Using Numbers instead of a dedicated banking app. Also, we don't discuss Numbers all that much, what's your favorite use?

Software
27

I have tried to use Banktivity a few times. I really like the look and feel and on paper, it has a great set of features but trying to get investment accounts and fund price downloads working in the UK is just a horrible process.

I use Moneydance for budgeting and investment tracking. The community plugins to update fund/stock, and crypto prices work perfectly.

Numbers is used for my detailed net worth tracking and financial plans. I prefer it to Excel as frankly, the charts and tables just look and feel much nicer. The other use case for Numbers is a shared sheet with my partner for us to track shared expenses during the month.

28

do you remember VisiCalc? Ooops, I am revealing my age :laughing:

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29

I understand the approach to be more connected with your payments, but for myself, I am glad that my software is doing almost everything more or less automatically, and it is a long time ago, that I really had a problem with the import.
I already have a hard time, to keep track of my cash expenses, that I keep track on manually. But if I think about doing this also with those many movements on my Bank, I am certain to get lost someone early in the month about that.
It is very disciplined, if you could do that all manually!

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30

We used VisiCalc on a IIe to keep track of the expenses of our Afternoon School Computer Course.
A long long time ago… :older_man:

I also used MS Money, starting from the early 90’s to the end of the last century, when MS stopped the support for the software in Germany.

31

oh , yes, I was using MS Money until it stopped being available

By the way, anyone using CSPersonalFinancce ? I am sure it can be adopted for Numbers

32

Yes, I remember VisiCalc. I taught classes in how to use VisiCalc to Control Data execs back in the day. :slightly_smiling_face:

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33

I use Numbers for all sorts of data collection/analysis. A few that come to mind immediately are drafting comments on counry-wide proposals for environment and infrastructure prior to submitting via the county web site, the bakes on Great British Bake Off, tracking exercise (getting distance/steps from iOS Health app and GPS data from a tracker), menu planning/recording, election data, Christmas baking schedule at both day and hour levels with simple stock control of ingredients required, all my bread/cake/pie/biscuit/etc baking for the last dozen years, graphing various health stats for my GP.

And my most used Numbers spreadsheet is the weekly shopping list. Data compiled over the last decade — after David Cameron’s government reneged on a promise for everyone to get their shoping history from shops whenever they wanted it — and listing everything I buy/bought in aisle order at the various supermarkets I frequent. Have further columns for checking the larder before going shopping, need to purchase, buy if on offer, quantity, etc. Update it on my Mac/iPad and then use it in store on my iPhone with a tick box for “put in the trolley”. After a shopping trip I reset all the columns to a default before going through it a week later. Working on a update in which the home larder cupboards and shelves are the main table and the changes there ripple through to the supermarket specific ones.

34

My spreedsheet needs are so basic. I do content inventories for websites and that mostly it.

I started with Numbers and Excel’s interface boggles me to no end. This is why I also find Keynote a delight to use compared to Keynote.

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35

I’m in the same boat with Banktivity. I’m on version 7 still and it is frustrating. Little stuff like autocomplete of expense accounts constantly doesn’t work. My Amazon “rule” has never worked despite setting it up by the book.

I was thinking of going back old school and using a spreadsheet. This thread is helpful.

36

I get the idea of typing it in makes you feel it more. Kind of like using cash instead of credit makes you feel it more.

For me, I check YNAB way too much and I still have to verify every purchase. I am hyper aware of where every penny is going. It works for me.

I’m glad different things work for different people.

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37

On the Mac there’s also a setting in Numbers preferences that will autocomplete based on previous entries in the cell and I believe this provides a little dropdown as you are typing. Sadly, lacking on the iPad.

38

Thanks all for jumping in. Fun, interesting and helpful to read through. :nerd_face:

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39

It looks like you are mainly using this to track account balances (create a Balance Sheet in accounting terms). I would like to figure out a way to generate an income statement, that would be very cool.

40

Those of you who are using a spreadsheet as a transaction register, how do you deal with the list of transitions getting longer over time? I’m not interested in scrolling endlessly to get to the bottom. A few things that could work is to have newest at the top, or to start new every so often (month, year?). What are you doing?

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41

I keep a manual checking account register/budget and just hide the older months after everything clears the bank. Only the totals for the month show up so I can see the categories by month to see the fluctuations.

42

I keep the table descending by date. Any time I need a new row I just select my top row which I keep blank as a sort of row template and then “add row below” from the context menu. I’ve got a separate table at the top with 1 row, 2 columns that just does a lookup so I’ve got the balance there at the top.

44

1 sheet per month, and an annual summary by month sheet

45

Here’s how I use Numbers.

Finances - I have three spreadsheets that I use to track our finances:

Operations - Tracks our day-to-day finances. I have a sheet for each month that contains a table for each of 2 checking accounts. I have another sheet for an account for emergency savings/big-ticket items (not many entries here, so it’s just one sheet for the entire year.) I enter a starting amount for each account at the beginning of the year (the monthly sheets link the ending amount for one month to the starting amount of the next month). I enter everything manually. This is an old habit that developed many years ago when we were the victims of debit/credit card fraud - back before we had the many safety features we have now. Every morning, the first thing I do is open my spreadsheet and go to these accounts online, make sure everything looks OK and edit the ss as necessary. Takes about 5 - 7 minutes but gives me peace of mind. At the end of the year I archive the ss as well as make a pdf copy. I rarely have to refer to the old ss (except for tax time), but it’s there should I need it. I keep a template of this spreadsheet so I can start anew each year.

Budget - Not really a budget. It’s where I show Income vs Expenses. I don’t really compare projected to actual. Just gives me an overall view.

Retirement - Keeps track of IRAs monthly as well as annually. Have sheets for each year to show month by month. Have a sheet to show yearly over the life of the accounts. Also have a sheet with the stocks that I have in these accounts - price paid, # shares, current values (entered automatically using Numbers’ Stock function to show previous day’s close), etc.

In the past I have used, Quicken, MS Money, YNAB and various other software. Tried them all, now just prefer to do it myself. This is one category of software where I have quit looking for a replacement.

Until earlier this week I had 2 databases in AirTable - Gardening, and Books. They worked well in AirTable, but I no longer want to pay for AirTable ($240/year). I know they have a free tier but it’s missing a few features that I liked. I have a current version of FileMaker Pro but I’m not sure where they are headed with their new model (ClarisPro?). And, FM Pro does not sync with Filemaker Go on the iPad. I tried converting the databases using a trial of TapForms but I didn’t like the interface and nor the way it handles linked tables. I briefly looked at Collections - looks promising, but I’ll wait to see how it progresses. Although these 2 databases could benefit from one-to-many and many-to-many relationships, from now I’ll see how they will work in Numbers spreadsheets. Using categories, sorts, and filters in Numbers may help but can’t totally replace the functions in a relational database.

Other Numbers spreadsheets that I use: (they could also be done in tables in Pages, or in a text editor, etc but work well for me in Numbers.

  • Home Improvement/ Auto maintenance
  • Medical History and Medications
  • List of blood pressures in prep for visit with MD
  • Utilities - Electricity, gas, and water usage and costs
  • Storage room - keeps track of everything in storage room (as well as location within room)
  • Storage file boxes - still have some papers filed in couple of boxes - ss shows what’s in each box
  • Bourbon - What I have on-hand and an archive of ones I’ve tried

@denny Thanks for starting this thread - I love seeing how other people use spreadsheets for personal use.

*edited a typo

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46

My bank offers tools similar to Mint & Personal Finance etc minus investments. I use Numbers to format the activity, net worth, balances, etc. reports I download as CSVs each month.

It makes better looking spreadsheets automatically than I would make manually.

47

Activate Categories by Month/Year, then collapse the months that are closed

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