Google has recently added a range of pre-made templates to Google Documents, its suite of online spreadsheet, word processing and presentation tools.
Amongst these templates there are some very useful spreadsheets which will help you with personal finance issues. Here are 8 of the best:
1. Credit Card Payoff Calculator
Use this spreadsheet to help you work out how long it will take you to pay off your credit card debt, or switch the figures round to work out how much you need to repay each month to clear the debt in a specific amount of time.
This spreadsheet will help you find out what everything is costing you, where your hard-earned money is being wasted, and will allow you to set yourself a target for your monthly spending.
This basic loan calulator which will help you work out various aspects of your loan, such as repayment amount, interest rate or how long the loan will take to pay back, depending on the information you enter.
Have trouble keeping track of expenses with your housemates or another group of friends? This group expense calculator will show you who has paid out how much and for what, and should hopefully make it a little easier and prevent arguements.
5. Mortgage Payment Calculator
OK, so there’s hundreds of these available on the internet already (including our very own mortgage repayment calculator), but this calculator might help you compare several different mortgage options side by side.
This savings calculator will help you to estimate the future value of your savings, and as well as giving you an annual breakdown of how much you’re likely to have built up, it also gives you a nice visual representation of your money’s growth in the form of a graph.
A very basic spreadsheet to help you map out how much you’re worth by adding together the value of your assets and investments, minus your liabilities.
8. Petrol (or “Gas”) Mileage Log
Useful for those of us who are interested in keeping track of how much we’re spending on petrol, this calculator will keep a track of your mileage and how much petrol is costing you per mile, plus there’s also a trip cost calculator built in to help you work out how much that drive in the country is going to cost you.
You can view all of the personal finance spreadsheet templates – most are initially setup using US$, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to alter that if you find it a problem. You’ll also need a Google login to use them, but once you’ve sorted that out, you can access them from any PC should you wish. Go to Google Docs to get started.
Thank you, those templates are useful (unlike most Excel templates)!
While very versatile, a spreadsheet application like Google Docs (which is my favorite) does not always offer the smoothest user experience. Take spreadsheet #4 for example: adding new persons is not complicated but requires to copy columns; entering an expense requires to calculate the share of each group member, etc.
To make this experience more trivial, I have created a small Web tool called Short Reckonings:
http://www.shortreckonings.com
It works the same as spreadsheet #4 (Group Expense Calculator), with a more wizard-like UI, and calculates the fewest number of payments needed to reconcile the debts.
You can also export your work in Excel format and why not import it in Google Docs…
Enjoy!
Some nice spreadsheets there – here is my cashflow forecast to allow people to look at and plan their income and expenses over the coming 12 months – http://www.shrewdcookie.com/financial-planning/cashflow-forecasting-planning-income-and-expenditure