Keeping Track of Expenses Electronically

December 22, 2008 by Chelsea
Filed under Frugality, Planning

3128633610_177e9454a8_m Keeping Track of Expenses Electronically With the holidays coming it’s more important than ever to track your expenses. In our household we use Quicken (one of many financial softwares available) and Excel to keep current on our balances and expenses.

Quicken came with our iMac and so that has been the default program of choice. I feel Quicken has been vital in helping us stay on track financially and make ourselves accountable to our goals. Here are some of the ways that our household uses Quicken:

Balance checkbook
Every time we pay cash or use our debit card I take the receipts and enter in the amount into the register on Quicken. I then enter what category each purchase fits under (i.e. gas, groceries, utilities). I can even break up purchases into more than one category if needed. I also enter deposits on the register and assign those categories as well.

Download bank transactions
I can download activity from all of my checking, savings and credit card accounts to Quicken to reconcile my checkbooks. This is helpful as I find that I forget to enter in a few transactions each month.

Schedule payments
Quicken has a calendar feature that I use for all scheduled deposits, bills, etc. This way I know when each bill is due each month and roughly how much is in each bank account for a certain day. If I know a big payment is coming I can use the “pay it now” feature to deduct the amount from my account so I know what’s left in the account, after the big expense.

Track expenses and categories
Using Quicken I can put together reports of how much I have spent in certain categories. I can customize these reports for the current month, year to date, or other timeline that I need to look at. Quicken also allows you to create categories to personalize your reports.

Forecast cash flow
Using this feature I can choose certain accounts, and based on expenses and deposits listed in my calendar, Quicken will estimate how much money will be in chosen accounts on certain dates.

Obtain overall picture of financial resources
Because we have many different checking, savings, credit and cash accounts it is very helpful to see them all in one place. In the accounts list view I can see how much we have versus how much we owe on our student loan and credit card. Because I am very wary of debt this feature helps ensure that we have enough in our checking account each month to pay off our credit card balance.

Budget
With the importance of budgets this feature should have been listed first but I personally have had some issues with our Quicken and the budget feature. Because of this we use Excel to make our budgets. Perhaps when we create our 2009 budget, we will give Quicken another chance.

As you can see Quicken is a major cornerstone of our financial tracking system. I didn’t use all of Quicken’s features at first but added more features as I grew more comfortable with the program.

There are two areas that I feel Quicken lags behind on and where I utilize Excel:

Budget
Since we cannot use this feature in Quicken very effectively, I have moved our budget over to Excel. If you have never set up a budget before there are some great spreadsheets online to help you accomplish this. However, I would start by keeping it simple. Make a list of all major expenses or categories and then estimate a total for each. After tracking your expenses for a couple of months, modify your budget to be more realistic with your spending.

Basic math for planning unexpected income and expenses
Another way that we utilize Excel is by breaking down unexpected income (like bonuses) or rearranging our budget to fit in unexpected expenses. As an example, my husband received a bonus from work last week and we used Excel to figure out how much was left for savings after tithing, paying down the student loan, purchasing a family gift and paying for new brake pads and another medical bill. As a side note, usually I’m a big fan of putting bonuses into savings first, but this month had unexpected expenses and unfortunately savings got the last end of the deal, but was not forgotten!

As you can see we use various tools to track our finances and expenses electronically. Quicken and Excel are just the beginning of many programs (some free) available online to help budget and track expenses. Soon I will do a more thorough review of money management programs, but at least now you can think of ways to utilize the technological tools at your disposal to help track your bottom line.