Personal budget Sankey: map where your paycheck goes
The personal budget Sankey is the one people share: gross pay on the left, tax peeling off, take-home pay splitting into rent, food, transport and savings. It is popular because it answers a question a spreadsheet only implies: of every pound, euro or dollar earned, where does it actually end up?
The three columns
A readable budget Sankey has three columns. Income on the left: gross salary and any other income. The middle: your monthly budget, with tax and pension peeling off beside it as deductions. Spending on the right: the categories the budget goes to, with savings as a category of its own, so money you keep is drawn as clearly as money you spend.
A worked example
Gross salary is 4,200 a month: 700 flows to Tax, 300 to Pension, and the 3,200 left flows into the Monthly budget. Side income of 800 flows into the same budget, making 4,000, which flows on to Rent 1,400, Groceries 600, Transport 300, Savings 900, and Other 800.
Check the balance before you share it: 4,200 = 700 + 300 + 3,200, and 3,200 + 800 = 1,400 + 600 + 300 + 900 + 800 = 4,000. SankeyCharts.app's editor opens on this same budget from take-home pay onwards, so you can start by overwriting its numbers with your own and adding the gross-pay row in front.
Choices that make it useful
- Use monthly averages, not one unusual month: annual bills divided by twelve, irregular income averaged
- Keep "Other" smaller than your largest named category; if it isn't, split it
- Draw pension and savings as flows, not as missing money: they are where part of your income goes
- Pick one currency for the whole chart, and type it with the first amount ("€1400")
- Group fixed costs (rent, insurance) and variable ones (food, leisure) so they share a colour
The same diagram for a business
Swap salary for revenue and spending categories for cost centres, and a personal budget Sankey becomes a company budget or a cash flow statement. QueryChart's Sankey library has both, with example figures to replace.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a Sankey diagram of my budget?
List your income sources, your deductions, and your spending categories with monthly amounts. In SankeyCharts.app each becomes a node, and each amount a flow, for example from Monthly budget to Rent, 1,400. The diagram draws itself.
Should savings be part of a budget Sankey?
Yes. Drawing savings as a flow makes the share of income you keep as visible as the shares you spend, which is usually the point of the chart.
Try it on your own numbers
The editor is free and opens with a starter Sankey diagram. One row per node, and the diagram draws itself as you type. No signup required.
Create Your Sankey Diagram Free