Settings & Help
Tutorial - Written Guide
Welcome to the settings tutorial for your budget spreadsheet! In this guide, we will walk through the Settings Tab, which has customizable options to help you tailor the template to your financial goals.
Starting Year:
The first setting you’ll see is the Starting Year. This is pretty simple—enter the year you're beginning your budget tracking. This will help align the spreadsheet with your timeline.
Show Allocation Percentages on Budget Tab:
This option is defaulted to "Yes" and will display allocation percentages on the Budget Tab. These percentages break down how much of your income is going towards expenses, debt, and investments. For example, you may see something like:
- 68% to expenses
- 11% to debt
- 21% to investments
If you find this information overwhelming or unnecessary, you can easily turn this off. However, it’s a great visual tool to help monitor your spending habits.
Currency Symbol:
The default currency symbol is set to the dollar ($), but you can change it to any symbol that applies to your region. While this setting is available, you’ll notice that currency symbols are sparsely used throughout the spreadsheet— so changing the currency symbol has a minimal impact on your experience.
Savings Goal:
This is where you set your Savings Goal as a percentage of your income. For instance, if you make $5,000 per month, you might want to save 30%. This goal will reflect visually on the Main Dashboard. If you’re using the Excel version of the template, the visual will appear as an odometer, showing how close you are to reaching your savings goal. In this example, you may see that you saved 23%—a little short of your goal but a great motivator nonetheless.
Number of Months for Emergency Fund:
This setting allows you to define how many months your Emergency Fund should cover in case of unforeseen circumstances. For example, you might choose 4 months. Based on your current expenses, the spreadsheet will calculate how much you would need in your emergency fund to cover those months.
This number is based on your historical spending data (ideally 12 months). If you don’t have that much data, the system will calculate based on the available months and tell you how many months it used for the average.
Keep in mind, this figure is not an absolute rule but rather a guideline. In a real emergency, many of your expenses could be cut down, so this number assumes no change in lifestyle.
Computer Type (Google Sheets Version Only):
This setting appears only in the Google Sheets version. In Excel, there's a button to quickly jump to the top of the Transactions Tab. Unfortunately, Google Sheets doesn’t support that feature. Instead, this setting helps by showing you keyboard shortcuts based on whether you’re using a Mac or a PC. For instance, Ctrl + Home on a PC or Cmd + Up on a Mac will jump you to the top of the page. The shortcut will adjust automatically when you choose your computer type.
Loan Section:
The Loan Section is not covered in this guide because there’s already a separate tutorial available that explains it in detail. You can check out the dedicated Loan Feature Tutorial for more information.
Instructions:
There is a written section within the Settings Tab that outlines how to use different features of the spreadsheet so you don't always have to refer back to the website.
Momentum:
In this section, you’ll learn about the concept of Momentum, which is my term for Net Income. Think of momentum as the force that drives you toward your financial goals, building and compounding over time. You can read more about this philosophy directly in the settings.
Link to Website:
Lastly, if you ever run into any issues or need additional help, there’s a direct link to my website. From there, you can access all the tutorials, resources, and support.