Personal Budgeting Software: Expense Categories to Watch Report

Applies to Excel template: "Georges Budget for Excel"

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Importance of Tracking Key Spending Categories

Personal budgeting software should include reports to help you track your monthly spending and Georges Budget for Excel provides several reports and charts to help you see how you are spending your money.

The Expense Categories to Watch report allows you to track up to 5 expenses in the Accounts Summary section of the personal budgeting software. You can adjust and change the expenses that you want to watch as needed. This allows you to focus in on a few expenses that you may be struggling to keep within your budget and you do not want to overspend. The budget vs actual report spending report in this Excel template allows you to keep these spending categories in a prominent location in addition to having them listed with all expenses in separate spending by category report.

 

How to use the Expense Categories to Watch report

In the Accounts Summary sheet of Georges Budget for Excel, use the "Set" buttons in the Expense Category to Watch Report to select up to 5 expense categories to view details on. The horizontal axis of the Percent of Budget Used chart display is set to a range of 0 to 100 percent. The horizontal bars of the charts will be limited by those amounts but the percent amounts displayed are not limited by the those amounts.

 

 

 

The data used to produce the Last 6 Months column charts in the Expense Categories to Watch report is multiplied by -1 for display purposes. The Last 6 Months column charts are based on actual data (not budgeted). If the total amount for a particular month in the Last 6 Months charts is less than $0 after it was multiplied by -1, it will be displayed as $0 so that it will not distort the chart due to the charts small size.

Due to the small size of the Last 6 Months column charts in the Expense Categories to Watch report, columns in a chart that are small relative to larger columns in the chart may not be visible in the chart even though the amounts on which they are based are greater than $0 (after they are multiplied by -1).

The general purpose of the Last 6 Month column charts is to see a trend(s) in the data.

In the Last 6 Months charts if the amounts for a particular month net out the $0, they will be displayed / plotted on the chart as $0.

The Last 6 Months column charts will display the months starting with the oldest month on the left side of the chart (next to the Month-Yr column). The Last 6 Months charts include the previous 6 months and exclude the current month.

The font color of the amount in the Percent of Budget Used column in the Expense Categories to Watch Report will be red if the Actual amount is greater than the Budget amount and also when the Actual amount is greater than the Budget Amount for the partial month allocated based on percent of days within the month.

For example if $500.00 was budgeted for groceries for the entire month of June which has 30 days and it is currently June 15 and $400.00 has been spent on groceries, then the font will be red as a warning because your half way through the month so you generally may have spent approximately half your budget. However, in this example, your 50% of the way through the month but have used 80% of your budget.

If the Budget amount is equal to 0.00 and Actual amount is greater than 0.00 for a particular category, then the Percent of Budget Used will show the amount of 100% and the green bar graph will be shown at 100%.

The orange shaded bar at the bottom of the Percent of Budget Used chart in the Expense Categories to Watch report represents the percent of days (including the current day) that have passed in the current month.

There is also a vertical line that extends from the end of the orange shaded bar which can be used as a guide to where your budget stands at a given day within the month.

The date in the Actual column in the Expense Categories to Watch report is the current date (if it is not, click the Refresh Date button on the Accounts Summary sheet or check your computers calendar date to make sure it is correct).

The date in the Budget column in the Expense Categories to Watch report is the end of month date for the current month (if it is not, click the Refresh Date button on the Accounts Summary sheet or check your computers calendar date to make sure it is correct).

The Expense Categories to Watch, Income Statements reports and charts, and the Category Report and Chart rely on your computers date. If the calendar date or time is incorrect, the reports and charts may be incorrect. Make sure your computers calendars date and time are correct.

If macros are enabled, the date located in the Expense Categories to Watch report in the column titled Actual is updated to match your computers date when you open Georges Budget for Excel. If necessary, click the "Refresh Date" button to update the date in the Expense Categories to Watch report in the column titled Actual to match your computers date.

This date is also updated when you click a macro button named Accounts Summary that takes you to the Accounts Summary sheet and when you click a macro button named Reports & Charts that takes you to the Monthly Actual vs Budget Report.

Since the date in Expense Categories to Watch report only updates when you open Georges Budget for Excel and also when updates you click a macro button named Accounts Summary and also updates when you click a macro button named Reports & Charts, it may be necessary to click the "Refresh Date" button if your computers calendar date changes while you are using Georges Budget for Excel.

Actual Expenses are multiplied by -1 for display purposes in the Expense Categories to Watch, Income Statement reports / charts, and Category Reports and Charts in the Accounts Summary Sheet.

The data in the reports / charts on the Accounts Summary sheet are based on all the Registers in Georges Budget for Excel.

Do not edit or delete data directly in the cells of the Accounts Summary Sheet.

Click one of the buttons to make any changes.

Do not copy or move data within or into the Accounts Summary sheet. 

 

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