# Excel replacement for money tracking



## jserrg (Apr 17, 2013)

I've been using Excel for a couple of years now. I have some history and some fancy built-in formulas. It works fine. Except that I need to copy all my formulas down when I add new lines at the bottom of the spreadsheet. 
Can somebody advise a good Excel replacement?
Did anybody switch from Excel to any commercial personal money application?


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

jserrg said:


> ... Can somebody advise a good Excel replacement?
> 
> Did anybody switch from Excel to any commercial personal money application?


What bugs or makes people happy is different so here's a few choices:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/download/details.aspx?id=20738
http://www.gnucash.org/

I used to like Quicken but not their prices lately .... :rolleyes2:


http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-free-financial-software-alternative-to-quicken/


I believe I've seen in some threads that some are using GoogleDocs but I'm not sure if it would have the same need to copy formulas or not.


Cheers


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

If you're handy with excel, I prefer its transparency and flexibility to other applications. I've used Quicken Home and Business, and that this is confusing and a performance hog. It's a glorified spreadsheet and for some reason it puts a modern computer through its paces. The only downside is that excel takes a bit more effort to build reports, graphs, track daily spending.

Excel is all you need for tracking things like ACB.


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## jserrg (Apr 17, 2013)

Well, I love Excel. Personally I think Excel is the best application that Microsoft has ever developed.
Flexibility is great. But sometimes this flexibility creates errors (when I forget to copy the formula). Sometimes I can spend an hour trying to find why my data on one sheet does not match to another sheet. My Excel file is quite fancy.
So I was hoping to migrate to a commercial package where I would not copy formulas. I am IT person and at work I constantly convince my clients to stop using Excel in favor of corporate financial application. I migrated many clients from Excel spreadsheets to a ERP package. But when it comes to my personal finances - I track it in Excel.

GoogleDocs are great - this is Google's Excel. But you have to keep your formulas neat and tidy otherwise your data is screwed.


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

I like Moneydance.
My regular spending is tracked on a google drive spreadsheet shared with my wife.


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## pwm (Jan 19, 2012)

I've tracked my finances in Quicken since it was a DOS app B4 windows 3 came out. I couldn't live without it. The only drawback is Intuit's predatory pricing.


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## jserrg (Apr 17, 2013)

MrMatt said:


> I like Moneydance.
> My regular spending is tracked on a google drive spreadsheet shared with my wife.


That's exactly what I don't want.
I want an application where I could easily track everyday spending so that I wouldn't need a separate spreadsheet.

Quicken seems too cumbersome.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

jserrg said:


> ... I want an application where I could easily track everyday spending so that I wouldn't need a separate spreadsheet.
> 
> Quicken seems too cumbersome.


Hmmm ... I'm not sure you'll find anything you like then. 

Most of the apps I've played with (ex. Quicken, MS Money, GnuCash, the Java version of GnuCash) all have some sort of data entry and reports. You install the software, create the accounts, enter the transactions so that you have a balance and can run reports. It is, after all a balance register so I'm not sure how much variation you are going to find (granted the investment account that takes care of ACB, splits, RoC reducing the ACB has extra bits to calculate behind the transactions).

Out of curiosity, what do you see as cumbersome?


Cheers


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

jserrg said:


> That's exactly what I don't want.
> I want an application where I could easily track everyday spending so that I wouldn't need a separate spreadsheet.
> 
> Quicken seems too cumbersome.


To be quite honest, what are you looking for?
You want to track everyday spending, but you find the personal finance apps too cumbersome? How so?
I hit C-N, and enter the date, description and value, it isn't that cumbersome, I don't know how you could make it any less so.

And a spreadsheet, that's the easiest way to absolutely minimize it to fit your needs.


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## Maybe Later (Feb 19, 2011)

Since we use a credit card for almost anything and our bank accounts will download into quicken cash manager I find it incredibly easy to track spending. The only things I input are investment balance updates and any cash purchases (not many and they usually just get attributed to "misc cash spending")


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## Sampson (Apr 3, 2009)

jserrg said:


> Except that I need to copy all my formulas down when I add new lines at the bottom of the spreadsheet.


This is a pretty minor problem, not really worth fretting about if you are getting everything else you need out of the software.


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## jserrg (Apr 17, 2013)

I am looking at basic functions. Just as you said: accounts, transactions, budgets. Tracking where I stand: actuals vs. budget. Not so much reports as printout reports. I'd prefer more of interactive analysis. In Excel I see how the transaction I just entered impacts my budget. 
Now I enter everything manually. It takes some time: maybe half an hour every week or every two weeks.
So I was looking for software where it is easy to enter/change a transaction. Say no pop-up screens for changing something. More Excel-kind grid where you change amount then move to the next cell, change budget category, move to next cell again. Fewer clicks - faster entry.
But maybe with Quicken import from online banking - it is going to be even faster. Maybe I should give Quicken a serious try. 
I guess I am just trying to find the most user-friendly, fast-entry app.


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## jserrg (Apr 17, 2013)

Sampson said:


> This is a pretty minor problem, not really worth fretting about if you are getting everything else you need out of the software.


Well if I forgot to copy the formula somewhere - my spreadsheets get out-of-balance. And sometimes it takes me quite some time to find where that error is.
Excel with all its flexibility still lacks data integrity validation.
If there would be something as simple and flexible as Excel and with data/formula validation.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Anyone use Open Office? I know nothing about it except that it's free.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I recommend OO to anyone who wants productivity software for home use. It isn't up to par with MS Office for serious work, but its spreadsheet application is just fine. Anyone who works with excel at work with find Calc (the spreadsheet component of OO) a bit jarring, as some of the behaviour is different. It's pretty minor though.


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## jserrg (Apr 17, 2013)

I bought my laptop with MS Excel/Word Starter Edition on it. Not sure if you can buy that Starter Edition cheap?
I'd use either MS or Google docs. Unfortunately my employer's firewall blocks Google docs.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Rusty O'Toole said:


> Anyone use Open Office? I know nothing about it except that it's free.





andrewf said:


> I recommend OO to anyone who wants productivity software for home use.
> 
> It isn't up to par with MS Office for serious work, but its spreadsheet application is just fine. Anyone who works with excel at work with find Calc (the spreadsheet component of OO) a bit jarring, as some of the behaviour is different. It's pretty minor though.


So far, the main difference I've noticed is date formats. My brother-in-law says that when using it for chemical calculations, OO rounds too early. I'm not sure if that's a configuration that he hasn't bothered with.

Apparently, some of the developers didn't like Oracle's plans for OO so they've started their own project, LibreOffice.
http://www.libreoffice.org/


I'm not doing anything fancier than tracking bill payments & investment ACB which LO has been fine for (and OO was as well).

Cheers


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

how about www.mint.com for money tracking 

and stock market eye for investments http://www.stockmarketeye.com/index-ab4


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## jserrg (Apr 17, 2013)

I used Mint for several months (still have inactive account with them). Not overly excited with their user interface - kinda slow and not too many analytic-type information on the screens.
But the main thing - I feel very uncomfortable giving away all my online banking passwords.


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## jserrg (Apr 17, 2013)

I just found a product called "Moneyble Personal Finance". Interface is very much like Excel. Installed it three weeks ago. So far I like it more than any other products I’ve tried. It is simple. Very fast data entry. Can import statements. Has dashboards and budgeting.
I am thinking of importing some historical data into it but couldn’t find time so far.
And it is free.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

jserrg said:


> I just found a product called "Moneyble Personal Finance". Interface is very much like Excel. Installed it three weeks ago. So far I like it more than any other products I’ve tried. It is simple. Very fast data entry. Can import statements. Has dashboards and budgeting.
> I am thinking of importing some historical data into it but couldn’t find time so far.
> And it is free.


Do you have a link? I googled and got a bunch of results for moneyball.


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## Retired Peasant (Apr 22, 2013)

http://moneyble.com/
I had to use "moneyble" Personal Finance to get google to find it.

I really wish you could click on a 'No' when google comes up with 'Did you mean....'


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

Retired Peasant said:


> I really wish you could click on a 'No' when google comes up with 'Did you mean....'


Completely off topic, and over a month late, but when you search for something in google through the google website (not the search bar that is part of most browsers), above the search results it should say:

"Showing results for moneyball
Search instead for moneyble"

The underlines being clickable, so you can click on moneyble to search for that exact term. 

Probably the easier way is to surround the search term with quotation marks... as in, "moneyble". looks like you've got that figured out already.


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## Retired Peasant (Apr 22, 2013)

Barwelle said:


> "Showing results for moneyball
> Search instead for moneyble"
> 
> The underlines being clickable, so you can click on moneyble to search for that exact term.


But that's what I mean; it didn't show the usual 'search instead for...'. It just listed results for moneyball with a single line at the top:
'Did you mean moneyball?"


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## OnlyMyOpinion (Sep 1, 2013)

Retired Peasant said:


> http://moneyble.com/
> I had to use "moneyble" Personal Finance to get google to find it.
> I really wish you could click on a 'No' when google comes up with 'Did you mean....'


We really don't like the auto-suggest feature. If you want to get rid of it, you can set your Google homepage or shortcut to this instead and the feature does not appear: https://www.google.ca/webhp?complete=0&hl=en


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## log (Nov 15, 2013)

jserrg said:


> I've been using Excel for a couple of years now. I have some history and some fancy built-in formulas. It works fine. Except that I need to copy all my formulas down when I add new lines at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
> Can somebody advise a good Excel replacement?
> Did anybody switch from Excel to any commercial personal money application?


Your post is relatively old and plenty of alternatives have been suggested since then so you've probably moved on. But speaking to your Excel formula problem in case someone else has the same issue or you choose to revisit Excel: 

If you have Excel 2007+, convert your existing lists to Tables (CTRL-T). This has quite a few benefits including when you add a new line to the bottom, all formula based columns will automatically populate for the new rows, fixing your problem. The table can also be referenced as a named range, plus it's dynamic, so you'll always be referencing the entire table, (i.e. a separate formula referencing A14 which at one point was the entire table, but is no longer, would not be referencing the entire table. But if you had referenced it as a table, "Table1", you'll always be capturing the full set of data.)

I'd always convert to Tables unless you've designed your spreadsheet in which columns do not always hold the same type of information, but it will save you headaches down the road. There's other differences tables bring though, so I'd look it up. This is Microsoft's overview: https://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/excel-help/overview-of-excel-tables-HA010048546.aspx


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