Hundo vs a family finance spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is free, flexible and fine for a snapshot. It cannot fetch a NAV, re-price gold or watch a date — every refresh is re-entry. Here is the honest split, including where the sheet still wins.
| Spreadsheet | Hundo | |
|---|---|---|
| Reconciling accounts | You type every balance in by hand, from every login. | Capture once; it keeps the running picture across banks, EPFO, demat, PPF and gold. |
| Marking to market | A NAV or gold rate is only as fresh as your last manual edit. | Mutual funds and stocks marked to market from keyless AMFI / Yahoo / NSE feeds. |
| Reminders | None — a premium or FD maturity lapses silently. | Renewals, EMIs, FD maturities and expiries auto-derived from the dates. |
| Documents | A spreadsheet holds numbers, not the policy PDF or the passport scan. | A vault of typed records with proof and expiry, behind a PIN / biometric lock. |
| Sharing with family | One file, one owner — and the formulas break when someone edits it. | Multi-family tenancy with a “for whom” axis; each person’s share is visible. |
| Ongoing effort | High — it’s abandoned within months because every refresh is re-entry. | Low — capture once, then it stays current on its own. |
| Cost | Free. | Free while in beta. |
| Total control / flexibility | Complete — model anything, no account, works offline. | Structured to a family-finance model, not a blank grid. |
Filled disc marks the side that wins the row. 6 to Hundo, 1 to the other side, 1 even.
The honest verdict: keep a spreadsheet if you want a free, offline scratchpad and do not mind rebuilding it. Choose Hundo when you want the number to stay true without you maintaining it.
Is a spreadsheet good enough to track family net worth?
A spreadsheet is free, flexible and fine for a one-time snapshot. It struggles as a tracker because it can’t fetch a NAV, re-price gold, or watch renewal dates — every refresh is manual re-entry, which is why most family finance spreadsheets are abandoned within months.
What does Hundo do that a spreadsheet can’t?
Hundo marks investments to market automatically, keeps EPF/PPF/NPS as a running passbook, watches every renewal and expiry date, and stores the actual documents behind a family lock — all things a spreadsheet holds only as stale, manually typed numbers.
Can I move my existing spreadsheet into Hundo?
Yes — you capture each account and document once when you set up, and from then on Hundo keeps the running picture current instead of you re-typing it every month.
Retire the spreadsheet you keep meaning to update.
Free while we’re in beta. No card, no queue — ask and we set your household up.