How to Do a Monthly Budget in Excel Using Bank Data
Turn your messy PDF bank statement into a clean, actionable monthly budget — step by step.
Most people skip budgeting because it's tedious — manually typing every transaction from a PDF. This guide shows you how to skip that step entirely, export your bank data to Excel in seconds, and build a real monthly budget that actually works.
Why Use Excel for Budgeting?
Excel gives you full control over your data. Unlike budgeting apps that lock your data in their ecosystem, Excel lets you customize categories, add formulas, create charts, and build a system that fits your exact life. And when your data comes directly from your bank statement, you start with 100% accuracy — no manual entry errors.
1. Export Your Bank Statement to Excel
Before you can budget, you need your transaction data in Excel. Most banks let you download a CSV, but many only offer PDFs — especially for credit cards and older accounts.
If your bank only gives you a PDF, use MyPDFtoExcel to convert it instantly. Upload your PDF and get a clean .xlsx file with columns for Date, Description, and Amount — ready for budgeting.
2. Categorize Your Transactions
Add a Category column next to your transactions. Go through your statement and label each row. Common categories:
| Date | Description | Amount | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 3 | AMAZON.COM | -$142.50 | Shopping |
| Jan 5 | NETFLIX | -$15.99 | Subscriptions |
| Jan 7 | DIRECT DEPOSIT | +$3,200.00 | Income |
3. Build Your Budget Summary Table
On a new sheet (call it "Budget"), create a summary table with your categories, actual spending, and your target budget for each.
4. Add SUMIF Formulas to Auto-Calculate
Instead of manually summing each category, use Excel's SUMIF formula to pull totals automatically from your transactions sheet.
=SUMIF(Transactions!D:D, "Groceries", Transactions!C:C)This sums all amounts in column C where column D equals "Groceries". Repeat for each category — just change the category name in quotes.
5. Visualize With a Chart
Numbers in a table are useful, but a chart makes it instantly clear where your money is going. Select your Category and Actual columns, then insert a Pie Chart or Clustered Bar Chart.
To insert: Select your data > Insert tab > Charts > Pie Chart. Right-click the chart and choose "Add Data Labels" to show percentages on each slice.
6. Set Conditional Formatting Alerts
Make your Difference column turn red when you're over budget automatically using Excel's Conditional Formatting:
Select the Difference column > Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cell Rules > Less Than > enter 0 > choose Red Fill.
Now your budget sheet is a live dashboard — update it each month by pasting in a new statement export and all the formulas recalculate automatically.
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