One sheet, one month: income at the top, then rent, bills, groceries, transport, subscriptions and savings. Download the CSV, swap the example rows for your own, and either total it in a spreadsheet or import it into The Income Tracker for live totals.
Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice. It is a plain CSV, so nothing is locked, tracked or macro-enabled.
What is in the template
Date
Description
Category
Money in
Money out
Notes
2026-09-01
Salary
Income
2450.00
Take-home pay
2026-09-01
Rent
Housing
950.00
Standing order, 1st of month
2026-09-01
Council tax
Bills
142.00
Direct debit
2026-09-03
Energy (gas and electric)
Bills
118.00
Direct debit
2026-09-03
Water
Bills
38.00
Direct debit
2026-09-05
Broadband
Bills
29.99
Columns explained:
Date: When the money moved, in year-month-day form so it sorts correctly.
Description: What it was. Keep it short and consistent ("Weekly food shop" every week, not five variations).
Category: One of about ten buckets. Housing, Bills, Groceries, Transport, Subscriptions, Eating out, Health, Gifts, Savings, Income.
Money in / Money out: Two columns instead of one signed amount. Easier to read, and it imports cleanly.
Notes: Optional. Billing day, who it was for, anything future-you will want.
How to use it
Download the CSV and open it in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.
Delete the example rows and add your own income first, then every regular bill.
Add spending as it happens, or once a week from your banking app.
In a spreadsheet, put =SUM() under Money in and Money out and subtract. Or skip that step: import the file into The Income Tracker and the totals, categories and savings rate appear on their own.
Why a monthly planner beats an annual one
A year is too big to feel. A month is the unit your bills, your pay and your habits already run on. Plan one month properly, copy it forward, and adjust. That is the whole method, and it works because it is small enough to keep up.
The categories, and why there are only ten
The template uses about ten categories on purpose. Thirty categories look thorough and get abandoned by week three. Ten is enough to see where the money goes and few enough that sorting takes seconds. If you import the file into the tracker, you can rename or merge them later without redoing anything.
Stop typing: import your bank CSV instead
The template is a good way to plan a month. It is a slow way to record one. Every UK bank lets you download your real transactions as a CSV, and The Income Tracker reads that file directly, categorises the merchants it recognises, and remembers your choices next month. Start with the template if you like, then let the bank file do the typing.
The Income TrackerSkip the spreadsheet. Import your bank CSV and the totals do themselves.
Yes. It is a plain CSV file with no sign-up, no macros and no locked cells. Use it in any spreadsheet or import it into The Income Tracker.
Does it work in Google Sheets and Excel?
Yes. Both open CSV files directly. In Google Sheets use File, then Import, then Upload. In Excel just open the file.
Can I import the template into The Income Tracker?
Yes. The column names match what the importer looks for (Date, Description, Category, Money in, Money out), so the file imports in one step with the categories already applied.
Should I use the template or a bank CSV?
Use the template to plan and a bank CSV to record. The bank file is exact and takes no typing.