I’ve updated the spreadsheets – now with distributions, and more

September 2025

I'm always keen to understand how the Before and After Death spreadsheets can be improved. This summer I released some significant updates, which I hope will make dealing with a death and getting probate even easier.

Listening to customer feedback

For the majority of sales, I don't get to see how the spreadsheets are used, or how customers feel about it.

But everything I do, I want to be centered on the needs of people going through probate or planning for their death. So, on the occasions when I do get to see a spreadsheet in use, hear feedback or read a review, it's incredibly helpful.

Over the course of 2025, one theme became clear: families would appreciate a template for tracking distributions to beneficiaries after a death.

Here are two of the comments I received through Etsy:

"One thing that would be really helpful on the Expenses section is adding a table Distributions (or Interim Distributions)" – Emily

"I am somewhat "deep" in the process of my Dad's probate. I am about to start distributions and have finally got an estate accountant who will do my Dad's final taxes and his estate taxes. Is this what your file download will offer? I didn't see any place for the distributions." – Tanya

And there were many more similar thoughts from other customers. So I set about designing and creating a feature to help families track distributions.

Distributions to beneficiaries

A beneficiary is a person benefitting from a will (or a trust) – in other words, someone receiving money, belongings or other assets after someone dies.

A distribution is a payment or transfer to a beneficiary.

There are two broad types of distributions: specific and residuary.

A specific gift is a particular item or specific amount of money specified in someone's will. For example, an item of jewellery.

A residuary gift is a share of the 'residue' of an estate – a fancy word that means whatever's left over after all the expenses, debts and specific gifts have been paid.

Tracking these distributions is an important part of dealing with someone's estate after a death. In fact, these distributions are the 'end goal' – it's the duty of the executors to make sure the deceased's wishes in their will are honoured, or that the family receives their fair share under the law of intestacy if there's no will.

The new distributions sheet

The new Distributions sheet in the After Death Spreadsheet helps executors log these distributions. It's a really helpful tool that took me a long time to get right. It's split into 4 sections, as follows...

(1) Specific gifts of money and belongings

Where you can add details of specific gifts, if there are any.

(2) Share of what's left

The residuary gifts, as described above.

(3) Summary

Here you'll find an automated summary of all distributions.

(4) Residuary gifts breakdown

And finally, a visual overview of gifts made to the residuary beneficiaries, to show clearly how the estate has been distributed.

Making the update

Making an update to the spreadsheets takes time. I went through many iterations before I settled on the final version.

Then it might seem like that's job done. But actually, I have 8 different spreadsheets into which I need to incorporate the new features! They are:

• The Before Death Spreadsheet – (1) Google Sheets version, (2) Excel version

• The After Death Spreadsheet – (3) Google Sheets version, (4) Excel version

• And the 4 filled-out examples of all those spreadsheets

…making 8 different spreadsheets! Each one needs to be carefully updated and tested. Then I have to update the Get Started guides and the Etsy listings.

I made a mistake…

Although I try so hard to make everything work properly, and it took me many weeks to make the update, I can still make mistakes.

When an eagle-eyed customer spotted a problem in the Excel version, I fixed it that day and sent out updates immediately. It’s a reminder that while mistakes can happen, I’ll always put things right quickly.

And there are more updates!

I've also:

• introduced a new advanced income tracking feature, as requested by customers

• revamped the first page of the spreadsheet, including adding an index of sheets

• revamped the Get Started guides to be more readable, helpful and detailed

• made it easier for customers to make their copy of the Google Sheets version

• made various other tweaks to the content of the spreadsheets

I might write more about those updates sometime!

Thank you so much for supporting my small business by reading this blog.

If you'd like to try the new version, take a look at the After Death Spreadsheet for probate and the Before Death Spreadsheet for end of life planning.