Budget vs actual chart from a Notion database
A personal budget with a planned and an actual amount per category, month by month. Two charts answer the usual questions: where spending beat the plan, and whether the monthly total is going up or down.
Free for 5 charts · no card · no expiry
Planned vs actual by category
Starter planActual spend per month
Free planThe data behind it
The first 10 of 30 rows of Sample · Personal budget. Every chart above is built from these columns and nothing else.
| month | category | planned | actual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01 | Rent | 792 | 899 |
| 2026-01 | Groceries | 757 | 934 |
| 2026-01 | Transport | 757 | 934 |
| 2026-01 | Software | 584 | 737 |
| 2026-01 | Fun | 619 | 702 |
| 2026-02 | Rent | 792 | 930 |
| 2026-02 | Groceries | 757 | 965 |
| 2026-02 | Transport | 757 | 965 |
| 2026-02 | Software | 584 | 768 |
| 2026-02 | Fun | 619 | 733 |
How to build this in Notion
- Plan the columns. Keep one row per category per month. Add a select property for the category, number properties for planned and actual, and a date property for the month.
- Connect the budget. Create an account, open Data sources and connect Notion, then share the budget database on Notion's screen.
- Compare planned with actual. Pick Bar, set X-axis (category) to category, and add both planned and actual under Y-axis (value) with Sum. Each one becomes its own series in its own colour.
- Track the monthly total. For the trend, pick Line, put the month on the X-axis, choose Month under Date grouping and sum actual.
- Embed it in your budget page. Copy the embed link and paste it into the budget page with /embed. When you change an amount in Notion, the chart picks it up on the next refresh.
The amounts sum the same way in any currency: pick a currency under Number format in the builder and the axis and tooltips follow it.