Oh dear, too much money in the bank again
By Koalemos
@Asylum (47893)
Manchester, England
November 23, 2015 7:35am CST
I have a financial spreadsheet that I created to monitor my transactions. All my annual bills are recorded on one sheet and Paypal and Bank accounts are each recorded on separate sheets of the same workbook. It may seem superfluous to monitor my bank balance this way, but there are some advantages.
The figure shown on my spreadsheet is not always precisely the same as my bank account shows for various reasons. Sometimes I will deduct future payments that are taken directly from my account of standard amounts in advance, thus creating a temporary difference in balances. Of course I can see on the expenses sheet which have been pre allocated and know roughly what the difference should be.
Today I checked my bank account online and it shows too much cash available. This means that I must have omitted something from my spreadsheet, so now I have the task of tracing it. This does happen on rare occasions and can be a real problem.
I now have to print out my last statement and compare all the entries in the hope of finding where the discrepancy lies.
19 people like this
18 responses
@Drosophila (16568)
• Ireland
23 Nov 15
RE: the excess, feel free to send me an early Xmas present. xD
4 people like this
@Castlerock34 (2255)
• Minneapolis, Minnesota
23 Nov 15
I wouldnt mind having that problem. I mean If I knew all my bills were paid and I still had too much left over I would not be complaining thats for sure :-)
3 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
23 Nov 15
@Castlerock34 The fact that my spreadsheet does not correspond signifies that I have made some simple error of omission with the entries. I find that very annoying because I do take great care.
2 people like this
@Drosophila (16568)
• Ireland
24 Nov 15
@Asylum I need someone like your spreadsheet in my life..
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61463)
• United States
23 Nov 15
Just so you know, if you have too much I am excepting donations to my "Put Money on Belle's Account" drive. lol
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
23 Nov 15
@BelleStarr I know that you are already struggling to spend the vast wealth that you possess, so I would not be so unkind as to lumber you with even more.
2 people like this
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
29 Dec 15
I thought someone transferred a large sum of money to you.
I do not keep record of my expenditure or expected spending using excel spreadsheet.
i will keep expenditure with my credit card, since i paid most of the expenses through credit card.
For those bills paid through direct debit, the bank account will have a record of those.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
23 Nov 15
the title made me want to suggest feeling free too transfer your surplus to my account. Spreadsheets are an alien landscape for me
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
23 Nov 15
@arthurchappell You would make an excellent martyr.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (44941)
• Preston, England
23 Nov 15
@Asylum I would see it as a saintly suffering penance to take on such a burden lol!
@antonbunot (11146)
• Calgary, Alberta
23 Nov 15
Too much cash available!? Just leave it that way and start withdrawing for Christmas!
Just kidding!
Just kidding!@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
23 Nov 15
@antonbunot The only earnings site that I use is Mylot, which simply gets sent to my Paypal account and stays there. My Paypal account is entered into a separate worksheet to the bank account, so cannot affect the figure.
@antonbunot (11146)
• Calgary, Alberta
23 Nov 15
@Asylum Wow, you must be making good money from the internet . . All I do is open my account online and see if there's still left to withdraw. But most of the time my balance is big 0!
@ElizabethWallace (12069)
• United States
23 Nov 15
I hate it when that happens, so I don't use this method anymore. It made me too crazy. I have automatic payments set for my rewards credit card, and have plenty of time to see how the numbers line up. I know I have more money in my bank account than I spend each month, because most of my spending is on that credit card. The balance there gets paid off, without interest, next month. But if your method works for you, then I guess you handle frustration better than I do.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
23 Nov 15
One particular advantage is the ability to account for future payments in advance. I have some bills that are taken directly from my bank account and are for a set amount of money. This gives me the option to mark them as paid in advance and deduct the amount from my spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet also has the entire year's bills displayed, so I will never be caught unaware.
1 person likes this
@ReViewMeMedia (3786)
• United States
24 Nov 15
I hope you can figure out what happened, especially if you're trying to be accurate in your finances.
@SIMPLYD (90717)
• Philippines
24 Nov 15
My question is do you issue checks for payments . If you do then that's where the discrepancy lies, because you have already deducted such amount already in you account yet the check isn't in the bank yet because it's not deposited yet .
But that is a very good way of anticipating how much actual balance you have at the bank , considering that you have already realized those payments through checks .
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
24 Nov 15
I only have one annual payment by cheque, which occurs in July. Any outstanding cheques would immediately have occurred to me anyway.
Fortunately I have already found the entry that required amending, so my spreadsheet now complies with my bank.
1 person likes this
@jstory07 (148771)
• Roseburg, Oregon
24 Nov 15
I hope you are able to track down the error and find out where that money needs to go.
