How To Make a Basic Checkbook Spreadsheet With Numbers On a Mac

A good way to learn some basic Numbers skills is to build a simple checkbook. You can use this to keep track of your bank account balance.

Comments: 15 Responses to “How To Make a Basic Checkbook Spreadsheet With Numbers On a Mac”

    Ian MacGregor
    4 years ago

    I wrote one of these spreadsheets last year, but I like yours better. Thank you!

    GH
    4 years ago

    Gary, Great video. I have been using a numbers spreadsheet for years. The biggest difference being the first row has the beginning balance in the deposit column with the note stating Starting balance. Works the same. Thanks for all you do.

    martin kelinsky
    4 years ago

    Gary,

    Why go to the effort of creating a starting balance table when it is only used once.

    I feel it is simpler to put a starting balance on the very first empty row before any transactions begin to be recored.

    4 years ago

    Martin: It really isn't much effort. There are some good reasons to place this unique value into a separate table. For instance, say you want to use COUNT to count the number of transactions. You don't want that special row counted. Saw you want to double-click on the column heading to select all of the cells in the column to re-paste the formula or do something else -- you would get that special unique row also if you did that.

    Cathy McLaren
    4 years ago

    Great one for this Numbers newbie. Thanks Gary.

    Arthur Dixon
    4 years ago

    I am getting an error when I try to copy and paste the formula. It tells me this: The operator “-” expects a number, date, or duration, but cell D4 contains a string. What is my problem?

    4 years ago

    Arthur: What do you have in cell D4? Is it a number? When you select D4, what does it show as the cell type in the bottom left corner of the window?

    Randy
    4 years ago

    In this spreadsheet/checkbook, is there a way to use filters to see what you are spending on a particular type/category? For budgeting purposes?

    Debbie Throne
    3 years ago

    Great video. Helpful to a Numbers newbie. I want to delete rows but get error message in balance column below if I do. How do I create a formula that holds even if a row above was deleted? Do you have a video for it? Thanks in advance

    3 years ago

    Debbie: Make sure instead of a range, you just use the column. For instance, if the table is 44 rows, and the last row is a footer with the balance, and the first row is the header with the label, you may have a formula with B2:43 in it. Instead just have B. That will include only the cells that are not header or footer cells. If the column has a label it will look different. You can just click on the letter B above the column to get either "B" or the name of the column.

    Dick Millard
    3 years ago

    Thanks, Gary. This Numbers beginner has learned a lot. Works well. Would I be able to add a table containing a dynamic Recipients list that could then be referenced in the payee/recipient cell in each row of the Account table? Not sure how to formulate that. Thanks, Dick

    jason Lintner
    3 years ago

    This is great. My older mom is using this and we are looking for help. She is adding transactions, sometimes future dating, and we know how to sort by date, however when we do so the formula is affected and always needs to be corrected. Is there any way to have transaction automatically enter by date and still have your formula work?

    3 years ago

    Jason: You can't really do automatic dates, at least not very easily.

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