Excel for Personal Finance 2026 – Complete Budget & Expense Tracker Tutorial, by Alex Hitt on YouTube. 36 min 34 s.
- Video length
- 36 min 34 s
- Time to do it
- 60 minutes
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Steps
- 11
What you need
Steps
Open Excel for the web and create a blank workbook. Add one sheet for your monthly budget and a second sheet for the expense tracker.
On the budget sheet, list your income, savings and expense categories in one column. Enter the planned amount for each in the next column.
Add SUM formulas to total income and total expenses. In a third cell, subtract total expenses from total income to show money left over.
Select the money cells and apply Currency format. Bold the headers, add borders and widen columns so the table is easy to read.
Add a column that divides each expense by total income to show its percentage. Format those cells as percentages.
On the tracker sheet, enter Date, Description, Category and Amount headers for each purchase. Select the range and press Ctrl+T to turn it into an expandable table.
Select the Category column and open Data, then Data Validation. Choose List and point it at your category names so each row gets a dropdown.
Add a month column using =TEXT(A2,"mmmm") next to the date, then create a dropdown cell that lists the months you want to compare.
Use SUMIFS to total actual spending per category for the selected month. Subtract that from the planned amount to get the remaining budget.
Apply conditional formatting to the remaining budget cells so negative values turn red. This flags overspending at a glance.
Select the planned and actual columns and insert a column chart. Set the chart to read from the month dropdown so it updates when you change the month.
Tips and common mistakes
Use absolute references like $B$2 in SUMIFS so formulas still work when you copy them down.
Keep category names identical in the budget sheet and the dropdown list, or SUMIFS will return zero.
Add new purchases inside the table so formulas and the chart pick them up automatically.
Check your totals against a bank statement before trusting the chart.
Questions
Why does my chart not change when I pick another month?
The chart is probably reading fixed cells instead of the SUMIFS results. Point the chart series at the cells that use the month dropdown.
Can I do this in desktop Excel instead?
Yes. The same SUM, SUMIFS, TEXT and data validation steps work in Excel for Windows and Mac.
Do I need to pay for Excel?
No. Excel for the web is free with a Microsoft account, though some advanced features need a Microsoft 365 subscription.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
