Project: a monthly budget

Your brief: explain one month’s spending

You have four spending categories, a planned budget, actual spending and monthly income. Build a report that answers: how much did we plan to spend, how much did we spend, which category exceeded budget and how much income remains?

Use the fictional figures below. Income is in E2 and is separate from the category list. Positive spending variance will mean actual minus budget, so positive values indicate spending above budget. State that convention in the report.

Build the calculation in useful steps

1. Keep Budget and Actual as numeric inputs in B2:C5.
2. In D3, calculate food variance with =C3-B3. Repeat the same logic for other categories.
3. Total budget with =SUM(B2:B5) and actual spending with =SUM(C2:C5).
4. Calculate money remaining as income minus total actual spending: =E2-SUM(C2:C5).
5. Add an IF label for a category: Over when Actual exceeds Budget, otherwise Within.

In the complete report you could place the totals on row 8, variance in D2:D5 and status in a separate column. The online tasks check each calculation independently so you can learn from one mistake at a time.

Worked result: what happened this month?

Total budget is 1,850 and actual spending is 1,900. Overall variance is +50. Income of 2,300 leaves 400 after the recorded spending.

Food is 60 over budget, Utilities is 10 over, Transport is 20 under and Rent is exactly on budget. The category variances reconcile: 60 + 10 − 20 + 0 = 50. This is a useful independent check on the total variance.

Money remaining is based only on the recorded categories. It is not proof that every expense was captured. Check scope and missing records before interpreting it as money available to spend.

Make a readable summary

Create a column chart of actual spending by category, excluding any total row. For a budget-versus-actual comparison in Excel, select Category, Budget and Actual and create a clustered column chart with both numeric series.

Use a descriptive title, consistent number formatting and a zero baseline. Keep the four categories in a useful order. A table of exact values should remain available next to the chart.

The final online exercise builds the simpler one-series Actual spending chart. The downloadable extension workbook includes the full budget dataset and tasks for a two-series comparison.

Finish with a small reliability check

• Change one actual value and verify the total, variance, label and chart respond.
• Check that a category exactly on budget is Within, not Over.
• Confirm the income cell is not accidentally included in an expense total.
• Inspect formulas after copying and review any missing input.
• Save an .xlsx copy and inspect a print or PDF preview before sharing.

Completing this project finishes the beginner path. Continue with the intermediate course, or revisit any exercise that required a hint and explain the solution in your own words.