Keeping personal accounts with MS Excel

lukechad · 19 Dec 2010 at 17:03

Right, I am just about to move into my first house with my GF, and I have decided to keep a track of monthly expenses for the household as all income/outgoings will be from a single account.

I basically only need, Date, Credit (income), Debit (outgoing), Details, and final balance.

I just want a very basic system that I can just input a figure and it will know to either add it to the total figure or subtract it depending on which column i place the figure in.

I have looked online and found loads of templates but they are far too complex for what I require.

If I could be pointed in the right direction or if someone with some basic MS Excel knowledge could knock up a sheet with the formula inserted I would be very grateful.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

J.B · 19 Dec 2010 at 17:05

If all the bills are coming out of a single account could you not just use online banking?

lukechad · 19 Dec 2010 at 17:07

Yes we have online banking, its more for keeping a track of what we have left for spending once utilities have gone out which I would enter at the beginning of each month, so not to leave us in a position of thinking we have more money than we have left, if that makes sense?

gillywibble · 19 Dec 2010 at 18:07

The way I do it is to list debits in date order, then have a sub total (=sum(cellrange:cellrange).

Then have a credits underneath with again a sub total, and finally use =sum(creditsubtotal cell - debitsubtotal cell) replacing cell with the range specified.

It's very basic stuff, but should be suitable for your needs. I can set you one up but don't have Office on this machine.