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Tiller for Google Sheets Troubleshooting
Tiller for Google Sheets Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting guide for using Tiller for Google Sheets

Heather Phillips avatar
Written by Heather Phillips
Updated over a week ago

Use the table of contents to the right to review troubleshooting tips for common issues and questions for the Tiller Money Feeds add-on and the Tiller Foundation Template for Google Sheets.

Tiller Money Feeds Troubleshooting

I need help installing the add-on

If you signed up for Tiller using a Microsoft account you can still use Google Sheets. You do not need to start a new trial/create a new Tiller account. You will need to use a Google account to install the Tiller Money Feeds add-on and host your Google Sheet, but this will be independent from your Tiller account login. If you do not have a Google account you can create one here. If you already have a Google account you can use that account to install Tiller Money Feeds and host your spreadsheets.

If you have multiple Google accounts signed into the browser, we recommend a dedicated browser profile for use with Tiller.

If you're having trouble installing the Tiller Money Feeds add-on we recommend trying again using an incognito browser session.

If the incognito session does not work, please reach out to our support team using the Messenger in the lower right corner of this page.

If the incognito session works the issue was likely due to being signed in to multiple Google accounts in the same browser session. We recommend a dedicated browser profile for use with Tiller. Read more here.

Individual Install vs Domain Install

If you're an admin for a Google Workspace domain you'll likely see the option for Individual Install Vs Domain Install when you are installing the Tiller Money Feeds add-on. Choose Individual Install if you want the add-on to only be avaialble for your specific user account. Choose Domain Install if you want the add-on to be accessible to any other account on your domain. Choosing "Domain Install" does not make your unique financial account data or spreadsheets available to other users on your domain.

I don't see the Tiller Money Feeds add-on in the Extensions menu

If you haven't already, click here to install the Tiller Money Feeds add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace. The Tiller Money Feeds add-on will appear near the bottom of the Extensions menu. Give the menu a few seconds to fully load.

If you signed up for Tiller using a Google account, be sure you used that same account to install the Tiller Money Feeds add-on. If you signed up for Tiller with a Microsoft account you can use any Google account, just make note of what account you used to install Tiller Money Feeds.

Back in your Foundation Template spreadsheet, make sure that the signed in user in the spreadsheet is the same as the one you used to install the add-on. Sometimes if you're signed into more than one Google account in the browser, the spreadsheet gets created in the Google Drive of a different Google account and the add-on is not installed for that account. We recommend a dedicated browser profile for use with Tiller. Read more here.

My sheet is not updating automatically

To fill data into your Google Sheet after the initial fill when you first linked the sheet, you need to click "Fill" in the sidebar. The add-on should let you know if there is new data available to fill or if there are accounts that need your attention, which you may need to refresh. You can refresh them on the Console (https://my.tillerhq.com/) or under Connected Accounts in the add-on.

The sheet fill won't complete or I get an update error

If you click "Fill" and it just seems to fill forever without completing (does not show you how many transactions/balances were added), or you get an "update failed error" or an "Exceeded maximum execution time" error the add-on has crashed during the fill due to a high volume of accounts connected or complicated dashboards in your sheet. The fill process should not take more than 5 minutes. If it is still "filling" after 5 minutes or you see an "update failed" error it has crashed.

To prevent the fill from crashing try these steps

  • Clean up your Balance History sheet to remove duplicate or extraneous entries. If you want help automating this, try the Trim Balance History tool from Tiller Community Solutions. The Balance History sheet is hidden by default. Unhide from the View > Hidden sheets menu at the top.

  • Go to the Settings menu in the Tiller Money Feeds add-on and toggle on the Auto Sort Override, which will prevent the add-on from sorting your Transactions or Balance History sheets during the fill. This may speed things up and allow the process to complete. You would then need to manually sort the Transactions and Balance History sheets.

  • Remove extra dashboards/templates/sheets you're not using in the spreadsheet that may be consuming the processor's time limit. The fill process shares a time limit with the sheet's calculation process. If you have many dashboards with complicated formulas that need to recalculate when new data is added to the Transactions sheet this can slow things down and cause the fill to crash.

  • Fill accounts in batches by unlinking all but 3-5 accounts under Connected Accounts per fill.

Date header is missing in row 1

This error happens when the word "Date" is missing in row 1 for the Date column in the Transactions sheet. Add the word "Date" back to row 1 in the date column and then click the "reload" link in the warning message.

Transactions sheet is missing

You're getting the following error: ⚠ This spreadsheet does not contain a Transactions sheet. Tiller Money Feeds will create this sheet when updating feeds.

This means your Transactions sheet was either accidentally deleted or you renamed it. The add-on expects the Transactions sheet (tab) to be named "Transactions" (without the quotes). If you renamed the Transactions sheet tab, you'll need to rename it back to Transactions in order for the add-on to continue filling your original Transactions sheet and not create a new one.

If you accidentally deleted your Transactions sheet you can restore to a previous version where of the Google Sheet using the version history features under the File menu.

Spreadsheet incompatible

Sorry, but it looks like this Google Sheet is already being updated by the Tiller Feed Bot.

Feed Bot sheets cannot be connected to the Tiller Money Feeds add-on. Learn more about transitioning to Tiller Money Feeds.

Update Failed error

There are a few common update failed errors you might get during the update process (after you click "Fill sheets") if something goes wrong in your sheet.

Failed to update Transactions with Error: Exception: The data validation rule argument "=Statements!$N$3:$N" is invalid

This error is usually due to having a Statement column in the Transactions sheet, but the Statements sheet was removed. You can fix this issue by deleting the Statement column in the Transactions sheet and re-running the update.

Note: if you see a different "argument" that does not reference "Statements" in this error there is a data validation rule in a cell/column on your Transactions sheet that is no longer valid. This means that the sheet referenced in the error (in the example above, Statements) no longer exists in your Google Sheet. To correct this, find the column with an invalid data validation rule and remove it. You can tell a column has an invalid rule by clicking the dropdown in a cell and see an empty list that just presents the word "loading...".

Authorization failed message in the sidebar or issue signing in

If you launch the add-on from the Extensions menu and get the below Authorization Failed message in the sidebar or you get an error message "This action is not supported while logged into multiple accounts in the same domain or multiple consumer accounts. Please log out and try again." when trying to initially sign in to Tiller from the add-on it means there is a conflict between the default Google user signed in to the browser and the Google account you're trying to use to launch/sign in to the add-on.

We recommend using Tiller in a dedicated Google Chrome browser profile where only the Tiller subscribed email is signed in to prevent these types of account authentication conflicts. You can also review other options to fix the issue below.

Options to fix this issue:

  1. Change the default user in the browser

  2. Use a dedicated Google Chrome browser profile

To change or set the default user:

⚠️ Be sure you know the passwords to all Google accounts signed in when you get to step 3 below before proceeding to step 4 if you will need to sign back in to those accounts.

  1. Click the profile icon in the upper right of the spreadsheet where you saw the error.

  2. Make sure you have your Google account passwords handy if you don't remember them, then choose "Sign out of all accounts."

  3. Click "Continue" - DO NOT click "Sign in again"

  4. Sign in to the Google account associated with your Tiller subscription. You must sign in to this account first in order to set it as the default.

  5. After signing in you'll be redirected to the Google Drive for this Google account.

  6. Re-open your Google Sheet from this Google Drive or access it from https://my.tillerhq.com/

  7. Launch the Tiller Money Feeds add-on from near the bottom of the Extensions menu. Please note that the Tiller Money Feeds menu can take a few seconds to load so if you just see "Help" just try again after a few seconds.

You can then sign in to other Google accounts in the browser and this won't interfere with your use of Tiller.

Use a dedicated Google Chrome browser profile

  1. Launch Google Chrome

  2. Click the top most profile icon in the upper right

  3. Click "+ Add" at the bottom

  4. Click "Sign in" and sign in to the Google account you used to subscribe to Tiller

If you already have a browser profile for this Google user, sign out of other Google accounts in the profile and only use your Tiller subscribed Google account or set your Tiller-subscribed Google account as the default.

If none of these steps help

  1. Open a new conversation/ask a question using the chat tool in the lower right at https://my.tillerhq.com/

  2. Choose Troubleshoot an issue > Tiller Money Feeds sidebar option

  3. Let us know you're seeing the Authorization Failed error and the help center steps aren't helping.

  4. Send us a screenshot (from your computer, not a pic from your phone please) of the logged in profiles when you access Gmail at https://www.gmail.com

    1. Click your profile icon in the upper right of Gmail (not the browser window)

    2. Take a screenshot of all logged in users

    3. Send us the screenshot. It should look like the example below.

Getting a permission denied error / can't launch add-on

You're trying to launch the add-on from the Document add-ons sidebar (Extensions > Add-ons > Document add-ons) by clicking "use" and you get a permission denied error or you just see the "working" message at the bottom and nothing happens.

To fix:

  1. Open the Extensions menu at the top of your Google Sheet.

  2. Choose Tiller Money Feeds near the bottom of the Extensions menu > Launch

    1. Please note it can take a few seconds for the Tiller Money Feeds menu to full load from Extensions. If you just see "Help" close the Extensions menu, just wait a second and try again.

Foundation Template Troubleshooting

Issues with use template button

Clicking "Use Template" results in an infinitely spinning circle

This issue is usually due to being signed in to multiple Google accounts in the browser.

  1. Sign in to the Console at https://my.tillerhq.com/

  2. Click "Create a spreadsheet" > "Start with Google Sheets"

We recommend a dedicated Google Chrome profile for use with Tiller that isn't signed in to other Google accounts.

I don't see the "Use Template" option after opening the Foundation Template

  1. Click the "Make a copy" button on this page

  2. Edit the spreadsheet's name in the upper left by double clicking "Copy of Tiller Foundation Template" to give it a unique name

My budget amounts are not cascading across to the right

Sometimes if you insert a row into the Categories sheet or accidentally edit the default rows this can break the "cascading budgets" feature. You can read more about this feature and how to reset it here.

My category totals aren't showing up on the Categories sheet

The monthly budget columns on the Categories sheet are where you set budget amounts. Review the Yearly Budget tab for actuals per month or install the Monthly Analysis sheet from the Tiller Community Solutions add-on for more granular monthly tracking insights.

My budget or actual amounts are blank or missing on the Monthly Budget

If you’re not seeing budget or actual amounts on your Monthly Budget or Yearly dashboards for any category double check that you’ve entered budgets on the Categories sheet starting in Column E.

If you’ve entered budgets into Column E, double check your headers (row 1) in the Categories and Transactions sheets. If these header keywords are missing the dashboards’ formulas can’t find the correct columns in the referenced sheets to pull the data in.

Categories sheet required headers:

  • Category

  • Group

  • Type

  • Hide from Reports

Transactions sheet required headers:

  • Date

  • Category

  • Amount

Make sure that you're only using Income, Expense, and Transfer for the Type in the Categories sheet. These are the only supported Category Types. If you've modified the category Types to something other than Income, Expense, and Transfer you'll need to revert those changes back the defaults.

Make sure your budget month headers after the first month are formulas rather than static text. If your second budget month is in column F the formula in the header for that column (row 1) should be =eomonth(E1,0)+1

If you inserted columns into your Categories sheet this can also break other dashboards "downstream" of the Categories sheet. You may need to remove the extra columns or restore your sheet to a previous version before you made the edit.

If all the headers are still correct, or you're just seeing missing amounts for some categories, try reformatting your Amount column in the Transactions sheet as currency $.

  1. Select the column header letter at the top to select the entire column

  2. Open the Format menu

  3. Choose Number > Currency

  4. If you get a "heads up" warning, just click OK

I see a REF error on my budget dashboard

Most often these errors appear because a direct edit was made to the dashboard (e.g. you tried to set the budget amounts in the budget column directly in the dashboard). You can easily correct these errors by clearing the contents of the cell referenced in the error. For example, in the screenshot below the the error indicates there is text in cell F20 that is preventing the formula from expanding that displays the data. After clearing the manual entry in F20 the error should go away and the dashboard should resume working.

If that doesn't help, you can try restoring the dashboard using the Tiller Money Feeds add-on under Templates in the sidebar.

I see a FILTER mismatch error on my budget dashboard

If you notice that your budget dashboard seems broken and you get the following error double check that the "Hide from Reports" column still exists on your Categories sheet. You may also see a "No matches are found in FILTER evaluation" error if you have renamed the Categories sheet. Be sure it's spelled correctly "Categories"

Some areas of my Insights sheet are blank

Sometimes this happens when you restore the Accounts sheet using the Tiller Money Feeds add-on. The best way to fix it is to restore the Insights sheet using the Tiller Money Feeds add-on.

  1. Launch the Tiller Money Feeds add-on from the Extensions menu

  2. Choose “Templates” from the home menu

  3. Click “Restore” under the sheet you need to restore

  4. When the add-on is finished restoring your sheet it will let you know. Do not make edits to your sheet while the restore process is running.

If that doesn't fix your Insights sheet reach out to support@tillerhq.com to let us know.

One of my categories is missing from the dropdown

Sometimes the data validation (dropdown menu) breaks in the Transaction sheet when you insert a row at the bottom of the Categories sheet. You can use this guide to help you reset it.

Data Validation Error on Accounts sheet

Accounts sheet in Google Sheets Account column dropdown is showing an error that says "Invalid: Input must fall within specified range"

This error indicates that the value in the cell is not in the list that's generating the options for the dropdown.

This can happen if you rename accounts on the Tiller Console after you have already filled data for the accounts into the spreadsheet and selected those Accounts on the Accounts sheet. Read more here.

My Balances sheet is blank

If you're not seeing accounts and balances on the Balances sheet try restoring the Accounts and Balances sheet.

  1. Open your Google Sheet

  2. Launch the Tiller Money Feeds add-on from the Extensions menu at the top

  3. Choose Templates

  4. Click "Restore template" under the Accounts sheet

  5. Choose "Archive Existing Then Restore"

The archive of the Accounts sheet will have any customizations you've made to account groups and class overrides. You can copy/paste these from the Archived Accounts sheet to the new Accounts sheet. If you haven't made any customizations to the Accounts sheet you can choose "Overwrite Existing" in step 5.

Repeat the same steps for the Balances sheet except you don't need to Archive before restoring.

I'm getting a spreadsheet incompatible message

You may get this message if you try to run the Tiller Budget (via the Tiller add-on) setup process in the Foundation Template. These budgets are not compatible with each other.

Read a more comprehensive comparison of the two budgets over on the Tiller Community here.

You might also get a spreadsheet not compatible message in the Tiller Money Feeds add-on, specifically about the Transactions sheet, if you have accidentally deleted the word "Date" in the Transactions sheet. You can simply re-type the word "Date" into the header row and reload the Tiller Money Feeds add-on to fix this issue.

Finally, some community solutions are not compatible with certain versions of sheets You may notice that some solutions are listed in the Incompatible solutions section of the Tiller Community Solutions add-on when trying to Add a Solution.

There is a red triangle/invalid error next to my category

The red triangles in the upper right of the category cell on the Transactions sheet with the error "invalid: data must fall within specified range" indicate that the category, as it's displayed in the cell on your Transactions sheet is no longer in the list on the Categories sheet OR the range for the data validation rule has been altered so it falls outside the list's range.

I'm seeing a #VALUE error on the Spending Trends sheet

We're seeing this issue when there is text or improperly formatted currency in the Amount column in the Transactions sheet.

To fix:

  1. Sort the Transactions sheet by the Amount column Z>A or A>Z until you find the invalid data

  2. Correct or remove the invalid data in the amount column

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