Bill Payment Calendar

User Guide

Welcome to the Genius Bill Payment Calendar User Guide

This page has all the step-by-step instructions you need to easily manage your income & expenses with the Genius Bill Payment Calendar.


Welcome to the Genius Bill Payment Calendar created by My Excel Genius.

With this template you can quickly enter your expected income and expenses for the year and see when they’re due in weekly, monthly and annual calendars.

There are 12 monthly calendars, an annual calendar and a dynamic weekly calendar.
Each calendar will show you your net cash position, so you’ll always know where you stand, financially.

Here’s to your financial management!

Printing Calendars

Each financial calendar – weekly, monthly and annual – can be printed so you can place it somewhere convenient to remind you of upcoming income and expenses.

Watch Bill Payment Calendar in Action

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Features

Here’s just some of the ways Genius Bill Payment Calendar can help you manage your income and expenses more easily:

Genius Bill Payment Calendar is a Microsoft Excel based template to help you manage your income and expenses better.

3 Different Calendar Views

You can view your income and expenses in weekly, monthly and annual (yearly) calendars. Each of these can be printed and placed somewhere convenient.

You can view your income and expenses in weekly, monthly and annual (yearly) calendars. Each of these can be printed and placed somewhere convenient.

Hassle Free Data Entry

The Recurring Income and Recurring Expenses feature let you enter an entire year’s worth of income or expenses in seconds.

Customise to work the way you do

Genius Bill Payment Calendar has loads of ways to customise how you manage your income and expenses. You can create your own income and expense categories, nominate holidays and special events so you never miss an important occasion, and even more customisations.

A Bill Payment Calendar that Speaks your Language

You can view the Bill Payment Calendar in English, Spanish or French. You can even enter values for your own language.

Navigating Around

The Genius Bill Payment Calendar has menus to help you navigate around the template. The Main Menu looks like this:

Simply click an icon or menu title – such as Instructions – to jump to that page.

For the rest of the template there is a menu down the left-side of the screen. Also, some pages have menu tabs across the top of the page:

Main Menu

When you first open Genius Bill Payment Calendar, you’ll be presented with the main Menu, shown below.

From here, you can select one of the following options:

Option

Action

Instructions

View the instructions page with links to free online video tutorials.

Settings

Click to view the settings menu.

About

Click to view the About page with ‘Contact Us’, email and help page links.

Income

Click to enter your income details

Expenses

Click to enter your expenses

Reports

Click to view the calendar and reports menu

Settings Menu

The Settings menu is your gateway to customising Genius Bill Payment Calendar to work the way you want.

From here, you can select one of the following options:

Option

Action

General Settings


Click to change general settings including the colour of data entry cells and the current year.

Holidays & Special Events

Click to enter the dates of public holidays and special events during the year.


Income & Expense Categories

Select this to enter your income and expense categories. These are used in your income and expense reports.

Language Preference

Click this to select the language you want menus displayed in.

General Settings

General Settings has a variety of options to customise how the template works for you.

Each option is described for you in the table below:

Option

Description

Language

Click the cell and select your preferred language from the drop-down list.

Data Entry Cells




By default, all the data entry cells are white. You can choose a colour to clearly see which cells you are allowed to enter values in.
Click the cell and select a colour. The cell colours are most obvious in the Income & Expense pages. 

Year


Click this cell and select the current year from the drop-down list.
The calendars will automatically update to reflect the year you select.

Starting Balance

This is your cash balance at the start of the year.

Minimum Income
Maximum Income

The Income screen has alerts to warn if you enter invalid values. These are the smallest and largest values you can enter without being alerted.

Minimum Expense
Maximum Expense

The Expenses screen has alerts to warn if you enter invalid values. These are the smallest and largest values you can enter without being alerted.

Daily Total Cashflow


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​Each day in the monthly calendar shows you a total in the top right corner of that day.

You can choose if you want this to be the total of all income and expenses for the day, or just the top 6 income and expenses.


Expense Threshold
Income Threshold



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The annual calendar colour-codes dates.
If a day has a total income greater than the Income Threshold, it turns green.
If a day has total expenses greater than Expense Threshold, it turns amber.
You can adjust both thresholds to give you a visual cue when major income or expenses are due.

Holidays & Special Events

You can enter two different types of dates in the Genius Bill Payment Calendar.
Holidays are public (or bank) holidays in your region. Often banks and businesses are closed on these days.
Meanwhile, Special Events are dates special to you. These could be birthdays, anniversaries. Any special dates you want to remember.
For each Holiday or Special Event, enter the date and a short name for that date, like the examples below.

The Holidays and Special Events you enter will be displayed in the various calendars.
Holidays are displayed in green while Special Evets are blue, like the example below from the monthly calendar.

Income & Expense Categories

Your income and expenses are presented in the calendars and reports by categories.
These are the categories you define in the Income & Expense Categories screen, shown below:

These categories will be displayed in the Income page, the Expenses page, the monthly and weekly calendars and the annual summary report.

Language Preference

The General Settings screen has the option to select your preferred language.

The Language Preference page shows you the values that will be displayed for English, Français and Español.

If you have specific language requirements not covered by the first 3 options, you can define your own.

Under the Custom column enter suitable descriptions for each menu item. Then from the General Settings, select Custom Language to apply your changes:

Income

The Income screen allows you to enter all your regular and ad-hoc income sources for the year.

Entering Recurring Income

Let’s say you received your salary on the 20th of every month.

This is how you would enter it:

  1. 1
    Click the first cell under the Category heading.
  2. 2
    From the drop-down list select an Income Category. These are the income categories you entered in the settings screen.
  3. 3
    Under the Description column enter a brief description or note about the income source.
  4. 4
    Under the Day heading below RECURRING, enter the day (not date) of the month you expect to receive the income. In this example, you would simply enter 20.
  5. 5
    Under the Amount heading below RECURRING, enter the amount.

Note the amount repeats for every month, below each month's title.

No Currency Symbol

Don’t enter any currency symbol such as $ or £. 

Just enter the amount.

Entering Irregular Income

Entering non-recurring (or irregular) income is similar to entering recurring income.
Let’s say you receive interest from a savings account, but you only receive the money on specific months, such as March. Here’s how you enter it:

  1. 1
    Click the next blank cell under the Category heading.
  2. 2
    From the drop-down list select an Income Category.
  3. 3
    Under the Description column enter a brief description or note about the income source.
  4. 4
    Under the Day heading below MARCH, enter the day (not date) of the month you expect to receive the income. In this example, you would simply enter 31.
  5. 5
    Under the Amount heading below MARCH, enter the amount.

Note the amount only appears for the month you entered it below.

Entering a Regular Income with Irregularities

Let’s say you receive regular income from somewhere. Maybe you sell stuff on eBay.

This is usually a regular income but in February the amount it different. Here’s how you enter it:

  1. 1
    Click the next blank cell under the Category heading on the In​come page.
  2. 2
    Enter a brief description under the Description column.
  3. 3
    Under the Day heading below RECURRING, enter the day you expect to receive the income.
  4. 4
    Under the Amount heading below RECURRING, enter the amount.
  5. 5
    Now for the different amount; under the Day heading below FEBRUARY, enter the day you receive the payment. This may be the same or different than the recurring income.
  6. 6
    Under the Amount heading below FEBRUARY, enter the different amount.

Ad-Hoc Income

When you enter an ad-hoc income, it replaces the recurring income for that month only.

Expenses

The Expenses screen allows you to enter all your regular and ad-hoc expenses for the year.

Entering a Recurring Expense

Let’s say you pay rent or your mortgage on the first day of every month.

This is how you would enter it:

  1. 1
    Click the next blank cell under the Category heading on the Expenses page.
  2. 2
    From the drop-down list select an Expense Category. These are the expense categories you entered in the settings screen.
  3. 3
    Under the Description column enter a brief description or note about the expense.
  4. 4
    Under the Day heading below RECURRING, enter the day (not date) of the month you expect to pay the expense.
  5. 5
    Under the Amount heading below RECURRING, enter the amount.

Note the amount repeats for every month.

No Currency Symbol

Don’t enter any currency symbol such as $ or £. 

Just enter the amount.

Entering an Irregular Expense

Let’s say you prepare your grocery shopping at the start of every month, but the cost of your groceries varies each month. Here’s how you would enter it:

  1. 1
    Select an Expense Category under the Category heading.
  2. 2
    Enter a brief description under the Description column.
  3. 3
    Under the Day heading below JANUARY, enter the day you’ll buy your groceries.
  4. 4
    4.Under the Amount heading JANUARY, enter the amount.
  5. 5
    Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the Day and Amount columns under FEBRUARY and MARCH.

Splitting a Regular Expense

There may be some major expenses you pay more than once a month.

For example, let’s say you pay your mortgage fortnightly, on the 7th and 21st of every month. Here’s how you would enter it.

  1. 1
    Select an Expense Category under the Category heading.
  2. 2
    .Enter a brief description under the Description column to reflect this is the first payment.
  3. 3
    Under the Day heading below RECURRING, enter the day you’ll make your first mortgage payment.
  4. 4
    Under the Amount heading below RECURRING, enter the amount.
  5. 5
    On the next line down, repeat steps 1 to 4 for the next Day and Amount for the second payment.

Monthly Calendar

The Monthly Calendar gives you the broadest view of your upcoming income and expenses.

There is one page for each month of the year, which can be viewed on your computer or printed and placed somewhere convenient like your fridge door.

Monthly Calendar Heading

The top, or heading, of the monthly calendar shows the following:

Note the amount repeats for every month.

Each Day in the Monthly Calendar

Each “box” in the monthly calendar represents a single day but packs a lot of information into a small space.

Each day in the monthly calendar can show you the following:

Weekly Calendar

The Weekly Calendar presents all the income and expenses you will have for the coming week.

This calendar is very useful if you have more income or expenses each day than can be shown on the Monthly Calendar.

Like the Monthly Calendar, the Weekly Calendar shows your total income and expenses for the week and the difference (balance) between the two:

Navigating between Weeks

To navigate between weeks, click the up or down arrows to the right of the week number:

Zooming through the Weeks

If you click and hold the arrow, you’ll zoom through the weeks.

Annual Calendar

As the name suggests, the annual calendar shows your whole year in one view.

The Annual Calendar also shows your yearly income and expenses at the top-right corner. Next to this is the balance being income minus expenses.

With such as high-level view, it isn’t possible to list every income and expense.

Instead the Annual Calendar uses colour coding to show you where to expect a lot income or expenses.

High Income and High Expenses

The amber dates with high expenses and green dates with high incomes are driven by thresholds.

You can see these thresholds at the end if the Annual Calendar:

Adjusting Income & Expense Thresholds

You can adjust the income and expense thresholds in the General Setting screen.

If you want dates to only turn green when you receive income more than 500 and amber when you have expenses more than 200 enter those values in the General Settings screen:

Expense Threshold

Note that the Expense Threshold is negative as is represents cash flowing out.

Annual Summary

The Annual Summary is a report (rather than a calendar) which shows your income and expenses for the year.

Income & Expenses by Month

The first part of the report compares income and expenses by month in a table and in a chart.

The chart allows you to visually plan for months when your expenses will exceed your income.

Top 10 Income Sources

The Top 10 Income Sources shows you where your income is coming from, including what percent of income comes from each source.

If you are trying to build multiple sources of income, this will help you visually determine your income sources.

Top 10 Expenses

The Top 10 Expenses shows you where your money is going to, including what percent is attributed to each expense.

If you are trying to reign in your expenses, this will help you visually target the biggest drains on your cash.

Printing Your Calendars & Reports

Each of your calendars and reports can be printed.

Simply select the page with the calendar or report you want to print and from the File menu, select Print.

If you prefer keyboard-shortcuts you can also press CTRL+P.

As this is a Microsoft Excel workbook, you can change any of the print options to suit your needs.

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