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80/20 Budget Ultimate ›

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Essentials Template - Excel & Google Sheets

Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template for Google Sheets & Excel

Income goes in once and both targets follow from it. The Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template gives you seventeen spending lines, each with a target, an actual, the difference and a status column that calls the line rather than leaving you to compare, then reads the month back in headline figures on a dashboard. Two working sheets plus a How to Use tab, and two charts that draw from the tracker. Google Sheets and Excel. No macros, no VBA.

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$29
Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template - Google Sheets and Excel preview

What's Included

  • Both bucket targets worked out from your income
  • Spending lines with a target, an actual and the difference on each
  • A status column calling each line rather than leaving you to compare
  • A dashboard with the month in headline figures
  • Two charts reading the tracker rather than holding their own numbers
  • A currency dropdown that relabels the money columns across both sheets
  • Works in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets with no setup required
Ultimate Version Available

Need more from this template?

The Essentials Spreadsheet Template covers everyday tracking. The Ultimate Spreadsheet Template gives each part of the template its own sheet, with more capacity and deeper reporting on top.

Essentials - $19
  • Both bucket targets worked out from your income
  • Spending lines with a target, an actual and the difference on each
  • A status column calling each line rather than leaving you to compare
  • A dashboard with the month in headline figures
Ultimate - $29
  • A sheet for each side of the split
  • Spending and savings kept on lists of their own
  • Planned, actual, variance and variance-as-a-percentage on every line
  • Each side's real share of income, beside its target share
  • Twelve months of history with an average and a total per line
See what's in the Ultimate version› One-time purchase. No subscription.

The FinancialAha Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template is a two-sheet workbook for Google Sheets and Excel, with a How to Use guide on a third tab. It works as an Essentials 80/20 Budget Excel template and an Essentials 80/20 Budget Google Sheets template from the same download. Income goes in once and both targets follow from it, with a status on each bucket and a dashboard reading the month. No macros, no VBA.

Inside the workbook

What's inside the FinancialAha Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template

The FinancialAha Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template runs on two working sheets, with the instructions on a tab of their own. It works in both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets and here is what the Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet holds.

  1. 01 of 02

    Budget Tracker

    A line per category, each with a target, what actually went out, the difference and a status. The targets come from the income figure rather than being typed, which is what turns a percentage split from a note into something the sheet can hold. Change the income and both targets move; leave it and they stay right. On a two-bucket split the arithmetic is unusually simple, and that is the argument for it. There is one decision - is this money being saved or paid off, or is it not - and everything else is bookkeeping. A split that never requires a judgement call is a split people are still using in March. The status column calls each line rather than leaving two columns to be compared, and it reports rather than intervenes. Nothing stops a line going over.

    FinancialAha 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template - Budget Tracker sheet

  2. 02 of 02

    Dashboard

    The month in headline figures - what has gone out, what is within target, what is below - with two charts that read the tracker rather than holding numbers of their own. On this split the reading is blunter than on a three-bucket one: either the savings side got its share or the spending side took it.

    FinancialAha 80/20 Budget Google Sheets template - Dashboard sheet

  3. Included guide

    How to Use

    A step-by-step guide on its own tab, covering where the income goes, how the two targets follow from it, what the status column means, and how to change the currency. Because it ships inside the file, the instructions travel with the template wherever it is opened.

Works in both Google Sheets and Excel

Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet template for Google Sheets

Upload the Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template to Drive, right-click it, and choose "Open with Google Sheets". This Essentials 80/20 Budget Google Sheets template needs no conversion step and both charts come across intact.

Essentials 80/20 Budget Google Sheets template setup

A shared copy of the Essentials 80/20 Budget Google Sheets template suits two people budgeting from one income, since changing that figure moves both targets in front of both of them.

Running the Essentials 80/20 Budget Google Sheets template

The Essentials 80/20 Budget Google Sheet is opened as spending happens. The status column is what makes a thirty-second look worth taking.

Also available as:

Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet template for Excel

The Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel download is a plain .xlsx. Excel opens this Essentials 80/20 Budget Excel template directly, with no import step, and both charts are native Excel charts. There are no macros and no VBA in the file.

Essentials 80/20 Budget Excel template setup

The same Essentials 80/20 Budget Excel template opens in Excel on Windows, Excel on Mac, and Excel for the web. It is also the identical file you would upload to Drive, so there is no separate Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet download to choose between.

Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template notes for Excel

The Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel file carries no macros and no VBA, so Excel opens it without a trust prompt.

Opening the Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel file

Nothing in the Essentials 80/20 Budget Excel template is version-specific, so this Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel workbook behaves identically in Excel on Windows, Excel on Mac, and older builds.

Also available as:

Spreadsheet template highlights

What the Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template tracks

A line per category. This is what the Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template records for each:

Category
the spending line, renameable to whatever you call it
Actual ($)
what actually went out
Target ($) auto
derived from your income, on the bucket total rather than the line
Difference ($) auto
derived, target less actual for the bucket
Status
the bucket called, rather than left for you to compare

Compare builds

FinancialAha 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template: Free, Essentials, and Ultimate compared

Feature Free View Spreadsheet Template Essentials This page Ultimate View Spreadsheet Template
Working sheets 1 2 5
Buckets Two Two Two, a sheet each
Targets worked out from your income Yes Yes Yes
Budget rows 18 17 spending + 8 savings 25 spending + 11 savings
Status column calling each line – Yes Yes
Twelve-month history – – Yes
Charts – 2 2

The Free 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template holds the split beside what you spent, with the targets typed. The FinancialAha Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template works both targets out from your income, puts a status on each bucket, and reports the month on a dashboard with two charts. The Ultimate 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template gives each side its own sheet and tracks the split across twelve months.

Compare the other builds: Free 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template or the Ultimate 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template .

Good to know

Notes on working in the Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template

  • Income goes in once and both targets follow, so a changed income is one edit rather than two.
  • A split with one decision in it is a split people are still using in March.
  • The status column calls each line, which is what makes the sheet readable at a glance.
  • Nothing stops a line going over. The file reports it and takes no view.
  • A sheet per side and a twelve-month history start at the Ultimate build.
  • The currency dropdown on the dashboard relabels the money columns across both sheets. It changes the label only and does not convert the numbers.

How to Use the Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template

1

Enter your income

Once. Both targets follow from it.

2

Name your categories

Name a line for each category across the two sides.

3

Record what goes out

The difference and the status follow.

4

Read the dashboard

Which side of the split took the month.

Stress-tested with AI.

Every template starts with deep research into how people actually track the topic. We design the layout, build the formulas, and polish the design until it feels like something we would use ourselves. Along the way, we use AI to stress-test the calculations: unusual inputs, edge cases, and formula behavior, checked until the numbers hold.

See Ultimate Spreadsheet Template

Instant digital delivery · Terms & Conditions apply

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the FinancialAha Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template a Google Sheets template?

Yes. Upload the file to Drive and choose "Open with Google Sheets". The Essentials 80/20 Budget Google Sheets template needs no conversion step and both charts come across intact.

Is the FinancialAha Essentials 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template an Excel template?

Yes. The download is a plain .xlsx, so the Essentials 80/20 Budget Excel template opens directly in Excel with no import step, and both charts are native Excel charts.

Will the FinancialAha Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel file open in older versions of Excel?

Yes. The Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel workbook ships as a plain .xlsx, so it opens identically in current Excel and in builds that predate dynamic arrays.

How are the targets worked out?

From the income figure. Changing it moves both at once, rather than leaving two typed numbers to be edited by hand and forgotten.

Why is a two-bucket split easier to keep up?

Because there is one decision in it - was this money saved or paid off, or was it not. A split that never requires a judgement call is a split people are still using in March.

What does the status column do?

Calls each line, so the sheet is readable at a glance. It reports and nothing else - the file takes no view about whether a line being over matters in your month.

Can I add spending lines to the Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet?

Right-click a row inside the table and choose Insert. The totals expand to include it, and the new line gets the same difference and status treatment as the rest. The Free build keeps the two typed targets inside the same block, so its spending list is shorter than it looks.

Does the FinancialAha Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet track more than one month?

No. It reads a month at a time. A sheet per side and a twelve-month history are on the Ultimate build.

How do I open the Essentials 80/20 Budget spreadsheet template in Google Sheets?

Upload the .xlsx file to Google Drive, then open it with Google Sheets. All formulas and formatting will be preserved.

More Essentials Personal Budgeting Templates

Monthly Budget

Categories grouped into sections - income, housing, transport, food, utilities, insurance and more - each subtotalling itself, so areas of spending compare directly. The Essentials Monthly Budget spreadsheet template puts budget, actual and the difference on every line, adds a share-of-income column that stays comparable between a good month and a lean one, and reports a savings rate on the Dashboard. Google Sheets and Excel, one file. No macros, no VBA.

$19

50/30/20 Budget

Enter your income once and the three targets follow from the total. The Essentials 50/30/20 Budget spreadsheet template gives needs, wants and savings a section each, ten lines to fill, and a status on every one calling it on track or over - then reads the month back in six figures on a dashboard: income, the three targets, the savings rate you actually achieved, and whether you finished over or under. Two charts, three working sheets. Google Sheets and Excel. No macros, no VBA.

$19

Zero-Based Budget

Income goes in at the top and every allocation is measured against it, with a remaining-to-assign figure whose goal is zero - the number the method turns on. The Essentials Zero-Based Budget spreadsheet template groups categories into sections rather than one long list, puts planned against actual on every line, and reports income, total allocated and what is still unassigned on a Dashboard. Three tabs, Google Sheets or Excel. No macros, no VBA.

$19

Household Budget

Each partner gets an income section of their own and the two combine automatically, with personal spending kept apart from the grouped shared costs. The Essentials Household Budget spreadsheet template runs planned against actual on every line, derives the difference, adds a share-of-income column per category, and closes on a dashboard with combined income, total expenses, net savings and the savings rate. Google Sheets and Excel, one file. No macros, no VBA.

$19
Essentials
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Highlights:

Dashboard with charts and KPIs
Pre-filled categories and sample data
No sign-up, no subscription
Lifetime free updates
Works in
Excel Google Sheets

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