You’re in. Let’s get you set up.
Thanks for buying the Personal Finance Tracker — and for opening this page from inside your workbook. Everything here is to help you use it: a short video to get started, quick answers to the questions people ask most, and a real person on the other end of the email whenever you need one.
Up and running in about five minutes.
The 60-second walkthrough — watch the whole dashboard fill in from a handful of entries.
Or follow the same steps the 👋 Start Here tab walks you through:
Set up your details
On the ⚙️ Setup tab, add your name, pick your currency, and tweak the category & account lists that feed every dropdown.
Add your accounts
Enter each account and its starting balance on Bank Accounts — everything else builds from here.
Enter your income
Add each paycheck once with its pay schedule; the year’s paydays fill in for you.
List your regular bills
Put rent, utilities and insurance on Recurring Expenses — they post automatically each month.
Track day-to-day spending
Jot everyday purchases on Variable Expenses as you go.
Set a budget
Give each category a monthly limit on Monthly Budget — that powers “Safe to Spend” on your dashboard.
Type in the light cells
The darker shaded cells are locked and do the math — explore freely, you can’t break anything.
Use the dropdowns
Click a cell for the little arrow and pick from the list. Add your own options on the Setup tab.
Everything as a positive number
The tracker works out money in vs money out from the Type or Category you choose.
Nothing touches your bank
No logins, no linking, no data leaving your computer. You enter exactly what you want to track.
If something isn’t behaving
A yellow bar says “Enable Editing.”
Click it once. Excel shows this on any downloaded file — until you do, typing and the dropdown menus stay switched off.
My typing keeps getting rejected.
That cell uses a dropdown. Click it, use the little arrow, and choose a value. Need an option that isn’t there? Add it on the ⚙️ Setup tab and it appears everywhere.
I can’t type in a cell at all.
It’s a calculated cell — one of the darker shaded ones — and it’s locked on purpose. Type only in the light cells; the rest fill in for you.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the file to Google Drive and open it. The built-in guidance shows up as little cell notes you can hover over.
A bill is flagged overdue.
On Recurring Expenses, fill in Last Paid for any bill that isn’t on autopay — or type X to assume it’s always paid on time. Autopay bills look after themselves.
It’s a new year — what now?
Save a copy to keep last year’s history, then update the Budget Year on the ⚙️ Setup tab. There’s a reminder inside the file too.
Three tabs, one simple rule
Regular bills
Rent, utilities, insurance — anything that repeats on a schedule. Enter it once and it posts every month.
Streaming & apps
Netflix, Spotify, the gym — recurring memberships live on their own tab so you can see what they add up to.
Everyday spending
Groceries, gas, dining out — the one-off purchases you make as you go through the week.
Want the detail on a specific tab?
Our tab-by-tab guide explains what every tab does and what each field means — open the one that matches your edition.
Stuck on something? Just ask.
We read and reply to every message — usually the same day. No bots, no ticket numbers, no runaround. If your tracker isn’t doing what you expect, tell us what you’re seeing and we’ll sort it out.
Thomason.solutions@gmail.com
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Complete adds a debt-payoff planner, net-worth history, subscriptions, cash-flow forecasting, sinking-fund goals and year-end charts — the same familiar workbook, with every tab unlocked.
See what Complete adds