01The task
You are tracking costs for a team planning day. Your manager needs to know how much remains overall and whether any category has exceeded its own budget.
Use AI to build an editable tracker, make the important issue easy to spot, and test one changed or added expense. Everything you need is in these practice notes.
This page and its downloads need no sign-in. To build your own sheet, use ChatGPT and free Google Sheets; a Google account is needed for Sheets. No Microsoft account or Excel purchase is required.
02Your source notes
Team planning day — cost notes Track this one event in USD. All recorded costs below include any applicable tax; do not add tax again. Category budgets: Room & equipment: $800 Food & drink: $600 Printed materials: $200 Recorded costs: Meeting room — Room & equipment — $650 Audio speaker rental — Room & equipment — $80 Lunches — Food & drink — $520 Coffee & tea — Food & drink — $110 Workbooks — Printed materials — $90 Name badges — Printed materials — $40 The category budgets are separate limits. Do not move money between them or change the source costs.
The CSV files hold the source data only. The exercise is to build the formulas and useful summary from these notes.
03Build and refine the tracker
- Ask for the sheet you need. Copy the starting prompt into ChatGPT. It includes the notes, so you do not need to paste them twice. You can adapt the wording to your own request.
Read the starting prompt
Turn these team planning day notes into a downloadable .xlsx budget tracker that I can open in Google Sheets. I don't know how to build spreadsheets, so keep it simple and give me brief instructions for opening and using the file. Include an editable expense list and a summary showing each category's budget, spending and remaining amount, plus an overall total. Use formulas so changing a cost updates the summary. Preserve the source items, categories, costs and budgets. Team planning day — cost notes Track this one event in USD. All recorded costs below include any applicable tax; do not add tax again. Category budgets: Room & equipment: $800 Food & drink: $600 Printed materials: $200 Recorded costs: Meeting room — Room & equipment — $650 Audio speaker rental — Room & equipment — $80 Lunches — Food & drink — $520 Coffee & tea — Food & drink — $110 Workbooks — Printed materials — $90 Name badges — Printed materials — $40 The category budgets are separate limits. Do not move money between them or change the source costs.
Download the resulting .xlsx file. In Google Sheets, choose File → Import → Upload and select that file.
If ChatGPT cannot provide a download
Ask it for two tables to paste into Google Sheets, with the exact cell formulas and formatting steps. You can also import the source CSVs above as a starting point. Free AI usage limits may apply; you do not need to buy Excel for this route.
- Improve what needs improving. Check the first result. Can you spot an over-budget category? Will it include a new row? Use the refinement below for features your tracker needs; keep anything that already works.
Read the refinement prompt
Improve this same tracker where needed. Keep any features that already work, and preserve the source items, costs and category budgets. Make over-budget categories easy to spot with a clear OVER BUDGET label and red highlighting. Use Within budget when spending is at or below the category budget. Have the label and color update when costs change. Make sure new expenses added at the bottom are included in the relevant category summary and overall total automatically. Format money in USD and keep input cells easy to distinguish from formulas. Give me the revised .xlsx file for Google Sheets and brief instructions for adding a new expense. If these features already work, explain how I can test them instead of making unnecessary changes.
- Test one change. Choose the cost-change or added-row check below, using the same tracker. Watch the summary and warning update, then restore the original data. These are test inputs, not changes to real spending.
04Check that it works
Your sheet does not have to look exactly like the video's. The source facts, calculations and updating behavior are what matter.
Open the check guide
Start with the original six costs
Keep all six items in their original categories. Do not add tax again or change the three budgets.
| Category | Budget | Spending | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Room & equipment | $800 | $730 | $70 |
| Food & drink | $600 | $630 | −$30 |
| Printed materials | $200 | $130 | $70 |
| Overall | $1,600 | $1,490 | $110 |
Food & drink is $30 over budget even though $110 remains overall. Its warning should use a clear label as well as color. Negative remaining means that category has exceeded its limit.
Choose one way to test your tracker
A. Change an existing cost
Change Lunches from $520 to $450. Food & drink should show $560 spent, $40 remaining and Within budget, with its red warning cleared. Overall spending becomes $1,420, leaving $180.
Restore Lunches to $520 afterward.
B. Add a new expense
Start with the original six costs. Add Afternoon snacks — Food & drink — $45 at the bottom. Food & drink should show $675 spent, −$75 remaining and OVER BUDGET. Overall spending becomes $1,535, leaving $65.
Remove only the test row afterward. The other two category totals should stay unchanged in either test.
One test is enough for this exercise. If you try both, restore the original values between them; these are separate scenarios.
If a check fails, tell AI exactly what did not update and ask for a correction. Check the repaired result against the notes yourself; do not type the expected total over a formula.
You're ready when you can explain which category needs attention, change an input without rewriting totals, and show the warning updating with it.