Give each tool a clear job
Keep formulas, tax workings, investment lots, and detailed scenarios in your spreadsheet if it already handles them well. Use the journal for assets, debts, current position, and saved balance checkpoints.
Exitmargin does not read spreadsheet formulas, connect to banks, or import transactions. A spreadsheet is not a live data source for the app. You bring the balances across deliberately.
Prepare a small balance sheet
Use one row per holding, with its kind, category, name, valuation date, currency, amount, and a note about the source or estimate. The downloadable Exitmargin worksheet provides these columns and example total formulas.
Enter the gross value of property and list its loan separately. Keep debts positive in the amount column. Do not combine currencies without converting them first. The template is available as an XLSX workbook and CSV files. It is not an Exitmargin backup.
Make the handoff explicit
Choose the date you are recording. Check the spreadsheet totals, then add or update the corresponding holdings in Exitmargin. Confirm that the journal currency matches the numbers you entered.
The public calculator can also prepare grouped balances for a journal. Its confirmation adds new holdings; it does not match them to existing holdings. If the journal already contains those balances, update them instead of adding a duplicate.
Check a small matched example
For an invented current-month USD example, enter cash of 100,000 and a home loan of 20,000 in the worksheet. Check total assets of 100,000, liabilities of 20,000, and net worth of 80,000. Copy the checked totals into a dated History row as values.
In an empty journal, choose USD in the calculator and enter the same cash and loan balances. Choose Keep this in a journal, review the two new holdings, and confirm. Home should show the same 80,000 net worth. This creates a current-month checkpoint; it does not import the spreadsheet or its historical dates. For an earlier date, review that month separately in the journal.
Reconcile totals before saving
Check assets, liabilities, and net worth separately. Matching net worth alone can hide two offsetting errors. For example, an extra asset of 10,000 and an extra debt of 10,000 leave net worth unchanged.
If totals differ, check dates, ownership shares, omitted holdings, duplicated accounts, and currency. Fix the source of the difference instead of adding a balancing amount with no explanation.
Keep the files for their different purposes
The worksheet preserves your working calculations and notes. The app backup preserves holdings, history, and the journal currency. One does not replace the other.
Export an Exitmargin backup from More after changes you want to preserve. Importing a backup replaces the destination journal after confirmation. Store both spreadsheet and backup files privately; they can contain readable financial information.
Sources and scope
These are general explanations and product instructions, not personal investment, tax, or debt advice. The examples are synthetic. Product instructions describe the current app.
For product details, read How it works and Data & privacy. Report a correction through Help & contact.