First, A Couple Of Notes

This is helpful whether you’re an established business owner, or you’re just getting started. Either way, tracking your expenses and your income can be scary at first if you’re just starting out, but here’s the truth: wealth comes to those who know what their numbers look like. It’s data that you collect, so you know how you’re growing, what your busiest months are, and where you tend to overspend. All of this information then helps you to create more solid plans in your life, because you know where everything is going!

Who Is This Spreadsheet For?

I’d recommend this spreadsheet for anyone, but if you already have a good system going, keep using your system! I like this exercise because, as old school as it is, it forces a lot of people (a prior version of me included) to do something very scary, which is to look at our finances in a deep way. But the rewards of getting used to this are everything. We’re not judging how much money we have or don’t have. We’re just collecting data.

Your spreadsheet is below and as always, please make sure to DUPLICATE.

Bonus Tip: If you haven’t checked out the concept of Profit First, I highly recommend! You can check out the book here. This is a financial structuring system that applies every time you get paid. This is what I use, and what a few other friends of mine use as well.

What You’ll Need:

• The first thing you’ll need is your bank statements. I usually just pull mine up and work from there, but you can print them out if that makes your life easier.
• The next thing you’ll want to do is get a sheet of paper. Other people prefer to do this digitally, but I like the old school method. On this sheet of paper, you’re going to start going through each of your bank statements. You’ll make categories as they come up, for example: Income, restaurant, grocery, business platforms, social memberships, wellness, miscellaneous, furniture, etc. If you’re new to owning your own business, something you’ll want to do in 2025 is get a separate bank account for your business expenses. This will make your life so much easier when you’re doing this exercise. If you don’t have that set up yet, don’t worry, simply have one piece of paper for business expenses and one for personal. List out all the amounts in rows under these categories until you’re done with each bank statement.
• Next, add up each of these columns. I use Google Sheets for this because it ensures I don’t mess up with a calculator (accidentally hitting the wrong number and then needing to start all over again.) You can add up the total of your numbers by highlighting them. The total number will show at the bottom right hand corner.
• Next, you’ll take those totals and you’ll start adding them into the spreadsheet, under the categories you now have listed out. I’ve added a few common categories that most of us share, but feel free to add your own.
• The totals should add up at the bottom as you enter things in.
• This exercise is not the best out there, for sure. There is room for human error. However, I like it because I am personally forced to look at what I’m spending on every little item every day of my life and the Virgo in my own personal chart loves this. If you absolutely hate this exercise or this method, I’d totally understand. In that case, there are other apps out there like Mint or Quickbooks. My issue with those is that they don’t always properly categorize things the way I want them but come tax time, they are easier.

Get The Spreadsheet : Please Duplicate

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Uc5NFhwRDqPCUWtQzGV4ImjkCG-SMfRPi5ennN_6RKk/edit?usp=sharing