A couple of general notes:
- There are four tabs: Summary, Budget, Configuration, and Tax Information
- The "correct" order to do things in is Configuration -> Tax Information -> Budget -> Summary
- If you click on a cell with a formula in it, that is probably the wrong place to make changes! (As with any good rule, there are exceptions to this)
- I'm open to suggestions and ideas on how to improve this spreadsheet and make it more useful. If you have questions or suggestions about the guide, please let me know. I'm also open to the idea that there are formula errors that need to be fixed too!
Configuration
Bank Account Information
ID - This is a short and unique identifier to give each account. It will be used on the budge sheet to identify which account is designated for each budget item. eg GC => ID for general checking
Account Name - This is the "friendly" name of the account. It will be automatically copied to the Budget tab.
Bank - This is the name of the bank where the account resides (may be useful to use URLs and/or hyperlinks if you do a lot of online banking)
Account Type - Checking, Savings, Retirement, Investment, HSA, etc
Account Purpose - If you need to add a description to remind you what this account does. eg "Big emergency fund", "College savings for child 1", etc
Paychecks
Paychecks/Year - This is the value that is used to calculate the ~amt/check column of the Budget. It does NOT have to match all the income sources listed (or any for that matter), it just has to be the number you want to run your ~amt/check calculations with.
Tax Information
NOTE: The information on this page is just to give you a ballpark idea what your taxes are going to be at years end. They won't be 100% accurate, but assuming everything is properly filled out they should be within an acceptable margin of error. They should probably not be used to calculate withholding amounts though!
Federal Tax Brackets
Fill it in with the appropriate information based on the filing type you'll be using. It comes pre-filled with married filing jointly. If you're filing as something else, look it up with Google and adjust the table values accordingly.
State and Local Brackets
Fill it in with the appropriate information based on the state and county you live in. It comes pre-filled with Allen County, IN. Google and adjust the table values accordingly.
Other Cells
Taxable Income - This is the calculated total income after subtracting the greater of itemized deductions (eg charitable giving, 401k, etc) or standard deduction
Total Income Tax Rate - This is the sum of the calculated federal, state, and local rates.
Total Estimated Taxes - This is the approximate amount you should expect to pay in taxes.
Budget
Columns
NOTE: The "calculation root" is the cell that is used to base other amount calculations off of. It is denoted by bold text. eg For a monthly expense, the ~amt/mo column entry is bold. The other two columns (~amt/check and ~amt/year) are calculated from the ~amt/mo value. Similarly if the ~amt/check was the known value and entered as the calculation root, the ~amt/mo and ~amt/year would be calculated from this value. To change the calculation root column, find an existing value that uses the same calculation root and copy it to the new line item.
Category - Broader categories to help organize Budget Items. Must match the category listed on the summary page for this value to be used by the Summary tab to calculate the category summaries. Special (reserved) categories are "Income", "Taxes", and "Transfer" (basically anything above the split).
Budget Item Name - Name of line item. Not used in any other calculations.
Is Tax Deductible - Does this item qualify for an itemized tax deduction. This column is used to help calculate the tax information.
Account Code - The designation of which account this comes out of. I recommend appending a -A for automatic transaction and a -M for manual transactions. Required for other calculations to work.
Is Amount Variable - Does this amount fluctuate significantly month to month. Things that go up annually are probably still not variable.
~amt/mo - The amount spent on this category each month. If this is the "calculation root", I recommend making it bold.
~amt/check - The amount spent on this category each pay period (as entered in the paychecks/year field of the Configuration tab). If this is the "calculation root", I recommend making it bold.
~amt/year - The amount spent on this category each year. If this is the "calculation root", I recommend making it bold.
Interval - The frequency with which the transaction occurs. eg weekly, bi-weekly, semi-annually, etc. This value is not used in any calculations and is purely informational.
Transaction Date - The date(s) or day(s) that the transaction occurs. For example, monthly transactions might be "1st", semi-annual might be "May 15 & Oct 15", etc. This value is not used in any calculations. It is purely informational.
Last Updated - When was the last time this field was update (unfortunately, date must be updated manually). It turns red if it's been over a year since it was updated.
Notes - Any additional notes/thoughts/information about this item
Rows
Rows above the black line are considered special. This is where income, taxes, and transfer information lives. Rows below the split are the budget items.
Income - Anything labeled income will be added to the values in the black split line. If you want a different value for the number of paychecks/year, enter it manually in the formula for the ~amt/paycheck column. The amounts here should be pre-tax amounts. If you have other things automatically taken out of your paycheck I recommend putting those things in as line items in the budget (as opposed to entering a reduced amount for your paycheck)
Taxes - Everything in this row is calculated. There should be no need to enter anything here. If you do not want to use any calculated tax information, you can delete this row or manually overwrite the formulas.
Transfers - Signifies the account that is handling budget items. Enter the account ID and the name, ~amt/x columns will be auto-populated based on information entered in other areas of the workbook.
Income vs Outflow - This is the "split" line between the special rows and the general budget. This displays the total of the rows labeled "income" minus everything else. If the result isn't positive, you may have to do some reworking of your budget!
Summary
Monthly Budget Summary
Net - This is the amount left over after all your income and expenses. This row will be green if you are at or above the threshold set on the Configuration tab, yellow if you're less than the threshold but greater than or equal to 0, and red if your budget has you ending up negative. This amount should match the split line from the Budget tab. If it doesn't match, it probably means you missed a category or didn't assign an account to a budget item.
Income - Sum of all monthly "Income" category items from Budget tab
Taxes - Monthly tax amounts from Budget tab
Expenses - Sum of all categories below on the Summary tab
Categories - Sum of items matching the category name from Budget tab
