Originally Posted by
Paint Horse
Not to belabor the point, but it really is just that simple. For example to create a budget:
House 100
Car 1000
Food 300
Total 1400
The four words are text typed into cells A1, A2, A3, and A5. The four numbers are just numbers typed into cells B1, B2, and B3. The blank cells between the items and total are just blank cells A4 and A5. The 1400 was produced by entering =sum(b1:b3) into cell B5. That is all there is to it. I teach people to due complex things for a living. Everything broken down is just that simple, if and only if you can grasp the basic concept.
Well, I think you've left out the part where you enter stuff by month. And total it by year and quarter. And compare it to budget amounts. And graph the trends. And make a printed version come out looking halfway decent. And highlight areas where you're under or over budget. And rank your top 10 budget issues.
If budgets were just the four "simple" things you show above, everyone would be doing a budget in Excel.