Excel Talk with Sunil from the Extra Money Blog

Here at Excel Spreadsheets Help we're always looking for new and exciting uses of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. We recently had the opportunity to talk with Sunil, author of the Extra Money blog, about how he uses Excel in regard to his personal finances, entrepreneurship, and internet marketing. I'd like to thank Sunil for taking the time to answer a few of our questions.

ESH: Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself – who are you and what do you do?

Sunil: I am the author of the Extra Money Blog (www.extramoneyblog), a blog that discusses expedited wealth building through entrepreneurship, solid personal finance and internet marketing. I strongly feel true financial abundance can only be achieved when solid personal finance principles and discipline is/are combined with entrepreneurship.  Saving will only get you so far, but creating additional income streams will get you anywhere you’d like as fast as you'd like.

I wear several hats. I own over 20 profitable niche sites, 20+ ebooks on various platforms online and currently in the process of establishing a local SEO firm. I am in the process of developing several iPhone applications as well. Outside the online platform, I am involved in real estate investments as well as small business investments (brick and mortar).

ESH: When did you first begin using Excel and how often do you use it?

I've been using excel since University. I used it extensively early in my professional career working in mergers and acquisitions (heavy number crunching and analysis).  Today I use it for various purposes, including recording, tracking and analyzing income from various online endeavors. Heck, sometimes I use it for note taking as silly as it sounds. I am addicted to spreadsheets :)

  

ESH: I know exactly what you mean! Could you please describe your income or expense tracking spreadsheet and processes?

Sunil: I designed the spreadsheet I use today and started using it myself. Today I have trained a VA to compile it for me monthly/quarterly.  The sheet/workbook has several tabs, each representing a "business".  All tabs roll into the main tab (through formulas / links).  The main tab also has general expenses which are apportioned to each business (based on formulas). I plan on discussing this in depth on my blog. I may also share this spreadsheet for those interested in a relatively hands off business model.

ESH: Wow, great. You’ll have to let us know when you make your spreadsheet available for download. How important to your businesses is it to track all sources of income and expenses?

Sunil: It's important. Without tracking you don't know how you are truly doing. Tracking also enables the calculation of ROI, which influence future decisions involving projects to pursue. Finally, regulatory compliance and laws mandate clean and clear tracking (think income taxes, statutory reporting, etc.)

ESH: Do you prefer using Google doc's spreadsheets or Excel files? What are advantages of using one or the other?

Sunil: Both. Excel is good when I am toying around on my own. Google docs is great for share use and project management purposes. It's also available anywhere you have internet access. Docs can be clunky at first if you are used to Excel, but it's a great tool. Excel on the other hand is a lot more powerful than many believe or know.  You don't know what you don't know at the end of the day.

ESH: Have you ever created or encountered any unique uses for an Excel spreadsheet?

Sunil: Yes, I have embedded macros into them and developed small programs. I have used excel to value mutli million and billion dollar companies utilizing several evaluation models. These involve complex formulas.  This is as "unique" as I have gotten.  I have seen some very robust / intense workbooks that are linked to massive data warehouses. The workbooks download the information/data from the warehouses, and automatically slice and dice the data based on user preference (sometimes macros are involved - the click of a button allows the workbook to fly with it) 

ESH: Thanks again to Sunil and be sure to check out the Extra Money blog and Facebook page to learn more.

2011-2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Printable Bracket

The 2011-2012 NHL regular season has ended and the Stanley Cup playoffs are here which means it's time to download, print, and fill out your bracket. I have created a downloadable Excel spreadsheet with the complete NHL playoff bracket. Fill it out on your computer or print it out. Maybe next year I'll get around to adding a bracket manager in order to keep score in a pool. Download the 2012 NHL bracket here or sign-up for my Excel tips newsletter to receive the .xls file as an email attachment (you can unsubscribe at any time).

One note about the Stanley Cup playoffs - unlike March Madness the top seed always plays the lowest seed so you may have to reshuffle the picks on your bracket after the first round.

Also included with the Excel spreadsheet is the date, location, time, and TV network for all the games in the first round of the playoffs.

If you would like to receive the spreadsheet file through email please join my free Excel email tips newsletter.

Download the spreadsheet then find out how to make the best picks in order to win your pool!

2011-2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Printable Excel Bracket.xls download

2012 NHL Mock Draft Creator spreadsheet.xls download

Personal Business Management Spreadsheet Template

We’re in the middle of tax season here in America so it comes as no surprise that some of the most requested Excel spreadsheets this time of year are personal and business finance and accounting templates. In my everyday life I use three primary spreadsheets to help track my finances and will be writing a post about each one.

First up is what I like to call my business accounting spreadsheet. I call this a “business” but it’s pretty basic seeing as how I’m the only employee. Maybe a better name would be web site management spreadsheet or even personal project management (or project tracking) – because that’s what this is, a personal project, after all!  Also please note, this template is relatively new and is continuously evolving as I add new features to my web site and want to analyze the data in new ways.

The Concept

So what is this so called business or project? This blog uses the Blogger platform, which is free to use but requires .blogspot to be added at the end of the domain name. I’ve always wanted to create my very own web site and finally did so - how to learn to write CATIA macros. The site contains several free articles with tips and advice about VB scripting in CATIA, a 3D CAD program.

However, creating and maintaining my own web site costs money. I decided to treat my site like a business. I keep track of all expenses and revenue because the goal is to have the site pay for itself through the sale of an eBook I wrote on the same topic. If the site is not profitable over time I will abandon it. I guess you could classify this type of web site as a “niche profit site.”

Total Expenses

The first sheet I have in my template is labeled Total Expenses. This where I keep track of any products or services I have to buy to keep the web site up and running, as well as the initial start up fees. For example, I purchased the domain name www.scripting4v5.com through NameCheap at $10.87 for an entire year. In the month column I use the MONTH function to return the month of a date as a number, which will be used later on in my monthly report worksheet. I use HostGator (exceptional customer service – I speak from experience!)  to host my web site, a monthly expense.

For my CMS (content management system) I decided to go with Wordpress because it’s user friendly and free (thus not included as an expense). In addition, I purchased a new theme called Socrates due to its number of built in features which again are very easy to use. The onetime fee is added to the expense sheet.

In order for customers to purchase and download my eBook, I needed a way to protect the download link so it couldn’t be copied and shared with other users. I bought a program called WP File Lock one another onetime fee of $47.

Finally, I use an email newsletter service called Aweber to manage my email subscribers. This service is a monthly fee of $16.33. That’s it for my expenses. I know it sounds like a lot but really I only have two only monthly bills (email newsletter, and hosting) and one yearly expense (domain name).

Total Revenue

Now, let’s look at the next tab in my workbook, Total Revenue, where I list all my revenue generated from the web site. At this time I am using Google Adsense to place one banner of ads across the top of the site as well as Kontera ads within the text.

The main revenue stream is from selling VB Scripting for CATIA V5 eBook. I have a referrer column to indicate whether I sold the eBook or if it was sold through one of my affiliates. Yes, if you have a Clickbank account you can earn a 50% commission for selling my book for me!

Once again, I use the MONTH function to return the number of the month, as in cell F2, =IF(E2="","",MONTH(E2)). At the bottom of the sheet I add the totals for each of my site revenue streams, as in cell B20 I have =SUMIF(A2:A15,A20,D2:D16).

Monthly Report

Finally, on the third sheet I can look at my total expenses and revenue by month. This gives me a great snapshot of how the site is doing. I use the SUMIF formula on my Monthly worksheets where I can view total expenses, revenue, and if I have made or lost money for the month. For example, in cell B2,

=SUMIF('Total Expenses'!F2:F9,2,'Total Expenses'!C2:C9) I also use conditional formatting to highlight when I've spent more money than I’ve made in red and highlight the text in green when I have made a profit.

Summary

In review, I was able to setup my first web site at an initial cost of $209.11, shown here on my spreadsheet. My expected monthly recurring expenses are $26.28. So now what? The purpose of the site is to sell my eBook. When a sale is made I add it to my revenue column. It will take a few sales to cover my initial expenses but then I should only need to sell one eBook a month in order to pay for the site every month.

Sorry for the long article, but that was my “business” spreadsheet in full. Next, I’ll cover the Excel spreadsheet template I use to track all of my real-world and online income, then we’ll look at how I keep track of bills and other living expenses.

DOWNLOAD PERSONAL BUSINESS PORJECT TRACKING TEMPLATE.xls

*Full disclosure: Some of the links in this article are for affiliates. I earn a commission if you purchase the product having following the link. I only name products that I actually use and fully endorse.

·         Tags: personal finance excel spreadsheet, monthly finance spreadsheet, Free excel project sheet

Downloadable 2012 NCAA Tournament Bracket

Learn how to dominate your bracket pool by clicking here!

March Madness is here! The conference tournaments are over and the field of 68 teams has been set. It's time to fill out those brackets and try to predict the upsets. David Tyler, author of When the Whistle Blows blog, has created what I consider to be the absolute best downloadable NCAA basketball tournament brackets in Excel.

What makes David's brackets better than any other spreadsheets I've tried? The brackets are very user friendly - even if you don't have a lot of Excel experience (or any at all) you can quickly and easily complete David's brackets. Instructions are included with the Excel file. Or if you want to simply download the bracket, print it off, and fill it out by hand.

This year's bracket also enables the pool manager to option to score the "First Four" play-in games of the tournament.

Click here to go to When the Whistle Blows bracket page to download the 2012 NCAA tournament bracket pool manager and March Madness bracket.

Best March Madness Tweets.

Check out our downloads page for more sports templates.

Bill Jelen's Excel 2010 In Depth book review

After interviewing him a few weeks ago, I decided to pick up one of Bill Jelen's Excel books (I must confess I had never read one before the interview, though I am very familiar with his Mr. Excel website). Microsoft Excel 2012 In Depth is a great resource. Bill expertly explains numerous new improves to Excel including the calculation engine which improves the speed and accuracy of math, financial, and statistical functions. There are several tutorials which include step-by-step instructions with icons on how to design and create templates and organize data. The first four chapters especially are incredibly useful in detailing all the changes from Excel 2007 to 2010. There is a nice mix of basics and advanced to satisfy users of all skill levels. If you're going to pick up a book to learn more about Microsoft Excel then I highly recommend this is the one to do so.

Read Bill Jelen's Microsoft Excel 2010 In Depth today!

Organized Baseball Coach Spreadsheets Download

Well, now that the football season is officially over it's time to turn our attention to America's next favorite past-time: baseball! Spring is right around the corner (or will winter finally arrive) and that means spring practices for baseball will begin. There are many dads out there that coach their son's or daughter's baseball and softball teams. One of the most time consuming tasks of coaching is the ‘off-field’ administrative tasks. Well, now there is a spreadsheet template to help you baseball coaches get organized!


Organized Baseball Coach Spreadsheets  will help you to organize player-parent contact lists, pitch tracking records, 12 month season and daily plan charts, player attendance, depth charts, 40 yard time, and much more! Literally, every single aspect of coaching you can think of has a spreadsheet template built in.

Click Here to download the baseball coach spreadsheets!

Advanced Custom HLOOKUP Formula

About a year ago I posted an explanation how to create an advanced custom vlookup formula. Recently, I had a reader ask me how to convert this custom code into an advanced custom hlookup formula. It's not as easy as changing all the columns to rows and vice versa as the offset function needs to also be applied. Here is the custom hlookup VBA code:

Public Function HlookupNth(MyVal As Variant, MyRange As Range, Optional RowRef As Long, Optional Nth As Long = 1)
Dim Count, i As Long, cll As Range
Count = 0
If RowRef = 0 Then RowRef = MyRange.Rows.Count
For Each cll In MyRange.Rows(1).Cells
  If cll.Value = MyVal Then
    Count = Count + 1
    If Count = Nth Then
      HlookupNth = cll.Offset(RowRef - 1).Value
      Exit Function
    End If
  End If
Next cll
HlookupNth = "Not Found"
End Function

And the forumla would have this format:

=HLOOKUPNTH(lookup_value, lookup_Range, col_index_num, nth_value) 


And a reminder: don't forget to get your copy of our Super Bowl squares spreadsheet before the big game on Sunday.