A free executor accounting spreadsheet, and how to keep it
Two free templates, a ledger and an inventory, with the columns an estate accounting needs and the method for keeping them. No sign-up needed. The download links are just below.
Download the ledger template (Excel) · Download the inventory template (Excel). Both open in Excel and Google Sheets, with dropdowns for the categories, rows that color themselves by type, running totals, a chart, and the balance check courts use. Prefer bare files? The same templates as plain CSV: ledger · inventory.
Section 1 of 4.Why most executor spreadsheets fail at the end
Almost every executor starts a spreadsheet, and almost every spreadsheet has the same problem: it’s a list of cash in and cash out, and an estate accounting is more than that. When the time comes to settle, beneficiaries (or a court) expect a document with a particular shape, balancing to the penny: opening inventory, receipts, disbursements, gains and losses on anything sold, distributions, and what’s left. A list of “money in, money out” has the raw material but not the shape. Rebuilding a year of entries into schedules the night before a family meeting is the part executors dread.
Section 2 of 4.The columns that matter, and why
- Date and payee/source on every row. An accounting identifies who was paid and where the money came from, not just the amounts.
- A type column (money in / money out / sale / distribution). Each type becomes its own schedule in the final document, so tag them now.
- Category: funeral, administration, debts paid, taxes, income received. These are the buckets courts and beneficiaries expect.
- Principal vs. income. This is the subtle one. What the estate owned is principal; what that property earns while the estate is open (interest, dividends, rent) is income. Several states’ formats report them in separate columns, and they’re nearly impossible to untangle after the fact.
- Sales need two numbers: what it sold for and what it was valued at. The accounting reports the gain or loss.
- “Paid from my own pocket?” Executors front expenses all the time and then forget to reimburse themselves. Track it, or decide to donate it. If you don’t track it, you won’t get it back.
| Description | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sale of 214 Maple Street | $17,500.00 |
Section 3 of 4.The method
- Fill the inventory first: everything owned at death, valued as of that day.
- One ledger row per event, the day it happens. Keep every receipt.
- Monthly, check the arithmetic: opening inventory + money in + gains − money out − losses − distributions should equal what’s on hand. If it doesn’t, something wasn’t recorded. Find it now, not a year from now when the accounting is due.
Section 4 of 4.When the spreadsheet stops being enough
The templates above work. They’re what we’d keep by hand. But a spreadsheet won’t check its own balance, won’t reshape itself into your state’s accounting format, and can’t give a co-executor or the estate’s attorney a live read-only view. ExecutorLedger does those three things: guided entry that puts everything in the right place, a running balance check, and exports in the informal and court-style formats. It’s free while you work, every document previews free with a watermark, and it’s $149 (one-time payment) per estate when you export. If the spreadsheet does the job for you, keep using it. That’s why the templates are free.