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Personal Finance Tracker Spread Sheet $6 (Was $8) @ CompiledSanity Personal Finance

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Lowe's rate rises haven't done much to stop the inflation on the retirement age, but don't give up on your plans to retire before 90!

This formula driven and automated net worth and savings tool has been really popular on OzBargain and reddit, and hopefully you'll enjoy it too! The sheet is made to help track monthly finances and provides a bird's eye view of your financial position each month. For me, I saw the light on how much I was spending on OXO Good Grips and Victorinox knives every month (not nearly enough).

——
FAQ #1: Why should I pay money for this?
The sheet is heavily automated, has live pricing and is a one-off payment rather than a subscription. If you're really interested, feel free to join the subreddit where I take future feature suggestions (and have for the past three years) and other users can help you debug and get set up.

FAQ #2: What permissions do I need to give and what information will you get off me?
All info is full self-contained, and never leaves the sheet. If you're particularly security conscious, there are 2 versions:
- FULL: Contains the full suite of automated features, but requires a few expansive permissions for them to work.
- SLIM: Doesn't support email updates, calendar reminders or the migration feature, but doesn't require those permissions.

Further FAQs can be found here
——

Hope you like it and here's to saving to buy-out Twitter in 2024.

Related Stores

CompiledSanity Personal Finance Templates
CompiledSanity Personal Finance Templates

closed Comments

  • +10

    What does your spreadsheet actually do / what does it do better than free alternatives?
    Just answering to help with a question from last time.

    • Private financial solution compared to other cloud platforms

    • Live ETF, stock, crypto & managed fund prices & tracking

    • Property value & performance tracking dashboard

    • Loan, debt, mortgage & credit-card tracking and metrics

    • Monthly net worth & savings email updates

    • Included budgeting system

    • Automatic FIFO capital gains calculations for sold assets

    • +24

      Is there a youtube video or similar that shows how it works?

      • +2

        Many good apps or programs fail to provide this basic help. Aim it for 5 year olds. Oh and put the bosses face and profile up. Like who owns it.

      • +2

        really needs a youtube video by someone to explain how this works, I'm scratching my head wondering why i spent the $6 on something so complicated

        • +2

          Noted, and will get to work on it. Thanks for letting me know this is a gap.

      • I don’t yet have a YouTube video (now on the todo list) but I do have a guide that can step you through and explain all the screens.

    • Hi @CSPersonalFinance,
      your tracker Spread Sheet was great. However, I cannot track GOLD ETF (GOLD:ASX) on your sheet. Would you please show me how to track GOLD:ASX price for my potfolio? Many thanks

    • Hi @CSPersonalFinance, I purchased this in one of the previous deals maybe 12m ago and have yet to use it, but 2023!

      Is there any benefit to purchasing this, is it newer or updated - or does the previous version I purchased get updated too.

      I.e. to buy or not to buy? Thanks!

      • +2

        It's a one-time purchase, you can update/migrate to newer versions. So no need to buy it again if you bought it last year

    • +1

      Can you please make a Youtube video tutorial on how to set this up?

      • +1

        Now working on it. I’ll try and break out each tab and how to get the sheet setup in an easy way.

      • +1

        Here is a guide that you can use in the meantime.

  • +12

    Highly recommend this sheet. Love your work CS.

    • +41

      User name checks out.

  • Yes use this sheet as well for the last 2 years or so - been great to track my net worth

    • +16

      I'm not sure if I should be glad or sad that to track my net worth I just look at my bank "balance"…

    • +12

      My wife uses a tape measure to regularly track my net worth.

      • +10

        My wife uses a tape measure to regularly track my net worth girth.

      • +1

        What brand of calipers is her husband using?

  • +1

    I've enjoyed using this sheet. It's a bit complicated at first, but once you're up and going it's easy to deal with.

    Only issue I've had is when I update on the 1st of the month (January) it saves it to January instead of December.

    • +12

      Glad you’ve been enjoying it! To explain the date saving, the sheet relies on recording a month while still inside that month. This is so that it can cater for those who like to save at the start or the end of the month.

      In the next v2.13 update (coming soon) I’m adding a dropdown so you can better select the month.

      • +1

        Ahh I thought i was doing something wrong. Thanks for clearing that up!

      • do we get an automated update

        • +3

          As the sheet is yours to own I can never modify your sheet. But I will send you a new version, and an included migration tool will copy everything over in about 30 seconds.

      • Wow, thanks for working and developing that feature, this was the only quirky bit in the sheet.

        Thanks for developing such a nice sheet! +1 would recommend.

    • what is the from email address?

  • I use this one, highly recommend!!

  • Can definitely recommend this.

  • Another +1 from me, well worth it even when not discounted.

  • Bought ! Thanks OP my chickens will be happy

  • +1

    Any tips for pulling all your transaction data from the multiple credit card churns I do throughout the year with multiple savings accounts?

    • +9

      So this sheet works on a level higher than transactions to ensure ease of use when updating each month. I have a transaction sheet in the works (coming soon) that will integrate with this master sheet.

      I’ll also show how to integrate with OpenBanking/PocketSmith/Money management apps for automation via secured APIs.

      • +1

        If you can build or show me a tool to setup open banking that pulls all my transactions I would be one of your first customers for it. I just can't get behind paying for these subscriptions to other apps that pull it.
        I used to use pocketbook to do that and pull into my own spreadsheet, then pocketbook died.

        • +4

          Absolutely, subscription fatigue is real. In my own sheet I have integrated with my Money Management apps API as a data broker as OpenBanking can be difficult to get certification/access to.

          I’ll put together a guide to support the main common apps out there.

          • @CSPersonalFinance: Much appreciated thank you. How or where do I subscribe to get notified of when you get that out?
            The closest I have ATM is WeMoney but their extract doesn't work for open banking linked accounts. You need to provide full bank login info to get an export for some reason.

            • @knobbs: My subreddit is probably the best way as I’ll post an announcement there.

              Completely agree though, some banks are dragging their feet with OB integration. Basiq has been doing a great job and hopefully will make quick progress this year as it’s now becoming a competitive selling point.

        • +1

          rip pocketbook. i used that quite a bit until they stopped fixing bugs, implementing new features and then they simply died

  • trialling it based on the comments but yeah will be good to automate this with existing bank accounts

    • +4

      Noted and in the works. For further automation in the interim, you can use OpenBanking or the likes of Pocketsmith’s API to automatically populate balances and transactions. I’ll upload some instructions shortly.

      • +1

        Keen to see instructions for this too!

      • Please share the instruction link with us! @CSPersonalFinance

  • highly recommend this if you’re getting into or want to have some control on budgeting. It’s easy to use once you get used to everything but it does take some time as there is a lot of information and spreadsheets too look at but most of it is automated and it’s the instructions are easy to following

  • +1

    I bought this a while back and have yet to find the time to set it up. Thanks for the reminder.

  • +1

    Is there a trial version to get a feel of it before committing.

  • Purchased on back of recommendations here

  • Have heard a lot good about this. Bought it. Thanks

  • Is there an app for this so you will be able to use it on the phone?

    My computer is quite old and I'm thinking about upgrading it soon. Can you transfer it to the newer computer then or do you have to pay again?

    • Absolutely! You can use the Google Sheets app to update values, although it may require a bit of zooming.

      As for transferring since it’s a Google sheet that loads in the browser, you can just load it up on your new computer.

      • Thanks for the reply! Ohhh.. I thought it was an excel sheet! Thanks for clarifying! So it just stays linked to your google account?
        Is this the sort of infromation that hackers might want too?
        Sorry for the noob questions. I've actually seen it posted on here over the years but never purchased as I thought I didn't want to keep up with entering finances in each month, etc. Can it pull info from your bank accounts/investment accounts automatically?

        • +3

          It doesn’t pull accounts automatically but personally I find the accountability of sitting down for 10 mins every month to update everything the best part. If it was all automated I wouldn’t pay as much attention.

          • @recession1: Thanks. This is probably true. I should really start with this.

  • +1

    As much as this is okay. Seriously get into double book ledger. Gnucash, been using it for years, does everything. Free and open source.

    • +1

      Definitely a good app. Uniquely this is a flexible sheet that can be adapted by the user to their financial situation. It’s also cloud self-hosted so you can take it anywhere.

      • +1

        Ok I agree, people taking responsibility for their finances in a simple manner is better than no money management at all.
        Gnucash might be a little advanced for some, but once you get the concepts (if anything basics of accounting - money in / money out), no need to go back.

    • +5

      Xero's pricing structure is basically criminal, but Gnucash's UI/UX sends me straight into depression.

      • +2

        Haha welcome to the wonderful world of accounting, it's not meant to be sexy!

    • I tried GnuCash a few times in the past and have concluded that it is too complicated for my own personal finance management. Instead, I have been a happy user of MoneyManager Ex for more than 10 years and it suits all my needs. Open source and cross platform, highly recommended!

  • Purchased based of the feedback. I had been making my own basic budget spreadsheet but this saves me the pain.

    • now this is how to bargain…

        • +7

          you are cooked mate

  • I bought it but did not know it uses Google sheet. How would I change my email to my gmail address. Also no invites came into my other email its been over 30 minutes,

    • Please send me a PM and I can sort this out for you now.

      • Even I have sent you a PM. I didn't receive an email yet.

        • Thanks I received it!

          • @rinzlertaken: what is the subject/sender of the email?

            • +1

              @oogabooga: I actually pinged the author and the author sent me an email. Subject name is v2.12 Missing Invite

  • +1

    Can this be used by a couple together and still get individual views?

    • -7

      I went halves with a girl last time and seemed to work fine but didnt test it fully yet.

      I invested that $2-3 i saved two years ago and now it is actually $8 so I am a moving up in the world

    • I use this with my wife to track out combined finances, but we don't need individual views. The maker has some guidance online about how to set it up for a couple, but it does not provide individual views as far as I know - in that instance you would be better off buying a copy each - still cheap at $12.

    • +5

      Individual view is simply divide the finance in half as per when it’s time for divorce. Enjoy

  • +2

    Keen to buy if you have an Excel version? Don't use Google products

    • +1

      You can import it into Excel, but a lot of the automations/scripts may not fully work as they are designed for Google Sheets. But you can still use it as a framework.

  • I had issue displaying correct AUD value for USD demonimated stocks. I asked for update and did not hear back….

    • Were you using V2? If you could give me a sample ticker I can look into this for you.

      • I am also facing the same issue. I was using NYSEARCA:METV is $8.41 if I keep it AUD, if I change currency to USD it changes the price to $11.85. The actual correct price is $8.41 USD

  • +6

    Great thread, I bet this will be better than my current. Thanks for making it not a subscription.

  • This sheet can't be used for expense tracking (automatically categorise by custom rules and create expense reports)? Like PocketSmith

  • +2

    Hi @CSPersonalFinance,
    It looks great, but i am mainly looking for a budgeting spreadsheet.
    I like all the automation built in when looking at the free version, and i can see the paid version has 'Enhanced Budgeting System' rather than the standard.
    Is there a couple screenshot you can throw together or make a read only copy, or a quick video so i can see that aspect of things in the paid version by any chance?
    Happy paying full price if you dont have time during this discount period, but looking at something that i can update once a month type of thing, and just looking at the budgeting aspect really.
    Thanks.

  • +6

    Checked all the positive reviews in this thread.

    No accounts made today.

    Nice.

  • Does it require MS Excel or will it run correctly in google sheets etc

    • +1

      It is a Google sheet. You don't need Excel.

  • +24

    After spending hours entering data in all the required fields it told me that I have enough money to last me the rest of my life!……as long as I'm dead by next Friday :(

  • Hey OP, I have clicked on accept disclaimer but it just keeps running script but nothing happens. can you look into it?

    • Can you try in incognito mode and also with any ad blockers disabled? Sometimes Google Sheets has this issue particularly if you have multiple accounts logged in.

      • I do have multiple accounts logged in. I used the simple version and that worked. I will play around with it first.
        Am i able migrate to full sheet afterwards?

        • Absolutely. If you use the full version the migration tool can copy all data across.

  • +6

    Been using this for the last 18 months or so. I use it alongside Frollo (previously Pocketbook) to keep on top of our finances.

    Personally the way I use them is that this spreadsheet gives me an overview of our finances from a macro/big picture level - making sure our net worth and savings are trending in the right direction. I update it once a month (on the 1st) and then don't really engage with it the rest of the month. We're both concerned about lifestyle creep, so it's a good way to keep an eye on everything on a larger scale.

    I use Frollo to keep track of the day to day living expenses, what we're spending on each category etc. Occasionally I'll update the budget in the CS spreadsheet to reflect these changes, but I don't really use the projection functions of the spreadsheet.

    • How do you rate Frollo as compared to Pocketbook?

      Haven't been able to bring myself to set up on another platform after getting burnt by Pocketbook's close

      • I still prefer Pocketbook over Frollo, but it's not a bad alternative.

        I find there's too many categories and you can't create custom ones; an option to hide some of their existing ones would be nice.

        The other thing I don't really like is the lack of functional flexibility when it comes to displaying expenses data. Like there's no easy way to switch between weekly, monthly, 3 monthly views etc. Also things like not being able to view your combined living and lifestyle expenses over the last say 6 months.

        So I think the tracking works the same, but there's a bit lacking in terms of displaying data. I'm working on making a spreadsheet to export all this data to so I can manipulate it easier (Frollo also doesn't support exporting).

        • Damn that's a pain in the ass, half the battle is setting up the categories and having it be smart enough to figure out. No fun having to code things at the end of every week.

          • @frowny: To be fair, you can assign transactions to exisiting categories, and it does get pretty good at learning them (it took a while for filling up at United to not be categoried as travel/holidays).

            I don't find I have to re-categorise much these days, apart from something like a cafe we hadn't been to previously.

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