- An income and spending sheet for the month, split by category, ending in a single figure: what you actually kept.
- An assets and liabilities sheet - accounts, investments, property, debts - that works out your net worth.
- A history sheet where each month is a row, so the comparison between months is done by the spreadsheet rather than by your memory.
- Formulas already written: the month's savings rate and your net worth calculate themselves.
Excel template · Step 1
Monthly personal finances analysis
Before budgeting anything you need to know where you are starting from. This template is your balance sheet: what came in, what went out, what you own and what you owe, on one sheet you can repeat every month.
Download the template
- Format
- XLSX
- Size
- 30 KB
- Sheets
- 3
- Price
- Free
What's inside
How to use it
- Pick a month that has already ended, not the one you are in. Half-finished months always look better than they are.
- Fill in income with what actually landed in the account, not the gross figure on your payslip.
- Copy spending from the bank statement, not from memory. If a category is embarrassing, that is precisely the one to write down.
- Record assets and liabilities as at the closing date. An approximate value is fine; using the same basis every month is what matters.
- Do it again next month in a new row. Three months is enough to see a trend; one month is an anecdote.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Excel to use it?
Not necessarily. The file is an .xlsx and works in Excel, but it also opens in Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc and Numbers. The formulas are sums, subtractions and percentages - nothing that depends on a Microsoft-only function.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. It is a file you download and it stays on your computer. There is no account, no sync and no server involved: whatever you type into the sheet never leaves your machine.
How often should I fill it in?
Once a month, on roughly the same day. The value is not in one month’s snapshot but in the series: twelve rows say far more than one, and a fixed date is what makes the twelve happen.