Free Paycheck Budget Template (Excel and Google Sheets)
A budget-by-paycheck spreadsheet you can download for free. Enter how often you are paid, your next payday and your bills, and the template lists every payday for the next 12 months, works out which paycheck pays each bill, sets aside a share for each savings goal, and shows what is left to spend from every check. No account, no email address, and nothing you type into it is ever sent to us.
The workbook opens with an example filled in: paid every two weeks, ten common bills and three savings goals. Replace the yellow cells with your own numbers and every sheet updates.
What is in the template
The workbook has six sheets. You type into three of them; the other three calculate.
- Start Here. What the template does, the rules it follows, and how to open it in Google Sheets.
- Setup. How often you are paid (weekly, every two weeks, semi-monthly or monthly), your next payday, your take-home pay, the money in checking now and the lowest balance you want to keep. Below that, a summary of your next 12 months and a list of checks that tell you, in words, when something needs fixing.
- Bills. One row per bill, with its amount, how often it repeats (monthly, every two weeks, weekly, quarterly, yearly or one-time) and the next date it is due. Each row shows the bill's total over the plan, which paycheck pays its next due date, and whether the row is complete.
- Savings Goals. Anything you need money for by a date: car repairs, holiday gifts, an emergency fund. Each goal shows how many paychecks arrive before its date and how much to set aside from each.
- Paycheck Plan. Every payday for 12 months. For each one: take-home pay, the bills it pays, what goes to savings goals, what is left to spend, that amount per day until the next payday, a running balance, and a status in words ("OK", "Below buffer", "Uses earlier leftovers" or "Short"). If one paycheck is a different amount, type it in that row and only that paycheck changes.
- Bills by Paycheck. The same plan as a grid, one row per paycheck and one column per bill, so you can see at a glance which check carries which bill.
It has room for 30 bills, 15 savings goals and 12 months of paydays, up to 53 for weekly pay.
How to use it
- Download and open it. In Excel, open it like any other file. In Google Sheets, see the section on Google Sheets below.
- Fill in Setup. Pick your pay frequency from the list, then enter your next payday and your take-home pay per paycheck (what actually lands in your account, after taxes and deductions).
- Enter your bills. Use the next date each bill is due, not the date you last paid it. A monthly bill only needs one date; the template repeats it.
- Add savings goals if you have any, with the amount you need, what you have already saved and the date you need it by.
- Read the Paycheck Plan. Look for any paycheck marked "Short" or "Below buffer". Those are the pay periods to plan around now, weeks before they arrive.
- Check the Setup sheet's Checks list. Every line should read "OK". If one does not, it says what to fix and where.
Yellow cells are yours. Every other cell is a formula, so you can type over the example without breaking anything, and you can clear a row to remove a bill.
How the template works it out
The rules below are the same ones the free calculators on this site use, written as spreadsheet formulas you can read in any cell.
Paydays
The template starts at your next payday and steps forward one pay period at a time for 12 months.
- Weekly and every two weeks step 7 or 14 days, always on the same weekday. Twelve months hold 52 or 53 weekly paychecks and 26 or 27 biweekly ones, and the template counts them rather than assuming.
- Monthly pays on the same day each month. When a month does not have that day, you are paid on its last day, and the next month goes back to your normal day. A payday on the 31st falls on February 28 (29 in a leap year), April 30, and so on.
- Semi-monthly pays on two days each month, such as the 1st and 15th or the 15th and the last day. Enter your next payday and the day of the month of your other payday, with 31 meaning the last day of the month. The two days must be at least 10 days apart.
Weekends and bank holidays are not adjusted for. If your employer pays early when a payday lands on a Saturday, a date in the template can be a day or two later than your deposit. The paycheck calendar generator can show the Friday-before or Monday-after version of a fixed-date schedule.
Which paycheck pays each bill
Each bill is paid from the last paycheck on or before its due date. A bill due on a payday is paid from that day's paycheck; a bill due the day before is paid from the previous one. Bills due before your next payday are paid from the money in checking now, which is the first row of the plan.
A monthly bill keeps its day of the month, so a bill due on the 31st falls on the last day of shorter months and goes back to the 31st after them (enter its date in a month that has a 31st). Quarterly and yearly bills work the same way, every 3 or 12 months. Weekly and every-two-weeks bills step 7 or 14 days from their date. A one-time bill appears once, if it falls inside the plan.
Because the last paycheck in the plan also pays the bills due up to the payday after it, a monthly bill can appear 13 times in a 12-month plan. That is the rule working as intended, not a duplicate. The paycheck allocation calculator uses the same rule if you want to check one bill quickly on a calendar.
Savings goals
A savings goal is split equally across every paycheck that arrives before its date. A paycheck on the date itself is too late to count, because the money needs to be there when you spend it. The amount still needed (the target minus what you have saved) is divided by that number of paychecks and rounded up to the cent, so you may end up a few cents over. If a goal's date is more than 12 months away, the template still counts every paycheck until then, and the plan shows the first year of them. The sinking fund calculator explains this method in more detail.
What is left, and the running balance
For each paycheck, left to spend is take-home pay minus the bills it pays minus what it sets aside for goals. Per day divides that by the days until the next payday. The running balance starts with the money in checking now, minus anything due before your next payday, and adds each paycheck's leftover in turn. It assumes every leftover is kept, so it shows whether the plan holds together, not what you will actually have after day-to-day spending.
A paycheck whose bills and savings add up to more than it brings in is marked "Uses earlier leftovers" when money carried from earlier paychecks covers the gap, and "Short" when it does not. The Setup sheet shows your tightest paycheck, its date, and your lowest running balance.
Excel, Google Sheets and phones
Excel. The template is an ordinary .xlsx file made for Excel 2010 or later, on Windows or Mac. It has no macros, so Excel will not ask you to enable anything.
Google Sheets. Upload the file to Google Drive, then open it with Google Sheets (or use File, Import inside a new sheet). The formulas use only functions Google Sheets also has, such as SUMIFS, EDATE and EOMONTH, with no macros, no dynamic arrays and nothing that depends on today's date. The dropdown lists and number formats come across too.
LibreOffice and Numbers. Both open .xlsx files. The formulas are standard ones, but these two have not been tested as thoroughly as Excel.
Phones. A phone's file preview usually shows the example without recalculating it. To change anything, open the file in the Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers app.
What the template does not do
A spreadsheet only knows what you type into it, and it is worth being clear about the limits.
- It is not linked to any bank, and it does not know what you have actually spent. The running balance assumes every leftover is kept.
- It does not adjust paydays or bill dates for weekends or holidays.
- It plans 12 months from the payday you enter. Next year, enter a new next payday and the whole plan moves forward.
- It covers one income. If two people's paychecks fund one budget, use one copy of the template per paycheck, or add the second income as one-off amounts in the "This paycheck, if different" column.
- Semi-monthly bills are not a repeat option. Enter them as two monthly bills, one for each date.
Paycheck budget template questions
Is the paycheck budget template really free?
Yes. The download is free and needs no account or email address. It is the complete workbook, not a limited version, and it is yours to keep, copy and change.
Does the template work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload it to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets. The formulas use only functions Google Sheets supports, and there are no macros. Excel 2010 or later and LibreOffice open it too.
Can I use it for weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly or monthly pay?
Yes. Pick the schedule on the Setup sheet. Weekly and biweekly pay step 7 or 14 days from your next payday; monthly pay uses the same day each month; semi-monthly pay uses your next payday plus the day of the month of your other payday.
Which paycheck should pay each bill?
The last paycheck on or before the bill's due date. That is the latest money that can still pay it on time, and it keeps each bill in exactly one pay period. The template applies that rule to every bill for 12 months.
Why does a monthly bill show up 13 times?
The plan lists 12 months of paydays, and the last paycheck pays the bills due up to the payday after it. If that window crosses a monthly bill's due date, the bill counts a 13th time. It is the next year's first payment, paid on time.
What if a paycheck does not cover its bills?
The Paycheck Plan marks it in words. "Uses earlier leftovers" means money kept from earlier paychecks covers it; "Short" means even that is not enough. The usual fixes are moving a bill's due date (many companies will change it if you ask), setting money aside from the paycheck before, or spreading a large bill with a savings goal.
Is anything I type into the spreadsheet sent anywhere?
No. The file runs entirely on your computer or in your own Google account. It has no macros and makes no connections. Pocket Runway counts that the template was downloaded, never what is in it.
How is this different from the Pocket Runway app?
The template is a plan you keep up to date by hand. Pocket Runway builds the same paycheck-by-paycheck plan from your pay schedule and bills, keeps it current as you log spending, and shows one number for what is safe to spend until your next payday. It costs $4 a month.
Related tools: the paycheck calendar generator for every payday of the year, the paycheck allocation calculator and bill calendar, the sinking fund calculator, the rent split calculator, and Pocket Runway vs. spreadsheet budgeting. Everything else is in the guide library.
This template and page are general educational information about cash-flow budgeting, not financial, tax or legal advice. Dates are calculated from the schedule you enter and are not confirmed deposit or due dates, and all example figures are illustrative. For your exact pay dates, check your employer's payroll calendar.