Budgeting doesn’t have to live in a messy spreadsheet. Whether you’re managing your personal finances or keeping a close eye on business spend, building a budget tracker in Looker Studio can give you a clear, real-time view of where your money’s going, and how that compares to where it should be going.
Here’s exactly how I build a budget dashboard in Looker Studio, including how I fix a common data challenge that crops up time and time again.
Step 1: Prepare your data in Google Sheets
I start by structuring my budget data in Google Sheets. It’s simple, clean, and integrates seamlessly with Looker Studio.
Here’s the format I use:
- Date – when the transaction occurred
- Category – e.g., Rent, Groceries, Marketing
- Budgeted Amount – the amount I planned to spend
- Actual Amount – what I actually spent
Make sure everything is consistently formatted before connecting it to Looker Studio, it makes life much easier later on.
Step 2: Connect data to Looker Studio
Once the data is ready:
- In Looker Studio, I click on Create → Report
- Choose Google Sheets as the data source
- Select my budget spreadsheet
That’s it. Now the dashboard pulls in the most up-to-date numbers directly from my Google Sheet.
Step 3: Design the budget tracker dashboard
Now comes the fun part, designing the dashboard. I always include:
- Scorecards for a quick glance at total budgeted vs. actual spend
- Bar charts to compare spending across categories
- Time series charts to track trends over time
- Tables to give a detailed breakdown of individual transactions
I also use Looker Studio’s styling features to make everything look polished and on-brand.
Step 4: Add calculated fields for variance analysis
To get meaningful insights, I create two simple calculated fields:
- Variance =
Actual Amount - Budgeted Amount - Variance % =
(Actual Amount - Budgeted Amount) / Budgeted Amount * 100
These highlight where I’ve overspent (or underspent) and by how much. Super helpful when you want to take corrective action.
Step 5: Add interactive controls
To make the dashboard flexible, I add:
- A Date Range Control so I can filter by specific periods
- A Category Filter to zero in on one type of expense
These small touches make a big difference when it comes to usability.
Step 6: Fixing the common “missing dates” problem
Here’s where things often go sideways. If you’re comparing budget data (which might exist for every day) with spend data from multiple platforms (which may not), blending the data can get messy.
The issue? If one source is missing data for a certain day, the total becomes null. And null + 5 still equals null. Not helpful.
My fix:
- Create a Date Table in Google Sheets with every day of the year in one column.
- Add budget data here if you want to compare daily spend against daily budget.
- Blend this table first in your Looker Studio data blend. That way, the full date range is always present.
- Use
IFNULL()when calculating totals. For example:
IFNULL(LinkedIn Spend, 0) + IFNULL(Meta Spend, 0) + IFNULL(Google Ads Spend, 0)
This turns missing values into zeroes so your totals stay accurate.
It’s a small change, but it solves a major headache—especially if you’re combining ad spend or expenses from different sources.
Step 7: Share and collaborate
Once the dashboard is ready, I click Share, set the appropriate access (view or edit), and distribute the link.
Sharing the budget tracker makes it easy for teams to stay on the same page and creates transparency around financial decisions.
Final thoughts
Building a budget tracker in Looker Studio is a great way to take control of your finances, whether for personal use or as part of a team. It’s not just about the charts; it’s about seeing patterns, staying accountable, and making informed decisions.
Plus, once you know how to handle missing dates and null values, you’re equipped to build reports that are not only insightful but also reliable.
Give it a try, and keep an eye on where your money’s really going.
