The spreadsheet
The same total, in a file nobody can take away.
The system ran in Excel for five years before there was an app. Twelve tabs, ten currencies, and an income statement and a balance sheet that build themselves out of one transactions sheet. This is that file, with sample figures in place of the real ones and every formula open to read.
Why a spreadsheet is a perfectly good answer
You can see the whole machine
Every calculation is visible and every cell is editable. Nothing hides behind a screen someone else designed, and you can trace any number back to what produced it.
It is yours, permanently
One file on your disk. No login, no cloud, no subscription, and no company that can change its terms or shut down. Open it in ten years and it still works.
Change anything
Add a category, restructure a sheet, drop in your own formula. A spreadsheet bends to the way you already think, which is exactly why so many people never leave one.
What you get
- Twelve tabs in four groups: Start here, then Planning, Tracking, Results and Support.
- Transactions is the sheet you live in. The Income Statement and the Balance Sheet build themselves from it, and five charts read the same numbers.
- Ten currencies with a monthly rate table and the euro as base. A transaction converts at the rate for its own month, not at one rate for the whole year.
- A Budget Planning sheet for the year ahead, on the same category structure as everything else.
- Categories, accounts, assets and liabilities are lists on the Settings sheet. Adding one is typing a row, not editing a formula.
- Sample data throughout and a Start here sheet, so the file explains itself the moment you open it.
Formats
Excel (.xlsx). No macros and nothing newer than Excel 2007 functions, so there is nothing to enable and nothing your IT department can block. It opens in Apple Numbers and imports into Google Sheets, with one caveat: a few of the dropdowns and checkboxes are Excel form controls, and those do not render anywhere else. Every formula still calculates.
Not on sale yet
The workbook is finished and checked. What is missing is the checkout. It will be 15 EUR, once, and in the meantime there is nothing to sign up for and no free version to collect.
When a spreadsheet stops being enough
It usually happens at one of three moments. Two people need to enter things at the same time, from their phones. The file grows until nobody but you dares touch a formula. Or reconciling against real bank balances each month turns into a chore instead of a habit. That is what the app is for. Until then, the spreadsheet is not a lesser option. It is the same system.
Every account, added up.
One figure for the whole household, checked against the bank each month.
Free to start. Your ledger stays yours.