Checklists tell a family what to cancel. This works out what it costs while nobody has — including the quarterly and yearly charges that are easy to miss.
List the bills and subscriptions. Weekly, every-2-weeks, quarterly and yearly charges are turned into one monthly figure, so the ones that only appear a few times a year stop hiding. The number that matters is the last one: what keeps charging, on autopay, until somebody cancels it.
| Bill | Amount ($) | How often | What family should do | Autopay? | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summary | Per month | Per year |
|---|
Per month converts weekly (×52/12), every 2 weeks (×26/12), quarterly (÷3), every 6 months (÷6) and yearly (÷12) — the same rule the spreadsheet uses. Nothing you type leaves this page. A line with no name or no amount is skipped. Whether a bill should be cancelled, transferred or kept depends on the household and sometimes on the estate; the full binder has a column for how to cancel each one and a place for the executor’s notes.
The ones on autopay that only served the person who died - streaming, memberships, meal kits, magazines, app subscriptions. They keep charging quietly, often to a card nobody is watching. Utilities and insurance on a home that someone still lives in are usually transferred rather than cancelled.
Often not straight away. Many banks and online accounts send sign-in codes to that number by text, so cancelling the line first can lock the family out of accounts they still need to close. Many families keep it for a short while and cancel it last.
Because a yearly renewal or a quarterly water bill does not show up in a month-by-month glance at a statement, and those are the charges that surprise a family months later. One monthly number puts every bill on the same scale.
No. It totals what you type in so a family can see the size of the job. Who is allowed to close which account, and what the estate has to pay, is for the executor and, where needed, an attorney.
The calculator above is deliberately simple. The full spreadsheet does the whole job — every bill with how to cancel it, plus the accounts, policies, documents, contacts and final wishes a family needs in one place, with a summary that shows what is still missing. It opens in Excel and works just as well in free Google Sheets.
Get the full Just-in-Case Binder spreadsheet Or start with our free Mini Budget Tracker