Core Edition User Guide · all 11 tabs

A guided tour of every tab.

Your Core Edition has 11 tabs — the essentials for budgeting, with nothing extra to learn. This page walks through all of them: what each one is for, and for the tabs you type into, what every field means. It's the same guidance built into the workbook's cell notes, gathered in one place.

Light cells = you fill in

Type only in the light cells. The darker, shaded cells calculate themselves and are locked — you can't break them.

Use the dropdowns

Many cells have a list. Click the cell for its arrow and pick a value; add your own options on the ⚙️ Setup tab.

Amounts are positive

Enter every amount as a positive number. The tracker works out money in vs money out from the Type or Category you choose.

Enter things once

A bill, a paycheck, an account — you enter it once and every tab that needs it updates automatically.

Contents

Jump to any tab

Overview
Input
Analysis
Overview

Your money at a glance

Where you land and where you check in. These two tabs summarize everything the rest of the workbook calculates — you don't type into them.

👋 Start Here

↑ Contents

The guided setup. A short checklist walks you through the handful of things to fill in first, ticking each step off as you complete it and showing an "all set" banner when you're done.

What it shows you
  • A live checklist — set your details, add accounts, enter income, list bills, log spending, set a budget — each with a ✓ / ○ status.
  • A progress bar and a button to jump straight to the ⚙️ Setup tab.
  • A short welcome with how it works and a contact link, so you're never stuck.

📊 Dashboard

↑ Contents

Your month at a glance — a clean summary that fills in automatically as you use the other tabs. Every section title is a link that jumps to the tab behind it.

What it shows you
  • Account Balances across your accounts, with your total cash.
  • This month: income (net pay + deposits), spending (bills + variable), the net difference, and your savings rate year-to-date.
  • A spending heatmap — your top categories, month by month.
  • Top Spending this year, ranked so your biggest categories are obvious.
  • Every figure fills in from your entries — nothing to maintain.
Input

Where you type your numbers

The heart of the workbook. Fill these in and everything else — the dashboard, your totals and your budget — builds itself. Below, each column is explained exactly as its in-cell note describes it.

⚙️ Setup

↑ Contents

Make the workbook yours. Your profile settings plus the master lists that feed every dropdown in the file — set these first and the rest of the tabs speak your language.

What you enter
Owner / Household
Your name or household — shows on the Dashboard title and ticks off Step 2 on Start Here.
Budget Year
The year you're tracking — e.g. 2026. Holiday dates follow it.
Currency Symbol
Your currency symbol, used across the whole workbook. Pick from the list.
Currency Code
Your 3-letter code — e.g. USD, GBP, EUR.
Savings-Rate Goal
Your target savings rate — e.g. 20%. The Dashboard compares your actual rate to this.
Emergency Fund Goal
Your goal in months of expenses — e.g. 6.
Low-Balance Warning
Warn me if any account drops below this — e.g. 500. Set 0 to turn the warning off.
Expense Categories
Rename or add your spending categories here — they feed the category dropdowns on every tab.
Accounts
One list that feeds every account dropdown — Income, Variable Expenses and Bank Accounts. Rename or add your own and every tab updates.
There's a second row of lists lower down (users, account/deposit types, and the holiday list). They already hold sensible defaults — edit them only if you want to.

🪙 Income

↑ Contents

Your paycheck planner. Enter each income source once with its pay schedule, and the whole year's paychecks fill in automatically — take-home and all.

What you enter
Source
Name this income — e.g. Salary, Side Job. Pick from the list or add your own on Setup.
Pay Type
Salaried = fixed salary (Rate = gross per paycheck, leave Hours blank). Hourly = paid per hour (Rate = hourly wage, Hours = hours per period). Bonus = a one-off / periodic bonus (Rate = the gross amount).
Frequency
How often you're paid; paychecks fill in automatically. Two semi-monthly types: "Semi-monthly" = pay date + 15 days; "(1st/15th)" = the 1st & 15th each month.
First Pay Date
The date of your FIRST paycheck this year (e.g. 09 Jan 2026). Every payday after fills in for you.
Rate
Salaried → gross $ per paycheck. Hourly → your $ per hour.
Hours
Hourly only → hours per pay period. Leave blank if salaried.
Taxes
Taxes withheld per paycheck (from your payslip). Leave 0 if unsure.
Pre-Tax
Pre-tax deductions per paycheck — 401(k), HSA, etc. Leave 0 if none.
Post-Tax
Post-tax deductions per paycheck. Leave 0 if none.
Account
Which account this pay lands in.
User
Who earns this, for households. Optional.
End Date
Leave blank if ongoing; set a date only if this income ends.
Hours Override
Worked different hours a given week? Type the actual hours in that paycheck's row and it scales to match. Leave blank for standard.
Net Override
A one-off paycheck (bonus, etc.)? Type its exact take-home to override the calculation for that row.

🏦 Deposits & Credits

↑ Contents

Money in that isn't a paycheck — refunds, gifts, interest, cash-back, reimbursements. It counts toward your income and tops up the right account balance.

What you enter
Date
The date you received it — e.g. 15 Feb 2026.
Type
What kind of money-in — Refund, Gift, Interest, etc. Pick from the list or add on Setup.
Description
A short note — e.g. Federal tax refund. Optional.
Account
Which account it went into.
Amount
The amount received — e.g. 1,200.

🔁 Recurring Expenses

↑ Contents

Your regular bills — rent, utilities, insurance. Enter each once and it posts automatically every month, feeding your budget and your monthly totals.

What you enter
Bill
Name the bill — e.g. Rent, Electric, Insurance. (Streaming & apps go on Subscriptions.)
Frequency
How often it repeats — Monthly, Quarterly or Annual.
Start Month
The first month it's due; it posts automatically from there on.
Day
Day of the month it's due (1–31).
Payee
Who pays it, optional. Pick a name from your Setup users.
Amount
The amount per charge — e.g. 1,450.
Category
Its budget category — e.g. Housing, Utilities. Pick from the list or add on Setup.
From Account
Which account it's paid from.
End Month
Leave blank if ongoing; set a month only if the bill stops.
Auto Pay
Is it on autopay? Autopay bills are assumed paid, so they never flag overdue.
Last Paid
The date you last paid it. A manual bill flags ⚠ overdue once a due date passes with this blank or older. Enter X to assume it's always paid on time.
Overdue flags: autopay bills look after themselves. For anything not on autopay, keep Last Paid current — or type X — so it doesn't show as overdue.

📒 Variable Expenses

↑ Contents

Your everyday spending log — groceries, gas, dining out. Jot purchases as you go; this is also where you record transfers to savings.

What you enter
Date
The date of the purchase — e.g. 05 May 2026.
Type
Expense = everyday spending · Bill = a one-off bill · Debt = a loan or card payment · Transfer = moving money between your own accounts (use this for savings).
Category
Pick the spending category. To save money, choose Savings with Type = Transfer.
From Account
The account the money came out of.
To Account
Leave blank for a normal purchase. For a transfer, pick the destination account.
Description
What it was — e.g. Weekly shop, Dinner out. Optional but handy.
Amount
The amount you spent — e.g. 142.30.

📺 Subscriptions

↑ Contents

Every recurring membership in one place — streaming, apps, the gym — so you can see what they really add up to each month. Active subs feed your budget and balances automatically.

What you enter
Service
Name the subscription — e.g. Netflix, Spotify, Gym.
Category
Its budget category — e.g. Entertainment, Shopping. Pick from the list or add on Setup.
Cost
The price per charge — e.g. 15.49.
Billing Cycle
How often it bills — Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Annual.
Start Date
When it started (or your next renewal) — e.g. 01 Jan 2026.
End Date
Leave blank if ongoing; set a date only if you've cancelled it.
Paid From
Which account it's charged to.
Auto Pay
Is it on autopay?
Don't also list a subscription on Recurring Expenses — the Subscriptions tab already feeds everything, and double-listing would count it twice.

🏦 Bank Accounts

↑ Contents

Your accounts and today's balances. This is the foundation — every balance in the workbook grows or shrinks from the starting numbers you set here.

What you enter
Type
What kind of account — Checking, Savings, etc. Pick from the list or add on Setup.
Account Name
Name this account — e.g. Everyday Checking.
Institution
The bank / institution, optional — e.g. Ally, Chase.
Starting Balance
The balance in this account TODAY. Everything else builds from here.
Notes
Optional notes — e.g. APY, what it's for.
Analysis

See where it all goes

These two tabs turn your entries into the big picture — your yearly totals and your budget. Annual Totals calculates itself; Monthly Budget is the one you set.

📈 Annual Totals

↑ Contents

Every category, month by month, for the whole year — a full grid of where your money went, with a summary that reads Income − Expenses − Savings = Net.

What it shows you
  • A month-by-month total for every spending category, pulled from all your ledgers.
  • A year-end summary: total income, total expenses, money saved, and your net result.
  • No input needed — it's a live rollup of everything you enter elsewhere.

🎯 Monthly Budget

↑ Contents

Set a monthly target per category and watch how you're tracking — spent and remaining fill in for you.

What you enter
Month (picker)
Pick which month's spending to compare your budget against.
Budget per category
Set your monthly budget for each category — e.g. 500. Spent & Remaining fill in for you.
Room to grow

Want more than the essentials?

The Complete Edition adds 16 more tabs — a bill calendar, debt payoff, net worth, four loan trackers, cash-flow forecasting, sinking funds, goals & financial-independence planning, insurance, an account directory and more.

See the Complete Edition guide →

That's all 11 tabs. New here? Start with the Owner's Guide for the quick setup video and the checklist, then come back to this page whenever you want the detail on a specific tab.

More guides: Owner's Guide  ·  Complete Edition — tab guide  ·  Core Edition — tab guide (you're here)