Income

The Income sheet is the first sheet you should fill out. Enter all your sources of Income along with how much you expect to earn (Expected) and how much you actually earned (Actual).
The Expected amounts can be entered at the beginning of the month and the Actual amounts can be entered once you actually receive the funds.
If you receive Less than the expected amount, the Actual cell will appear in red. If you receive More than the expected amount, the Actual cell will appear in green.

Spending

The Spending sheet is the second sheet you should fill out. We split spending into the following four categories:

🟣Bills
Log all your recurring bills such as Mortgage, Rent, Car payments, etc...
Enter the budget amount for each (How much you expect to pay). Then, enter the actual amount as the month progresses.
If you spend Less than the budget amount, the Actual cell will appear in green. If you spend More than the budget amount, the Actual cell will appear in red.
You may also think of the Bills category as the 'Needs' category.

🟡Expenses
Log all your variable monthly expenses such as Fast Food, Movies, Clothes, etc... These usually vary month to month.
Enter the budget amount for each (How much you expect to spend). Then, enter the actual amount as the month progresses.
If you spend Less than the budget amount, the Actual cell will appear in green. If you spend More than the budget amount, the Actual cell will appear in red.
You may also think of the Expenses category as the 'Wants' category.

🟢Savings & Debt
Log all your Savings related accounts such as Bank account, Investment, Cash etc..
Log all your Debts such as Credit cards or School loans.
Enter the budget amount for each (How much you expect to put towards Savings or paying down your debt). Then, enter the actual amount as the month progresses.
If you spend Less than the budget amount, the Actual cell will appear in green. If you spend More than the budget amount, the Actual cell will appear in red.
The Savings & Debt categories go hand in hand, you may also think of them both as 'Savings'.

Overview

Once you have filled out the Income & Spending sheets, the Overview sheet will give you a clean, birds eye view of your financial situation this month.
You don't need to input any information on this sheet - simply review the dashboard to understand where your money is going.

Here is some additional information about what you'll see on the Overview sheet:

Income
The Income tile shows you the total amount of money expected & actually received.
The difference between the expected & actual amount is also displayed in percentage format.

Spending
The Spending tile shows you the total amount of money you expect to spend & how much you've actually spent.
The difference between the expected & actual amount is also displayed in percentage format.

Remaining
The Remaining tile will show you how much money still needs to be budgeted. Try to get this number down to 0$.
You'll also see how much money you have left to spend.
Remember, you can always put left over money towards Savings or paying down your debt.

Budget vs Actual
The Budget vs Actual tile provides a modern bar chart, showing the difference between your Budget & Actual amounts for each category.

Spending Breakdown
The Spending Breakdown tile shows you how much you've actually spent in each category in both currency & percentage format.
This tile also tells you what percentage of your income has been spent.

How to budget

Not sure how much you should be putting towards each category?
Everyone's situation is different. If you're not sure where to start, you may consider following the popular "50/30/20" budgeting rule.

🟣50% = Needs (Bills)
🟡30% = Wants (Expenses)
🟢20% = Savings (Savings & Debt)

Feel free to search the web for the 50/30/20 rule if you'd like more information.

🟢TIP: If you do follow this rule, keep an eye on the percentage amounts in the 'Spending Breakdown' tile, located on the Overview sheet.
Following this rule would mean that your Bills should not exceed 50%, Expenses should not exceed 30% and the remaining 20% should be split across the Savings & Debt categories.