Using an Airtable Budget Template

After trying several budgeting apps, I found Airtable to be the most flexible tool for managing finances. You can clone my personal budget template to your workspace for a head start.

Why is Airtable Great for Budgets?

Airtable’s link and rollup formula capabilities make it ideal for tracking daily expenses by category. You can categorize expenses and view a rollup of transactions by budget. Custom fields allow you to tag and categorize, making it easy to analyze spending trends.

Is It Free?

Airtable’s free plan supports up to 1,200 records per base, which works well for a year-long budget with moderate transaction volume. If you stay under 90 transactions per month, this setup should be adequate.

Budget Template Overview

This template follows a zero-based budgeting approach, featuring four main tables:

• Transactions
• Budget
• Categories
• Vendors

Transactions Table

This table tracks all expenses and income, rolling up data to other tables. Essential fields include:

• UID: Unique ID based on account, date, and description.
• Acct: Lists accounts like credit cards and bank accounts.
• Transaction Date: Date of transaction.
• Vendor: Linked to Vendors table, standardizes merchant names.
• Categories: Linked to Categories table, assigns a category to each transaction.
• Transaction Type: Options include Debit, Credit, Payment, and Transfer.
• Credit: Credit amount (e.g., paycheck, refund).
• Debit: Expense amount.
• Recurring: Tracks recurring expenses with frequency options.

Budget Table

The main budget view provides a high-level summary of all spending and income. Key fields include:

• Name: Budget name, covering broad categories (e.g., Food & Dining).
• Budget: Allocated amount for the year.
• YTD Total: Sum of spending for linked categories.
• Annual Budget: Tracks remaining budget after expenditures.
• Pct to Budget: Percentage spent relative to the allocated budget.

Categories Table

Categories are subcategories of budgets, helping you track spending by specific types like fuel or insurance. Key fields include:

• Name: Name of the category.
• Debit Rollup: Total debit amount for each category.
• Credit: Total credits for each category.
• Calculation: Calculates net spending by category.

Vendors Table

This optional table tracks vendor details and normalizes names across transactions. Key fields include:

• Name: Vendor name, standardized for consistency.
• Debit Rollup: Sum of amounts spent with each vendor.