Account breakdown help

When I get paid, I split my income into three accounts. Bills, personal and savings.

My question is too do with my billing account.

I get paid fortnightly and have calculated an amount of $436 that covers all my bills, plus a bit extra.

The issue I have is now I have a gross sum off $3000+ in my billing account, and I am unsure how much is for each bill and what is excess/back up.

Is there a way that I can track and break down my billing account, so I an know how much is for each different bill that I am saving for.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Henry.

 

It may depend how you arrived at the calculation of $436 per pay. It this an annual amount divided by the number of pays ? In which case some bills may be annual and not yet due etc. Or were paid just before you strated and havent yet become due again.

A excel spreadsheet may assist the forward projection about what needs to be paid and when. Maybe use twelve columns (months) and project what is due and when. Then under that include a theoretical balance. Opening balance as it stands now, then add new savings to the account and deduct what is payable and a closing balance. Then the next moth takes that clsing balance from the prior month and repeat...... Roll that across all 12 months and see where it is excessive (or not enough). This basis also allows you to compare your allowed cost with actual costs. And you can contrnually revise it by adding more months.

In the world of accounting its a cashflow projection. We all have seasonal cashflow issues eg Christmas, a lump bill for car insurance and rego etc. Maybe even car service / repairs.

80%+ of people are terrible at maths. I have mocked up something to assist

 

the other 30% are pretty good though

 

Look at using money brilliant to track your personal savings.

Cashflow forecasting software is more suited to middle sized business. There is stuff around for nano, micro and small business - but most of these businesses know the cash so intimately they don’t worry with forecasting.

 

Thanks for the reply guys. Much appreciated.

When it comes to bills, the problem I have, is there are so many that fall under different categories.
For instant, some like my phone bill are monthly and a set amount. Others like my car licence are set amount but annually. These are easy to budget for.
The issue arises with things like car matinance and health care. I budget these for myself at a set amount e.g for example sakes $50 a week, and bills can come at anytime, and any amount. Hence why I save a certain amount each week.

The issue is that I don't know how much I have saved up in my billing account for my health care, or maintenance ect...

I have set up an Excel spreadsheet that works on a fortnightly cycle that is inline with my pay cycle.
I have entered all the future bills that are set in price and date. And as time goes on, I will enter all the other bills as they come along. This I think will help me forecast set bills and also track my past expenditures for better budgeting.

My issue still lies with not knowing how much I have for each bill category ( like health care ) saved up in my one billing account. And I don't want too create 10+ accounts for all my different bills.
Any ideas in how I can add to the excel sheet to help break down my billing account into categories and track this.
Much regards,
Henry

 

You seem to be over complicating things. First off you should have an emergency stash which can live in the expenses account - I would treat your $3000 as your emergency stash. Many people seek to have a somewhat more substantial amount but that is predicated on the likelihood of loss of income. The important thing that you have done, and it is the right way to deal with it, is to know your total expenses over a 12 month period and then put aside that amount plus a small buffer from your income - eg 1/26th if paid fortnightly. The emergency stash provides the buffer for those months when the bills are greater than the allocation of income. Over the course of a year it all balances out and you have a buffer if you need to replace a fridge etc..

 

I recalled this product was mentioned.

My daughter told me she now uses the basic free version. A couple of aspects she found good was she can also link her superannuation provider and to share registries for her personal holdings.

I believe she has told her siblings about it - sometimes it's difficult to get to the meaning through all the chatter (mostly one-sided.)

 

@Gower I do tend to agree with Mark here although I don't know your circumstances. Why are you wanting to break down every single expense?

 

Buy a cash book. Keep track of all your itemised expenditure.

Me personally I don’t bother. I just keep receipts and check the bank account balance every now and then. If it’s in the black, all good. I’m only small time not some huge multinational.

 

Wow. Your daughter talks to you and you listen to her.

Thats a successful Dad moment.

 

The true success is when she listens to you and doesn't talk at you.

 

Ultimately the issue I have is when I look at my billing account it is a single number, that is made up of multiple bills, all being paid at different times.

Some like my car matinance and medical savings that have no roof on the amount being saved, and no set date for being paid , as I don't know when I am going to be sick or my car will break down.

It's like there are lots of little accounts in one. And I mean I could just create 10 different billing accounts to solve this problem, and keep the specific amount for each separate. But this seams too drastic. Surley there is an easier way to break the one account down.

What I really want, is to be able too look at this single billing account, this one single number, and be able to know how much money is saved for each different bill. Ultimately not the bills that are set amounts and due on known dates, as this is easy. But more for the money for my medical and car expenses.

Hopefully this makes sense.

 

We know what the issue is, but the problem is you are overcomplicating it, and that expenses may not be how much was budgeted. The point of having the 'float' or emergency money is that OK you might allow $1200 for car repairs, and after two months you've 'saved' $200 towards that. What is your plan when your bill for $1,200 happens now and only $200 has been saved towards it?

If you really want to keep track to that extent I'd get a spreadsheet (or ledger book) and allocate the first column as the deposits and withdrawals to that account. Then one column for budgeted expense. If you deposit/save $1000 you need to allocate that across all the columns as a + item. Then when your expense occurs, you have a - item from the relevant column. Then you might want to keep running totals for each column (which you can agree or reconcile to the balance in the account).

 

So I do have a float of $4000. And have this set as my 0 point. As in when the account reaches $4000 I see this as being empty.

I also have an excel spread sheet, which I enter all my bills into, and also can project future bills that are set. I see this as a good way of seeing if my budget is accurate and then making changes to it in the future.

If I understand you correctly. All I would have to do is add another collum to this sheet, that is deposit and withdraws?