Home Maintenance Cost Tracker

Who this is for

What the house actually costs to keep up, job by job. Each line takes the date, the area, what was done and who did it, with labour and materials kept apart and added together for you.

Owners who suspect the house costs more than they think, landlords separating repairs from improvements for their records, and anyone building the evidence of what has been spent on a property before selling it.

What this helps you track

• Every job done to the house, dated, with who did it
• Labour and materials separated, which is what a quote is made of
• The total for each job and for the year
• Which areas of the house are absorbing the money
• A record of work and spend that a buyer or an insurer may ask to see

How to use it

1. Write the property and the year at the top, and the currency if it is not obvious.
2. Add a line each time work is done, whether you paid someone or did it yourself — a DIY job with materials only is still a cost.
3. Pick the area from the list so the year can be read by part of the house rather than by date alone.
4. Split what you paid into labour and materials wherever the invoice does. Where it does not, put the whole amount in labour and say so in the note.
5. The job total, the column totals and the summary are worked out in the browser and the workbook; on paper, add across each row and down each column.
6. Keep the invoices with the sheet, and carry anything still under guarantee onto the document register.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Does it include improvements as well as repairs?

It can, and the area and note columns let you tell them apart. Many owners keep improvements on the project planner and use this sheet for upkeep, because the two are treated differently when a property is sold.

Should I include my own time?

The sheet has no column for it, deliberately — putting a price on your own hours makes the totals hard to compare year to year. Record the materials and note the work you did yourself.

How does this differ from the maintenance planner?

The planner looks forward: what is due and when. This tracker looks back: what was done and what it cost. Most households want both, and the job names match up.

What about a job paid in stages?

Give each payment its own line with the same job name, or one line with the total and the dates in the note column. Either works as long as you are consistent.