My current solution is a less-good scraper combined with extensive Google Sheets I built. I am hoping Tiller can be a more reliable scraper and that I can recreate some of my own functionality without so much of the in-the-weeds stuff like XLOOKUP building.
I see Tiller has Budget and Actual per month (I don’t know why one is supposed to enter those values in Categories - that makes no sense - but ok). But my pay schedule is once a month, on the 15th. I need to track what bills have been paid between the 15th’s paycheck and the 14th, essentially, of the following month.
The accounting is simple - all my bill payments are automated and they come out of a dedicated account I put a set amount in each time I get paid - but the tracking is tricky because half my “this month” bills occur in the first half of ‘next month’, e.g. get paid Nov 15th, then pay rent on Dec 1, which is still applicable to the November pay cycle, in terms of “ok, that one is done”. The dedicated Bills account just fills up with each paycheck and empties out with all the bills; the rest of my income goes to a different bank and account that I just do whatever with.
Thanks, I’ve installed it and started trying to use it. One thing I don’t quite get about Tiller is the fact that all the formulas and lookups are all hidden, so I have no idea where I can and can’t type values in without breaking anything, and I can’t seem to edit the formulas either - For instance I want it to automatically pull in my paycheck as the top “bill” so that it can then simply compare the last paycheck date to the last billpay dates, and automatically tick off that they’re paid where last-paid date >= check date.
On most templates, the areas you are intended to change have a light green fill color. Wherever possible templates tend to use formulas that exist at the top of the column, and fill in all the values below that. In many cases formulas need some ‘help’, so you’ll often find hidden columns off to the right side of the spreadsheet. These hidden columns are generally not to be messed with unless you know what you’re doing. Some sheets have protection turned on to try and limit your ability to accidentally make a change where it’s not intended. This can be disabled if you prefer. In the end, you can change anything you want, you’re only limited by the capabilities of Sheets/Excel and your knowledge of how to make them work.
Oh I understand hiding the columns and trying to protect things, but sometimes it appears that some fields are just empty (even in the formula bar when clicked in), when in reality there is some formula or connection that breaks if typed into. I thought that was odd as I like to be able to see exactly what is happening at all times. I’m not the most advanced Sheets user, but my own files currently use things like
I wonder - can we use just part of a sheet - either by deleting the rest or copying out only the relevant chunk into a new sheet? I don’t much need the ‘upcoming due payments’ area of that Bill Pay Tracker, for my purposes, though it would be helpful if I could get the checkboxes to automatically tick off as it goes.
Functions like XLOOKUP and ARRAYFORMULA ‘spill’ data into adjacent cells. The amount of data, and how many rows or columns it will fill depends on the formula. Manually entering data into a cell that is within the range that one of those formulas needs will break the formula and cause an error. That’s just how spreadsheets work (same in Sheets or Excel). If you know what you’re doing, I’m sure it’s possible to delete parts you don’t need, but usually the safest way to ‘get rid of it’ is to hide those columns. This allows the formulas to still do their thing, since other parts of the sheet may depend on those formula results, but it removes the distraction, or makes room for other data you’re more interested in seeing to fit on the screen.
Quick update to this I just found/realized: It looks like I won’t be able to use the Tracker to keep track of my credit card payments, as three of them have identical verbiage in the Description field of “Automatic Payment - Thank”. I would definitely need to use a concatenation or array lookup of both the Description and the Account, similar to what I was already doing elsewhere.
You can use Autocat to change a Description? Is that some alternative function of that sheet? I thought it was to use the Description to change the Category.
You can use it to change any column you want, even columns you add yourself. You can even expand it and use RegEx to do even more powerful things. It’s very powerful, but use it with care since using it incorrectly can quickly mess up your entire Transactions sheet. Thankfully you can use versions to roll back to before the changes and try again. Not sure how to find the main support article for AutoCat, maybe @heather can provide a link?
I’m currently working on a solution that covers the same functionality as the Bill Payment Tracker, as well as adds additional functionality, that you might be interested in. It should be out in the next few days, if all goes to plan.
This solution will allow you enter your pay date and frequency (for you, monthly on the 15th) as well as a list of recurring expenses. The report will then project a list of expenses that will be due before you receive your next paycheck (for you, next month on the 15th), what credit card balances are due by your next check, and give you an overall look at your checking, savings, and credit card accounts.
This solution is more than just “add a sheet”, however, as it uses multiple custom sheets to calculate a myriad of things that all converge onto the final report page. Once set up, though, it is very low maintenance. You would install and set up the sheets, then add an additional column to the Transactions sheet called “Expense tag”. When a recurring expense transaction comes in, you would set this column equal to the name of the expense. Once done, the expense that was paid will disappear from the report page. Credit card payments automatically disappear due to the nature of how they’re calculated.
It’s not the fully automatic functionality you’re looking for, but I feel it’s easier to do than going to another sheet and checking the box, then remembering what boxes are checked to check again when you change the view, etc… like the Bill Payment Tracker has. This solution also seems to tick a lot of the boxes you’re looking for.
