How to create a minimalistic Notion Debt Tracker in 2023

Hi, there 👋. Welcome to the accountantguy. 

Today, we are going to learn how we can create this fantastic minimalistic Notion Debt Tracker to easily track your debt payment obligations, monthly installment payments, and progressive payments for each type of debt!

Our tracker seamlessly integrates with your Notion account and allows you to easily categorize your debt payments, pay debts on priority, and become debt free!

Here are some important things you need to know first before we dive deep into the process of creating this Notion Debt Tracker.

Benefits of Notion Debt Tracker

Here are 5 prominent benefits of using this minimalistic Notion Debt Planner:

1. Keep track of your debt obligations in one central location.💳
2. Pay your monthly debt payments on time to maintain your credit score.✔
3. Categorize your debt obligations as Student loans, Personal loans, House loans, Auto loans, Credit cards, and Other Loans.📃
4. Set timely reminders of payments throughout the year to assess your performance.⌚
5. Gain access to your debt tracker from any device and from anywhere in the world…💻

Where can I download this Notion Debt Tracker?

You can download this Notion Debt Tracker from here. 

You can also visit theaccountantguy.gumroad.com to check out more templates.

Check it out NOW!!! 

Related: How to build Notion Budget Tracker

Features of using this Notion Debt Tracker

This minimalistic Notion Debt Tracker has the following 3 segments in the dashboard:

Summary

This shows a complete summary of all the debt payments and their related obligations as of the date for you.

Here are the things noticeable for the Notion Debt Tracker in the summary segment:

1. Total Loan Amount – Indicates the total loan borrowed till now from you.

2. Total Amount Repaid – This shows the total amount repaid from the loan amount till now (principal value).

3. Total Interest Repaid – This shows the total interest amount repaid from the interest obligations till now.

4. Repayment (in %) – This shows the amount repaid till now from the total principal amount (reflected in percentage), i.e. (Amount repaid / Loan amount) * 100.

Debt Overview

This section shows the overview of the debt obligations divided into 6 types of debt, i.e. Student loans, Credit cards, Car loans, Personal loans, Home loans, and Other Loans.

Under each type of debt, the following things are reflected:

1. Total Loan Amount –  Indicates the total loan borrowed till now from you.
2. Total Amt Repaid – This shows the total amount repaid from the loan amount till now (principal value).

3. Total Interest Repaid – This shows the total interest amount repaid from the interest obligations till now.

4. Repayment (in %) – This shows the amount repaid till now from the total principal amount (reflected in percentage), i.e. (Amount repaid / Loan amount) * 100.

5. Debt Free By – This shows the estimated date by which you will be free of the debt obligation provided you pay the loan as per the minimum debt payment per installment.

Note: This is affected overall as you tap on paid or not paid in the section below.

Debt Progress

This section indicates the progressive debt payment obligations during the year with the status indicated as Paid or Not Paid as you proceed during the period.

As you can see above, Student Loan obligations for the year from January to December are 10 installments that need to be paid during the year with each installment of $1850 to be paid each time barring the first installment payment of $3850.

As you pay any installment, checking the checkbox of paid helps to add the payment amount to the Debt Overview as discussed above.

Here’s a screenshot describing the situation above.

How to create a minimalistic Notion Debt Tracker?

We need to fill in the Loan Details onto a database to help us create a minimalistic Notion Debt Tracker.

For this, first, we need to create a page to store the necessary information related to Loan Details as shown below.

Alongside this, we need to create the following databases to help us create this minimalistic Notion Debt Tracker:

Database	Purpose
Debt Database	Holds the database of all the debt-related information such as Loan Amount, Interest Rate, Min Payment details, Additional Repayment Details alongside debt free months as well.
Debt Overview	Has the information related to Loan Amount, Total Amount Repaid, Principal Repaid, Interest Repaid, Outstanding Amount, Repayment (in %), and debt-free date.
Summary of Debt	Shows the summary of the debt-related information such as Total Loan Amount, Total Amount Repaid, Total Interest Paid, Repayment (in %), and date by which you will be free from the Debt.
Total Debt	This shows the information related to Total Loan Amount, Total Amount Repaid, Total Interest Repaid, and the Repayment (in %) for all debts individually.

We will discuss how to create each database one by one.

Building the Debt Database

This database will help to hold the details related to all the debts. 

In this database, we will get all the details related to debt and will enter the details here before starting out using this Notion Debt Tracker.

Why do we need to create the Debt database?

This database will help build the necessary structure for other databases such as the Debt Details database, Debt Progress payments, and more.

In nutshell, this is the brain of the entire template we are about to build. 

How to add properties to the Debt database in Notion Debt Tracker?

Let’s get to know the properties of this Debt database one by one.

1. Name

This indicates the type of debt being borrowed by the borrower from the lender, such as Student Loan, Credit Card, Car Loan etc.

This has the default Title property which is created when you create the database for the first time.

2. Loan Amount

Next up, we have the loan amount which states the debt amount that is borrowed by the borrower from the lender.

This has a Number property which is displayed in US Dollars to reflect the total amount of loan that is borrowed.

3. Interest Rate

This is the rate of interest for the type of debt borrowed. This is the interest rate specified per annum for the purpose of the debt.

As for the Number type, we need to specify this as Percent to state the number in a percentage format for the interest rate.

4. Min Payment

This is the minimum installment amount to be repaid each time the loan is repaid.

This is again specified as the Number type and kept in the US Dollars format. 

5. Additional Repayment

This reflects any additional payments made prior to the beginning of the payment of the first installment.

This can be considered similar to the downpayment of any debt which can be paid at the inception of the loan period.

This is again a Number format that is specified in the US Dollars type.

6. Initial Repayment Date

This has a Date property that reflects the first time when repayment is done towards any debt.

This means this would be considered the first repayment date of any debt.

The date format is considered as Full Date when setting the type of the date property.

7. Debt Free (in months)

Next up, we have the number of months by which you will be free of debt.

This is a Formula property, which calculates the time period by which you will be free of debt.

Here’s the formula for the same:

ceil(round(-log10(1 – prop(“i”) * (prop(“Loan Amount”) – prop(“Additional Repayment”)) / prop(“Min. Payment”)) / log10(1 + prop(“i”)) * 100) / 100)

Here, “i” is the interest rate used for the loan.

This is again represented as a Number in the database.

8. Expected Debt Free By

This is the latest date by which you can expect to be free from the debt borrowed.

This is a Formula property which is as follows:

dateAdd(prop(“Initial Repayment Date”), prop(“Days (Formula)”), “days”)

Here, Days (Formula) is the conversion of the Debt Free (in months) to Days, which is done as follows:

👉 Debt Free (in months) * 30.437 (average days in a month during the year)

9. Net Loan Outstanding

Finally, we have the Net Loan Outstanding which is merely the difference between the Min Payment and the Additional Repayment of the debt.

This is a Formula property which is reflected as follows:

prop(“Loan Amount”) – prop(“Additional Repayment”)

This is again represented in the US Dollars Number format as shown below.

Note: Net Loan Outstanding is the amount that will be the Opening Balance for the first installment amount in the Loan Details database as discussed in the Loan Details database.

Building Loan Details Database

First, let’s create a new database and name it “Loan Details Database”.

In order to create a new database, simply type “/database” and then select “Database-Inline” to create a database for storing the debt details.

Important Note: Repeat the above process for creating other databases as mentioned above such as Debt Overview, Summary of Debt, and Total Debt.

Once an Inline Database is created, it’s time to add the necessary properties to store information for use in the Notion Debt Tracker for the debt section.

Here, the “Debt Tracker” has been created that stores the necessary properties as discussed below.

Here’s a quick overview of all the properties to be used in the Debt Details database in the Notion Debt Tracker:

Properties	Property Type	Purpose
Installment	Number	Specifies the number of installments paid towards debt.
Details	Title	Specifies the details related to the repayment of a loan.
Date	Date	Specifies the date when a loan is repaid
Category	Relation	Related to Debt Overview database with the selection of one of the categories of debt to be repaid
Opening Balance	Number	Specifies the opening balance of the loan outstanding at the start of the month
Payment	Number	Specifies the repayment amount of the loan towards the principal value
Interest	Formula	Calculates the amount of interest to be repaid taking into consideration of the interest rate and the opening balance of the loan outstanding at the start of the month
Closing Balance	Formula	Calculates the closing balance of the loan outstanding at the end of the month
Checkbox	Checkbox	To be used to signify the status of the payment as “Paid or Not Paid” (Ticked = Paid, Unticked = Not Paid)
Status	Formula	Specifies the payment status as paid or Not Paid depending upon the Checkbox (ticked or unticked)
Interest Rate	Rollup	Rolled up from the value of the interest rate from the Debt Overview database
Final Amount (A)	Formula	Calculates the amount repaid value if the status is Paid
Final Amount (I)	Formula	Calculates the interest repaid value if the status is Paid
Final Amount (P)	Formula	Calculates the principal repaid value if the status is Paid

Note: We need to create the same database for all types of debts to be repaid such as Student loans, Personal loans, House loans, Auto loans, Credit cards, and Other Loans.

Why do we need to create the Loans Details database?

Creating this database will help to form a relationship with other subsequent databases that can help in building the entire Debt Tracker in Notion.

We need to create the Loans Details database in order to create the different sections of the Notion Debt Tracker as discussed earlier.

This database will also help to create the above debt progressive payments calendar as the above database is linked to each of the individual types of debt such as Student loans, Credit cards, House loans etc.

Now, let’s learn how to create and add a new property to a Database.

How to add properties to an inline database in Notion?

Once you have created an Inline Database, you can click on “+” at the top right of a new database to add new properties as shown below.

How to assign the property type to a Debt Details inline database in Notion?

In order to assign a property type to an inline database in Notion, first click on the property created and then specify a property of your choice as shown below.

There are multiple properties to choose from, such as Text, Number, Select, etc.

Let’s understand each property to create in the Debt Details database in the Notion Debt Tracker database:

1. Installment

This is the first property that is created while creating a database.

This has a Number property which is used to record the installment number related to installments paid for the debt obligation incurred etc

2. Details

This is the default property created while creating this debt tracker.

This stores information related to the payments made towards the settlement of the debt. This has the Title-Type property.

3. Date

This is the next property that is required while creating the Debt Details database.

This is the date property that stores the date on which the debt is paid to settle the debt payments.

4. Category

This is the next property that has a relation to the Debt Overview database.

This is related both ways and this shows the category of the payment of debt such as Student Loan, Credit Card, House Loan, Auto Loan etc.

5. Opening Balance

This is a Number property that calculates the Opening Balance of the loan outstanding at the start of the month.

This is copied over from the previous month’s closing balance.

For the first installment to be paid, we need to manually enter the opening balance as the amount outstanding prior to the start of any installment.

👉 This will be the same amount that is reflected in the Net Loan Outstanding in the Debt Database as discussed earlier.

Afterward, for each subsequent month, we need to copy and paste the previous month’s Closing Balance (after all adjustments) to the next month’s opening balance.

As an example, for the Month of April 2023, as shown above, the opening balance of the Student Loan would be equal to the Closing balance of the Student Loan for the month of Jan 2023.

So for each month as we arrive at the closing balance (post all adjustments and calculations) we need to copy and paste the same to the subsequent month’s opening balance.

Note: This is represented in US Dollars for easy representation purposes as shown below.

6. Payment

Next up, we have the Payment property which is the amount paid for the installment during a specific month.

Note: This is represented in US Dollars for easy representation purposes as shown below.

7. Interest

This is represented by a Formula.

The interest is calculated as follows:

round(prop(“Opening Balance”) * prop(“Interest Rate”) / 12 * 100) / 100.

In this formula, essentially we are trying to calculate the Interest amount considering the interest rate multiplied by the Opening Balance to derive the Interest amount for the period.

Note: The interest rate is another property specified in the database to calculate the Interest Amount.

8. Principal

Next up, we have the Principal which is derived from the use of a Formula.

Essentially once we have the Payment amount and then the Interest amount, we need to deduct the interest amount from the Payment amount to get the value of the principal repaid.

Here’s the formula for repayment of the principal amount:

prop(“Payment”) – prop(“Interest”)

9. Closing Balance

Finally, we arrive at the calculation of the Closing Balance (amount outstanding at the end of the month).

This is nothing but the Opening Balance less the Principal Amount.

prop(“Opening Balance”) – prop(“Principal”).

Note: As we calculate the Closing Balance for a period, we need to Copy and Paste the same into the next month’s Opening balance.

10. Checkbox

Next up, we have a checkbox property that signifies if the payment is Done or Not Done.

Checking the checkbox reflects payment is paid and unchecking the checkbox means payment is not paid.

This is reflected in the Status property next to the checkbox property.

11. Status

Finally, the status property reflects the status of the payment, i.e. if the checkbox is ticked off, the amount is Paid.

• If the checkbox is unticked, the amount is Not Paid.
• If the checkbox is ticked off, the amount is Paid.

Here’s the formula for the same:

if(prop(“Checkbox”) == true, “Paid”, “Not Paid”)

12. Interest Rate

The interest rate is rolled up from the Debt Overview database. 

Essentially, we capture the Interest Rate value from the Debt Overview database and calculate the Sum of it.

13. Final Amount (A)

This has a Formula property which is equal to the Final Payment amount if the amount is paid.

This means this calculates the total payment amount related to all the payments which have been paid on time (Status = Paid).

Here’s the formula for the same:

if(prop(“Checkbox”) == true, prop(“Payment”), 0)

The above formula grabs the value of the Payment amount, if the checkbox is ticked off (status = Paid)

Note: The above needs to be repeated for the Final Amount (I) = Interest amount and the Final Amount (P) = Principal Amount.

Building Debt Overview Database

This database will help to create an overview of the debt to be repaid which includes the following:

• Total Amount Repaid, 
• Principal Amount Repaid, 
• Interest Repaid and 
• Outstanding Amount for a particular debt
• Repayment (in %) and 
• Date by which you will be free of the debt as well.

Now let’s look at why we need to build the Debt Overview Database.

Why do we need to create the Debt Overview Database

The Debt Overview Database helps us to build relationships and create a functional workflow with all other databases connected to the Debt Tracker in Notion.

All the properties specified in this database carry relevance and hold significance when its connected to other databases.

How to add properties to the Debt Overview database in the Notion Debt Tracker

Let’s get to know the properties of this Debt database one by one.

1. Name

This indicates the type of debt being borrowed by the borrower from the lender, such as Student Loan, Credit Card, Car Loan etc.

This has the default Title property which is created when you create the database for the first time.

2. Loan Amt

This is a Formula property that reflects the total Loan Amount borrowed for the specific loan.

This formula helps to extract the rolled-up value of the Loan Amount for the specific loan from the Debt Database. 

3. Total Amt Repaid

Then we have the Total Amt Repaid which reflects the amount that has been repaid from the total loan amount that is borrowed.

This is again a Formula property that helps to extract the rolled-up value of the Total Amt repaid towards the debt from each of the Loans Details database.

Here’s the formula in use:

if(prop(“Name”) == “Student Loan”, prop(“Total Amt Repaid (Student Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Credit Card”, prop(“Total Amt Paid (Credit Card)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Car Loan”, prop(“Total Amt Repaid (Car Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Personal Loan”, prop(“Total Amt Repaid (Personal Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Home Loan”, prop(“Total Amt Repaid (Home Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Other Loan”, prop(“Total Amt Repaid (Other Loan)”), toNumber(“”)))))))

Essentially, this formula captures the Total Amount Repaid towards each of the loan repaid from respective Loans Details database and projects the same onto here.

Again this is represented in US Dollar in the Number Type property.

4. Principal Repaid

Then we have the Principal Repaid which reflects the amount that has been repaid towards the Principal Amount from the total principal amount of loan that is borrowed.

This is again a Formula property that helps to extract the rolled-up value of the Principal repaid towards the debt from each of the Loans Details database.

Here’s the formula in use:

if(prop(“Name”) == “Student Loan”, prop(“Prinicipal Repaid (Student Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Credit Card”, prop(“Prinicipal Repaid (Credit Card)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Car Loan”, prop(“Principal Repaid (Car Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Personal Loan”, prop(“Principal Repaid (Personal Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Home Loan”, prop(“Principal Repaid (Home Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Other Loan”, prop(“Principal Repaid (Other Loan)”), toNumber(“”)))))))

Essentially, this formula captures the Principal Repaid towards each of the loan repaid from respective Loans Details database and projects the same onto here.

Again this is represented in US Dollar in the Number Type property.

5. Int Paid

Now, we have the Interest Paid which reflects the amount that has been repaid towards the Interest Paid from the total interest amount of loan that is borrowed.

This is again a Formula property that helps to extract the rolled-up value of the Int repaid towards the debt from each of the Loans Details database.

Here’s the formula in use:

if(prop(“Name”) == “Student Loan”, prop(“Int Repaid (Student Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Credit Card”, prop(“Int Repaid (Credit Card)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Car Loan”, prop(“Int Repaid (Car Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Personal Loan”, prop(“Int Paid (Personal Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Home Loan”, prop(“Int Paid (Home Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Other Loan”, prop(“Int Paid (Other Loan)”), toNumber(“”)))))))

Essentially, this formula captures the Int Repaid towards each of the loan repaid from respective Loans Details database and projects the same onto here.

Again this is represented in US Dollar in the Number Type property.

6. Outstanding Amt

Next up, we have the Outstanding Amt which reflects the Loan amount outstanding at the end of the period.

This is simply Loan Amount less the Principal Repaid from the Loan Amount.

Thus, it is a Formula property which reflects the same. Here’s why a Formula is used in the process.

prop(“Loan Amt”) – prop(“Principal Repaid”)

Again, this is represented in the Number Format and is represented in the US Dollars as well.

7. Repayment (in %)

Now we have the Repayment (in %) which calculates the total amount repaid as compared to the Total Loan Amt borrowed till date.

This is a Formula property which is as follows:

round(prop(“Principal Repaid”) / prop(“Loan Amt”) * 100) / 100

This is represented in the Percent format and is represented in Gray colored bar. 

8. Debt Free By

Finally, we have the Debt Free By which is a Formula property that calculates by when you will be free of the debt obligation.

This calculates the rolled up value of the date from the Debt Database.

Then, we represent the same date in the following format:

slice(format(prop(“Debt Free By (Full Date)”)), 0, prop(“Length”) – 9)

Here, we represent the date after slicing the values from the full date obtained in the Date and Time format as required.

Building Summary of Debt Database

Next up, we are building the Summary of Debt database wherein we are finding the following details for each type of debt discussed:

1. Total Loan Amount.
2. Total Amt Repaid.
3. Total Int Repaid.
4. Repayment (in %).
5. Debt Free By date.

Why do we need to build Summary of Debt Database

We are building this database to build the Debt Overview database section in the Notion Debt Tracker dashboard page.

How to add properties to the Summary of Debt Database

Let’s get to know the properties one by one.

1. Name

This signifies the 5 things that we are trying to extract from the database, i.e.:

• Total Loan Amount
• Total Amt Repaid
• Total Int Repaid
• Repayment (in %)
• Debt Free By

This has a Title type property to define the above things.

2. Final Amt 

This column helps us to find the details related to the information as described below.

In order to find the Total Loan Amount, Total Amount Repaid and the Total Interest Repaid, we are using the following formula:

if(prop(“Name”) == “Total Loan Amount”, prop(“Loan Amt (Student Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Total Amt Repaid”, prop(“Total Amt Repaid (Student Loan)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Total Int Repaid”, prop(“Total Int Repaid (Student Loan)”), toNumber(“”))))

Essentially, we are calculating the values of the Total Loan Amount, Total Amount Repaid and the Total Interest Repaid for all the types of Debt specified earlier.

All the above values are obtained using a rollup relating the same to the individual loan details database.

Here’s an example describing the same from the Student Loan database…

Total Loan Amount	Rolled up the Loan Amount value from the Student Loan database
Total Amt Repaid	Rolled up the Amt Repaid value from the Student Loan database
Total Int Repaid	Rolled up the Int Repaid value from the Student Loan database
Repayment (in %)	Rolled up the Repayment (in %) value from the Student Loan database
Debt Free By	Rolled up the Debt Free By date value from the Debt Free By date from the Student Loan database

Note: We need to do the same for each of the debt details such as Credit Card, House Loan, Auto Loan etc.

In the Final Amt column, we are calculating and picking the values from the desired database.

3. Final Amt (in %)

This helps us to calculate the percentage of Student Loan repaid as of now.

Here’s the formula used for the same:

if(prop(“Name”) == “Repayment (in %)”, prop(“Repayment (in %) (Student Loan)”), toNumber(“”))

In here, essentially we are calculating the total repayment amount as a proportion to the total loan amount.

This is again represented in the Percent format to get the value in percentage, represented in the Green bar.

4. Debt Free By

Finally, we have the Debt Free By represented by a Formula.

Here’s the formula we would use:

if(prop(“Name”) == “Debt Free By”, prop(“Debt Free By (Student)”), “”)

Essentially, this picks up the value of the Debt Free By date derived from a rolled up value related to individual loan details databases.

Building Total Debt Database

Finally, we are building the Total Debt database. 

In this database, we will essentially capture the total loan details of all the debts combined, such as Total Loan Amount, Total Amt Repaid, Total Int Repaid and the Repayment (in %).

Why do we need to create Total Debt Database

We are building this database to build the Summary database section in the Notion Debt Tracker dashboard page as shown above.

How to add properties to the Total Debt Database

Let’s get to know the properties to add in the Total Debt Database, one by one.

1. Final Amt

This is a Formula driven property, where we get to obtain the Total Loan Amount, Total Amt Repaid, Total Int Repaid deriving the total values rolled up from another database.

Here’s the formula in use:

if(prop(“Name”) == “Total Loan Amount”, prop(“Total Loan (Formula)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Total Amt Repaid”, prop(“Total Amt Repaid (Formula)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Total Int Repaid”, prop(“Total Int Repaid (Formula)”), toNumber(“”))))

From the above formula, we can see that each of the individual properties are obtained from the respective values rolled up from the related databases.

As an example, Total Loan Amount, Total Amt Repaid and Total Int Repaid are obtained from the Debt Overview database using the respective values from the Debt Overview database.

Similarly we need to calculate the Final Amount (in %) to calculate the repayment (in %).

2. Final Amt (in %)

This is again a Formula property used to calculate the repayment (in %) for the total amount repaid with respect to the loan amount.

Here’s the formula used for the same:

if(prop(“Name”) == “Repayment (in %)”, round(prop(“Total Amt Repaid (Rollup)”) / prop(“Total Loan (Rollup)”) * 100) / 100, toNumber(“”))

As you can see, here we have calculated the total repayment (in %) considering the total amount repaid rolled up from the Debt Overview database and likewise for the Total Loan amount as well.

Here we complete building all the required database for the purpose of building the Notion Debt Tracker.

Now its time to create the primary dashboard.

Building the Primary Dashboard of Notion Debt Tracker

The primary dashboard of Notion Debt Tracker consists of 3 sections, i.e.

• Summary 
• Debt Overview
• Debt Progress 

Here’s how we are going to build each part one by one.

1. Summary

In order to create a summary of a database, we need to link it to the Total Debt database setting it onto a Gallery mode of presentation.

After this, we need to enable the desired properties and hide the remainder to get the view we require.

2. Debt Overview

Next up, we need to set up the Debt Overview section in the primary dashboard.

For this, we need to link this to the Summary of Debt database setting it in Gallery mode of presentation. 

Further we need to enable the desired properties to get the right presentation as required.

3. Debt Progresss

This is the last part of the primary dashboard in the Notion Debt Tracker which is linked to the individual loan details database as shown below.

Linking it to the Loan Details part for each of the 6 types of debts, we need to set it in List mode of layout to get the desired output.

Subsequently, we have applied the filter where we have set the date to the current year to show us only the installments for repayments belonging to the current year.

We can also change this filter as per our requirement. 

Along with this we have sorted the date in the ascending order to show us the dates in ascending order of occurrence during the year.

Note: We need to repeat the same for all the types of debt we have incurred during the year.

Conclusion

This brings us to the end of preparation of this minimalistic Notion Debt Tracker.

In order to create the Notion Debt Tracker, all we need is a database to hold all the details of the debt and a database to calculate the monthly repayment amounts for the debt.

FAQ