We’ve also created a handy budget template for events as they get larger and more complex-think corporate events, conferences, workshops, or trade shows. For a large family gathering, you’ll need to track everything from decor receipts to seating charts to Aunt Betty’s dietary restrictions. When you’re tracking expenses, you want a tool that’s straightforward enough to record even the simplest projects-let’s say your student loans, or the expenses for a dinner party-and yet robust enough to help you meet financial goals for a team, department or large corporation. The best budget trackers are fluid and intuitive, with a variety of inputs, outputs, and ways to see your money. As soon as you start counting your steps, there’s great pleasure in seeing how many you’ve climbed, watching the numbers change daily, and noting how close you are to reaching your fitness goals (or in this case, savings goals). A budget tool should be less of a stress-inducer and more of a fitness tracker. Or the irritation that bubbles up when you see another team sticking to its budget plan and managing more efficiently.Ī good budget tracker will help save money and shake loose all the anxiety around financial planning. Consider the stress associated with budget overruns, whether the project shows up on the family credit card or your boss’s desk.
There’s also a lot at stake when it comes to monitoring them. We spend hours planning and refining them because they’ll dictate the resources that people we care about have to work with. Above all else, tracking monthly expenses helps keep your bank account from dwindling like a leaking tub.Īt their best, budgets reflect our values. Whether you're tracking capital expenditures or credit card charges, an online budget tracker lets you tally expenses tied to various projects and view them on your phone, laptop, tablet or another device.
What is a budget tracker, and why use one? No matter where you are in your personal finance journey, most of us could still use a better budget tracking tool-one that’s flexible enough to match precisely with the kind of budget we’re building. It's easier to visualize my goals and my reality at the same time than I was ever able to do before.