If you love budgeting spreadsheets, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Money in Excel. Unfortunately, Microsoft will no longer support the program after June 30, 2023.
If you’re a current user, it might be time to consider replacement budget software. The good news is that several alternatives also provide a spreadsheet experience. This article covers five Money in Excel alternatives you may want to try.
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Is Money in Excel Closing?
Microsoft announced in May 2022 that they would discontinue Money in Excel after June 2023. As a result, you will no longer be able to enjoy these features:
- Linking financial accounts
- Importing transactions
- Customizable budget templates
- Sharing budgets with partners and financial advisors
Any financial details in your OneDrive cloud account won’t be deleted but will no longer work with this Excel add-in. You can learn more about the changes in this news article.
Best Money in Excel Alternatives
Money in Excel isn’t free as it requires an Office 365 subscription, but you can consider it a complimentary benefit if you already use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The only free way to budget using Excel is with a free budget spreadsheet. However, you might find the features lacking.
Some Money in Excel alternatives are free, but most require a paid subscription. If you’re willing to pay for a few extra bells and whistles, it can make the budgeting experience easier and more enjoyable. Let’s take a closer look, starting with Tiller.
Tiller
Cost: 30-day free trial and then $79 per year (students get one year for free)
Tiller might be the best apples-to-apples replacement for Money in Excel, given its many customizable features. The finance app also works in Excel and Google Sheets.
Some of the best features include:
- Integrates with Microsoft Excel
- Connects to over 21,000 banks (vs. 9,100 with Money in Excel)
- Daily transaction imports
- Auto-categorization rules
- Multiple budgeting strategies
- Interactive charts
- No ads
Unlike most alternatives, Tiller can directly integrate with Microsoft Excel. Most budgeting apps require importing a .CSV file to Excel first.
The service will also send a daily morning email stating your recent transactions and account balances. This convenient digest prevents you from logging into your account to view the latest data.
You will begin with the Foundation Template, which lets you budget in several different ways after auto-importing your daily transactions. You will see multiple sheets for these budget methods:
- Monthly budget
- Yearly budget
- Net worth
- Recent transactions
- Expenses by category
It’s also possible to upload user-made templates for unique goals such as paying off debt, retirement planning, and small business profit and loss reports.
You can also enjoy hands-on customer support if you have trouble syncing your accounts or navigating the platform.
Who Should Consider Tiller Money?
Most people can benefit from Tiller as it helps you create a monthly budget to avoid overspending. The service can also help people with a firm financial grasp track their spending or net worth even if they don’t need a strict budget.
This is also one of the few budgeting apps directly integrating into Microsoft Excel, which is advantageous. Learn more in our Tiller Money review.
Personal Capital
Cost: Free
Personal Capital is worth considering if you want to track your net worth or monthly spending to accomplish a short-term financial goal. Its long-term financial planning tools include a retirement planner and a college savings calculator.
This service isn’t the best option if you desire help making an in-depth budget with category-based spending targets. However, you can create savings goals and compare your total monthly spending to income.
The platform connects to most financial accounts but you can manually add accounts for a more realistic net worth calculation.
Additionally, the service also doubles as an investment portfolio analyzer. It can review your asset allocation and investment fees for rebalancing opportunities.
If you have at least $100,000 to invest, you may also be interested in Personal Capital’s Wealth Management Service. This platform invests your cash in a managed portfolio, and you can access a financial advisor team. The annual advisory fees start at 0.89% for this service.
Who Should Consider Personal Capital?
Personal Capital is ideal for tracking spending, calculating your net worth, and retirement planning. However, other services are better if you’re just starting to budget and need help living within your means. Read our Personal Capital review for more details.
YNAB
Cost: 34-day free trial and then $14.99 monthly or $98.99 annually (College students get 12 months for free)
You Need a Budget (YNAB) can be your best option if you’re serious about making a spending plan. For example, you might be living paycheck to paycheck or going through a life event requiring keeping a close eye on your finances.
The YNAB budget follows the zero-sum budgeting rules where you assign every you own a task. The app walks you through the various household expense categories like food, utilities, auto repairs, and vacation.
The budgeting features include:
- Auto-import transactions
- Automatic categorization
- Split transactions
- Multiple budgets
- Spending and net worth reports
- Loan planner calculator
- Savings goals
- Live video classrooms
The platform offers real-time syncing between your various devices. Multiple users can view the same details from a computer, phone, tablet, or smartwatch. As a result, YNAB is one of the most tech-friendly alternatives to Money in Excel.
You can connect your financial accounts to auto-import transactions. The app will also categorize your spending to compare your actual spending to the budgeted amount.
Who Should Use YNAB?
YNAB is excellent at instilling budgeting basics and auto-importing transactions. You may also consider using this service long-term if you’re detailed-oriented and want to know exactly how you spend or save every earned dollar.
However, other budget software is better for net worth tracking and retirement planning when you’re ready to build wealth. Learn more in our YNAB review.
Mint
Cost: Free or $4.99 per month
Mint is appealing because its a free app that packs a ton of features. For example, you can connect to many banking and investment accounts to track transactions and balance updates.
The service also lets you categorize transactions and add tags for additional customization.
Unfortunately, this free app is still less powerful than most paid services. Premium finance apps go more in-depth and offer more reports and templates. But Mint still gets the job done to improve your spending habits.
In addition to budgeting, Mint also offers these financial tools:
- Bill payment tracking
- Bill negotiation
- Credit score monitoring
- Investment tracking
You may also decide to upgrade to Mint Premium. This optional service costs $4.99 per month and provides an ad-free experience. You can also access additional features, including subscription cancellation.
Who Should Use Mint?
Mint is one of the best free budgeting apps – a basic category-based spending plan that auto-imports your transactions. It offers additional tools to assess your entire financial situation.
However, upgrading to a paid service is desirable if you want more customization and access to more budget templates. Get the full details in our Mint review.
Quicken
Cost: $47.88 to $119.88 per year (includes a 30-day risk-free trial)
Quicken is one of the oldest financial software and has a loyal community of individuals and businesses.
Several different software versions offer various financial tracking capabilities and device compatibility. The Quicken products are downloadable software for desktop users (Apple or Windows) and sync with the Android or iOS mobile app.
However, if you don’t want to download desktop software, you can use Simplifi by Quicken ($47.88 per year). This subscription option lets you download a mobile app or visit the online website from a computer or mobile device.
Taking it a step further, Quicken uses a category-based budgeting approach which is an extension of zero-based budgeting. Simplifi adopts a personalized monthly budget to see what’s left to spend, allowing more flexibility.
The budgeting and tracking tools for either version include:
- Auto-import and categorization of transactions
- Add manual accounts
- Bill reminders
- Customized budget categories
- Investing tracking
- Notes and memos for specific transactions
- Savings goals
The Home and Business Edition (Windows users only) also provides many small business budgeting tools to make your life easier.
Who Should Use Quicken?
Quicken is one of the best options if you want a desktop platform that can provide more functionality than a web-based service. And if you prefer an online solution, Simplifi is comparable to the other alternatives at an affordable price.
Additionally, business owners can use more business tools than Money in Excel offers. Read our Quicken review for more information.
Final Thoughts
Any one of the Money in Excel alternatives on our list can be a suitable replacement for Microsoft’s longstanding budgeting program. You can still get auto-imports of transactions while benefitting from the many extra features they offer. Your new program may make your budgeting system even more efficient than before.
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