Managing money. What a waste of time, isn’t it? The problem is, if you don’t manage it, you end up without it. Not much fun. So, how about a few useful money management tools to help you get started right inside your Google Drive account?
Google Drive. It’s like that file drawer that you keep stuffing full of new files, and never stop to consider whether what you’re putting in there is even very useful. Your Google Drive should have things that make your life more organized, more efficient and in a word…better.
One of the things that can improve your life is effective money management 10 Interactive Financial Websites That Teach Kids Money Management Skills 10 Interactive Financial Websites That Teach Kids Money Management Skills Talking to kids about money can be difficult, but these interactive websites make it easier and more fun with games, activities, and quizzes. Read More . Unfortunately, a vast majority of people out there fail miserably in that regard. So, while you’re creating Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Drawings, why not save yourself some time when it comes to your finances, and make use of a few pre-made templates to kickstart your financial planning?
Google Drive Templates for Money Management
For starters, Google Drive comes with a really cool library of integrated Google Drive apps Making the Most of Google Drive With Integrated Apps Making the Most of Google Drive With Integrated Apps Google Drive can be used to sync files between your computers, but that’s just one of its many features. Google wants Google Drive to be your new cloud hard drive, accessible from any device. To... Read More that you can use to enhance your experience.
The app that you’re looking for in this case is one called “Drive Template Gallery”. It’s an app that gives you access to the Google Drive template gallery straight from the “Create” menu.
Once you access the “Templates” gallery, you can search for each of the following money management templates to make use of them.
1. Family Budget Planner by ExcelTemplateSource.com
Creating a budget is hard enough, but creating a budget for a family is sometimes like trying to come up with the national budget. You’ve got utility bills, car and travel expenses, and the kids have lessons and school expenses. The list goes on and on. It’s no wonder so many families find themselves living from month to month, wondering where all the money went.
It doesn’t have to be that way, and the Family Budget Planner template is a really good first step.
It’s crazy how thorough this template is. It includes just about every bill or utility a typical family would have to deal with. All you have to do is fill in the colored fields in each section for each month. Totals are calculated for you, and your balances at the bottom show you your overall financial health. Stay out of the negative zone…
What’s cool about this template is that there’s a second tab for a rental property.
Ideal for people who’ve invested in such a property. This is where you can track all of the expenses, income and profit from the property.
2. The Personal Budget Tracker by Joao Cunha Jeronimo
If you’re more of the visual type, then you’ll definitely want to opt for The Personal Budget Tracker. Just like the Family Budget Planner, this tracker gives you a budget form where you can fill out all of your monthly expenses and everything.
The difference is that this template has a second tab where all of the monthly data goes – so the first tab is your worksheet and the second is your actual monthly tracking data. All totals are automatically calculated.
Best of all though, are the visualizations of your financial data. This is just awesome stuff. You’ll find charts for your actual tracking numbers versus your budgeted numbers across different metrics like income versus expenses or your various bills.
It’s really useful to see how close your tracking numbers are to your budget, because when you see that your “Entertainment” budget is nearly surpassing the budgeted amount, it’s a lot harder to make up an excuse why it’s okay to go to the movies or go out for dinner.
3. Savings Calculator by Vertex42.com
Once you’ve established a budget, you’ll want to make good use of all that spare money that you’ve been able to create. This is where the Savings Calculator template comes into play.
You can use this template to type in how many years you have left to retirement, how much you’ve invested so far “Initial Investment”, estimated interest rate and everything else. Then, you can watch as the calculator template shows you exactly how much you’ll have saved up 10 Great Apps To Manage And Save Money In 2014 10 Great Apps To Manage And Save Money In 2014 Since your smartphone is always with you, it’s a great resource for monitoring your budget, calculating interest or finding coupons. Read More every single year from now until your retirement.
Feel like you won’t have enough at retirement? Well then go back to your budget, tweak things to create more spare money, and then rework the numbers in the Savings Calculator so that you’re wealthier once it’s time to retire!
4. Monthly Budget Planner by Trevor Jones
What if you don’t have all kinds of expendable cash on hand? What if you are already barely making ends meet, plus you have loads of debt holding you back. What can a budget template do for a poor soul like you?
Well, a lot actually. If this is your situation, I’d recommend taking a look at the Monthly Budget Planner.
This budget has a similar spreadsheet like the others, except it’s much more detailed and actually shows you the yearly totals for your monthly budgeted amounts. It can be pretty eye-opening to see that the $25 magazine subscription that you don’t think much about actually turns into a $300 yearly cost.
Over to the right side of the budget sheet, you’ll find a category breakdown of expenses. Again, this gives you a better feel for where you’re spending most of your money, and whether it might be possible to start shifting money from things like “Life” over to things like “Debt Repayment”.
That Debt Repayment Get Ready For Zero Debt With ReadyForZero Get Ready For Zero Debt With ReadyForZero What do you do if you find yourself chest deep in debt? Wouldn't it be nice to have a tool that does the debt management for you? There is such a tool called ReadyForZero. Read More section is there for a good reason, because on another tab of this spreadsheet, you’ll find a very valuable debt repayment schedule. This is a fantastic place for you to see just how much your debt is costing you, and how much money you’re wasting by only paying the minimum payments.
The “Total Interest Paid” column can get pretty shocking to see as well.
5. Invoice Tracking by Jeremy Caplan
A list of creative money management templates should definitely include the Invoice Tracking form by Jeremy Caplan. This is especially useful for anyone that runs a business or otherwise has to accept payments from people or clients. You use the template to design the form with the details you need.
Once you’re done, click on the link to the live form and you’ll see your new invoicing form available right on the web.
Now you’ve got the most convenient method available to type in your invoicing details from anywhere. Received a payment from a client while on the road? Just use your smartphone to visit your online invoice form, type in the details, and it’s recorded in your Google Drive. Done.
6. Wedding Budget Planner by Aurang Zeb
Got a wedding coming up? Don’t leave the budget to chance. Bad things happen when you do that. Plan ahead and use the Wedding Budget Planner template.
Before you start shopping around for your wedding, go down the list and put in a realistic estimate of how much you expect each item to cost. Once you’re done, you’ll have an actual total to work with and plan for. This is how much money you’ll need for your wedding. Then, as the day approaches and you start buying things, fill in those values in the “Actual” column, and watch to make sure that you aren’t going over budget.
7. Checkbook Register by Brian Aquinto
I stopped using a check register when I was in college, mostly because with ATM’s available everywhere, where I could just check my balances, the checkbook register felt kind of stupid. Plus I was lazy.
Well, it didn’t take long to learn the hard lesson of an overdraft to realize why a register is so important. Keeping track of what the balance should be is critical, and to get away from the silly paper register, you can use the Checkbook Register template in Google Drive.
This template looks, feels and smells just like an actual check register, minus the ink smudges and scribbles. You type in the date of the transaction, the description and the total, and the register template takes care of subtracting or adding the amount from your previous balance. Access the sheet from your smartphone, and you’ve got a perfect digital check register in your pocket.
8. Vacation Budget and Trip Planner by Vince Schneider
By far, one of the most expensive activities in life is vacation. We all work so hard to save up for it, and then we blow most of our money while we’re trying to “relax”. It’s like a vicious cycle, but almost everyone does it. Well, why not try to take a vacation without putting yourself in debt? Use the Vacation Budget and Trip Planner to plan out your entire trip, including the whole itinerary, estimate all of the costs, and be prepared for the financial demands the trip is going to put on you.
The main sheet lets you go down through and develop your entire itinerary, including the costs for each stop and what it costs to travel there. However, the next tab is really my favorite. This is your “travel dashboard” — the place where you can see a really cool visual breakdown of expenditures on your trip and where the bulk of your money is going.
It’s so easy to just head out on a vacation blind, and hope that you’re going to have enough money, but using a template like this one, you can sort everything out ahead of time, so that when you’re finally on your vacation, you can actually relax and enjoy it.
9. Vehicle Expense Sheet by Prem Aseem Jain
Second to vacations in the realm of over-priced things, is the automobile. Between registering, insuring, maintaining and fueling the stupid things, they pretty much drain the heck out of your budget. They are a necessary evil, but at least you can track how much your car is draining you by using the Vehicle Expense Sheet template.
This is actually a useful way to digitize the travel records you need to keep when you use your car as part of your business needs. Vehicle expenses come into play at tax time, and this data is invaluable.
It not only helps you track your overall vehicle expenses, it also plots them out for you over time, showing you potential seasonal patterns in those expenses. Maybe even revealing ways you can cut down on things like maintenance or fuel costs by planning trips at different times of the year?
What’s cool about this expense is that it considers the “bike” to be a vehicle, which I guess in some parts of the world it really is.
There’s a special section on each sheet just for your bike expenses as well, if you have one.
10. Rent and Expenses by Google Docs
The final template is no less cool than the rest. In fact, it’s a sheet that I wish I had in college back in the day. If you split rent with other people, this spreadsheet can help you track all of the expenses associated with renting a property, and then splitting those expenses between 2-3 people.
The bottom part of the sheet helps break down how people should get paid back if one or two people initially paid the rent. You can use this area to track how much the roommates owe that person for paying more than their share of the rent.
As you can see, there are all kinds of creative and useful ways to use spreadsheets and forms to manage your money, and you don’t have to start from scratch to get it done. Browse through the templates section in Google Drive and load in a pre-made template. This way, you can spend less time creating a budgeting spreadsheet from scratch, and spend more time making money!
Do you have any favorite money management templates in Google Drive? Share your personal favorites and tips in the comments section below.
I recommend Tiller Money - it’s the only service that automatically imports bank balances and financial data into a Google Sheet daily.
Found this a little late I guess. I really want to try using #4 but can't find it. Have the templates changed over the years since this add-on came out?
How about formulas?
Great overview Ryan. I'll have to dig into a number of these templates. I was using Mint and other tools to manage our personal budget, but decided to go the custom, homegrown route as well. Here, the overview to the template that I made:
http://www.mindfulsearching.com/manage-your-personal-budget-with-google-sheets/
It may still have a few kinks to work out, but it's been great for my wife and I so far!
I was looking for an app for while, but ended up with setting up a simple google form that captures expense records and saves it in excel file in the drive. Also sent link for form to my wife so transaction are saved in same file. It easy set everything up and analyse afterwards. And the main thing it is fully customizable and free ))
I have posted step by step instructions with screenshot here:
http://hitech-us.com/articles/entry/23/How-to-create-your-custom-budget-tracker
I attempted to use the first #2. The Personal Budget Tracker by Joao Cunha Jeronimo, but for the life of me I can't figure out where to input individual purchases on a daily basis.
Seems great if you know how much you want your budget to be and if you can input expenses on a monthly basis. Any search of Google for a Google product only returns with more links to other Google products. Kind of a weird glitch in their system.
Why can't I delete this comment?
That's stupid.
Hey Jason, I'm the comment mod around here, happy to delete both your comments if you want. Should I go ahead with that?
That's a great article!
How do I get the checkbook register on my drive? I can't find it anywhere. There's a mobile app for phones/tablets, but I am looking for something that integrates with the drive on my PC.
Thanks much!
How much information is tracked to influence advertising. With all the *custom* ads already, it's hard to believe someone is not watching.
Great options! But what bride was buying that 14,000 dollar wedding dress?? She wouldn't be using her own app if she can afford that much for a dress! lol
Underlying fear about the costs for when my own daughters get married must have forced me to tack a "0" on the end of that. :-)
I think #4 should be "Monthly budget planner", not "Money budget planner". Thanks for the great info; I plan to put this into use.
Thanks for the catch Brian.
Great article - however, needs some proof reading. I think you owe it to your own integrity and your readers to check the copy:
....... the $25 magazine subscription that you don’t think much about actually turns into a $300 monthly cost.
Is this 12 magazines a month or year?
Vehicle 'expensive' come into play at tax time?
I noticed another but could not find it with a quick search.
These spoil the good work done in the article, I think. Others may beg to differ - but it is my opinion that errors should be excluded from a published document.
Thanks for the catches Peter. All fixed.
Great Job Ryan finding all this great resources, and if you don't mine I would like to add one that I have been using for quite sometime and the best thing it is FREE.
If you guys remember, Microsoft had its own software for managing money and they stopped supporting it since 2008-2009. And the best part is that they are now offering their product for free download. You can check the link below:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/search/DownloadResults.aspx?q=money%20plus%20sunset
I have been using it since 2006 till now and I would recommend it to everyone.
Nice, these are neat.
thanks Ryan, nice tools. Never knew about them.
See this is one of the most useful articles that's been made.
Great tools!
But it's only budget, I now another 2 tool that combine money management and budgeting: pearbudget (xls template) and vortex42 money manager. Vortex seems better for me
Vortex42 has some amazing resources in general.
The timing of this article was spot on... I'm currently looking for just these kind of templates...
Thanks :)
Nice tools. I prefer to automate data entry by linking all my accounts in mint.com
Thanks - you know I've tried Mint and I guess I just can't get the hang of it. Feels too limiting sometimes - like I can't quite get it to show the financials the way I think about my budget. Instead Mint wants to auto-calculate a lot of pages that I really don't want calculated...
You getting paid by intutit or you just give away advertising
Great roundup of tools. I feel the same way about Mint, Quicken, etc. Just not quite what I want. I always seem to need something a little more customised.
@Karl: I just mentioned mint because it has worked for me, but there are other free alternatives online (quizzle, creditkarma).
The main limitation of the budget tools presented in this article is that you have to enter the information in a spreadsheet. This can be time consuming. I did this for a while but gave up after a few months. OTH these online services let you link all your accounts (checking, credit cards, mortgage, loans) and make data entry automatic. You can also personalize them (exclude some items you don't want in your budget).
Full disclosure: I don't personally own any shares of Intuit nor have been paid by them to promote their product ;)
This is awesome, Ryan! I've been looking at different apps I might use for this purpose- looks like you've saved me some time and cash! Great article! :)
Thanks - the nice thing for me is that instead of being tied to one computer using an Excel solution, I like the fact that I can access these solutions from anywhere since they're on GDrive. Glad you liked them!
so where the hell are the links to these sheets?