You can build a working budget in Excel in about an hour. Here is the layout, the few formulas you need, and the traps that catch most first-timers, written for Australian pay cycles.
Written by Alex BPublished 13 November 2026
Money Detective is built around practical household money tools for Australians.
To make a budget spreadsheet in Excel, you need a pay cycle dropdown, a list of your bills with how often each is charged, one formula that converts every bill to an amount for each pay, and a total. A $390 quarterly electricity bill, for example, becomes $60 a fortnight. This guide builds it from a blank workbook, and assumes you can type into cells and copy a formula down a column, and nothing more.
If you would rather skip the building, there is a free finished version at the end. But it is worth knowing how the pieces fit, even if you download one.
Gather three things so you are not hunting while you build:
Create a new workbook and name three tabs along the bottom:
Keeping the plan, the list of spending and the results on separate tabs is what stops a budget turning into one confusing page.
On the Budget tab, put your pay cycle in a single cell, say B1, and give it a dropdown so you can switch between weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly and monthly:
Weekly,Fortnightly,Every 4 weeks,Monthly.Next to it, work out how many pays you get in a year. In B2 you could type =IF(B1="Weekly",52,IF(B1="Fortnightly",26,IF(B1="Every 4 weeks",13,12))). That number is what lets every bill be converted to your pay cycle.
Below that, set up columns like these:
| A: Category | B: Amount | C: How often | D: Per pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rent | $520 | Weekly | $1,040.00 |
| Electricity | $390 | Quarterly | $60.00 |
| Phone and internet | $150 | Monthly | $69.23 |
| Car rego | $950 | Yearly | $36.54 |
| Total per fortnight | $1,205.77 |
Invented figures. Column D shows what the formula in Step 4 gives for a fortnightly pay.
Make column C a dropdown too, with the choices Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly. Then you need one formula in column D that turns any bill into an amount for each pay.
The idea is simple. Work out the bill's yearly cost, then divide by the number of pays in the year.
For a bill in B5 with its frequency in C5, and your pays per year in $B$2, the formula in D5 is:
=B5*IF(C5="Weekly",52,IF(C5="Fortnightly",26,IF(C5="Monthly",12,IF(C5="Quarterly",4,1))))/$B$2
Check it with a number you can do in your head. A $150 monthly bill is $1,800 a year. Divided by 26 fortnights, that is about $69.23 a fortnight. A $390 quarterly bill is $1,560 a year, which is $60 a fortnight. The dollar signs in $B$2 keep that reference fixed when you copy the formula down.
This is why a month is not two fortnights: 12 monthly bills spread across 26 pays is not the same as half a monthly bill each pay. The fortnightly budget with monthly bills guide explains the extra pays that appear in some months.
Under your list, use =SUM(D5:D30) to add up the per-pay column, and subtract that from your pay in another cell. That figure is what is left after your planned spending. If it is negative, your plan costs more than you earn, and you will want to change something before the pay starts.
Put your savings in the plan as a row too. A budget that treats savings as whatever is left over tends to leave nothing.
On the Transactions tab, set up four columns: Date, Description, Category and Amount. Each time you spend, or each time you paste in rows from your statement, fill in the category from a dropdown that uses the same names as your Budget tab.
Back on the Budget tab, add a column E for actual spending. For the category in A5, a formula that totals everything with that category in the transaction list is:
=SUMIFS(Transactions!D:D,Transactions!C:C,A5)
SUMIFS adds up the amounts in one column where another column matches your condition. Microsoft's help page on the SUMIFS function has more examples. To limit it to the current pay, add a date condition. Then add a difference column (=D5-E5) and a percentage used column (=IF(D5=0,"",E5/D5)). The budget vs actual guide explains how to read them.
The Free Fortnightly Budget is a finished Excel template with a pay cycle dropdown (weekly, fortnightly, every 4 weeks or monthly), 23 categories, planned vs actual for each category and a dashboard. You type your own amounts in the yellow cells. It is free in exchange for your email.
A done-for-you upgrade: Fortnightly Budget Plus is a built Excel workbook with over 30 categories, bills converted to your pay for you, a budget vs actual tab and savings goals. You can paste in transactions from your bank statement and let it sort them. Building your own is a good way to learn, and a finished one saves you the time.
Only a handful: SUM, IF, and SUMIFS if you want to total your spending by category. Everything above uses just those.
Yes. The menus are in the same places in Excel for Mac, though the shortcut keys differ.
As few as you will keep up with. Many households do well with 10 to 20.
This article provides general information only. It does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs, and it is not financial advice. Examples use invented figures. Money Detective's tools provide estimates and planning information. Consider your own circumstances, and seek independent advice if you need it, before making financial decisions.