How do I use a spreadsheet for something simple?

Spreadsheets look like accountancy software and are mostly a very good list that can add up. For household purposes you need a small fraction of what they do, and it takes an afternoon.

Step by step

1. Use whatever you already have.Google Sheets is free in a browser, Excel comes with Microsoft 365, Numbers with a Mac, and LibreOffice Calc is free. They all do everything below and the differences barely matter at this level.
2. Put headings on the first row.Date, Description, Amount, Category. One heading per column. Everything else — sorting, filtering, totalling — depends on the data being laid out this way.
3. Put one thing in each cell.Not '12 March — electricity £84'. Three separate cells. This is the single rule that determines whether a spreadsheet is useful or just a table, and it is the one people break first.
4. Never merge cells.It looks tidier and breaks sorting, filtering and most formulas. If you want a heading across the top, use the centre-across-selection formatting instead.
5. Learn SUM first.Type =SUM( then drag over the numbers and press enter. That single formula covers budgets, expenses, shopping and splitting costs — most household spreadsheets need nothing else.
6. Add AVERAGE, COUNT and MAX.Same pattern: =AVERAGE(, =COUNT(, =MAX(. Between them and SUM you can answer nearly every question a household list raises.
7. Use the fill handle to repeat a formula.The small square at the corner of a selected cell. Drag it down and the formula copies, adjusting to each row. This is what turns one calculation into a whole column.
8. Sort by a column rather than rearranging by hand.Select the data including headings and use Sort. It reorders whole rows together, which cutting and pasting does not reliably do.
9. Turn it into a table and filter.Format as Table, or turn on filters. It adds dropdown arrows to each heading so you can show only one category or one month without deleting anything.
10. Format the numbers.Set the currency and decimal places on a column rather than typing pound signs. It keeps them as numbers, which is what formulas need.
11. Freeze the top row.So headings stay visible when scrolling. One setting, and it makes a long list usable.
12. Use a chart if it makes something clearer.Select the data and insert a chart. Useful for showing a trend over months; unnecessary for a list of twenty things.
13. Share it rather than emailing copies.Google Sheets or a cloud-stored Excel file shared with a link means one version. Emailed copies produce three versions and an argument about which is current.
14. Do not build something complicated.If a household spreadsheet needs nested formulas and multiple sheets, it has usually outgrown what a spreadsheet should be doing. Simple is what survives.

Tips

• Learn the fill handle early. It is the difference between typing a formula once and typing it fifty times, and most people discover it late.
• Keep raw data on one sheet and anything summarised on another. Mixing them is what makes spreadsheets impossible to change later.
• If it is a shared household spreadsheet, put a note at the top saying what it is for. Six months on, nobody remembers.

Common mistakes

• Putting several pieces of information in one cell — Nothing can then be sorted, filtered or totalled. One thing per cell is the rule everything else depends on.
• Merging cells to make it look tidy — It breaks sorting, filtering and formulas. Use centre-across-selection formatting instead for the same appearance.

If it doesn't work

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