Keeping track of your finances on paper can get very messy, very fast. Human error, disorganization, and misplaced files are just some of the problems you can encounter.
Instead of doing things the old-fashioned way, turn to Google Sheets to bring order to your messy filing cabinet. The following Google expense trackers and templates can help you manage all aspects of your finances.
How to Find and Install More Google Sheets Templates
As you may already know, Google Sheets comes with a bunch of helpful add-ons and templates. Before we get to our list, it’s important to know how to locate the templates in the first place.
Head to the main Google Sheets page, and you’ll see a heading that reads Start a new spreadsheet. Under this heading, you’ll find the default template gallery that you can expand and scroll through. Clicking on any of these spreadsheets will create a new document using that specific layout.
Since Google Sheets alone doesn’t offer every type of template for personal finances, you can install handy Google Sheets add-ons and download pre-built Sheets to give you more templates. This list includes default Google personal finance templates, as well as templates from third-party sites and add-ons.
1. Monthly Budget by Google Sheets
When you own a business, have a family, or are an individual on a tight budget, it’s important to keep track of your monthly budget. You can find the Monthly Budget template in the default template gallery, and it’s easy enough for anyone to use.
This Google expense manager comes with bar graphs and statistics that allow you to visualize your savings or expenditures. Set your budget for the month, and input the amount of money you plan to spend on food, gifts, utilities, transportation, and any other expenses you might have. After you input your total income, the sheet will compare your budget to your total savings.
Remember, you can also create a personal budget with Microsoft Excel Make a Personal Budget With Microsoft Excel in 4 Easy Steps Do you have so much debt that it will take decades to pay off? Make a budget and use these Excel tips to pay off your debt sooner. Read More just as easily.
2. Credit Account Register by Vertex42
To obtain a copy of this template, you’ll have to download the Vertex42 Template Gallery from the G Suite Marketplace. After that, you can access several templates right from a blank spreadsheet.
Head to Add-ons on the top menu bar, hover over Template Gallery and click Browse Templates. Once the Template Gallery opens, click Personal Finance > Credit Account Register, and you’ll receive a copy.
This detailed template works just like a check register, except its just for credit card purchases. Enter your credit limit along with any balance you owe. You can also add any interest, account fees, and payments. The template will then automatically calculate your available credit and utilization ratio.
3. Home Expense Calculator by Vertex42
Planning on buying a new home? Use the Home Expense Calculator by Vertex42 to predict the total cost. You can access this template by downloading the Vertex42 Template Gallery add-on using the steps above. This template is perfect for first-time buyers, as it incorporates all the possible factors that go into buying a house.
Using this template, you can enter the price of the home, your down payment, the mortgage length, mortgage interest rate, your annual property tax, loan amount, and any home improvement costs. With all that data, the template will calculate your monthly payments and estimated taxes.
4. Savings Calculator by Vertex42
Vertex42’s Template Gallery is one of the best Google budget apps, and its pre-built Savings Calculator template doesn’t disappoint. This Google Sheets savings template makes it easy for you to figure out how much interest you can earn from your savings over time.
All you have to do is enter the length of time you want to invest, the initial investment amount, your deposit amount, and the interest rate. The template will then show you how much money you’ll have in that account after a specific range of time, along with a line graph portraying your savings information.
5. College Student Budget Template by Smartsheet
If you’re a financially-savvy college student, you might use Reddit forums for financial questions The 12 Best Subreddits About Finance Want real-time news? Investment advice? Tax information? Here are the best subreddits dedicated to finance and money management. Read More , but that’s not all you should use. Get a copy of the College Student Budget Template by Smartsheet to get a clearer picture of your finances. This template helps you keep track of all your expenses, not just your tuition and student loans. Plus, it can get you acquainted to the world of finances before you graduate.
This Google budget tracker separates your finances into three separate semesters. First, enter your income—you can add the money you receive from grants, scholarships, parents, and your own salary. You’ll then have to add in any expenses from transportations, school, daily living, entertainment, and health. The template will calculate how much money you’ll have left over, giving you an idea of how much you should spend each month.
6. Retirement Calculator by Arnexa
Retirement is full of unknowns, and it’s best to get your finances figured out before you take the leap. The Retirement Calculator by Arnexa gives you a detailed prediction of your financial situation after you retire. The template requires you to enter information about your age, your partner’s income, any pensions you’ll receive after retirement, your financial assets, and your possible expenses.
Using this data, the template will automatically generate how much money you’ll have after retirement—now you’ll know which expenses you can and can’t afford.
7. Wedding Budget Template by Brideside
While you can use wedding planner apps The 8 Best Wedding Planner Apps for the Perfect Day You don't have to pay someone to plan your wedding. These wedding planner apps for Android and iPhone let you manage it all. Read More to keep track of the budget for your big day, you can also use Google Sheets to get a better idea of your budget. Brideside’s Wedding Budget Template lets you start planning your expenses by adding your estimated costs—this includes everything from the price of the couple’s attire, the ceremony itself, and the flowers.
Wedding expenses add up fast, and failing to plan for this can result in spending more than you intended. This Wedding Budget template will let you know if you’ve stayed within your budget, or if you went a bit overboard.
Google Expense Tracker Templates Keep Finances Simple
As you can see, there are all kinds of creative and useful ways to use spreadsheets to manage your money, and you don’t have to start from scratch to get it done. Browse through the templates section in Google Sheets 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!
Need more help managing your money? Check out these personal finance websites 5 Sites to Learn Personal Finance Basics and Manage Your Money Saving money is a vital resolution for any stage of life. Learn basic personal finance management skills with these sites. Read More and these personal finance YouTube channels 5 Personal Finance YouTube Channels to Help You Manage Your Money Do you need to start managing your money better? Then these personal finance YouTube channels will help you get started. Read More for more advice.
Explore more about: Financial Technology, Google Docs, Google Drive, Money Management, Personal Finance, Save Money, Spreadsheet.
I can't find the link to the last one and it's the one I need
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:
[Broken Link Removed]
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?