Didn’t see anyone post with account numbers built into the group or category names, so thought I’d throw my method into the ring in case someone finds it valuable.
Category
Group
Type
00 - Mortgage
01 - Housing
Expense
05 - Association Fees
01 - Housing
Expense
10 - Property Taxes
01 - Housing
Expense
15 - Insurance - Home
01 - Housing
Expense
20 - Repair - Home
01 - Housing
Expense
00 - Gas & Tolls
03 - Transportation
Expense
05 - Insurance - Auto
03 - Transportation
Expense
10 - Licenses - Auto
03 - Transportation
Expense
15 - Repair - Auto
03 - Transportation
Expense
20 - Public Transport
03 - Transportation
Expense
25 - Rideshare
03 - Transportation
Expense
02 - Electricity
02 - Utilities
Expense
04 - Natural Gas
02 - Utilities
Expense
05 - Internet
02 - Utilities
Expense
10 - Phones
02 - Utilities
Expense
15 - Streaming
02 - Utilities
Expense
20 - News
02 - Utilities
Expense
25 - Software
02 - Utilities
Expense
00 - Groceries
04 - Living
Expense
05 - Target
04 - Living
Expense
10 - Amazon
04 - Living
Expense
15 - Personal
04 - Living
Expense
20 - Home
04 - Living
Expense
05 - Medical
05 - Wellness
Expense
10 - Insurance - Life
05 - Wellness
Expense
10 - Clothing
06 - Discretionary
Expense
05 - Food & Drink
06 - Discretionary
Expense
25- Entertainment
06 - Discretionary
Expense
20 - Kids
06 - Discretionary
Expense
30 - Travel
06 - Discretionary
Expense
15 - Other Shopping
06 - Discretionary
Expense
40- Gift
06 - Discretionary
Expense
99 - Cash / ATM
06 - Discretionary
Expense
50 - Reimbursable
06 - Discretionary
Expense
05 - Paycheck 1
00 - Primary Income
Income
10 - Paycheck 2
00 - Primary Income
Income
15 - Other Income
00 - Primary Income
Income
20 - Interest Income
00 - Primary Income
Income
05 - Transfer - CC
Transfer Types
Transfer
10 - Transfer - Invest
Transfer Types
Transfer
The default tiller templates sort ascending by name, so with account numbers, you end up with a financial statement presentation (income at the top, expenses below, and then all your categories are sorted as you’d like to see them, instead of alphabetically by name). I create accounts in 05 increments in case I need to squeeze in some future thing I haven’t thought of. I use the same convention with asset and liabilities as it cleans up the net worth statement nicely too. And, of course, it works swimmingly with pivot tables. fwiw.
@Kathryn Having a masters in accounting and currently working on another masters in finance, I love this “budgeting chart of accounts.” It appeals to my inner nerd. This will serve as a nice model for my own chart of accounts. With that said, I have three comments/questions.
First, why (and how) do you included your husband’s gross salary along with all the pre-AGI (and one post-AGI) deductions in your Tiller budget? Tiller obviously just imports the paycheck that hits your bank account, so for a salaried employee, this would be be your net pay. Does the “Salary and Wage Income” just work for informational purposes, or does it serve some purpose? Or, now that I think about it a bit more, is this section for your own self-employment purposes? (I was assuming earlier that it was for your husband, but this could be for your own self-employed wages so that you could show transfers out of your account to other accounts.)
Second, why have “#1” listed for the “Salary and Wage Income” section, but not for other sections? Just trying to determine the purpose of this numbering system.
Third, what do you think of the numbering system employed by @viachicago towards the bottom of this thread? It seems like this might be helpful with keeping things organized by accounts to allow a personal financial statement presentation as he/she noted in his explanation. I’m trying to think of potential improvements or pitfalls with using such a system for myself.
Very much looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks in advance!
Isn’t it fun how we find our people here in the Tiller Community forum? No one in real life cares about my budgeting chart of accounts, haha!
This is my husband’s income, yes. This is to break out details for doing tax projections. In addition, I think it’s important to get a full view of spending, including those payroll deductions (health insurance and taxes are huge expenses usually!). It’s an extra step to break them out, but is worth it to get that extra detail.
The #1 is replaced with the person’s name (in my case my husband, Ian). We previously were both on salary so I had a #1 section and a #2 section. Now I’m strictly self-employment so I just need the one section.
To note, every year I revisit my income & expense categories and see if they’re providing any useful insights into my personal finances and decision making. I’m more likely to cut some then add new ones I’ve found. There are some really great examples here!
Hi, question, you stated that you add columns to the transaction page. Did you add the group and sub-groups to that page. My current transaction page does not have either of those. I did add a tags column in the past. Am I correct in that I can add the grp and sub-grp the same way? Once that is done, then create a pivot table using those columns. With the increasing cost of food etc I am trying to get a handle on those costs. It being one of the few in this day and age that we can have some control over. I already have each of the different vendors with tag I just want to see if changing from say to Jewel to Aldi will in the long run same me money. I know that I cannot just stop going to say Jewel and only Aldi as Aldi does not sell everything we need. For a senior on a fixed budget you can understand my concern. Thanks for you input.
Here is ours. I’ve simplified this since switching from Quicken to Tiller. Some of my categorization looks inconsistent on paper. Example: I have “Home Insurance” in Home group but then have other Insurance in a Insurance group. I probably either need to have an Insurance group in totality or put each type of Insurance in it’s associated Group.
And probably need to explain my Savings group. I budget for monthly amounts that we allocate from spending to savings. Thus, those “To” categories you see. For investments, they are simply logged as Transfers when they hit the other side of the ledger inside the actual investment accounts. If I want to look at specific investment allocations, holdings, performance, etc I have my quarterly meeting with Financial Advisor to discuss and adjust. In the interim, I use their proprietary platform to view and/or use Personal Capital’s free platform as second opinion. I’ve realized over the years that having all of that investment minutiae in something like Quicken or trying to build it out here is frankly overkill, IMO.
One other specific note on my “Spending Buffer” category…that is excess cash we keep in our spending account that I deduct from if we have to go over our monthly budgeted amounts for outliers. It’s essentially real-time emergency savings that doesn’t require a transfer from another account if I need the liquidity immediately. We could debate separately if that is optimal use of that cash, but I’ve found that works well for us.
I have a medium to longer term “To Cash Savings” account where I store money for larger, future spend (Ex: that’s where the Property Taxes and Insurance category goes) and rainy-day fund.
Category
Group
Type
Fuel
Auto
Expense
Parking
Auto
Expense
Ride Fees
Auto
Expense
Service
Auto
Expense
Warranty
Auto
Expense
Dry Cleaning
Bills
Expense
Electric
Bills
Expense
Gas
Bills
Expense
Home Security
Bills
Expense
Internet
Bills
Expense
Lawncare
Bills
Expense
Maid
Bills
Expense
Mobile
Bills
Expense
Poolcare
Bills
Expense
Professional Services
Bills
Expense
Subscriptions
Bills
Expense
Water
Bills
Expense
Movies & Games
Entertainment
Expense
Travel
Entertainment
Expense
Groceries
Food
Expense
Restaurants
Food
Expense
Gym
Health
Expense
Hair & Nails
Health
Expense
Medical
Health
Expense
Personal Care
Health
Expense
Prescriptions & Supplements
Health
Expense
Home Improvements
Home
Expense
Home Insurance
Home
Expense
Home Supplies
Home
Expense
MORTGAGE LOAN
Home
Expense
Auto Insurance
Insurance
Expense
Life Insurance
Insurance
Expense
Personal Articles
Insurance
Expense
Clothing & Shoes
Merchandise
Expense
General Merchandise
Merchandise
Expense
Gifts
Merchandise
Expense
Boarding
Petcare
Expense
Pet Supplies
Petcare
Expense
Veterinary
Petcare
Expense
Property Taxes & Insurance
Savings
Expense
Spending Buffer
Savings
Expense
To Cash Savings
Savings
Expense
To Charity
Savings
Expense
To Investments
Savings
Expense
Federal Tax
Taxes
Expense
State Tax
Taxes
Expense
Reimbursable
Work
Expense
Other considerations I’m thinking about:
Collapse Hair & Nails into Personal Care
Collapse Gifts into General Merchandise
Use Tags for the Reimbursable Work stuff and delete that category
This is what i use, BUT - i am interested in your categories and would like to hear if anyone can see a way i can improve mine
Bus Exp - Home Office
Bus Exp - Memberships
Edu - Books
Edu - Fees
Edu - Tuition
Person 1 - Beauty misc
Person 1 - Clothes
Person 1 - Gift
Person 1 - Hair
Person 1 - Nails
Person 1 - Pers Shopping
Person 1 - Pers Vaca
Person 1 - Restau
Person 1 - Venmo
Ent - Misc
Ent - Streaming
Person 2 - Conven Store
Person 2 - Last Mo Rent
Person 2 - Pay Person 2an For Help
Person 2 - Pers Spending
Person 2 - Rent
Person 2 - Restaurants
Person 2 - Sec Dep
Person 2 - Transport
FLAG
Food - Alch
Food - Groc
Food - Restau
Homeimp - Kitchen - Labor
Homeimp - Labor
Homeimp - Supplies
Insur - Auto
Insur - Person 1 Life
Insur - Person 3 Car
Insur - Person 3 Prop
Insur - travel
Inv - Cap Gain
Inv - Div
Inv - Int
Inv - Return
Joe - Gear
Legal - Dispute
Legal Settlement
Med - fees and copay
Med - HSA Contribution
Med - HSA Payment
Med - Pharmacy
Med - Supplies
Pers - Amazon
Pers - Charity
Pers - Clothing
Pers - DPerson 3 Cleaning
Pers - Person 1 Training
Pers - Family Hair
Pers - Gaming
Pers - Gear
Pers - Gift
Pers - Home
Pers - Home maint
Pers - Peleton FEE
Pers - Peleton Loan
Pers - Shopping
Pers - Subscriptions
Pers - Travel
Pers - Vacation
Pets - Groom
Pets - License
Pets - Supplies
Pets - Vet
RE - 742 Apt 1 Rent
RE - Rentprop Advertising
RE - Rentprop Apt 1 SecDep
RE - Rentprop Apt 2 Rent
RE - Rentprop Apt 2 SecDep
RE - Rentprop Apt 3 Rent
RE - Rentprop Apt 3 SecDep
RE - Rentprop Auto & Gas
RE - Rentprop Insurance
RE - Rentprop Labor
RE - Rentprop Landscaping & Snow
RE - Rentprop Legal & Prof Fees
RE - Rentprop Maint & Cleaning
RE - Rentprop Mortgage
RE - Rentprop Office
RE - Rentprop Pub Elec
RE - Rentprop RE Tax
RE - Rentprop Repairs
RE - Rentprop Supplies
RE - Rentprop Water
RE - DELot Maint & Cleaning
RTN - Work Expense
Person 3 - auto gas
Person 3 - auto maint
Person 3 - Cash Funding
Person 3 - Cash Transfer
Person 3 - Electric
Person 3 - Entertainment
Person 3 - Groceries
Person 3 - Gym
Person 3 - Rent
Person 3 - Restaurants
Person 3 - Shopping
Person 3 - Transportation
Salary - Person 1
Salary - Joe
Sean Car - Joe Insurance Pay
Tax - 22 Hamps Prop Tax
Tax - Auto Excise Tax
Tax - Local
Tax - Refund IRS
Trans - Atm rebate
Trans - cash app
Trans - Cash Withdrawal
Trans - Credit Card Payment
Trans - credit card rewards
Trans - Deposit
Trans - Fee
Trans - Misc
Trans - NUL
Trans - Refund
Trans - Reinvestment
Trans - Repair
Trans - Sale Stuff
Trans - Venmo Cashout
Trans - Venmo Transfer
Transport - Auto & Gas
Transport - DMV
Transport - Parking
Transport - Tolls
Util - Cellphone
Util - Elec
Util - Gas
Util - Internet
Util - Water
Need some context I think. It looks like you are budgeting categories at the individual level for 3 different people in your household? That seems like a consolidation opportunity?
This is a great thread.
I am new to Tiller after having used Quicken, MS Money, and AceMoney.
I’ve used Categories and Subcategories in the past.
Heather from Tiller wrote a great article on using Groups and Categories to provide the same functionality in Tiller as Categories and Subcategories in legacy personal finance software.
Question: I am surprised that Tiller lets me select ANY Category, once a Group is selected on the Transactions tab. I wish I was experiencing Data Validation on the Category once a Group was selected, otherwise I have no confidence in my Reports. Is my Foundation Template messed up or is this a “feature” of Tiller? How do I insure that my Reports and Graphs of a given Group only show the Categories of that Group? Any thoughts or help would be much appreciated! TIA!
@jpfieber what do I get for creating the article with the most views (And it doesn’t just have a few more views than the next largest, it has almost 3 times as many views as the next most viewed post.)
Really like the use of Account Numbers… I’m converting to Tiller from Money in Excel, and have been struggling on how to best adjust to the difference in budgeting at the Category Level in Tiller (Subcategory Level equivalent in Money in Excel). With Money in Excel, the budget is based on Category (Tiller Group) and all of the Subcategories rollup (so I have 25 Category line item budgets vs. budgeting 100+ Subcategories). I’ll likely borrow from this idea and may utilize a contiguous system the way it is done with my business. Alas, why didn’t I think of this before? Thank you for sharing!
I broke down my subscriptions into two categories, one for video media (sling, netflix, etc) and one for all other subscriptions. I know my video category tends to grow and needs pruning more than the other ones.
That’s a great point, @kingsdotter… I tend to use fewer, more-generic categories, but if you know you need to keep an eye on specific type of category for frequent pruning due to bloat granularity makes sense.
Fortunately the two tools are relatively similar, @wojo, but the Excel subcategory paradigm is a significant difference that requires a little attention. How is it going?
Great thread, I would love to do something very similar. One question: how were able to get three ways to categorize something. I would love to do this, but can’t figure out how to add a column. So, would love to have a “category” a “group” and then a “needs/wants/saving” column as well.
Now that I’m using Budget Plan my “fewer” categories is working better. I can glomp water, gas, electric, trash, and internet into one utilities, but separate them using the Budget Plan past-description functionality. Also, I use the Transaction Comparison tool to look at individual transaction in categories from some period.
I don’t yet have a full year of data so I have to do some work arounds when it comes to forecasting, but everything looks awesome so far.
This will serve as a nice model for my own chart of accounts. With that said, I have three comments/questions.