One more thing–technically Excel isn’t free unless you already own it. If I could figure this out, I would totally steal this idea and start using it. What I wish I could figure out though is how to easily keep track of all the subtotals at once as the month is progressing. Next to these you can calculate what percentage of your budgeted amount or total spending or earnings this amounts to. To sort, put your cursor in the column–not on the header–that you want to sort, and then press the button at the top with the A and Z on it.) (Then sort by date again to make it look right. I would do it by typing this:Īnd then selecting all the cells for the given expense type (which are adjacent now that you’ve sorted) and then type the close parentheses: Then after your list, type each expense type on a different line, and next to that, put the subtotal. You could put each pay period or month or quarter in a different tab so you can compare.Īt the end of the period you could sort by expense type. But if you’re just starting out with tracking expenses like I am, a simple spreadsheet may be the way to go. We all have different needs, and an Excel spreadsheet might not suit some readers. If you have any tips on free expense trackers, please feel free to share. You can easily stay on top of your expenses this way. You don’t have to be at home or work to input expenses in a program loaded on just one computer. The other cool thing about having your expenses on an Excel spreadsheet is that if you store this document online on something like X-drive or Elephant Drive or GMail as a hard drive, you can access this document from anywhere. With something this simple and powerful, why spend your money on something that gives you less control? If you go back and deselect AutoFilter, your expense tracker goes back to looking like normal, and you get your original subtotal back. You now know how much you’ve spent on eating out. Click the AutoSum button (sigma sign) again and press Enter. Then click on the cell in which the dollar amount of the subtotal appears. Your worksheet will now look like this (Click image to enlarge).Ģ) Click on the arrow in the Category Column, and select Eating Out from the drop down menu. Go to the Data dropdown menu, and select AutoFilter. You can easily get an idea of how much you’re spending on eating out for instance, by doing the following below:ġ) Click on the row of your header column (Row 1). The sorting capabilities of a simple spreadsheet like this has potential for powerful applications. The subtotal will update automatically each time you add an expense. (I added the term subtotal in the cell to the left to give clarity to the spreadsheet.)ģ) Insert a new row each time you and add an expense to your expense tracker. As you add an expense to your table, be sure to keep names for your categories consistent for easy sorting purposes in the future.Ģ) Two rows below the last entry in your Cost column, click on the sigma sign in the tool bar to enable the AutoSum feature. Here’s what I did, and it takes very little Excel expertise (Click image to enlarge):ġ) Set up columns as displayed. So I got to thinking, why not just make my own Excel spreadsheet that I can make to suit my needs? I did find some free expense trackers that were essentially overly-complicated Excel spreadsheets, but even in these programs, there was very little ability to customize things like what category you can assign to an expense. And if ever you want to make a report of your expenses, forget about getting that for free. For instance, if you would like to record all the transactions you make in a year, you will easily surpass the 250-400 transactions limit on the freeware versions of a program before having to upgrade to a paid subscription. The main problem with freeware expense trackers is the limited access to features. Let me save you a lot of time by telling you not to bother looking. I get paid to do research for a living, so I thought that my internet search for a free expense tracker would be easy.
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