Have you ever lent money to a family member and then struggled to keep track of the interest rates, repayments, and email reminders? I've been there, and it's tough. That's why I decided to build this Loan Management System using Google Sheets and Google App Script. After a few hours of collaboration with ChatGPT, voila! We've created more than just a spreadsheet; it's an all-in-one loan management tool designed to make your life easier.
Generated in collaboration with ChatGPT
- 📊 Monthly Summary and Details: Say goodbye to manual calculations! Get a comprehensive breakdown of loan balances, interest rates, and payments.
- 📧 Automated Email Notifications: Why remind when you can get reminded? Receive monthly loan summaries directly in your inbox.
- ⏰ Scheduled Triggers: Set it up once and let the automation do the rest.
- 🌐 Shared Access: Keep all parties in the loop with a system everyone can access and update.
Whether you're managing loans between friends, family, or business partners, this tool is for you. It takes care of everything from auto-calculating monthly interest to handling fluctuating yearly interest rates, and even sending out monthly email notifications.
Let's get into the details! 🚀
Monthly Details
In this screenshot, take note of the highlighted cells that indicate the "Remaining Loan Amount" over different periods. Initially, the loan amount is 5,000 and it doubles to 10,000 within one year, due to a yearly interest rate of 100%. When the interest rate is adjusted to 4.5%, the remaining amount grows from 10,000 to 10,450 over the span of another year. This serves as proof of the system's accurate and dynamic interest calculation capabilities.
- Step 1.1: Click on this Google Spreadsheet link.
- Step 1.2: Go to
File->Make a copy.
- Step 1.3: Click on this Google Form link.
- Step 1.4: Use the
...(More) menu in the upper-right corner and selectMake a copyto create a copy of the form in your Google Drive.
Note: After you've duplicated both the Google Form and Spreadsheet, you'll need to link them together. It's simple! Just head over to your Google Form, click on the 'Responses' tab, and then hit the Google Sheets icon. Make sure to select the copied spreadsheet from your Drive. Here's the magic part: The first time you open your new spreadsheet, it automatically runs an initialization script. Just by opening the spreadsheet, you're all set and ready to go! 🚀
- Monthly Summary: For summarizing the loan details.
- Monthly Details: For capturing detailed transactions.
- Email Addresses: For storing email addresses and other email-related information.
- Interest Rate Changes: Tracks any changes in the yearly interest rate. More on this below.
The 'Email Addresses' sheet should have the following structure:
| Lender Email | Borrower Email | Email Subject | Thread ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| lender@xyz.com | borrower@xyz.com | Monthly Loan Summary |
- Lender Email: The email address of the lender.
- Borrower Email: The email address of the borrower.
- Email Subject: The subject line for the email notification. This is optional and a default subject will be used if left blank.
- Thread ID: This field is used by the script to keep track of the email thread and should be left empty initially.
The 'Interest Rate Changes' sheet should have the following structure:
| Date of Change | Updated Yearly Interest Rate |
|---|---|
| 2021-01-01 | 5.5 |
| 2022-01-01 | 4.5 |
- Date of Change: The date when the yearly interest rate was changed.
- Updated Yearly Interest Rate: The updated yearly interest rate in percentage.
In the Google Spreadsheet, you'll find a custom menu at the top named "Custom Menu: Run Monthly Update / Send Email / Setup Trigger." This menu provides you with three powerful options:
- Update Monthly Summary and Monthly Details: Manually refreshes the Monthly Summary and Monthly Details sheets with up-to-date data.
- Send Email: Manually triggers the sending of the Monthly Summary email.
- Setup Trigger: Automates the system to update content and send emails every 1st of the month at 10 a.m.. This function just needs to be run once to set up the trigger. However, it's implemented robustly, so don't worry if you accidentally run it more than once.
Once everything is set up, all you need to do is fill in the Google Form to add new loan transactions or repayments. The system will automatically update the Monthly Summary and Details, and you'll receive email notifications as per your setup. It's that simple!
This project is developed in collaboration with GPT-4 by OpenAI.