Create a simple budget spreadsheet with Perplexity’s suggestion prompts

Open Perplexity and ask for a budget outline

Open your web browser and go to perplexity.ai. Sign in if you aren’t already.

Look for the search bar at the top of the page. It should say “Ask anything…” inside it.

Create a simple monthly budget spreadsheet outline with categories for income, fixed expenses, variable expenses, savings, and debt. Include a short description for each category.

After you press Enter, Perplexity will show a list of answers. You’ll see a heading like “Here’s a suggested monthly budget outline:” followed by bullet points.

You'll know it worked when you see a clear list of budget categories and their descriptions.

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Copy the outline into a new spreadsheet

Open a new blank spreadsheet in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

Look at the first category in Perplexity’s list. Click the first cell in the top-left corner of your spreadsheet (usually cell A1).

Income

Press Enter to move down one row. Type the next category exactly as Perplexity wrote it.

Repeat until every category from Perplexity is in column A, one per row.

You'll know it worked when your first column contains a neat list of budget categories.

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Add a second column for monthly amounts

Click the cell to the right of “Income” (usually B1). Type the word “Amount”.

Press Enter. In cell B2, type a dollar sign and zero, like this: $0.

Repeat for every category: type $0 in the cell to its right.

You'll know it worked when every category has a matching $0 in the next column.

Ask Perplexity for ready-to-use formulas

Go back to Perplexity in your browser. In the same search bar, type:

Give me ready-to-use spreadsheet formulas for a monthly budget. Include formulas for total income, total expenses, and remaining balance. Use plain language and show the exact cell references.

Perplexity will return a short code block. It might look like this:

=SUM(B2:B5) for total income =SUM(B6:B10) for total expenses =B5-B11 for remaining balance

You'll know it worked when you see three formulas with clear instructions.

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Paste the formulas into your sheet

Go back to your spreadsheet. Click the cell where you want the total income to appear (usually B12).

Paste the first formula exactly as Perplexity showed it. Press Enter.

Repeat for total expenses and remaining balance in the cells below.

You'll know it worked when the numbers update automatically when you enter amounts.

Add a quick colour guide

Select the header row (usually row 1). Look for the paint-bucket icon or the word “Fill colour” in the toolbar.

Pick a light green for income rows, a light red for expense rows, and a light blue for totals.

You'll know it worked when your sheet has a simple colour pattern that makes income, expenses, and totals easy to spot.