Write It Down - Personal Finance Tracker for Google Sheets

TL;DR

TL;DR: Write It Down is a paid Google Sheets template that turns a spreadsheet into a personal finance tracker — showing your full month on one screen for $8.99 with no subscription.

What Is Write It Down?

Write It Down is a Google Sheets-based personal finance tracker. Instead of a standalone app or service, you buy a spreadsheet template that lives in your own Google Drive. The sheet displays your entire month on a single view, surfacing spending patterns that most budgeting tools bury in menus and reports.

“A Google Sheet you already know. Pay once and own forever.”

The product has two versions:

• Sheet v1 at $5.99 USD — income and expense tracking with your own categories
• Sheet v2 at $8.99 USD — multi-currency, budgeting, up to 10 accounts, and 50 money tips

Over 2,674 users have purchased one of the two versions.

Setup Workflow

Step 1: Purchase the Template

Visit write-it-down.com and choose your version. Payment is a one-time charge via Stripe — no subscription to forget about.

Step 2: Open the Sheet

After purchase you receive a link to the live Google Sheet. You copy it to your own Google Drive. Sheet contents are never stored on the vendor’s servers.

Step 3: Connect Your Accounts

Enter transactions manually or connect multiple Sheets you already own. The v2 dashboard merges data across Sheets into multi-year wealth charts and category trends.

Step 4: Review the Monthly View

The main sheet shows your full month on one screen. Transactions, category breakdowns, and budget targets are visible at a glance without navigating between tabs.

Deeper Analysis

What Makes It Different

Most budgeting apps either lock you into a subscription or require you to hand over bank credentials. Write It Down takes the opposite approach: it runs inside Google Sheets, a tool most people already use. There is no app to install, no account to maintain separately, and no recurring charge.

The product description says it plainly:

“60% of adults cannot name what they spent last month.”

The single-screen monthly view is the core UX argument. Rather than generating reports, the sheet is designed to make spending visible as you go.

Dashboard (v2 Only)

The v2 upgrade includes a dashboard that merges multiple Sheets into charts tracking net worth over time and spending by category across months. This addresses a limitation of a single-sheet setup: you cannot easily compare March to April in one view without pulling data into a separate summary sheet.

Pricing

| Version | Price | Key Features | |---|---|---| | v1 | $5.99 | Income/expense tracking, custom categories | | v2 | $8.99 | Multi-currency, budgets, up to 10 accounts, 50 money tips, dashboard |

The v2 price is roughly $3 more than v1. The vendor’s pitch for upgrading to v2: multi-currency alone pays for the difference if you deal with multiple currencies.

Privacy

The vendor states that sheet contents are never stored on their servers and that the product is “currently under Google review.” This likely refers to the Google Workspace Marketplace app review process for add-ons, though the product functions as a regular shared Sheet template rather than an installable Sheets add-on.

Practical Evaluation Checklist

• [x] One-time payment, no subscription
• [x] Runs inside Google Sheets (no separate app)
• [x] Monthly view on a single screen
• [x] v2 supports multi-currency and up to 10 accounts
• [x] v2 dashboard merges multi-year data
• [x] Over 2,600 paying users
• [x] Privacy: data stays in your Google Drive

Security Notes

• Transaction data lives in your own Google Drive — not on vendor servers
• No bank credential sharing required
• No third-party OAuth connections to financial institutions
• Sheet sharing settings are controlled by the user

FAQ

Q: Is this a Google Sheets add-on or a template? A: It is a Google Sheets template. You purchase a link, copy the Sheet to your own Drive, and use it as a regular spreadsheet. It is not installed from the Google Workspace Marketplace.

Q: Does it sync with my bank automatically? A: No. Transactions are entered manually. The v2 dashboard can merge data from multiple Sheets you connect manually.

Q: What happens if Write It Down shuts down? A: You own the Google Sheet permanently. Since it is just a spreadsheet, there is no service dependency. Your data stays in your Google Drive.

Q: Is there a free trial? A: There is an interactive demo on the product page you can open and explore before purchasing.

Q: Does v2 work for multiple currencies? A: Yes, multi-currency support is a v2 feature. v1 tracks a single currency.

Conclusion

Write It Down targets people who want the structure of a budgeting system without adopting a new app or paying ongoing fees. Its main value proposition — a full month visible on one screen — addresses the common failure mode of personal finance tools: out of sight, out of mind.

The one-time pricing model is honest and straightforward. The product has over 2,600 users and runs entirely inside Google Sheets, which means there is no vendor lock-in for your transaction data.

If you already use Google Sheets and want a low-commitment way to see where your money goes, the $8.99 v2 is the complete package. If you just need basic income and expense tracking, v1 at $5.99 covers the essentials.

• Project page: write-it-down.com
• Source last checked: 2026-08-15 (web scraping of product page, no errors)