Easily Track Savings Split into Funds

Google Sheets Show & Tell
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What is the goal of your workflow? What problem does it solve, or how does it help you?

When you’re trying to save for different things, like Emergencies, College, Christmas, and Vacation, the default method is to open up different savings accounts for each one. But then your banking gets more confusing, especially if they’re split between different institutions. Even worse, you may lose money by missing out on interest and getting hit with fees for transferring between these accounts.

The goal of this template is to gather the funds from your savings accounts, decide how to split them between the things you’re saving for, and then easily keep track of those fund balances over time, no matter which savings account they’re in.

How did you come up with the idea for your workflow?

I was discussing this Tiller Builder Challenge with a friend who said he’s always wanted to set savings goals without moving cash around, but never found a way to do that. He’s got one savings account, is saving for several different things, and has to manually keep track of how much is for each thing. If I win, I’ll contribute some of the earnings to his savings account :slight_smile:.

Please describe your workflow. What are the sheets? Does it use any custom scripts or formulas?

A full walkthrough video can be seen here.

The workflow uses Tiller’s Transactions and Balance History functions. The Start Here tab gets you set up by selecting your savings accounts, listing the funds you’re saving for and their goals, and entering the starting balances of each.

You categorize transactions in the Transactions tab, and can use the Transfers tab to move funds around when there isn’t a bank transaction.

The Fund Balances tab serves as your dashboard. You can see where your funds are at compared to their goals, how they’ve been growing over time, stats on your total balance and growth, and the fastest growing funds and accounts. The full dataset by date can be expanded to the right.

Lots of custom formulas were used but no scripts. I like Tiller’s branding so I tried to stick to that.

Anything else you’d like people to know?

This was very fun to work on and get feedback from friends who need a tool like this in their life.

Is it ok for others to copy, use, and modify your workflow?

Have at it.

If you said yes above, please make a copy of your workflow and share the copy’s URL:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kDNh_2Pr68XsujtxrCWfpJZ_YxRZQW3qg0RfmR8nxdE/template/preview

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Correction: no custom formulas, rather a lot of customized nested formulas.

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YES!! I have savings accounts for EVERY dang goal. I have been looking for a solution to simply my goals into one account! This is awesome-thank you!

1 Like
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Glad to help meet a need, and appreciate your vote!

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This is a feature I’ve been wishing for on Tiller! The only thing I didn’t understand was how to move money out a fund once it’s spent (e.g., Christmas fund, vacation fund). I’m pretty new to spreadsheets; I apologize for the simple question.

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In that case you’d probably transfer it to a checking account so you can spend it on presents, and when you do so, Tiller would pull that in through the transactions tab as a negative amount and you’d categorize it as the Christmas fund.

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Really liking the concept and the fund balances layout—I’m just running into an issue that I’m hoping you can help me out with. After I link my accounts, the starting account balances (#2 on the start here tab) all go to $0.00. All the transactions and balance history look fine, and I haven’t changed anything other than linking my accounts. When I try checking the boxes beside various accounts, only one of them produces a starting balance other than $0.00 (photo attached). Any idea where I’ve gone wrong? Thanks!example

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Huh interesting. The starting balances pull from the earliest date in the balance history tab, I wonder if that has something to do with it. If you share it with my I can diagnose but I understand if you don’t want to share it with me.

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I am having similar issue. The formula likely contains bugs

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Bummer, I could probably fix that but I’m not sure if I am allowed to make edits to my submission during the voting period.

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@adekunledauda @ianbwright I changed the way I pulls those balances, now you select the update time from your balance history tab. Let me know if this works for you:

Track Savings Split into Funds 1.1

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My bank isn’t working with Tiller for whatever reason so I’m a little bit blind to how the update process works.

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Thanks for attempting a fix. I think it’s really close, but still not quite working for me. With a bit of experimentation I’m sure we’ll get it to work. Anyway, the concept is great so you got my vote.

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This is a great sheet and will be a great tool once all the bugs are worked out. This 1.1 version still seems to have some bugs on the Fund Balances, Start Here, and Balance History tabs. I really hope Tiller is able to smooth out the bugs, because this is a potential game changer of a spreadsheet for personal finance. Thank you.

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Great feedback @anthony and welcome! :wave:

This is a community member developed and shared solution, not developed, supported, or maintained by Tiller Money. You can help the developer work out bugs by sharing specific issues you’re having in this thread.

If you’re having issues with Balance History data feeds you can reach our directly to support@tillerhq.com

Thanks!

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Heather, I don’t mean to be rude, but I find this response a bit disingenuous. This sheet was developed as part of a Tiller sponsored contest. Tiller users voted it as a user favorite. It has Tiller branding including logos and uses Tiller technology.

Since, your users have said it’s something we would find valuable and useful, I would think Tiller would want to commit some resources to ensure its functionality meets the Tiller standards.

Plus, the developer seems to have stopped responding to feedback. I imagine he has a full-time job, so maybe he just doesn’t have the time to troubleshoot every issue.

I’d like to request Tiller take this spreadsheet on as a project, because it’s clearly something your users would find valuable and useful.

-Anthony

1 Like