You might be wondering whether there is anything special you need to do to your Tiller-powered spreadsheet budget for the new year. This guide is meant to help you navigate what to do when the new year rolls around. 

If you're not using the Foundation template we recommend transitioning to the Foundation Template. This is our only supported template as of Dec 31, 2022. If you're using a community-built solution, such as the Savings Budget, that is compatible with the Foundation Template, you should search the Tiller Community for steps on how to prepare for the new year in that template.

First, ask yourself whether you want to keep your historical budget targets in your Foundation template into the next year.

The benefit of keeping last/current year's budget targets in the spreadsheet as you plan for the next year is that you'll have the budget history for analysis alongside your actuals. You can also go ahead and start planning for the new year. The only downside is that you may notice the sheet becomes slower after several years of data accumulate.

If you want to keep your historical budget targets, you can set up your Foundation template for multi-year budgeting so you'll have additional budget months instead of 12. Follow the steps in this guide to set up your Foundation Template for multi-year budgeting.

This option will allow you to start building your budget plan for the new year before it actually starts.

If you do not want to keep your historical budget targets, you can overwrite the monthly budget columns in the Categories sheet for the new year.

This option does not allow you to start planning before the new year starts. You should plan to make this change in January.

In Google Sheets

Change the budget start month on the Categories sheet (usually in cell E1, these columns may need to be expanded using the + above the column letters) to be the first day of the new year on New Year's Day. You'll notice that your budget targets for your categories do not shift with the change so at this point you're re-using the same budget targets for each month that you did in the previous year. Feel free to customize these for the new year.

In Microsoft Excel

Right click any tab along the bottom to unhide the "New Year" sheet.

Copy and paste the new year's budget month dates starting in cell E1.

Because of the way Excel Tables work, we were not able to use a formula in the header row in the Categories sheet for the budget months so the months have to be manually typed and formatted appropriately. We added the New Year sheet as a helper to quickly get the new months into your Categories sheet.

You can also make a copy of your spreadsheet from the File menu (Google Sheet > Make a copy or Microsoft Excel > Save as) before wiping out your budget history. If you make a copy you'll have a historical version of your budget to reference if needed and may be necessary if you have several years of data in your Transactions sheet and notice your Google Sheet slowing down. After making a copy you can also clear past years' transaction data.

Learn more on creating an archive when the new year starts.

You can always start fresh in a new spreadsheet for the new year. Just follow the steps in the Foundations Guide here for starting a new sheet or make a copy of your existing spreadsheet (from the File menu: Google Sheet > Make a copy or Microsoft Excel > Save as) and clear out the past years' data to start planning for the new year ahead of time.

After you fill your new spreadsheet with your financial transactions just clear out past years' data from the Transactions sheet to have a fresh start with only the new year's data.

This option will allow you to start building your budget plan for the new year before it actually starts.

Originally recorded on Dec 30, 2021

Our prep for 2022 was really focused on how to interpret the past year's data to help you make informed decisions about where to shift spending habits for the new year.

Click here to access additional resources & written Q&A

Originally recorded Dec 15, 2022

Our prep for 2023 covered the basics of how to get your Foundation Template set up for an additional 12 budget months and covered the community-built Budget Plan.

Click here to access the resources and written Q&A.

Originally recorded on Dec 20, 2023

In this webinar we talked through what it means to optimize your financial life using Tiller-powered spreadsheets and strategies for helping you meet your goals in 2024. We also talked through how to set up your Tiller spreadsheets for 2024 budgeting and cash flow tracking.

Click here to access the resources and written Q&A.

Originally recorded on Dec. 11, 2024

In this webinar we covered how to get your Foundation Template set up for an additional 12 budget months and steps to realign with your personal finance goals using the Yearly Budget and Savings Goals Dashboard.

Click here to access resources and written Q&A.