A spreadsheet is free and endlessly flexible. A dedicated app automates the boring parts and keeps you honest. Here's a fair, side-by-side look so you can pick what actually fits you.
Both approaches are legitimate. The right one depends on how much you enjoy maintenance versus automation.
Pros
Cons
Pros
Cons
The same job, two tools. Here's how they line up on the things that matter day to day.
| Feature | Spreadsheet | TrueProfit Personal |
|---|---|---|
| Free to use | ||
| Total flexibility / custom formulas | ||
| Automatic categorization | ||
| Recurring / subscription tracking | ||
| Budgets with overspend alerts | ||
| Receipts attached to purchases | ||
| Year-end tax / deductibles export | ||
| Savings goals | ||
| Works on phone as a PWA | ||
| Resistant to formula errors | ||
| Private — no required bank linking |
Stick with a spreadsheet if you genuinely enjoy maintaining one, want total control over every formula, and have the discipline to update it every week without fail. It's free and flexible, and for some people that's exactly right.
Choose TrueProfit Personal if the upkeep is what's been breaking the habit. It handles categorization, catches subscriptions, warns you before you overspend, keeps receipts with purchases, tags deductibles for tax time, and shows one honest number — what you actually kept — on any device. You can even import your existing spreadsheet as a CSV, so you don't start from zero.
For a disciplined person who enjoys maintaining one, a spreadsheet can absolutely work — it's free and endlessly flexible. The catch is that it's all manual: you enter every transaction, categorize it yourself, and nothing warns you when you overspend or forget a subscription. Most people drift away from the habit within a couple of months.
TrueProfit Personal automates the tedious parts — categorizing spending, detecting recurring charges, alerting you on budgets, storing receipts, and tagging deductibles — and shows one honest number for what you kept each month. If keeping the habit up has been the hard part, that automation is usually the difference.
Yes. You can import a CSV of your existing transactions, so you don't lose the history you've already built in a spreadsheet. From there, categorization and subscription detection take over.
There's a free plan that covers tracking income, spending, and spending by category — no credit card needed. Budgets and alerts, receipts, and the year-end tax export are on the paid plans.
Import your CSV and see what you actually keep. No credit card, no bank linking required.
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