Top 5 FREE Debt Snowball Spreadsheet Google Sheets Templates [2024]

Google Sheets is the go-to software for many people to manage expenses and save money. It boasts plenty of tools to calculate monthly and yearly expenses instantly. Tracking your debts is also made easy by this spreadsheet program.

Are you stressed about paying monthly high-interest fees?

The frustration is for real. But you are not alone!

With proper tools at your disposal, you can effectively manage your debts and get rid of those high-interest fees as soon as possible.

In this article, let us discuss the top 5 FREE Debt Snowball Spreadsheet Google Sheets Templates. We will also learn the step-by-step process to create a Debt Snowball template from scratch, so read the article until the end.

What is the Debt Snowball Method of paying debts?

Image Credit: Investopedia.com

There are two popular methods of paying debts: Snowball and Avalanche.

Both of them are pretty straightforward. The choice of the method or strategy to get rid of the debts depends upon the user.

The Debt Snowball method is considered the fastest way of paying debts. You need to completely pay off the smallest loan first while paying the minimum monthly EMIs of the larger loans.

Simply put, it is a method where a person pays the smallest loan first using the extra money.

On the other hand, the Avalanche method prioritizes the highest interest rate loans first. You need to pay off the highest interest rate loan first. This method is focused on reducing the higher interest paid each month.

Why are Debt Snowball Spreadsheet Templates created using Google Sheets a must-try?

Google Sheets is the ultimate tool to manage expenses and get out of debt.

Debt Snowball spreadsheet using Google Sheets is an excellent way to track your debts. Let us quickly discuss a few benefits of Google Sheets:

Ease of Use – It comes with a short learning curve. The user interface is easy to use and intuitive. You may hardly take a few hours to learn this spreadsheet software. Users are raving about how they can access all the essential tools and features using the toolbar and main menu.
Extensive Customization – A Debt Snowball Google Sheets spreadsheet can be customized per your preference. You can add your details, a full list of debts along with their interest rates, and easily include more features using built-in tools and functions.
Accessibility – A Google Sheet is a web-based spreadsheet program. You can access it from both desktop and mobile devices. All you need is an active internet connection.
Collaboration – Google Sheets can be shared with unlimited users, including family members and friends. You can assign a specific role to each user to let them either view, edit, or comment. All the edits made by the users are recorded within the Version history tool of the Google Sheets. Owners can easily overlook all the edits and restore previous versions if necessary.
Budget-friendly – Last but not least, you don’t need to pay a single dollar to manage your debts using Google Sheets. It is a totally free-to-use program that is accessible to everyone. All of the features and tools are available without any limitations. You only need to have a free Google account.

These are the main benefits of using a Google Sheet.

Apart from them, you can easily view and edit information with an intuitive dashboard, even if you don’t have any prior experience using a spreadsheet program.

Top 5 FREE Debt Snowball Spreadsheet Google Sheets Template of 2024

A handful of debt management spreadsheets are available online. We have picked the best templates which are easy to use and include all the necessary things related to debt management.

All of them are free to download.

1. Debt Management Spreadsheet by SoftwareAccountant

Debt Snowball Spreadsheet Google Sheets Templates by SoftwareAccountant

Click Here To Use This Template!

It is the best Google Sheets template for managing and paying your debts. The template comes with an attractive design.

It can be used on both mobile and desktop devices.

You can download this fantastic template from SoftwareAccountant for free and customize it as you prefer.

The template is simple and best fit for beginners as well as advanced users.

How to use this template

The template includes a single spreadsheet. It has two main sections.

The first is where you enter your personal details, the total number of loans, and their respective interest rates. Make sure to specify the monthly EMI, which will be used to prepare the total balance and due.

The second section includes a vast table to track your monthly payments over time. Start by selecting the start month. The template will automatically populate the months for the monthly payments of all debts.

It is a blank template where you can start entering the data immediately.

Note that the template uses formulas. The cells containing the formulas are highlighted using the light blue color. Avoid editing those cells; otherwise, the template won’t work as expected.

2. Debt Reduction Calculator by Vertex42

Click Here To Use This Template!

Another beautifully designed Google Sheets template to manage your loans. It is created by the experts at Vertex42.

The template comes with clear instructions in the form of comments wherever necessary.

You can download and use this template for free without any limitations. Make sure to remove the unnecessary links and the Vertex42 branding before getting started.

How to use this template

The template is full of instructions for beginners as well as advanced users. You are supposed to read them carefully. Once you understand each step to use the template, feel free to delete them.

Note that it is a pretty straightforward template to organize and track your debts. It includes two main spreadsheets:

Calculator – In this spreadsheet, you can enter the debt details, their interest rate, monthly payment, and total amount. There is a dropdown in the middle of the spreadsheet beside the option named Strategy. It allows you to choose from various debt-paying methods, including Snowball and Avalanche. Depending upon your selection, the template automatically calculates the money you will spend monthly as interest and total duration to pay off the debts.
Payment Schedule – It is a fully automated spreadsheet that includes a lot of formulas. You should avoid editing it and messing up with the formulas. The spreadsheet displays the monthly payment breakdown to pay off the debts from smallest to biggest.

You may have to dedicate some time to learning this template. But don’t worry because it is worth the time.

3. Debt Snowball Template by Spreadsheetpoint

Click Here To Use This Template!

This Debt Snowball template by Google Sheets is designed for beginners, keeping ease of use in mind.

It comes with two quickly interpretable tables. Anyone can use it without any prior experience with Google Sheets.

The template includes all the necessary things for managing debts efficiently.

How to use this template

This template by Spreadsheetpoint is similar to the others discussed above. It is divided into two tables.

Enter your personal details, debt amount, interest rate, minimum monthly payment, etc., in the first table.

For the second table, after entering the monthly payment completed by you, the template automatically calculates the remaining loan amount. It uses built-in Google Sheets functions for these calculations. You should avoid editing the cells of the column named Balance.

Make sure to mark the date when you will pay the monthly EMIs.

The default currency used in this spreadsheet is Euros. You can change it to US Dollars with a few simple clicks. First, change the Locale for the spreadsheet by clicking on the “File” tab from the main menu and then selecting the “Settings” option from the popup.

Now, if you go to the toolbar section, you will see a “$” icon; click on it.

Overall, it is an easy-to-use Debt Snowball spreadsheet that can be customized as per your requirements. To make this template attractive, you can play around with the colors, font styles, and much more.

4. Debt Tracker Template by Spreadsheetpoint

Click Here To Use This Template!

It is another masterpiece template by Spreadsheetpoint. It is similar to the previous one, with major improvements in aesthetics.

The template comes with clearly labeled tables formatted with light green and orange colors.

Note that this template version doesn’t include any formulas for calculating the remaining balance.

How to use this template

It includes a single spreadsheet, which is divided into four tables.

You can specify the Total Debt Balance in the first table. Similarly, the second table lets you select the start and end date for all your debts. Use those dates and enter the months you need to get debt-free.

The remaining two tables (third and fourth) are pretty huge and ask for detailed information.

In the third table, you must enter all the debts, total balance, interest rate, and final pay-off month. You can also tick the checkbox once you completely pay off a loan after a few months.

The fourth table is pretty straightforward. You need to add the details monthly when you pay an EMI. It includes columns for payment date, amount, and remaining balance.

5. Debt Snowball Spreadsheet

Click Here To Use This Template!

If you are looking for the best mobile-optimized Debt Snowball spreadsheet, then this template designed by an expert at Reddit is the right choice.

It comes with a simple design that doesn’t use any color code.

You can easily customize it as per your preference by adding more rows, columns, formulas, colors, etc.

How to use this template

There are two tables in this template. In the first table, you can enter the debt or loan name, amount, interest rate, and tentative snowball monthly budget.

The second table is fully automated using built-in functions in Google Sheets. Once you enter the minimum monthly payment in the table at the top, it automatically reflects in this table.

Then, other essential things such as snowball roll, principal amount, interest, remaining balance, and surplus are calculated automatically.

All of the above calculations are done independently for each debt.

By default, the template is designed to let you track and manage up to 10 debts.

Similarly, the main table is divided into 12 months.

Note that you can add more months or debts to this template, but make sure to adjust the formulas. As the template uses simple formulas to add and subtract the values, it is pretty straightforward to change them.

How to Create a Debt Snowball Spreadsheet Template in Google Sheets

If you are not impressed by the top ready-to-use Debt Snowball templates discussed above, here are the steps to create a brand new template in Google Sheets from scratch as per your requirement.

We are going to learn to create the following Debt Snowball template.

You can adjust the following steps to include the debt details as per your requirements.

Now, without any further ado, let’s begin.

STEP #1 – Creating the Header

A header is a crucial element of a template. It allows you to add your name or logo.

It is beneficial while sharing the Debt Snowball spreadsheet with friends and family as it helps them quickly identify the template.

Here are the steps,

Open a new Google Sheet by clicking here
Select the entire first row
Increase the height of the first row
Click on the cell A1
Type “Debt Snowball”
Increase the font size to 23
Adjust the font alignment to the middle
Make the font bold
Select the entire row again
Change the cell background color to dark blue (Hex Code – #001149)
Change the font color to white

After following the above steps, our header should look like the one below.

Make sure to use the name and color as per your preference.

STEP #2 – Add the Debt Duration Details

In this step, we will enter the start and end date of the debts.

Using that information, we will highlight the total months required to become debt-free.

Let’s begin,

Select the cell “A3”
Type “Start Date”
Change the cell background to dark blue (Hex Code – #001149)
Change the font color to white
Make the font bold

Here’s how it looks,

Repeat the above steps and create two more fields, as shown below.

Next, let’s ensure that a calendar popup appears while selecting the start and end date.

Select the cell “B3”
Hover to the main menu
Click on the “Data” tab
Choose the “Data validation” option from the popup
A new dialog box will appear on the right side of the screen
Click on the “Add rule” button
Next, click the dropdown below the “Criteria” option
Select the “Is valid date” option from the list
Press the “Done” button

Now, a calendar popup will appear if you click on cell B3, as shown below.

You need to repeat the above steps for cell E3 so that a calendar popup will appear while selecting the end date.

We will use the following formula to calculate the total overall duration for the debt payment.

=(E3-B3)/30

For example, let us select the start date as “4/1/2023,” 1st April 2023, and the end date as “12/31/2023,” 31st December 2023.

You can directly copy and paste the above formula into the cell H3. Also, make sure to decrease the decimal places using the following button.

Note that this is not the exact month count. Instead, it gives a quick idea of the approximate month count between the two dates.

STEP #3 – Create a table to record the Debt Details

All of our debts and their details, such as interest rate, total amount, balance, etc., are in this table.

Let’s begin,

Select the cell “A6”
Type “Debt:”
Next, click the cell “A7” and type “Balance:”
Repeat the above steps and complete the table as shown below

As you may have noticed, the “Min. Monthly Payment” entry in the A9 exceeds the cell length. Let’s correct it.

Select the entire ninth row
Increase the height of the row
Click on the cell A9
Go to the toolbar section and click on the Text wrapping icon
Select the second option, as shown in the above image
Adjust the text alignment to the middle

Here are the steps to change the formatting of the vertical section of the table we just created.

Select all the cells from A6 to A9
Change the cell background color to dark blue (Hex Code – #001149)
Change the font color to white
Make the font bold

Now, we will get our debt names across the horizontal header.

Select the cell B5 and type “Debt 1”
Repeat the above steps and complete the header as shown below
Select all the cells from B5 to G5
Change the cell background color to dark blue (Hex Code – #001149)
Change the font color to white

Finally, let’s adjust the table formatting.

Select all cells of the table
Change the cell background color to light gray (Hex Code – #f3f3f3)

Here’s how our table looks,

STEP #4 – Create a Monthly Payment Table for Debts

It is the main table you will use to record the transactions to pay off the debt.

Let’s first create the horizontal header for the table.

Select the cell A13
Type “Month”
Now, select all the cells from the B13 to D13
Go to the toolbar section and click on the Merge cells icon
Type “Debt 1”
Change the cell background color to dark blue (Hex Code – #001149)
Change the font color to white
Adjust the font alignment to the middle
Next, select the cell B14 and type “Payment Date”
Complete the table as shown in the following image
Select all the cells from B14 to D14
Adjust the font alignment to the middle
Change the cell background color to light green (Hex Code – #d9ead3)

Here’s how the Debt 1 section looks,

Repeating the above steps, complete the table header for the rest of the debts.

Now, let’s create the vertical header for the table.

Here, we will reference the debt start month mentioned in cell B3.

Then, we will combine the DATE, YEAR, and MONTH functions in Google Sheets to increment months in ascending order.

Here’s the example formula.

=DATE(YEAR(A15),MONTH(A15)+1,1)

Let’s use it,

Select the cell A15
Type “=B3”
(This ensures the date entered as the debt start date is reflected as the first payment month)
Now, for the next cell, A16, copy and paste the following formula,
=DATE(YEAR(A15),MONTH(A15)+1,1)
Press the “Enter” key
Next, hover to the lower-rightmost corner of the cell A16, and you will see a Fill Handle icon. Refer to the following image
Click on the Fill Handle and drag it till the cell A32
(Note that here, we have considered the tenure of 1.5 years by entering the 18 months in the table. Make sure to drag the Fill Handle to include the month as per the tenure of your debt)

Here’s how the vertical header of the template looks,

Let’s change the plain date (numbers) to month (letters) and cell background color to make it more attractive.

Select all the cells from A15 to A32, as shown below
Go to the main menu and click on the “Format” tab
Choose “Number” from the popup
Then, click the “Custom date and time” option
A new popup will be displayed as shown below
Scroll down and select the date format as shown in the following image
Go to the Editor of the popup. Refer to the following image
Click on the “Date (05)” button
Select the “Delete” option from the popup
Press “Backspace” on your keyboard only once to connect the comma with the month name
Press the “Apply” button

Your plain dates will be converted to month names, as shown below.

Now, let’s adjust the formatting.

Select all the cells from A15 to A32
Change the cell background color to dark blue (Hex Code – #001149)
Change font color to white
Adjust the width of the column

Here are the results.

Finally, let’s change the table background color using the following steps.

Select all the cells of the table as shown below
Change the cell background color to light gray

Our table to track monthly payments is ready.

STEP #5 – Adjust the Formatting of the Tables

What remains is that whenever you enter an amount, a dollar symbol should appear automatically at the beginning. It is true when you enter debt amount, remaining balance, etc.

Here’s an example,

Without a dollar symbol, it feels like something important is missing in this financial management spreadsheet.

Select the cell B6
Go to the main menu and click on the “Format” tab
Select “Number” from the popup
Choose the “Accounting” option

Here is the result.

You can repeat similar steps for the rest of the cells where we are going to enter the amount to indicate payments and balances.

With that, our spreadsheet is ready to track your debts.

You can play around with the formatting tools to make your template more attractive—also, there are plenty of built-in functions and tools for adding more features to your Debt Snowball spreadsheet.

After adjusting the formatting and adding more features to the template we created using the above steps, we developed the following template.