Line by line, what you budgeted against what you actually spent, and the gap read on that line's own budgeted figure

AThe sheet, at a glance

Turns a period's budgeted column and actual column into a signed difference on every line, that difference as a share of that line's own budgeted figure, and the two column totals with the difference between them.

Every line name, every budgeted figure, every actual figure and the period are yours and are typed by you. This sheet carries no category list, no default split, no suggested line, no target, no acceptable range and no tolerance of its own, it holds no typical or average figure for anybody, and it does not say what a difference means. No field here asks for an institution, an account, a balance or a credential, and none is collected. Nothing you type leaves your browser, and nothing is kept when the tab closes.

Printed from otherworldlabs.com, the budget-against-actual sheet.

BThe period, and the lines you are accounting for

Name the period in your own words. Then name each line and type the two figures for it: what you set at the start, and what the records say went out. A blank is not a zero, and this sheet keeps the two apart.

CEvery line, with its own base

One row a line. The fourth column is the subtraction with the word that says which way it fell, and the fifth is that same gap divided by this line's own budgeted figure. A line you have not finished yet keeps its row and says what it wants.

DWhat the sheet is waiting for, and what it cannot divide

Every sentence here names a state this sheet keeps apart. None of them is an error and none of them is advice.

EEvery figure, worked

The subtraction and the division for each finished line, then the two columns added and the gap between them.

FThe seven states, and how the figures are read

A line that came in over

The actual figure you typed is the larger of the two on that line. The gap prints as that money with the word over beside it, and the percentage is that gap divided by that line's own budgeted figure. The sheet reports the arithmetic of a sign and says nothing about it.

A line that came in under

The budgeted figure is the larger of the two. The gap prints as that money with the word under beside it, never as nothing, never hidden and never softened, and the percentage is read on that line's own budgeted figure.

A line level with its budgeted figure

The two figures you typed on that line are the same money. The gap prints as nothing with the word level beside it, and the percentage prints as nothing on that line too. A level line is a printed state of its own and not an empty cell.

A line budgeted at nothing with spending on it

A budgeted figure of nothing is a figure you typed, so once an actual figure is typed on that line the gap is the whole of that actual figure. There is no base to divide by, so the fifth column names that state instead of printing a percentage. Nothing on this sheet turns an impossible division into a figure. Where the actual figure on such a line is itself a figure of nothing, the gap is nothing and the fifth column still names the state, because there is no base either way; section D names the figure in the column and never an event.

A line with spending and no budgeted figure at all

A blank is not nothing typed: it is a line you have not set a figure for. Such a line gets no gap and no percentage, its actual figure is added into the actual column, and nothing of it is added into the budgeted column. Section D names it.

A line whose actual figure you have not typed yet

While any line carries a budgeted figure and no actual figure, or any row you asked for carries neither figure yet, the sheet is not finished, and no column total, no gap between the columns and no count of the lines that came in over is printed at all. Section A says what it is still waiting for. A line whose own two figures are both typed still prints its own row, because that row is finished in itself. A row you asked for and have not reached is a row this sheet waits for: the count of lines in section B is yours, and a sheet of two lines is two lines long.

A sheet with nothing typed in the actual column

Nothing has gone out yet, or nothing has been recorded yet. No gap and no total prints. The budgeted column you typed is still on the sheet, row by row, where you typed it.

The gap, and the base it is read on

Each line's gap is read on that line's own budgeted figure and on no other base. That is the whole of what this sheet does that a column of totals cannot: a gap of forty dollars on a line of fifty and a gap of forty dollars on a line of four thousand are not one event, and only the line's own base says so. The percentage is printed to one decimal and carries the word the money carries, so it is never printed as a negative figure; it has no ceiling, because a line spent at three times its budgeted figure reads two hundred percent over, and a ceiling there would print a false figure.

The two column totals

The budgeted column is the budgeted figures you typed, added. The actual column is the actual figures you typed, added. A blank adds nothing to either. The gap between the columns is the subtraction of one from the other, with the word that says which way it fell.

GThe decisions this sheet does not make

Each of these is yours. None of them is decided here, and no option set out here is recommended.

Which lines the sheet carries

This sheet supplies no category list and no suggested line. Some people keep a line for each supplier, some keep a line for each committee, some keep the lines their own last period was written in. The lines you type are the lines the sheet accounts for, and nothing here fills one in for you.

What a gap means, and what to do about it

The sheet prints a signed figure and names the lines whose figure fell one way. It does not say whether that is a good outcome or a bad one, whether a gap is acceptable, what the gap should have been, or what to change next period. A sheet that answered any of those would be an opinion about your money instead of arithmetic on your figures, and this one is arithmetic on your figures.

Which figure a part-paid commitment belongs in

A commitment made in the period and settled after it has two honest readings: the money that actually went out, which is what a bank statement says, or the money committed, which is what a purchase order says. The two give different actual columns. Which of the two a sheet is kept in, and whether one reading runs through every line of it, is a decision about your own records; this sheet takes whichever figure you type.

A line that was not in the plan at all

Spending on a line nobody set a figure for can be typed as its own line with the budgeted figure left blank, which is the fifth state in section F, or added into whichever line the plan would have carried it in. The first keeps the event visible and leaves that line without a percentage; the second keeps the sheet to the lines the plan had. Either is a decision about your own records.

Whether a period is one sheet or several

A quarter can be read as one sheet of twelve lines or as three sheets of those twelve lines. One sheet is one comparison; three sheets show the path the quarter took. The workbook beside this page is written for the second, because its record sheet carries a period column.

HWhat this sheet will not do

• It gives no financial advice of any kind, and it recommends nothing: not what to spend, not what to save, not what to cut and not what to keep.
• It holds no percentage as a rule and prints no percentage as a target. There is no split of its own on it, no rule about how much to put aside, no rule about money kept back for an emergency and no handy rule of any kind, and the only percentage it prints is one it divided out of two figures you typed.
• It orders no debts and compares no debts, ever, by any method and in any direction.
• It supplies no typical, average or household figure for anybody, for any line, in any place or trade. There is no figure of its own about any line of yours in it at all.
• It says nothing about what you are able to pay for, whether a plan is sound, or whether any line is in a good state. It holds no target, no acceptable range and no tolerance.
• It carries no credit, loan, mortgage, insurance, investment, retirement or tax figure and makes no statement about any of them.
• It asks for no institution, no account number, no balance and no credential, it collects none and it stores none. Close the page and the figures are gone; the two files sold beside it are what carry a period from one to the next.
• It reads nothing in from anywhere. No figure on it came from a table, a survey or a supplier, because there is no such figure in it.