IS-Calculator Private   
Keep your spending under control:

• Minimal data input for maximal financial transparency.
• Significant key data for each month of the year.
• The spendable budget:  Annually, monthly, daily.

     Annual Overview:
          Analysis of monthly figures

This Excel application calculates the available budget for each of the 12 months of the current year. With just a few key figures shown in the Annual overview, your financial situation becomes clear. Moreover, it is possible to trace how the amount available in the current month is changed through unplanned expenses or income.

This Excel workbook was developed for private use. It is regularly used by the developer himself. Before Excel was available on PCs, a simple precursor to Excel 85 was designed on an Apple Macintosh and later on a PC under Windows. Since then, many ideas and improvements to the present application were incorporated.

Objectives and results of this calculator:

Computation of the monthly budget. Calculating and tracking how the regular income and expenditure throughout the year have an ongoing affect on the available budget differently for each month. Observing how any unexpected costs (to be recorded as they occur) during the current month influence the free monthly and yearly budget.

Experience:

Planning gives you security when it becomes clear what free budget is available for each month, and what remains of the budget when unplanned expenditure and revenues are extrapolated up to the end of the month. If the figures in a certain month turn 'red', it is easier to deal with if you can see the previous and anticipated development until the end of the year.

One Excel sheet per month, showing scheduled and unplanned amounts.

MS Excel Version 2000 und above.

The number of rows for input areas can be extended or reduced by any number. The upper limit is the Excel row limit.

If rows are added or removed in one sheet, the changes are applied to all data sheets at the same time. This is done with the buttons at the top of the data sheet.

The program is installed by the "isCalculatorInst.exe" installer, which is contained in the downloaded .zip file "isCalculatorInst.zip". After installation the program is available in the folder "C:\IS-Calculator Private.

V. Application:

When newly installed the data sheets are blank. To see an example with user data, go to the menu "Backup -> Update with backup". A presentation of user data is then shown. Then close without "Saving" if you want to start the next session with an empty workbook. A detailed description follows "Getting Started" in the next paragraph..

Using backed-up samples of revenues and expenditure (described above), the program creates a budget plan for the calendar year. To try out the functionality, sample data are used from the preinstalled internal backup. To do this, click the menu "Backup ->Update with backup" as mentioned above. Confirm the info box note "Update with Backup in the foreground?" by pressing "Yes".

The actions are then displayed in the foreground. This updates the data in the "Annual overview" data sheet as well as in "Annual Planning", "Variance Budgeted" and the 12 monthly data sheets with the corresponding data from the Backup. The results are shown in designated areas of the different data sheets. Now when you view the Annual overview, the changing financial situation becomes clear, specifically for each of the 12 months..

Note: To begin with empty data sheets after this, you should close the session without "saving".

Entries and changes have different effects, depending on the data sheet.
All cells that are not prepared for entries or double click sensitivity are read-only. The gray areas are double click-sensitive.

1. The gray cell areas are designated for input and/or double click sensitivity.

Double clicking on a gray cell normally inserts an "x". In the "Annual Budget" data sheet, double clicking a cell under the pane named income / expenditure categories inserts the number of each calendar month into the designated cell(s) in the month block to the right of it, named ”Month due”; whereas double clicking a single cell of this block removes the number in it (and also removes the booked amount in the respective monthly data sheets automatically).

When you enter text into these cells under the pane named income / expenditure categories in the "Annual Budget" data sheet the same text is automatically inserted into all relevant monthly data sheets in which the amount of income and expenditure was additionally booked automatically for the activated month. In the "Variance Budgeted" data sheet gray fields are completely protected whereas white fields are open for input. White columns in the monthly data sheets are also intended for input.

2. Amounts entered into “expenditure” deletes content in “Income” in the same row, and vice versa.

3. Navigation
    (Note: Using Excel 2007 and higher the application-specific menu can be found under "Add-ins").

•     to jump to a "month" data sheet from the data sheet "Annual overview" double click the month in the pane under the     headline Results of Month sheets
•     use the navigation buttons (arrows) to switch between data sheets
•     a menu item under Window Selection lets you switch to different views and data sheets.
•     when opening the workbook navigation is "automatic". You can select which data sheet to show in "Annual overview" ->     Settings: The selected data sheet will be displayed when the workbook opens. You can select this from a list box, for     example "Current month" for the data sheet of the present month.
•     last but not least: you can click on the register button at the bottom of the workbook window.
  

4. Adding and deleting rows

Rows in all relevant data sheets are added or removed simultaneously. This is done with the "Add row" and "Delete row" buttons at the top.

5 . Menu "Backup" for internal backup, menu items

The best approach to backing up is always to use the Windows feature to copy the whole folder or make a copy of the workbook itself. Alternatively the calculator offers the possibility to backup all the present data in all data sheets to a backup data sheet inside the workbook, so that you can reset the workbook if necessary.



a. Menu item "Creating backup"
  
     Saves the current data of the whole workbook file to the data sheet "Backup" (hidden).

b. Menu item "Update with backup".
 
    Overwrites whole workbook with the backup data.

c. Menu item "Import data from another calculator into internal backup"
 
     Overwrites the current "Backup" data sheet with the extract of the data collection from the selected workbook

d. Menu item "Prepare calculator for next year" (resetting the workbook for the next year):

Step 1: Shows the number of the following year, which can be changed.
Step 2: You are prompted to back up the data from the old year in "Backup" before resetting all of the monthly             data sheets for the new year,.
Step 3: Except for the data sheet "Annual Budget" all data sheets are deleted and new/empty data sheets are            created.

1. "Annual Overview"
2. "Annual Budget"
3. "Variance Budgeted"
4. Months data sheets (12)

1. Data Sheet "Annual Overview":

Changing Opening balance bank account:

When using the workbook for the first time, the “old” balance of your present account statement should be assigned as the “Opening balance bank account“ in the data sheet Annual Overview (you only need to do this once for the present year). Then make sure you completed the input in the Annual Budget data sheet and update the section titled "Unplanned" in the current monthly data sheet with the corresponding account transactions by entering its description and amount. Now you need to activate the amount items in this bank account statement with an "x" (double click the respective cell in the column named “booked” to do so) with the corresponding amounts in the current monthly data sheet.

After this, the amount of Account balance up-to-date in the upper right part of the monthly data sheets should be equal to the “new” balance of your bank account statement.

If you start working with the Calculator workbook in the middle of a year, rather than at the beginning – which is actually quite normal - all the "monthly bookings" in the month block (titled "Month due") of the "Annual Budget" data sheet must be deactivated by double clicking the month number in the respective column of the Month due block. You need to repeat this up to one month before the actual month of the first bank statement. This gives you correct and distinct values in the accumulations shown in the upper part of the months data sheets.

"Settings", available in Data Sheet "Annual overview"):

a. Changing the currency (cell K7) replaces the currency text in all data sheets.

b. The default data sheet to display on opening the session, is available in a selection list (cell K8)

Recommendation for setting the default data sheet when opening the workbook:

•    Select "Annual Budget" until you completed your annual planning in the Annual Budget data sheet.
•    The norm is "Current month" for updating the current monthly data sheet with the amounts of planned and    unplanned income and expenditure, and to view the present extrapolated amounts in the upper part of the    month data sheets.
•    If you prefer to focus on all the offered accumulated amounts throughout the year, select "Annual overview".
  

2. Data Sheet "Annual Budget":

a. The descriptions / categories of your income, expense, revenue and expenditure can be registered in the column Incomes / expenditure categories. Insert the expenditure amounts in the expenditure column, and revenues in the Income column.

b. Double clicking a cell in the Incomes / expenditure categories column activates the inserted amount for all of the 12 monthly data sheets; double clicking again removes the entries. A single month can be removed or activated by double clicking the respective month column in the cell block titled "Month due".

3. Data Sheet "Variance Budgeted":

In this data sheet the amount for a certain month that has been designated in a category in Annual Budget can be overwritten. This is necessary, for example, if your "planned" salary differs from month to month.

4. 12 monthly Data Sheets showing:

•    An overview of the accumulated amounts for the year to the current date in the upper part of the data sheet.
•    A View of the planned amounts for the respective month.
•    Assignment of the unplanned amounts in the area titled "Unplanned Description"
•    Bookings are finalized with an "x" by double clicking the respective cell of the columns titled "booked" when the amount is credited/debited by your bank.
  
  
  
  
  The left pane in the data sheet of the month on view (headings in green) shows you the the revenues and expenditure anticipated for this month. When the corresponding account transaction appears in your statement of account, you need to finalize by double-clicking on the gray columns in the area titled "booked" to create an "x".

  The right pane (headings highlighted in turquoise) is for booking unplanned expenditure or revenue. You can enter a description and the amount here. When the transactions appear in your statement of account, finalize the amount by double clicking to enter an "x" in the "booked" column.