budgetsaresexy.com/budgets/j_budget_template.xls
2. Simple excel template for your budget - Budget Snapshot - http://budgetsaresexy.com/files/Money-Snapshot.xlsx

Most of the budget worksheets I've found on the net were not suitable for all I wanted to track. Some were too simple and some too complicated. My spreadsheet skills are rather basic and in the end, basic is good enough for a monthly/annual tally.
My first job included some accounting training and they still had a heavy old time business ledger (back in 1966:) I never got over the fear of making a mistake in that book:)

I have tried using an app, but that isn't flexible enough and like you I don't really want to connect to all my banks, so I always go back to my homemade budget template - pen and paper. But I would prefer excel for its simplicity and flexibility.
June was the deadline I had set myself for a new excel spreadsheet, so this is a timely post to remind me of my goal.

Wish I had more colorful graphics though, still looking for a good graph solution to keep track of savings and investments.

[jjcamembert]

I've been tracking my budget on a custom Google Spreadsheet for 7 years now. Every year is its own spreadsheet, and every month is its own tab in that sheet. The columns are really simple: Cost ($), Description, Category, Comments. Category is a standard list of categories I came up with, and the dollar amounts are tallied by Category at the bottom. It's just a habit now to keep receipts and enter them into the spreadsheet, so I don't find it tedious.

Then there's a section for income, which is mostly just our paychecks. And then a simple income minus sum of expenditures calc. It's simple but works for me, and I like that I can customize it. I don't bother tracking pre-tax contributions and taxes every month, HR already did that. Roth and HSA contributions just get put in the budget each month as "Savings".

At the end of the month I copy the tallies by category and paste it into a "summary" tab which show expenditures for every month that year side-by-side, and also does calculations like how much annually would this cost, what's the trend, etc.

That's the super-detailed version. Let me know if you're interested and I'll put one together and share it.

For macro-level tracking I have a couple of different spreadsheets which I only update once/year. Each year after I get the annual summary from my retirement accounts I'll go in and paste the new values in and sum it up, and see what % change I got for the year. Mostly it's just to get a new net worth number.

Finally I have my "projection model" spreadsheet which is a long-term (30 year) projection of when I might reach FI based on current income and spending accounting for inflation, estimated market returns, taxes, etc. It's basically a retirement calculator but with the details that I wanted to include and easy for me to tweak.

[Mmm_Donuts]

I have a Net Worth file in Excel and an Expenses file. Each file contains dozens of worksheets that I duplicate with each new month and custmize the data for that month. That way the data can be as detailed as I want. (The monthly expenses are fairly detailed.) Then at the end of all the worksheets I have a final overview worksheet listing the totals for each month, along with an accompanying chart, so I can see a snapshot of our spending and net worth over time. Because all info is in the same file, it's easy to calculate things like month / month or year / year changes in a column by linking to data in the other worksheets.

[LadyStache in Baja]

The only thing I would add, in your first Summary sheet, is your savings rate.  You have "net", but just add one more column to get your savings rate. 

I also calculated how much would add 1% to my savings rate.  Then when I'm in the store and want to buy something I don't need (or forgot lunch like you) I think about how I'd rather increase my savings rate by 1% then than buy that unnecessary thing. 

It's a fun metric to track!  BTW, since you have debt, I would not consider debt payments to be expenses when calculating your rate.

[FiguringItOut]

I just use YNAB to track my cash flow.
And I have separate spread sheet to track NW.  I created simple monthly Balance Sheet tab and it is populated from supporting tabs that I fill out with monthly numbers from my bank account, vanguard account, HSA account, and student loan. 

My Balance Sheet looks as simple as this:
                                 Jan 2016        Feb 2016      Mar 2016    etc
Assets:
Cash:
Bank Account 1:
Bank Account 2:

Investments:
Vanguard:
HSA:

Total Assets:

Liabilities:
Student Loan:

Net Worth: (Assets - Liab)
Change MoM (month over month)
Change from beginning of the year


I don't need income statement as YNAB does that for me.

[ender]

We use YNAB to track our monthly spending and then have a Google sheet we use to track yearly spending, with columns for each month.

I really REALLY like having both a monthly view (YNAB) and the yearly view (spreadsheet) as it lets you do planning on both levels. You can predict your cash balances throughout the year, which can be useful for planning your yearly budget - if you want to plan retirement savings, perhaps maxing early, having a yearly view is really helpful.

We track net worth on a monthly basis in two ways on another sheet.  Net worth, investment net worth, 1-year difference compared to year before, and notes. Numbers come straight out of Mint, though I might add a column since we're buying a house and it might be useful to track what we think the house is worth, too.

[MDM]

See also https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Household_budgeting.