A budget spreadsheet answers one question: did the month stay inside the limits you set for it? The usual budget layout skips past that question and goes straight to tracking, which leaves the plan itself buried somewhere in a second tab.
This template keeps both numbers side by side. One row per category, one column for the limit you set, one column for what you actually spent, and a formula that shows the difference before you have to think about it. Eight category rows, a total row, five columns, one sheet.
What is in the download
The file is budget-planner-template.csv: one sheet, eight category rows, a total row, five working formulas, and a filled sample month so you can see what the output looks like before you type anything of your own.
The column map is short:
| Column | Header | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|
| A | Category | the spending buckets you track, one per row |
| B | Planned | the limit you set at the start of the month |
| C | Actual | what you really spent |
| D | Left | formula, planned minus actual |
| E | Status | formula, reads Over or On plan for that row |
Data lives in columns A to E. If you later want a Notes column or a comparison against last month, start it at F and leave the five columns alone, because D and E are the ones holding formulas.
The five formulas
The formulas are already in the file at these exact cells. If you build the sheet yourself instead of importing, this is the list to copy.
Left, in D2 and filled down to D9:
=B2-C2
A positive number means that category still has money available. A negative number means it is over. In the sample month, Groceries lands at -48.
Total planned, in B10:
=SUM(B2:B9)
Total actual, in C10:
=SUM(C2:C9)
The month as a whole, in D10:
=B10-C10
Status, in E10:
=IF(C10>B10,"Over budget","Within plan")
Rows 2 to 9 use the same IF pattern against their own row, so E2 reads =IF(C2>B2,"Over","On plan").
With the sample numbers the eight categories add up to a 2,300 plan and 2,357 of actual spending, so D10 shows -57 and the status cell says Over budget. Four rows are over: Groceries by 48, Dining out by 26, Utilities by 21 and Other by 20.
Set it up in Google Sheets
- Download the CSV with the button on this page.
- In Google Sheets, open File, then Import, then Upload, choose the file, and pick Insert new sheet or Replace spreadsheet.
- Check cell C10. It should read 2357. If a formula cell shows the formula as text instead of a number, click that cell and paste the formula again from the list above.
- Replace the eight sample categories with your own. Keep the names short, and keep one catch-all row at the bottom for the small stuff.
- Turn column A into a dropdown so two spellings of the same category never split into two rows. The setup is the same one used in the dropdown guide.
- Set the limits from last month’s spending, not from what you wish you had spent. Start with the number that actually happened, then move the two or three categories you care about.
Set it up in Excel
Use Data, then From Text/CSV, pick the file and click Load. Excel reads the same five formulas because the file uses commas and standard function names. If your Excel is set to a different list separator and a formula arrives as text, retype those five cells once and the rest of the sheet keeps working.
Filling Actual from a tracker you already keep
If your spending is already recorded in the expense tracker template, you can pull each category total into column C instead of typing totals by hand:
=-SUMIFS('Expenses'!$D$2:$D$1000,'Expenses'!$B$2:$B$1000,$A2)
The amounts there are stored as negative numbers, which is why the formula starts with a minus sign to turn the total back into a positive figure. The sheet name and the two ranges are the only parts you may need to adjust. The function itself is documented at Google Sheets: SUMIFS.
The monthly review, in ten minutes
- Enter spending once a week, a few numbers at a time. Filling the sheet from a bank export on the last day of the month works too, but it turns the review into data entry instead of a decision.
- On the last day of the month, read column D from top to bottom. The largest negative number is the only row worth acting on.
- Change one limit for next month and leave the other seven alone. Six small changes at once are impossible to judge later.
- Keep the old copy. After three months, the three saved files together show whether a category is drifting or whether it was a one-off month.
Where savings belongs
Savings is a transfer, not a category, so it is deliberately not one of the eight rows. Money that moves to savings on payday is money the plan never had, and a row you can overspend invites you to skip the transfer in a tight month.
If you want it visible anyway, add a Savings row and read its sign backwards: a negative number in column D means money actually left the account and went where you wanted it to go, which is the good direction for that one row.
What it does not do
- It does not connect to a bank, and it does not categorize anything on its own. Entries are manual.
- It does not track income. The plan is compared against spending, so if the question is “where did the money go” rather than “did I stay inside the limits”, the expense tracker template is the right file.
- It does not convert currencies. One currency per sheet.
- It has no charts and no dashboard. A row of eight numbers does not need a graph to be read.
The rest of the files on the site, including the invoice and expense tracker spreadsheets, are listed on the templates page.
FAQ
Is the budget planner template free?
Yes. One CSV file, no account, no email address, no trial. Import it into your own Google Sheets or Excel and the copy is yours.
Does the same file work in Excel and in Google Sheets?
Yes. Plain comma-separated text with five formulas. If your import shows a formula as text instead of a result, click the cell and paste the formula again.
Can the template pull my spending straight from my bank?
No. There is no bank connection and no automatic categorizing. Amounts are typed in from your card statement, or copied in bulk if your spending already lives in a spreadsheet.
How many categories should I keep?
Eight or fewer. Each extra category is one more decision every time you enter a number.