Main Dashboard

Tutorial - Written Guide

Welcome to the main dashboard tutorial for our budget spreadsheet. This tutorial will guide you through the key features of the dashboard and how to use it effectively for tracking your finances.

Period Selector:

At the top left of the dashboard, you’ll find the Period Selector. It’s split into two sections:

  • The first window allows you to choose between viewing data for a specific month or for the entire year.
  • The second window is where you input the year you want to review.

Budget Breakdown:

Below the period selector is the Budget Breakdown. This table contains several columns:

  • Allocated: This shows how much you planned to spend (or save) in each category.
  • Actual: The amount you actually spent during the selected period.
  • Percentage: This gives you a quick visual of how close you were to your budget (100% means you were exactly on target).
  • Tip: If your percentage is over 100% for expenses, you overspent. For income, being over 100% is positive because you made more than expected. Conversely, being under 100% is ideal for expenses but not for income.

Financial Trends (Bar Chart):

At the top of the dashboard, you’ll see the Financial Trends Bar Chart. This chart visualizes your income, expenses, debt, and investments over a 12-month period.

  • Colors: Green = Income, Red = Expenses, Orange = Debt, Blue = Investments.
  • The chart displays both your actuals and your budgeted amounts, with light sections representing where you were under budget and dark sections indicating where you exceeded your budget.

If you want a more focused view, you can toggle specific categories (e.g., income, expenses) on or off. You can also choose to hide the budget comparison for a cleaner look at your actual data.

There’s also an option to shift the period, moving the selected month to the middle of the chart. This gives you a better perspective on how you’ve been performing historically and allows for future planning.

Category Breakdown (Pie Charts):

Next, we have the Pie Charts, which show the largest contributors to your income, expenses, debt, and investments. If you have more than five categories, smaller ones are grouped into an “Other” section to keep the chart visually clear.

  • Key Insight: The pie chart helps you see where most of your money is going at a glance. For example, if Rent and Groceries are your largest expenses, you’ll see that clearly reflected in the chart.

Savings Rate Visual:

In the top right, there’s a visual representing your Savings Rate. This shows how close you were to meeting your savings goal for the month.

  • You can set your goal savings rate in the Settings tab (e.g., 30%).
  • The chart will compare your actual savings (e.g., 23% of income) to your goal.

This section helps you track how much of your income you’re putting toward debt reduction and investments.

Emergency Fund Tracker:

Right below the savings rate, you’ll find the Emergency Fund Tracker. This is based on the number of months of expenses you want to cover with your emergency fund (set in the Settings tab).

  • The tracker calculates how much you should ideally have saved based on your monthly expenses.
  • Important: This figure is a rough estimate because in a real-life emergency, you’d likely be able to cut non-essential expenses. The tracker gives you an idea of what an emergency fund should cover, but it’s not a number to take too literally. It’s more of a tool to help you think about your financial preparedness and where you stand relative to your goal.

While this is an estimated figure, it’s meant to get you thinking about your financial safety net.

Insights Section:

One of the most powerful features of the dashboard is the Insights Section. This area analyzes your data and identifies:

  • Wins: Where you saved money or spent less than planned.
  • Red Flags: Areas where you overspent or where income was lower than expected.

The Insights Section isn’t limited to expenses — it can also analyze income. For example, if you have multiple income streams (such as a side hustle or part-time work), the insights can highlight which categories performed better or worse than expected.

  • Insufficient Data: If there isn’t enough data available to provide three wins and three red flags, the insights will display “Insufficient data” for the missing points. For instance, if you only have two income wins, the third point will display “Insufficient data,” but the system will still provide insights based on the data that is available.

You can also switch to a percentage-based view, which looks at relative changes rather than flat amounts. This helps you see where even small categories had a significant impact.

 

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