Monthly Expense Tracker

2008-present – Eighteen tab workbook.  Expenses are broken into thirty-four categories.  The workbook automatically keeps a running total of expenses as receipts are entered throughout the month, without any manual refresh.  The running totals are linked to a bar chart, which also automatically updates without refresh.  The running totals are also linked to a master sheet for the entire year which itself has a bar chart that automatically updates.  Category fields have data validation, so that a value outside those designated by the organization cannot be selected.  Numbers on the main annual screen contain conditional formatting.  Categories with no money spent for the month are red.  All others are black.  This draws the eye quickly to the places that matter.  Each monthly sheet also contains both vertical and horizontal collapse points.  The sheets contain significant amounts of data.  At times using the expansion points is faster and cleaner than manually scrolling across or down to a data point at the far end.  Expenses are separated into columns by money type.  At any time one can see how much has been spent for the month using cash, credit cards or debit cards.  Deposits and other credits, such redeemed customer reward points also have columns.  Auto-filters are activated on each sheet.  This allows easy search for one data point, such as all debit transactions of$42.67 in December, or display of expense categories, such as all Discover Card transactions for the month.  Each category on the main yearly sheet displays statistics.  This way the maximum, minimum, average, etc. for each expense category and month are automatically displayed.  Receipts are entered as the month progresses.  When all card statements arrive at month’s end a documented closing procedure is conducted to insure no expenses have been missed or wrongly categorized.  Workbooks from past years are archived.  When the need arises yearly expense charts from 2008 to present are generated, such as for gasoline.  All data is backed up on a regular basis to insure against loss due to file corruption.