I first started (15 years ago) to manage my personal finances in Excel and that worked very well (self-made spreadsheet). Then I moved to Quicken because of the planning and reporting features, but I lost some control. Now I am using a combination of YNAB (for budgeting and spending management purposes) and a spreadsheet to handle my investments, which works very well.

That’s a good question. Now that I’m trained to enter in my receipts and keep track of all my expenses, and now that my spreadsheet feels as custom as it’s going to get, I’m ready for comparisons and percentages for reporting (for things like comparing categories month to month and figuring the percentages of the categories vs. net income).

I’ll probably use the formula function in Google Docs to set something up – it will take some time, but like I posted above, I like many features of Google Docs and will probably put the time in. As far as pulling information from banks – I think you’ll just have to use GnuCash or use KMyMoney like you said – use it just what you need it for.

Sorry I don’t have better answers! I suspect that everyone who uses spreadsheets/software uses only the parts they like and customizes the rest since “one size does not fit all”. Time consuming but worth it.

Right now, I’m able to keep solid and extensive historical records, which is certainly important, but I can’t find a way with Google Spreadsheets to make the leap into getting all of the nice reports I could with a dedicated finance software setup or something like Mint.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I’ve looked into other Mint-like sites, including ones that more easily let you enter information for banks they can’t automatically pull info from, but they all seem either more complicated that I’d like or with poor interfaces. I’d like to be able to have simple ledgers, one for each account, and have each transaction assigned to a category so I can see how much I’m spending on X, Y, or Z for a particular timeframe.

I probably just need to bite the bullet and go back to GnuCash or use KMyMoney, they just seem like such overkill and I do like being able to check/manage my info from anywhere online…

When I got married last year my dear husband jumped right on board and he keeps a list by the laptop of his daily expenses for me to enter in. Now that there’s twice as much money to keep track of and so much to plan for I feel so much more empowered than I have ever felt in my life financially when I’m looking at all those figures neatly lined up and the bottom line growing more and more.

I also love that I can access Google Docs from work and when I’m out of town (and near a computer), and that it’s online so I don’t have to worry about backing it up on my computer.

I even set up my address book online in a spreadsheet and have shared it with family – it’s a nice little database of names, addresses, and phone numbers that’s easily update-able and accessible – and FREE.

AND NOW you have introduced me to the personal finance template!! While I love my own design I can see already I can further refine it using their template. So I can blame you for the several hours I’m going to spend inside this weekend in front of the computer having fun in Google Docs. :0)

P.S. After reading the above comments I’m just not sure if I’m using the term “spreadsheet” correctly but I’m going to guess you know what I am trying to say. LOL.

The credit card payoff calculator made me feel pretty good, though.

Thanks for the ideas J.D., whatever they are.
I find using a spreadsheet the most customizable method of tracking expenses and budgeting. Though I use only 4 categories: Income, Needs, Wants and Savings.

I found that humorous because of historical context — sort of how you might laugh if you heard someone say, “Your phone just calls people? That’s not really much of a phone, is it.” In this age of iPhones that are web browsers and GPSes and such.

Yes, it’s true you need a full-fledged application (Excel, etc.) to use a spreadsheet, but that doesn’t mean you need a full-fledged personal finance application. I’ve re-read this several times and think the meaning is perfectly clear. To make you happy, though, I’ve switched “full-fledged” to “specialized”.

Also, Wikipedia’s entry blurb is inaccurate. I remember my father working with paper spreadsheets when I was a boy: ledgers and the like. An individual spreadsheet referred to one specific task, much like a modern day spreadsheet file. A spreadsheet program like Excel produces spreadsheets, but is not itself a spreadsheet.

And that’s all the semantics I’m doing today…

You’re saying that (for example) an .xls file is a spreadsheet, but Excel itself is not (what is Excel, then)?

I was interpreting your post with the same definition that wikipedia gives, where Excel is a spreadsheet. Given that definition, I thought you were trivializing spreadsheet applications as less than “full-fledged”, which I found funny, considering how crucial they were to the development of the PC.

Even if you change the definition of spreadsheet to, “the file that a Spreadsheet application saves it’s data in”, you still need that “full-fledged program” (i.e. Excel) to track your spending, you just don’t need a special-purpose financial application to do it.

I’ve graduated to Mint.com and it’s really been alot simplier.

I actually prefer it over my old spreadsheet method.

I think you’re missing my point. A single spreadsheet is not a computer program. Excel is a program, but I don’t consider individual spreadsheets to be programs themselves. Quicken and Wesabe and Mint are also programs. Some people don’t want this. They already own Excel (or use Google Docs) and just want to create a new spreadsheet. That’s the differentiation I’m trying to make.

Thanks for keeping the world abreast of great financial advice, J.D.! You rock!

Check them out at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/FX102637491033.aspx

These cover not only Personal Finance, but also Small Business, Sales, and Accounting