(Revised May 2008)

Creating formatted financial sheets with a spreadsheet is quite easy and, for this tutorial, I'll show you how to quickly create a budget sheet using any spreadsheet program.

Before we begin creating the spreadsheet, make a list of budget categories you want to include (for example, rent, food, carfare, utilities). Next, open your spreadsheet program and create a new worksheet.

Format the Spreadsheet

1.  Expand the first row to equal two to three rows in size. Type BUDGET in the first column of the first row. Select a font type and color you like and set the size to around 30 pt. Adjust the size of the row, if necessary.

2.  We'll be adding pictures to the second row, so expand it to five to six rows. Select about ten columns, starting with column two, and expand the width of the columns to accommodate small-sized images. Drag an image that represents one of your budget categories to the second column on the second row. Continue to add images for each of your categories to the columns in the row. Adjust the column widths as needed.

3.  Row three will be for category names so expand the row size to around one and a half rows. Set a font type, size and color for the category labels and set the text alignment to centered. Type a category name in each column, matching the names to the images in the previous row.

4.  The first column, starting with the fourth row, will be used for months. We'll start with January, so expand twelve rows to each equal about one and a half to two rows. Set the font type, size, style, and text color you want and then enter a month in the first column for each row.

Add Amounts and Formulas

5.  Add budget amounts for each month in the columns for rows 4-15.

6.  Skip the row after December and then expand the next row (row 17) to equal one and a half to two rows. This row will be used for totals so let's type a simple formula in the columns for each of the budget categories. In a spreadsheet, you usually begin a formula with =, use parentheses ( ) to separate different calculations and use colons (:) to indicate a range of cells. Therefore, our formula for totaling a column (let's say column B) is =sum(B4:B15). In plain English, this formula means the sum of all the values in column B from row 4 to row 15 (January through December). Type the formula in row 17, column B and copy and paste the formula into all the columns in row 17 for the rest of your budget categories.

7.  In the column after the last category total, we'll create a formula for the total of all the categories. The formula is =sum(B17:H17) where H17 is the last column with a category. Your last column of categories may be a different letter so adjust the formula if necessary.

That's all there is to creating a budget worksheet. You now know how much money you can spend until the end of the year. If the total is too high, you can adjust the amounts you allocated to some of the categories. You can also create similar sheets for income and expenses or for particular accounts. So, you don't have any excuses for not knowing why you have no money in your pocket and why you're overdrawn at the bank.

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