如果您正在制定预算或者您需要知道资金的去向，那么费用跟踪器至关重要。Google Forms是一个免费的表单生成器，非常适合用作费用跟踪器。
Google 表单(Google Forms)是高度可定制的，因此虽然它也可以用作调查、RSVP工具、联系表、产品注册表或任何其他问题/答案表，但您可以通过选择与费用相关的问题使其成为自定义费用跟踪器.
Google Forms费用跟踪器可以密切关注您想要的有关交易的任何内容，并且由于它在手机上运行良好，因此无论您走到哪里都可以随身携带。
您可以停止保存收据或尝试破译信用卡上的费用；只需在您花钱记录所有重要细节并将其提交到电子表格后立即打开您的费用跟踪器，以便稍后查看。
提示(Tip)：请参阅我们的最佳预算和费用跟踪应用程序(best budgeting and expense tracking apps)列表，了解其他一些跟踪费用的方法。它们不像谷歌表单(Google Forms)那样可定制，但它们确实有自己的好处。
决定要跟踪的内容(Decide What To Track)
费用跟踪器的想法是密切关注您的支出，因此表单需要包含一些基本细节。但是根据您要跟踪的内容，您可能需要在表单中添加一些额外的字段。
以下是您可能要跟踪的一些示例：
- 价格(Price)：这笔交易多少钱？
- 商店(Store)：你把钱花在哪里了？
- 描述(Description)：你花钱买什么？
- 类别(Category)：是什么类型的购买（娱乐、食品、账单等）？
- 使用的付款方式(Payment method used)：您如何付款（哪张卡/银行/应用程序）？
- 谁承担费用(Who ran the expense)：如果有多个人使用该表格
- 笔记(Notes)：您需要做任何额外的笔记吗？
在决定在Google Forms费用跟踪器中包含哪些内容时，请记住，您希望字段尽可能广泛，以便它们可以应用于您购买的任何东西。例如，您不一定需要一个询问您购买哪种食物的字段，除非这只是一个食品费用跟踪器；您可能还想用它来记录租金支付和电话账单。
在这方面，您可以将费用跟踪器表单中的任何字段设为必填或不需要。因此，如果您确实想要一个真正特定的字段，只需使其不是必需的，这样您就不必在每笔交易中都使用它。
构建 Google 表单费用跟踪器(Build The Google Forms Expense Tracker)
这是一个示例费用跟踪器，所以你的，绝不需要看起来与这个完全一样。我们使用更广泛的问题和更广泛的答案选项来展示它是如何工作的。您将了解到编辑表单非常简单，因此您自己定制它应该没有任何问题。
- 打开谷歌表单(Open Google Forms)。
- 选择空白(Blank)以开始新表单。
- 将您的表单重命名为可识别的名称。
- 选择第一个框并将其更改为Short answer。
- 将此命名为Price，确认Is number已显示，然后标记Required按钮。
- 使用右侧菜单中的加号添加新问题，但这次选择多项选择(Multiple choice)。
- 将此命名为Store，然后使用您购物的常用商店填写答案选项。其他(Other)是默认添加的，所以如果你最终从不同的商店购买，你可以在那里输入。
- 继续(Continue)填写表格，提出您每次购买商品时想问自己的所有不同问题。使用上面的建议，例如付款方式和描述问题，为自己提供尽可能详细的信息。当我们解释表单中的所有结果时，这将派上用场。
- 使用Google 表单(Google Forms)顶部的预览按钮（眼睛图标）获取表单的URL。您可以与任何您想与之一起使用该表格的人共享此信息，或将其发送给您自己，以便您可以通过手机轻松访问它。
这不是必需的，但您的表单还可以包含图像、标题和独特的配色方案。如果可能的话，彩色表格可能会使跟踪费用变得有趣！页面顶部的绘制图标是您进行这些更改的地方。
设置计算(Set Up Calculations)
表单中的每个条目都收集在Google 表格(Google Sheets)中格式精美的电子表格中。从表单顶部选择响应(RESPONSES )，然后单击电子表格图标以重命名电子表格（如果需要）。
电子表格打开后，在底部创建一个新选项卡并将其命名为Calculations。
从那里，您可以执行Google 表格(Sheets)支持的任何操作：将给定时间段内的所有费用相加，创建图表以直观地了解您的费用，查看谁花费最多，确定哪些商店花费您最多，等等.
在Google 表格(Google Sheets)中使用这些类型的公式超出了本文的范围，但让我们看一些非常简单的事情，比如将每个人的所有费用相加，这样我们就可以真正看到谁的支出最多。您可以随时调整公式以计算您在每家商店的总支出。
无论交易的人是谁，计算所有费用的最简单方法是运行总和(sum)公式，如下所示：
=sum(‘Form Responses 1’!B:B)
此计算适用于我们的示例，因为表单响应中的价格列在 B 列中。
这是一个谷歌表格(Google Sheets)公式，它更详细地显示了每个人的花费：
=sumif(‘Form Responses 1′!G:G,”Jeff”,’Form Responses 1’!B:B)
其工作方式是输入sumif，然后选择包含名称的列（在我们的示例中为G）。下一部分是识别名称Jeff。最后，选择带有价格的列标题，这样当另一列与我们之后的名称匹配时，它将仅添加这些价格。
查看 Google 的Google 表格功能列表，(list of Google Sheets functions)了解其他一些可以解释表单数据的方法。另一种查看费用的方法是使用图表。谷歌有一个(Google has a tutorial)关于这样做的教程。
How To Use Google Forms As An Expense Tracker
An expense trackеr is vital if you’re budgeting or you need to know whеre your money is going. Google Fоrms is a free form builder that works great as an expense tracker.
Google Forms is heavily customizable, so while it can also be used as a survey, RSVP tool, contact form, product signup sheet, or any other question/answer form, you can make it into a custom expense tracker by choosing expense-related questions.
A Google Forms expense tracker can keep tabs on anything you want regarding a transaction, and since it works great from a phone, you’ll have it with you wherever you go.
You can stop saving receipts or trying to decipher a charge on your credit card; just pull up your expense tracker right after you spend money to record all the important details and submit it to a spreadsheet you can review later.
Tip: See our list of the best budgeting and expense tracking apps for some other ways to track expenses. They’re not as customizable as Google Forms but they do have their own benefits.
Decide What To Track
The idea of an expense tracker is to keep tabs on what you’re spending your money on, so there are a few basic details that the form needs to include. But depending on what you’re wanting to track, you might need some extra fields in the form.
Here are some examples of what you might want to track:
- Price: How much is this transaction?
- Store: Where are you spending the money?
- Description: What are you spending money on?
- Category: What type of purchase is it (entertainment, food, bill, etc.)?
- Payment method used: How are you paying for it (which card/bank/app)?
- Who ran the expense: If there are multiple people using the form
- Notes: Any extra notes you need to make?
When deciding what to include in a Google Forms expense tracker, keep in mind that you want the fields to be as broad as possible so that they can apply to anything you’re purchasing. You don’t necessarily need a field that asks what kind of food you’re buying, for example, unless this is solely a food expense tracker; you might want to also use this for recording rent payment and phone bills.
On that note, you can make any of the fields in your expense tracker form required or not required. So, if you do want a really specific field for something, just make it not required so that you don’t have to use it for every transaction.
Build The Google Forms Expense Tracker
This is a sample expense tracker, so yours, by no means, needs to look exactly like this one. We’re using broad questions with even broader answer options to show how this works. You’ll learn that editing the form is extremely easy, so you shouldn’t have any problem customizing it for yourself.
- Open Google Forms.
- Select Blank to start a new form.
- Rename your form to something recognizable.
- Select the first box and change it to Short answer.
- Name this one Price, confirm that Is number is shown, and then mark the Required button.
- Use the plus sign from the menu off to the right to add a new question, but this time choose Multiple choice.
- Name this one Store, and then fill out the answer options with the usual stores you shop at. Other is added by default, so if you end up making a purchase from a different store, you can type it in there.
- Continue through the form making all the different questions you want to ask yourself each time you buy something. Use the suggestions above, like the payment method and description question, to provide yourself with as much detail as possible. This will come in handy later when we interpret all the results from the form.
- Use the preview button (the eye icon) at the top of Google Forms to get the URL to your form. You can share this with anyone you want to use the form with, or send it to yourself so that it’s easily accessible from your phone.
This isn’t necessary, but your form can also include images, headings, and a unique color scheme. A colorful form might make tracking expenses fun, if that’s at all possible! The paint icon at the top of the page is where you go for those changes.
Set Up Calculations
Every entry from your form is gathered in a nicely formatted spreadsheet at Google Sheets. Select RESPONSES from the top of your form and then click the spreadsheet icon to rename the spreadsheet (if you want).
After the spreadsheet opens, create a new tab at the bottom and name it something like Calculations.
From there, you can do anything that Google Sheets supports: add up all your expenses for a given time period, create graphs for a visual understanding of your expenses, see who’s spending the most money, identify which stores are costing you the most, etc.
Using those types of formulas in Google Sheets is out of the scope of this article, but let’s look at something really simple like adding up all the expenses for each person so that we can really see who’s spending the most. You can always adapt the formula to total how much you’re spending at each store.
The easiest way to total all the expenses regardless of the person who did the transaction, is to run the sum formula, like this:
=sum(‘Form Responses 1’!B:B)
This calculation works for our example because the price column from the form responses is in column B.
Here’s a Google Sheets formula that shows a much more detailed look at how much each person is spending:
=sumif(‘Form Responses 1′!G:G,”Jeff”,’Form Responses 1’!B:B)
The way this works is by entering sumif and then choosing the column that contains the names (G in our example). The next part is identifying the name, Jeff. Finally, select the column heading with the prices so that when the other column matches the name we’re after, it will add just those prices.
Look through Google’s list of Google Sheets functions for some other ways to can interpret the data from your form. Another way to see your expenses is with a chart or graph; Google has a tutorial on doing that.
