⚠️ Note as of March 3, 2022 we have a new Foundation Template for Microsoft Excel. This content is for the previous "Money Tracker" template we offered prior to March 3, 2022 ⚠️
The Tiller Money Tracker for Excel allows you to quickly see all your account balances in one place and easily understand your spending and earnings across categories for a selected time period, all in an Excel workbook.
Save your workbook to OneDrive for easy access to your automated bank data spreadsheet while on the go using the Microsoft Excel app on your mobile phone.
Step 1: Set up the automated bank data feeds
Step 2: Setting Up Categories
Step 3: Categorizing Transactions
Step 4: Reviewing your spending
Step 5: Setting Up A Budget
Step 6: Reviewing Account Balances
Step 1: Set up the automated bank data feeds
Most likely you’ve already done the steps of setting up your bank data feeds to the workbook. If not, you can get those steps in the Getting Started guide here.
Step 2: Setting Up Categories
The Categories sheet allows you to organize how your money is spent and earned.
You can add new categories to the bottom of the list and overwrite or delete the example categories.
Each category should be unique and have a group and a type assigned.
The categories sheet populates the dropdown menu for the Category column on the Transactions sheet.
Types are Income, Expense, and Transfer.
Think about Group as the bigger bucket that the categories fall into. Read more about subcategories.
The Transfer type is generally used for transactions that correspond to money moving between accounts. Read more about Transfers.
Try to keep it simple, you can always change your mind and adjust these later.
The Categories sheet is also where you can select the start month for a yearly budget and set budget targets for each category. Read more about how to use the budget features in this template.
Step 3: Categorizing Transactions
Quickly categorize transactions on the Transactions sheet by typing the category into the Category cell for a transaction or by using the dropdown menu that appears by hovering over the category cell.
Once a category has been used at least one time previously in the Category column Excel will auto-populate the Category cell once you start typing the category. Once the appropriate category appears, press tab to quickly move to the next line.
There is no need to categorize all your historical transaction data unless you want to build a historical picture of your budget.
We recommend categorizing last month up to today if you’re brand new to budgeting and want help deciding on your budget targets for a category using your actuals.
Understanding the Transactions Sheet
The Transactions sheet is the heart of your Tiller-powered Excel Workbook. It’s where Tiller fills in your latest bank transactions when you click the Fill button in the Tiller Money Feeds add-in task pane.
Feel free to modify the data in the Transactions sheet, but don’t change the name of the Transactions sheet (tab) or modify any of the existing header keywords.
Step 4: Reviewing your spending
Once you've categorized transactions, use the Tracker sheet to visualize your spending and earnings across your categories for a selected time period.
Type in the Period, First Day, and Period, Last Day to set the date range for your data. Make sure you’ve categorized transactions during the selected date range.
The Tracker sheet gives you a period summary so you can quickly see your Net Cash flow, income, expenses, total transfers, and the number of uncategorized transactions that need your attention.
It also shows you line item sums for each category and its associated group organized by Income, Expense, and Transfer types.
Step 5: Setting Up A Budget
The Tiller Money Tracker has a Budget sheet that allows you to review your monthly budget for an entire year.
You should have already customized your Categories and Groups on the Categories sheet. Now it’s time to set your budget targets for each category.
Set your year start date
If you’d like your 12 month budget year to start in a month other than January, enter the first date of the month for which you'd like your year to start in cell E1 on the Categories sheet (e.g. 1/1/2022). The rest of the months in row 1 will update to reflect your year's start and end months. Be sure to decide on this before you start entering budget values into subsequent rows because these values do not update along with the months they’re assigned if you change the start month later.
ℹ️ The budget must start on the first day of a month.
Set your budget targets
Enter in the budget target for each category in the first month in column E on the Categories sheet. All subsequent months will update to the same target. This “cascading” feature allows you to quickly set budget targets for an entire year in minutes.
Modify individual months' budget targets as needed by directly editing the cell for that category and month and then the next month’s value if needed to correct the budget cascading.
ℹ️ Each month after the first month uses the previous month's budget amount as it's target using a simple formula =[previous cell]
If you need help setting budget targets, and you categorized last month up to today, you can review the Budget sheet actuals for last month to see how much you spent and use that to help you set a baseline.
Review your budget
Review the Budget sheet in your Excel workbook to see how you're tracking against your monthly and yearly budget so far.
Step 6: Reviewing Account Balances
Review the Balances sheet to see all your account balances neatly organized in one place.
The Balances sheet is organized by Assets and Liabilities, with a quick net worth calculation in the top right. The Balances sheet also includes last update date for each account that’s linked to the sheet.
ℹ️ If an account is missing from the Balances sheet, but it's linked to the sheet, Tiller might not be able to pull the class (asset or liability). You can set a “Class override” using the Accounts sheet so that the account will show on the Balances sheet.
Using the Accounts Sheet
The Accounts sheet in the Tiller Money Tracker allows you to assign a Class Override if Tiller is incorrectly pulling or doesn't know the class (asset or liability) for an account.
The Accounts sheet is hidden by default. To unhide it, right click any tab along the bottom and choose "unhide" then select the Accounts sheet from the dialog and click OK.
Use the "Class Override" field to assign the class so that the account will appear in the correct section on your Balances sheet.
Troubleshooting Balance Updates
If you notice that the update date is older than about a day
Try clicking "Fill" in the Tiller Money Feeds Excel add-in to pull in a fresh balance.
If it doesn’t pull in any new balance information review these steps.
Use the chat tool in the lower right corner of the Console at https://sheets.tillerhq.com/auth/login if you still aren’t getting a new balance update, or continue to see an error for an account when attempting to refresh.
Understanding the Balance History Sheet
The Balance History sheet is where Tiller records the latest balance, and other data associated with the account such as the last four digits of the account number, the institution, and the account class (asset or liability) for each account that is linked to the workbook.
If you need to manually track account balances for accounts Tiller cannot automate, manually add them to the Balance History sheet and assign a unique ID for the Account ID.
The Balance History sheet is hidden by default. To unhide it, right click any tab along the bottom and choose "unhide" then select the Balance History sheet from the dialog and click OK.