Tipskey - Daily Expenses Sheet Template

Posted on 2007-01-18

Daily Expenses Sheet Template

Although recording down daily expenses is a little troublesome and you may think that it is not that important, but it does help in financial budgeting. It is difficult for you not to be frugal if you record down your daily expenses because you will be surprised with the amount of money you have spent. "Hmm... now I know why my bank is always empty." It will actually make you frugal almost automatically. You may even feel proud of yourself if there are days with zero expenditure.

Besides helping you keep track of your expenses, it also serves as a diary. You would remember what you did on a certain day by looking at the things you spent. I actually retrieve my vehicle maintenance date here to to estimate whether my vehicle needs for example an oil change already.

You should update your expenses before or at the end of everyday. Anytime when you suddenly think of it, update it. Do not procrastinate or else you will waste time trying to recall the expenditure. You may highlight the ones that should not be spent or are spent by mistake while entering the figures.

You do not need accounting knowledge to perform such record. You just need to have a spreadsheet software (e.g. Excel) installed.

Explanation for the spreadsheet template
This template is not best used in hardcopy. It should be used as softcopy in computer.

"Mode" column is for you to write "Cash", "Card" or "Check" ("Cheque for UK English). If you do not use payment card and check, then you can delete the whole "Mode" column" or leave it blank. "Trigger" column is for you to write "Self", "Family" or somebody's initial. It is for you to know who triggers you to spend the money.

You can write more details by using "Insert Comment" function.

To know the total to-date, just select the cell where the last-updated total is, move the mouse pointer to the tiny black square (called 'fill handle') at the lower right corner of that cell until the pointer changes (from white cross to black), hold the left mouse button and drag down.

After one month of putting in the value, you can start doing analysis using the filter function (indicated by the down arrow button on the table heading). For example if you have "fuel" under the "Details" column and you want to know the money you spend for fuel that month, you can just click on the down arrow button on "Detail" column and choose "Fuel".

If you want to know the ten biggest expenses within a period of time, just highlight all the filled cells within that period and click "Data > Sort..." on the menu bar.

"Weekly Chart" and "Monthly Chart" sheets are included with line graph readily built-in. When you fill in at least two figures in the table (you need two points to form a line, right?), the graph will start to appear by itself.

This is how you can keep track of your expenditure. The template sheet can be modified for small company use too. Download: 1) daily_expenses.xls 2) example_expenses_2007.xls

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