Expense Tracking

Why do you want to track expenses on a spreadsheet? Not saying it's a crazy idea, but depending on your reason for doing so, different spreadsheets may be useful.

dmp

Gotta b honest! I do not want to know !!!:shock:

I just started creating a basic one to track meat cost. But the cost of my rubs, sauces, paper towels, foil, gloves, etc. are spread over numerous contest which causes some difficulty trying to track the individual contest cost. If someone has developed something, I would also be interested in taking a look at it.

I don't really have one for that, but I've created things like that many, many times. I always start with column headers which are Date, Description, Debit, Credit, Balance. You could combine debit and credit, but I've spent too much time in accounting systems. The formula for E1 is =D1-C1, and the formula for E2 is =E1+D2-C1. Copy that formula down as far as you go. From there you can get creative, making each page a seperate category, with the front page having the subtotal from each category and the total. Something like =SUM(D)-SUM(C:C) in F1 on each page, and move things down one row. You can try to track things by competition too, but it might get complicated doing both that and categories.

Rubs and the like are part of what make per competition cost tracking so difficult. I break my expenses down into four categories: Bulk Items, Entry Fees, Per Competition Costs, and Fuel (Gasoline). If you really wanna track per competition costs on the bulk items, buy them, use them for a while, see how long they last, and once you've replaced everything once, do the math...just my thoughts.

I love Excel spreadsheets and make them all the time, so I'm sorry if this too much arbitrary stuff, but it's how I work. If you really wanna track and trend, buy a copy of MS Money or Intuit Quicken, (or maybe even Quickbooks or Peachtree?) and track the changes there instead. Lots of fun reports.

I don't wanna know and I REALLY can't let my wife find out!

i use a smart phone app called tax bot since bbq is my business...I can track mileage to and from comps, take pictures of all my receipts and it all gets stored on my account so at year end i can print reports of cash in vs cash out and expenses...If anyone has any questions about it let me know i will provide more info.

4uweque said:

I don't wanna know and I REALLY can't let my wife find out!

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A+ my major concern as i start competing this year! lol:thumb:

dmprantz said:

Why do you want to track expenses on a spreadsheet? Not saying it's a crazy idea, but depending on your reason for doing so, different spreadsheets may be useful.

dmp

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why use 1 spreadsheet when you could use several?

Nordy said:

Before I re-invent the wheel and create a spread sheet...

Does anyone have a spreadsheet or form you use to track competition cooking expenses?

Thanks,

Nordy

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Too bad no one has done it yet. I was thinking of doing the same thing.

I use chef tec to compute a per oz cost of rubs, sauces, etc. and then enter them into excel on amount used and attributed to the contest. Beauty of chef tec is it will use the current market price for each item and track the recipe cost.

Putting in recipes and inventory purchases takes a bit of time but once set up, it's easy to maintain. I have all my various categories entered and even have the brisket, as an example, with all of the sub-recipes that feed into it so I know the cost of each item cooked, to include the pellets.

Because of using it as a tax item, I need this type of detail and just keep track in excel along with receipts, milage, cost of equipment, entry fees, ice purchased, etc, and at end of year give it to accountant.

I use Quickbooks and let it organize details from events vrs catering or vending. You can set up each comp or each catering as a job and it will track each expense, providing you input the correct info..garbage in garbage out..

I try to split all the costs with my team mate, but tracking that has kind of been haphazard at this point. I know some teams keep a separate bank account and track all of their expenses that way. As we try and take on more comps each year, I am thinking of doing that for us as well. Then use Quicken to track all of our expenses. The hard part sometimes is separating a comp expense from a personal expense and keeping it honest.

I think if I actually knew what I spent each year on comps, I will probably wish I didnt.

Never Mind....