Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

I’ve always been fairly good with money. I very rarely impulse buy and feel a cold sweat come over me if I dip into my agreed overdraft. One area of personal finance where I do fall down, however is organisation. I’m pretty terrible at setting budgets and savings targets and use my debit card to pay for things waaaay more often than I should. So, with a house move imminent, and the bad taste of a card fraud/bank fuck-up still in my mouth, I thought it was about time I got myself into check with the whole thing and began a search for a free personal finance management app.

A quick search on Google revealed that Mint appeared to be the most popular choice. One problem; it’s only available in the US. There are UK alternatives though such as Wesabe and Kublax which, as far as visuals go, look pretty nice. They’re web based, too so you can log into them from anywhere. The problem I had with these services is that they all work in the same way; that is they access your bank via your online banking details and compile a list of your account activity. I wasn’t interested in this. I would much rather enter my own data into the system because, although the link to my bank would guarantee accuracy, entering my own details and forcing myself to do so would give my organisational skills a workout, the reason I wanted to do this in the first place. Another problem with those services was that you obviously have to set up an account (yeah, another in addition to the million or so web service accounts I already have). So with this in mind I had my requirements:

• Web based to be edited from any PC or iPhone.
• Manual data input.
• Preferably no need to set up yet another account.
• Pleasant UI without too many unnecessary features.

Then it occurred to me. Google Docs! I could use Google Docs to set up a spreadsheet to list incoming and outgoing funds as well as add up all my income and expenditure and give me a closing/opening balance. It would only have the fields I needed and could be accessed from anywhere, even from an iPhone/iPod Touch. Best of all, I can use my existing Google Mail account to log into it as well as share the document with anyone who may need to add to it such as family members or my girlfriend.

With this in mind I set about creating a workbook. I found the Google Docs interface really easy to use and it was pretty quick as well. As a test of concept I logged in on my iPod Touch and was really pleased with the interface. It was simple and nicely executed (see right). This really was looking like a very good option for managing my finances or any figures for that matter.

So how have I actually done it? Well I’ve set up a simple table with the following fields:

• Item (what is being paid for / paid in)
• Category (Household, motoring, personal purchase etc..)
• Credit Amount (Amount being paid in)
• Debit Amount (Amount being paid out)
• Date
• Where/Who (Who the transaction is with)
• Paid by (Method of payment; Cash, Direct Debit etc.)

These fields are added up using a simple SUM formula and are summarised at the bottom in the form of “Opening balance”, “Total in”, “Total out” and “Closing balance”. I have set up rules so that if either opening or closing balance is less than £0.00 it appears bold in red and if it is above £0.00 it appears in green.

And that’s it. Whenever I buy anything or pay a bill I add a line to the table and I make a new table for each calendar month. The process of doing this enforces my organisation and leaves me with a clear record of where my money has been spent each month. As of now I have only used my spreadsheet with dummy data. I’ll start the first spreadsheet on my next pay day to save the hassle of trawling through bank statements to get historical data.

If you’re interested in having a copy of this workbook for yourself, email me or @ reply me on Twitter and I’ll get one to you.