A bill pay checklist template is a document used to track and verify the payment of utility and other bills. Bill Pay checklist & calendar template is preferred for personal use to keep track of the bill payments and to calculate the total of the monthly and yearly payments in the head of bill payments.
The bill pay checklist is a simple tabular sheet enlists all the bill descriptions, due date, and amount. However, other information can be included as per the specific nature of the bill category.
What is a monthly and yearly bill pay checklist?
A monthly bill pay checklist is a log or checklist that enables you to keep the track of your bill payment every month. For keeping the checklist handy you can print it so you can easily refer to it when you pay bills each month.
A yearly bill pay checklist assists you to have the whole year laid out. This checklist enables you to see the year at a glance.
What are the types of bill pay checklists?
There are four types of bill pay checklists that are described below;
Monthly bill payment checklist
This checklist helps you to keep a record of your bill payments each month. You can create a checklist by one yourself or download a good template from the internet. You can put it in your planner, in your checkbook, and in other handy places.
Yearly bill payment checklist
This checklist enables you to organize your bill payments for the whole year. In this way, you can see all of the bills you have to pay for the next 12 months. Moreover, for your financial management system, it’s an important component.
Home budget checklist
The bills you pay are part of your entire household budget. You can also make a checklist of your other household expenses such as your food, your child’s tuition, and much more. You can include relevant information in the checklist other than bills such as the total income of the family, any debts or loans, investments, savings, etc.
Home maintenance checklist
This checklist helps you to keep the track of all the expenses which lie in the maintenance of your home.
Components of Bill Pay Checklist & Calendar Template
There are many types of bill pay checklists & calendar templates. It depends on how the user wants to use it. The bill pay checklist template that only focuses to keep track of the bill payments includes the following elements.
- Description of the Bill
- Due Date
- Amount
- Monthly Calendar (Jan, Feb,…, Dec)
- Comments
- Monthly Total
- Yearly Total
Moreover, if someone wants to use the bill pay checklist & calendar template to control the expenses and generate savings. Thus, the elements of the budgeted amount and actual expense also have to be included in the bill pay checklist template.
Further, there can be many categories of the bill under the description heading. Most commonly a personal bill includes payments in chunks of mortgage, car loan, student loan, credit card, store card, electricity, gas, water, sewerage, trash/recycling, cable/internet, rent, study fees, and cell phones. You should also check the payment agreement template.
What are the important elements of a bill pay checklist?
You must include the following elements in a bill pay checklist;
- A good checklist should show the visual view of your all upcoming bills in the order of their due date.
- The amount you have to pay for each of the monthly bills.
- Include how frequently or when your bills repeat.
- At the end, introduce the method of recording all of the payments you have made.
The bill payments checklist & calendar template has many benefits. So, a user can track the payments already been made and remaining. Also, make sure that none of the bills get passed of the due date to pay plenty.
Further, it’s a kind of record that keeps track of the expenses being made under the bills head. So, the person can use the bill pay checklist & calendar template for making a personal income sheet. Also, it helps the user to make a budget. Thus, the payments made under the bills category can be monitored to keep them within the budget range.
Furthermore, the use of bill pay checklist & calendar templates as expenses and budget sheet helps to focus on the ways of cutting down the value of bills and generate more savings.
How to use Bill Pay Checklist & Calendar Template?
The basic use of bill pay checklist & calendar template is very simple. It’s created in MS Excel or Google Sheet. So, it can be accessed on a mobile phone, laptop, desktop, or can be used as a printed form.
A simple bill pay checklist & calendar template is a tabular sheet. The key elements of the basic sheet are a description of the bill, due date, amount, and monthly calendar.
Let’s suppose someone has paid $1000 for the car loan on Jan 5th. The car loan repayment will be written under the description and $1000 under the amount. While due date can be prewritten for many bills.
Now, the monthly calendar section can be used in two ways. One can simply tally mark under the month of payment like in this case January, some simply tick mark the cell under the January’s head in the row of car loan repayment description. On the other hand, the actual date of payment can be written instead of marking some symbols. Like 5th Jan in this example.
How to organize your bills?
Here are some tips to organize your bills;
- Keep all the receipts in one place after making your payments. This way, you can keep your payment references organized.
- In order to meet your needs and financial situation, you should come up with a budgeting and payment system. Make your own if you download a printable bill tracker online and it doesn’t work for you.
- It would be recommended to make a binder that will act as your financial system. You can keep in a binder your checklists, bills, your payment receipts, and more.
- You can expand your financial systems in case you have more than just your household bills to take care of as well as create an entire cabinet at home. Make copies of the most important documents to keep everything safe.
- Apart from keeping your bills organized, you can also use cabinets and binders for other filing systems like keeping your personal documents, etc.
- Bullet journals also prove very useful to keep track of all your finances. Likewise the monthly bill organizer, you can use them in the same way.
Some tips to consider in paying your bills:
- Never wait for the due date as some people wait until the last minute to pay a bill. However, if you don’t have a complete amount to pay on time then don’t pass too much time setting the payment. The risk of incurring late fees or additional charges increases if you fail to pay your bills on time.
- If you aren’t able to pay the full amount on time, pay a minimal amount or a fraction of your total bill. It is better than not paying anything at all. But, if you are able to pay the full amount then doing so is the best.
- There are various banks that allow you to set an autopay arrangement. It will be automatically deducted from your linked bank accounts no matter whether it’s your semi-annual insurance policy or monthly electricity bill.
- Don’t take out a loan or borrow money from others to pay bills. This is because repaying a loan or debt can sometimes increase the stress more.
- It’s best to organize and prioritize the bills you have to pay each month in order to avoid getting overwhelmed with them. For this, make use of tracking or monitoring tools. They act as your reminder for on-time payment. Prioritization is key when you have multiple bills to pay.
Faqs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Here are some tips for setting up the bill pay checklist;
1- Firstly, write down the name of the company from where you have to pay the bill and also mention its due date.
2- Mention all of your bills also the bills which you pay automatically through your debit or credit card.
3- In the order of the due date enter your bills so that you can see which ones are the most urgent.
4- Moreover, include those bills also that don’t come monthly so you don’t overlook them.
Drafting a monthly bill calendar is simple. At first, you just have to select a calendar, then write in your bills, and write in your paydays.
The above process isn’t complex but you have everything plotted out so that you can see things at a glance provide you a new awareness of your finances.
