Excel and Google Sheets alternative for your finances
A spreadsheet is the best personal finance tool there is, right up to the day you stop maintaining it. Google Sheets is free, Excel comes with Microsoft 365, it does exactly what you tell it, and the file is yours forever. Almost everyone who abandons one does so for the same reason, and it is not a lack of power: it is the work of entering the data.
Ver esta página en españolHead to head
| Dimension | Excel and Google Sheets | Whisper Money |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Google Sheets is free and Excel comes with Microsoft 365. On money alone, unbeatable. | A free plan and a paid plan. We do not win this comparison on price: we win it on the time it gives back. |
| Where the data comes from | You paste it in: download the statement, fix the columns, paste underneath, repair the dates and decimals. | From the bank over PSD2, or from the same statement you were already downloading, with the columns detected and the duplicates flagged. |
| Categories | VLOOKUP, dropdown lists and some nested IF only you understand. | Automation rules that apply to everything arriving, plus optional AI categorisation. |
| What happens if you skip a month | You come back to a file with a hole in it and a sense of unfinished homework. | Connected accounts keep syncing: when you come back, the month is already there. |
The problem is not the spreadsheet, it is the upkeep
A well-built sheet gives you something no app does: total control of the calculation. If yours works and you keep it current, there is no reason at all to switch.
The real reason people abandon them is boring and mechanical. Every month you download each bank's statement, adjust the columns because every bank names them differently, repair the dates and the decimals, paste without duplicating last month, and re-label merchants you have already labelled twelve times. It is work that produces no new information. The first time you skip it, the file stops being current; the second time, it stops being any use for deciding anything.
Whisper Money does not try to be more flexible than your sheet, because it will not be. It tries to take that upkeep away. The banks that connect come in on their own, the ones that do not come in through the same file you were already downloading, and categories apply through rules you write once. The free plan is permanent, so trying it commits you to nothing.
What changes when you move from Excel and Google Sheets to Whisper Money
- No copy and paste: the banks that connect over PSD2 come in on their own every day.
- For the rest, the same statement you were already downloading, with headers detected automatically.
- Duplicates detected and unticked before importing, so you can redo a month without dirtying the data.
- The column mapping is saved per account: the second file from the same bank needs no setup.
- Automation rules instead of VLOOKUP.
- Net worth worked out for you, across accounts, brokers, crypto, property and loans.
- Category budgets with alerts, and no conditional formatting.
- Multi-currency across 33 currencies with conversion, and no exchange rate tab to maintain.
- Runs in the browser and installs on your phone, so logging cash no longer waits until you reach a computer.
- Interface in English, Spanish and French, public code, and no data shared with third parties.
How to migrate from Excel and Google Sheets to Whisper Money, step by step
This is the cleanest move of them all, because your history is already in the shape the importer expects: a sheet with one row per transaction.
Create the accounts you had as tabs
Each tab or block in your sheet usually maps to a real account. Create them in Whisper Money, or connect the bank directly if it syncs, before importing anything.
Prepare the sheet without reformatting it
Nothing needs rebuilding. All it takes is one row per transaction and a date column, a description column and an amount column with expenses negative. If you kept expense and income in separate columns, merge them into one signed column.
Save or export the file
Excel works as is: the importer accepts .xls and .xlsx. In Google Sheets, File → Download → CSV or Microsoft Excel. If your sheet has several tabs, export and import them one at a time, each into its own account.
Upload the file and confirm the mapping
On upload the headers get detected and a mapping is proposed. You confirm date, description and amount, and optionally balance. You pick the date format from DD-MM-YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, MM-DD-YYYY and YYYYMMDD and see the first three rows already parsed before continuing. The mapping is saved for that account.
Rebuild the categories as rules
In the preview you see the total, the selected rows and the duplicates. On import your automation rules run: if you had a VLOOKUP turning "MERCADONA" into "Groceries", that becomes a rule which will also apply to everything arriving in future. Whatever is left uncategorised the AI handles if you turn it on.
What people already using it say
I found Whisper Money and instantly knew I needed it. I was stuck doing everything in a spreadsheet — a chore I kept putting off. This makes it effortless.
I used to keep everything in a spreadsheet and it took forever — now I have my bank under control and add cash payments manually. Great work!
Join the people who moved from Excel and Google Sheets
Nobody misses maintaining the sheet, only the control. You keep that here: you choose the categories, you write the rules, and you decide what connects and what does not. The free plan asks for no card.