Welcome to Journal!

Welcome to the Journal app! This simple web app, combined with the accompanying Budget Google Sheets file which it installs makes tracking your daily, weekly or monthly expenses simple. You enter your expenses when they occur, making it easy to compare your actual spend against your projected spend each month. And because your data is hosted in a standard Google Sheets file online from your Google Drive folder, it's always available on any device from anywhere you have internet access - and most importantly - YOU own your data - it is stored in your own Drive folder. You can use all of Google Sheets capabilities to render your budget data any way you see fit. The more you use it, the more you'll want to use it!

Prerequisites

• You should have a Google Email account as this app depends on accessing the free Google Drive included with all Gmail accounts - if you don't already have one, follow this link to quickly and easily create one!
• Browse to the journal.bkkflynnsta.com app
• Click/tap the Sign In button and select your desired Gmail account
• The first time you use the app, Journal will ask for:
  • read permissions to your basic Google Mail profile
  • read/write permission to your Google Drive account
• You will be prompted to allow Journal to create the Google Sheets Budget worksheet to receive your expense entries

Setup

• Your personal, private Budget Google Sheets file is only visible to the Journal app, and to you via your own personal Google Drive account (Even if you stop using the app, you can continue to use the Budget Google Sheets file to track your expenses)
• The Budget Google Sheets file starts with three tabs:
  • the Journal tab which is a log of all expenses, income, savings, etc. that are entered by Journal
  • the Pivot tab is a fully-customizable table and graph to let you look at your expenses in various ways
  • the 4-digit year tabs are your full-year views of your budget
• The Budget Google Sheets file can be fully-customized to accommodate any Accounts you wish to track. There are a few initial Accounts already added, but feel free to add, remove, or rename them
• Each of the four sections of the year tabs can have named Accounts - but they must be unique for the Journal app to accurately update them
• Each Account you add in the Budget Google Sheets file becomes available in the Journal app's Which Account drop down menu
• You can easily add new payment types (Credit Card, Electronic Transfer, ATM, Cash, Bitcoin, etc.) directly from the Journal app by selecting the [+] button next to the Payment Method drop-down control
• You can also add additional items (yourself, spouse, business, children, etc.) to whom or what the expense is related by selecting the [+] button next to the For Whom drop-down control
• Don't forget to delete the sample data!

Usage

• Each time you pay for something (or receive income, etc.), open the Journal app, sign in, and simply fill in the information
• The Journal app is a simplified front end to the Budget Google Sheets file - it is used for input only - any changes can easily be made directly to the Journal tab in the Google Sheets file.
• You can easily share your individual Budget file from your Google Drive to any other trusted user - when they open the Journal app, they will be updating the same Budget file
• There is input field validation in the Journal app to help ensure that invalid data does not find its way into your Budget file
• The Journal app is responsive and optimized for mobile devices, so it's easy to use on the go
• Each time you close the app, you will need to sign in again to enter more transactions

Best Practices

• Once you've added your desired Accounts, take some time and thought to update your budget targets for each month to see how well you track to your budget
• If you want to change an Account name, make sure to do a global search and replace so that all the tabs are updated and your Budget stays in synch
• Any changes made to Accounts will be automatically reflected in the Journal app drop-down menus when you refresh the web page