I am used to seeing my categories in a certain order, having used Quicken for over 25 years, as well as wanting to see them subtotalled in a specific way, so I am trying to customize the Excel budget template.
On the Budget tab, it seems that it automatically alphabetizes all the categories, and puts the Income type categories at the bottom. I figured out how to add a Group column and use the vlookup to populate it. However, I am not able to change the sort order on the page.
I guess I could do a copy and paste values, negating the formulas in the first 3 columns that pull the category, group, and type over from the Categories tab (since my categories are pretty static), but I would rather not do that if I don’t have to.
What I would like to do is have the income categories at the top, then sort by Group. Any suggestions, other than doing what I mentioned above?
I don’t have a great recommendation for this for the Excel template off the top of my head, but perhaps someone on our Labs team has an idea. @randy or @jono?
Unfortunately, @pjsiebert, Excel doesn’t make sorting very easy. The alphabetized sort is implemented in the default formulas in the template… so it is possible to rework the sort order to meet your needs, but the changewill take some advanced spreadsheet skills to accomplish your goal.
If you are open to changing platforms, Google Sheets has a powerful and easy to use SORT() function. Also, at this time, Tiller has published more templates/solutions for Google Sheets. You might either find a stock template closer to what you’re looking for or find that an existing template can be more easily reworked to meet your needs.
You Tiller account works on both Excel and Google sheets seamlessly. Just create a Google Sheets spreadsheet in the Console to give it a try.
I created my own budget worksheet in the Tiller workbook.
This is the functionality that I added:
1 - I can sort the categories by the priority I placed on each. For example, some budget items are easily predictable since the monthly payment amount is the same. Thus, those were set at the lowest priority. The items which are variable and tend to fluctuate were given the highest. These include food, house spending, entertainment spending, etc.
2 - I put in a skew vector so that the annual budget amount can be easily spread over the year. This is similar to the Tiller functionality where you enter a budget amount for each month. Mine does this but also calculates what portion of the month has passed so the budget amount is close to exact at any point.
3 - I also added a new comparison of actual and budget year to date.
I am willing to share the sheet with anyone who wants it. The formulas will have to be edited to link to other worksheets but the logic should be fine.
I MAY qualify as having advanced Excel skills. If you could just give me clues as to where to look for the formula, I will check it out.
I moved to Excel because I am not comfortable with the security on my free Google account, whereas I pay for Office 365, and also because Google sheets does not support subtotals.
Sounds cool, @dminches. I’m excited to see what you’ve put together.
If your improvements are just a formula or two, you could consider posting those equations in line. If the changes are more extensive, maybe upload it to cloud sharing (gDrive, Dropbox, etc) and share a link?
, 