Did this end up working for you?
All, I have just lauched the latest version of the Envelope Sheets ( version 1.7)
This version allows for the ability to fund envelopes in future months, additional views for savings targets, ,changes to the envelope trackers, and more.
In addition, I have updated the Getting Started Doc to version 1.7. I have added many answers to the common questions I have gotten so far. Hopefully, it is helpful.
I look forward to any comments or ideas for future versions.
@richl Hi Rich, Iām going to give your system a try. Iām brand new to Tiller. Appreciate you putting this together! Iām going through your Getting Started PDF and have some questions.
Your directions say that when Iām in your template I should go to āfile, make a copyā, but your screen shot is showing to go down to the āEnvelopeā sheet and select āCopy to, Existing Spreadsheetā. Are these two separate steps? Iām able to make a copy of the spreadsheet, but am I supposed to somehow overlay this into the Tiller Foundation Template?
If you are starting from scratch with tiller you can just go file -make a copy. Then connect it to tiller.
It sounds like you have an existing foundation sheet. So this is where you will go to the sheet name and copy to an existing sheet. Do this for all the required sheets
Also when you copy them the name changes to ācopy of envelopesā. Change the names to just āenvelopeā.
@richl I would prefer to start completely from scratch. After I create a copy how do I āconnect it to Tillerā?
You just need to link the tiller add-on to the envelope sheet. If you have the add-on installed. Just go to Add-one - money feed - link sheet. See pic below. If you donāt have the add-on. Look up the instructions on tillers site.
@richl Great, thank you! Appreciate you getting back to me right away!! I linked the accounts and now the Transactions sheet has updated along with the Balances sheet. Aside from the account linking are there any other sheets that I need to add to your template?
If you are using my sheet then you already have the categories, funding transactions sheets. You also have the envelope detail sheet as well. You should be good just follow the steps in the doc on allowing the script to run and setting your initial balances.
You should be good
Let me know if you have any questions.
@richl Hi! Thanks for putting in the work for all of this! Iām curious about something.
Iām coming over from using Mint for several years and I really liked their rollover feature. Once I downloaded the Foundations template, I realized that was not a feature. Iāve begun working with your spreadsheet and Iām wondering if what I truly want is much less complicated than this envelope system. But I also realize there may be some factors Iām not thinking about that could cause me problems in the future.
Looking at the Foundations Template Category sheet, it seems like a simple formula would ārolloverā the money not spent or the excess spent into the next monthās budget. So if Iāve budgeted $100 in the Jan 2020 columnā¦seems like there ought to be an easy way to set the Feb 2020 budget to =Jan 2020 Budget + (Jan 2020 Budget - Actual Jan 2020 Expenses) and then continue that out all the way to December. What do you see as the benefits to your system over something like that? And maybe, what Iām thinking isnāt as simple as I lay it out to beā¦
Thanks for your input!
Hmm thats a good question, and one I had to think about.
If rolling over the unused funds was my only goal in making the sheet then correct, there are probably simpler ways. Although my calculation for getting my envelope balance is pretty simple ( Any Funding Transactions minus any actual transactions). This is always a calculated value and not one that is static based on a certain field. The reason I do this is so I can allow the transactions to be modified without any worry that it is going to screwup a calculated value on a specific sheet. I know if the original Tiller sheet you would have to run a budget cleanup job to have this happen. I dont like that it was doing stuff to my budget that I didnāt know about. With my sheet it all has a paper trail and is very easy to unravel. ( especially if you look at my envelope detail sheet.
The other reason I didnāt do it the way you suggest, is I didnāt want to mess with the basic functionality of the foundation template. I still use some of the other default sheets and they use the budget field for just that purpose, its the monthly budget, not the category / envelope balance. In order to say I am not impacting other sheets, I need to keep all the original data the same and calculate the fields i need on my own.
Lastly, and maybe this is more fundamental thing related to Envelope budgeting is its not about my budget, its about actual cash flow. I only want to spend money I have on hand and not future money. The basic budgeting doesnāt take into account how I get paid. So even though I budget monthly, I get paid twice a month. I dont want to spend the money until I get it. The envelope method allows this. In addition, the envelope templates allows me to break up my monthly spend into paycheck size bites, and only fund a certain amount per payday.
I am not sure if you got the answer you needed, but I tried. If you have anymore questions or want to know more about the inner working of my sheet, dont hesitate to ask.
Rich
This was exactly what I needed! That helps me think through how I want to proceed with my budget. Much appreciated!
Hope it helped. Now Iām curious what are you thinking.
Hello, Rich. New here. Iām a long time mvelopes user throwing in the towel and making my attempt at tiller. I feel lucky Iāve found this thread! Thanks for all your generous work on these templates. I donāt know if you still linger here, but Iāve got a question. Iām following your Getting Started PDF and Iām stuck on the āauthorizing script to runā step. I go to the Envelope sheet that I have copied to my tiller sheets, go to tools, choose script editor, choose run, then run function, and then I only have āmyfunctionā as an option and not āonOpenā. Can you help me figure out where I have gone wrong? TIA
Hi Wendy, yes Iām still here.
For the script can you confirm that the actual script is there. If not you can copy the script txt from the getting started doc. Once you save it it should be good If not let me know and I can help get you started
Thanks, Rich! Okay, I got a bit farther. I copied and pasted the script txt from your getting started doc. And went through the authorization step after choosing onOpen. But then I get an error message in a bold red box at the top āTypeError: Cannot read property āgetRangeā of null (line 6, file āCodeā)ā
Any ideas I what I need to do next?
Again, thanks for taking the time to help!
Wendy
Ok, that part of the script is looking for the Envelope Sheet. When you copy the sheet it names it āCopy of Envelopeā Can you confirm you renamed to Envelope? If you want you can share your sheet with me and I can take a look to get you started.
Oh, perfect. That was an easy fix. I hadnāt renamed it to Envelope, but now that is done. Now on to next steps. I have categorized all my existing transactions, however I have done that in the transactions tab that came with the Tiller Foundation Template. I wasnāt able to copy your transactions sheet, there was an error that didnāt allow it to copy (āCopy sheet error, Oops. A server error occurredā). So, I renamed the existing transaction sheet from Tiller to something else and tried again, still the same error message. So, will the transaction sheet that I have that came with the Tiller Foundation Template sync up with the Envelope sheet? Also, right now the Envelope sheet has some issues. It doesnāt look like your template. It has rows of ā#REF! #N/Aā underneath the % of Target row. I would be happy to share my sheet with you although I donāt know how to do that. Thanks so much for your kind help. Wendy
Go ahead and share it with me. To do this go to the File menu and click share.
Enter my email address of richlscott@gmail.com.and click done
I will take a look and get you working.