If you are brilliant at keepjng financial records, please share your secrets.

[nkf]

Computer died, losing most stuff. I need to start a simple, functional spreadsheet to keep track of finances. What do you all do?

Anyone?

I keep all my financial records on Excel spreadsheets. I print them out and back them up each week.

In spending categories? Or fixed and variable expenditure.

Simple excel sheet for me too...3 sections, his, mine and joint. Recently added in a savings section which calculates our potential savings if we stick to budgets...currently forecasting 20k by May 2014- thats my deadline for mortgage deposit, so looking good!

I recently set up an excel spreadsheet for the 1st time. I managed to add the sums in cells so that I can vary payments/deductions/income/savings in each bit to keep it all balanced. It's fab, and so easy to keep track of things now. I've colour coded it all too, so I can see what is vital to pay (red), has to be paid but maybe can be juggled/delayed without too much fall out (amber), and what I can cancel with no come back if things ever get desparate for me (green). It basically lets me know what my absolute minimum is that I need to survive, with anything else above that a bonus.

Sorry, but I was most proud of my spreadsheet It's kept my on the straight and narrow ever since.

@nkf

What i do is

List every category of things you spend money on e.g. Tv Licence, Gas, House Insurance, Car Insurance, MOT...... in Col A vertically

Then use cols B - M for each month of the year horizontally

Then divide the annual cost of each by 12 to give you the monthly cost for each and enter in each of the 12 cols B-M. Then add the monthly costs for each column to give Total Monthly Outgoings.

Total income per month net - total monthly outgoings = how much you have left for the nice things in lile / savings.

That's the really simple version. Mine are quite a bit more complicated

Mine is also an excel spreadsheet, something similar to what WetAugust and Bananistheanswere has described, 12 different sheet for each month of the year, and on each year a list of what comes out (from column H, how much, and on what date of the DD for it comes out. I then have an extra column alongside it where I combine outgoing on a particular day so that if I have 2 items coming out on say the 11th then it totals up the 2 items and I can adjust each item as and when they need amending and that column automatically adjust via a formula.

This may sound a lengthy but below all this I then have columns A-E representing Transaction Date, Income, Outgoings, Balance and Funds Available (as I have an overdraft which I sometimes have to dip into.) Each row represents a day in the month, (so some sheets have 31 dates other have 30 or 28). I have a formula laid out that say D4=L4 (which is all transactions coming out on the 1st of the month.
I manually put into the income columns the amount that comes into my bank on whatever day it arrives, so the formula works out what my balance and funds available are for each day based on what income is and what outgoings are that day. Again anything that is outgoing, incoming say every 1 or 4 weeks (not quite monthly) I manually add it to the outgoing column as a + to any formula figure that is already there.

so formula on 1/3/12 under outgoing looks like =L4+44, this adds £44 onto the figures and just count down four thursdays and add the £44 to any figure (if there is one).
At the very bottom of columns and funds available I have a cell which is linked to the next sheet and so adjustments follow through to next month.

This gives me a daily account of where my bank balance should be and if I look up online banking i can see if I am deviating off at all and can forecast when money will be tight months down the line.

Thank you. I am an amateur! I don't understand half of what you are doing? U want it though. I would live to be.able to.put in dd dates and so on. Have to walk first. Break it down for me. Is it basically two columns for incoming and outgoing and the formulas are there so Excel does the calculations for you.

I use Google Docs so all our records are stored in the cloud and can't be destroyed by me throwing a pint on my hard drive .

If you're not confident with writing your own formulae

(and it's really just saying
SUM (add up) A1:500 (the range of cells in this column of figures)
subtract SUM B1:500 (next column)
= balance

or total income minus total outgoing equals balance)

...then you can use templates. Here's a list of free templates.

I also use Evernote to store receipts and statements etc.

You also need to remember to back it up to a CD every week, and put the CD somewhere else where it is not liable to be lost in the same fire, flood or burglary that might affect the PC.

At work, in the boot of the car, or in the shed will do.

I use Microsoft Money Plus. The 'Deluxe Sunset' edition is a free download here and I keep track of everything on it.... bank accounts, credit cards, investments, the mortgage, pension, savings. Cash flow function - predicting future bank balance based on current spending and regular bills - is particularly useful

I will be setting up new records this weekend. I an very grateful - and impressed. Thanks.