How to Structure Your Notion Finance Database for the Best Analytics

    Updated: April 5, 2026

    If you want clean finance analytics in NotionStats (income vs expense, spending by category, payment method breakdowns, and net worth over time), your Notion database needs a few key properties with the right types and conventions.

    If you want to skip setup, you can duplicate my ready-to-use NotionFinance template and customize it.

    Database Schema (Copy This) #

    Create one Notion database named Finance Database and add these properties.

    • Required
      • Name: Title (optional, but nice for readability)
      • Date: Date
      • Amount: Number (positive for income, negative for expense)
    • Recommended (for breakdown charts)
      • Category: Select (e.g., Rent, Groceries, Salary, Subscriptions)
      • Payment Type: Select (e.g., Cash, Debit, Credit Card, Bank Transfer)
      • Subcategory: Select (optional, e.g., Groceries → Produce)

    create workspace

    Data Entry Rules That Keep Analytics Accurate #

    These are the most common reasons finance analytics look wrong.

    • Keep Amount signed
      • Don’t store expenses as positive numbers.
    • Use Select for grouping fields
      • Category/Payment Type/Subcategory should be Select to avoid typos creating “duplicate categories”.

    If you’re new to NotionStats setup, start here: Guide to adding analytics to your Notion.

    Troubleshooting / FAQ #

    My income vs expense chart looks inverted #

    Check Amount sign. Income must be positive and expenses must be negative.

    Category charts are messy / duplicated #

    Make sure Category is a Select property and you’re consistently using the same options.

    Net worth over time has gaps #

    Make sure every transaction row has a valid Date. Date-based charts can’t bucket rows without dates.