Budgeting Software Spreadsheets

Budgeting software helps you manage your personal or business finances by providing easy to use templates for your financial data. Many commercial budgeting programs operate like spreadsheets, but without the complete flexibility for data manipulation you find in a true spreadsheet program. You can integrate the two program types to reach a solution that meets your financial needs.

Budgets and Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets can reduce human error by calculating your budget entries for you. You can sort your budget data according to any factor you enter into the spreadsheet for each item, such as due date, date paid, amount, expense type or individual payee. A commercial (online or offline) budgeting program may also allow you to sort or filter your budget items in this manner, so a standalone spreadsheet may not be necessary for your needs. The best program for you depends on what you want your budget to do and how you want to view the data.

Spreadsheet Software

If all you need to do is create simple budgets for daily, weekly, monthly and annual expenditures, your best bet is to go with spreadsheet software alone. The major spreadsheet programs, such as Excel, Apple's Numbers and Lotus 1-2-3, all offer free templates that include budget template options that work from within the program. Consult your program's "Help" file to learn more about the available templates for that program. Additional budgeting tools, such as check register templates and expense forecasting templates, are also available for some versions of these programs.

Commercial Budget Software

Financial software that offers detailed budget projections and tracking, such as Quicken, QuickBooks and PeachTree Accounting, should allow you to export your budget data to a separate spreadsheet program so you can perform more complex manipulations and calculations than the budget software allows. Some programs do this with a simple copy and paste method, or you may need to export the file from your finance software into a comma-separated value (CSV) or tab-delimited file. These file types arrange the data so the comma or tab characters tell the spreadsheet program where to break the data into individual cells.

Online Programs

A variety of companies offer Internet-based budgeting solutions with similar features to programs you install on your computer. These may charge one-time, monthly or annual fees for the service. As with commercial software, if you want to export your data to a more advanced spreadsheet program, you will most likely do it through a CSV or tab-delimited file. If working between the budget and spreadsheet programs is important to you, make sure the service you choose provides an export option compatible with your spreadsheet software. If you chose an online software option, make sure the company encrypts the data and uses security features equal to your bank's online security. Mvelopes and Mint are two highly rated online budget programs, both of which can export to a spreadsheet program for data storage and manipulation.

References

• NY Times Bucks: Should You Trust Mint.com?
• Quicken: How Do I Convert Quicken Reports to Other Programs Such as Excel?
• Washington Post: Challenging the Finance Software Giants
• DoughRoller: List of Personal Finance Software Options
• Budget Software Reviews: How to End Money Problems and Save Time with the Best Budget Software Programs
• PC World: Mvelopes: Save Money With This Service