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Filtering & Sorting Data in Google Sheets
Filtering & Sorting Data in Google Sheets

Learn how to filter and sort your financial data on your Transactions sheet.

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

ℹ️ Steps for filtering data in Microsoft Excel can be found here.

Filtering your financial data in Google Sheets

You can filter your transactions or balance entries by any of the columns when you have a filter enabled on the sheet. By default, the filter is not turned on.

To turn on the filter in Google Sheets:

  1. Click the selector square in the upper left corner of the sheet

  2. Click the "Filter" icon in the Google Sheets toolbar (or from the Data menu you can choose "Create a Filter" )

  3. Click "ok" to acknowledge the "Heads up" prompt that pops up

The "Heads up!" warning appears because row 1 in the Transactions sheet is a protected range to prevent accidental edits of the header keywords (e.g. Date, Description, Amount) so your data feeds continue to work as expected. As long as the edit is intentional it's okay to click "ok" and proceed. You can check the box that says "Don't show again for 5 minutes" to avoid it repeatedly popping up as you work with your filter.

To turn off the filter in Google Sheets

  1. Open the Data menu

  2. Click "Turn off filter"

Once the filter is enabled you’ll notice a down arrow next to the header for each of the columns on the transactions sheet. You have several filtering options available from this menu when you click the down arrow.

You can filter by condition, such as text contains, value is greater than or less than, or a custom formula. You can also filter by the values that are available in this column based on the data in the sheet. The Select all or clear buttons are handy when you want to filter by value. 

To filter your Transactions sheet by a specific category:

  1. Click the Filter icon for the Category column

  2. Click the "clear" option to remove all categories from the filter view

  3. Click the category you want to review (e.g. Groceries)

  4. Click "Ok"

Remember to un-filter any columns after you’re done reviewing with the filters so you see all your data the next time you open your sheet. You'll know a filter is turned on when you see a green "filtered" icon next to the column header.

Sorting your Financial Transaction Data in Google Sheets

You can also sort any column in your transactions sheet using the Filter menu. Here are a few examples of sorting you might experiment with for your finance data:

  • Sort transactions from oldest to newest Sort the Date column from A → Z

  • Sort transactions from newest: Sort the Date column from Z → A

  • Group transactions with similar descriptions: Sort Description column A → Z

  • Group transactions by Account Name: Sort Account Name column A → Z

  • Group transactions by Institution: Sort Institutions column A → Z

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