Over 75% of people who start a debt payoff plan fail to complete it. The debt snowball method, however, boasts significantly higher completion rates than other strategies, according to research from Northwestern Kellogg School of Management published in Marketing Science. This isn't just about math, it's about psychology. We've built a free, collaborative Google Sheets template to help you harness that power and tackle your credit card debt, one win at a time.
This spreadsheet serves as a robust 10-card financial tracker. It automatically arranges your credit card balances from smallest to largest. As you pay off one card, its minimum payment contribution automatically redirects to the next smallest debt. This mechanism is key to accelerating your payoff journey.
The template leverages powerful Google Sheets functions like SORT, NPER, and CUMIPMT. These handle the heavy lifting, projecting your month-by-month payoff timeline and calculating total interest paid. A distinct "celebration" column visually marks each account you've cleared, providing a tangible win and initiating the debt snowball's cascading effect.
We've released this tool under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license. This means credit counselors, financial bloggers, and educators can freely share, adapt, and repost it, provided they give attribution. It's designed to work seamlessly across any device with a web browser, requiring no software installation.
License: CC BY 4.0 (free to share, remix, repost with attribution to ccpayoffcalc.com).
Access the Template: Download .ods for Google Sheets (Google Sheets can open .ods files directly, or you can download for offline use).
The Template's Structure and Logic
The spreadsheet is organized into four distinct tabs: "Active Cards," "Snowball Schedule," "Cleared Cards," and "Settings."
On the "Active Cards" tab, you'll input details for each of your outstanding credit cards. This includes the issuer, the last four digits of the account, its current balance, the Annual Percentage Rate (APR), your minimum payment due, and any additional monthly amount you plan to contribute.
The "Snowball Schedule" tab automatically pulls this information. It uses the SORT function to arrange your cards by their current balance, from smallest to largest. This automated sorting ensures your debt snowball strategy always targets the appropriate card first. The "Cleared Cards" tab then serves as an archive, moving accounts there once they've reached a zero balance.
Each row within the "Snowball Schedule" displays critical data: rank, issuer
