Google Sheets Budget Planner Template Tutorial

1. Setup tab – Getting Started

Purpose: Instructions, copyright, and general usage notes.

What to do:

• Read through the welcome message and usage rights.
• Click the link for a full step-by-step tutorial to open this page.
• Follow the 4 steps to set up your budgeting google sheets.

Step 1: Personalize your tracker

• Choose your currency. If you don’t find your currency in the dropdown, you can edit in the grey boxes at the bottom.
• Choose your preferred chart colors.

Step 2: Set Up Income Categories

• Define your income sources under Income Categories.
• Fill in the Monthly Amount to help visualize whether your income can cover your monthly costs (based on the Monthly Targets set in Step 3). This comparison will appear on the Dashboard.
• These income categories allow you to track inflows in the Transactions tab, which will be reflected in the Income vs Expense tab.

Step 3: Budgeting Categories and Targets

💡 Recommended approach: Zero-Based Budgeting — every ringgit must be assigned a job, whether it’s spent, saved, or invested.

• Start by identifying the main budgeting categories. Suggested structure:
  • Monthly Bills
  • Needs
  • Investments
  • Wants
• Add subcategories under each main category. Ensure subcategories are grouped directly below their respective main category.
• There are two types of subcategories to support your budgeting need:
  • Monthly Commitment — e.g., bills, meals, transport. You budget for this every month.
  • One-Off Commitment — e.g., buying a car, travel. You save up for this over time with a deadline.
• Use the correct icon in the “TYPE” column to categorize:

• What to fill in:
  • Only fill in the white cells based on the category type.
  • Greyed-out columns are auto-calculated or not applicable to that category, so no input is needed.
  • Example categories are provided — feel free to rename or customize them to fit your needs.
• Impact of Due Date data:
  • It is used to calculate the monthly target for a one-off commitment.
  • It is optional for monthly commitment.
  • Categories that have a due date before the current month will be hidden from Dashbord tab.

Step 4: Accounts

Accounts are needed when you log your financial transactions. There are two types of accounts:

• BANK ACCOUNTS / CASH
• CREDIT CARDS

2. 💵 Transactions tab

Purpose: Log all your income and expenses, account balance changes, and account transfers manually.

How to use:

• Enter transactions with the
  • Date
  • Inflow / Outflow
  • Category
  • Account
  • Status:
    • ✅: Settled transactions
    • 🅿️: Pending transactions
    • *️⃣: Reconciliation date
• This data auto-feeds into reports and dashboards, so it is important to key them correctly.

Examples:

1. Set initial balance for accounts

2. Record expense

3. Record income

4. Transfer between accounts (so that it wouldn’t be tracked as income/expenses)

• This example shows you helping pay on behalf of someone and then having the person return the money to you in another account.

5. Make a credit card payment

6. Reconciliation

3. 📤 Transfers tab

Purpose: Allocate funds between categories or accounts (YNAB-style).

How to use:

• Move money from “Available to Budget” into categories (e.g. rent, food).
• Move money between categories if you want to move excess budget around.
• Use Category Search to check your spending and budgeting progress for specific category.

4. 🔍 Transactions (Accounts) tab

Purpose: Account-level transactions overview.

How to use:

• Adjust the date range in the top-right corner to set the display period.
• Use this tab to cross-check inflows and outflows for each account — including bank accounts, eWallets, and cash.
• Helps you catch missing or miscategorized transactions for a specific account.

5. 📊 Spending tab

Purpose: Breakdown of all expenses by category and month.

How to use:

• Adjust the date range in the top-right corner to set the display period.
• Use this tab to have a visual overview of spending trends.
• Useful to audit high-spend areas.

6. 📊 Income vs Expense tab

Purpose: Monthly overview of total income vs total outflows.

How to use:

• Adjust the period range in the top-right corner to set the display period.
• Adjust the breakdown with 3 options: Categories/ Category Groups/ Accounts
• Use this tab to understand if you’re saving or overspending.
• Great for end-of-month review.

7. 🏠 Dashboard tab

Purpose: Snapshot of your overall financial health.

How to use:

• View your total available budget, overspent categories, and income allocation.
• Quickly see how much is left to budget or if you’ve gone over in any category.
• Helps you make quick, informed adjustments throughout the month.