What is the goal of your workflow? What problem does it solve, or how does it help you?
This simple tool supports the need to monitor the balance of a bill-paying account by providing a space to list recurring transactions paid from this account, program them by month, and then compare the monthly totals against a current balance of the bill-pay account.
How did you come up with the idea for your workflow?
A Tiller Community user, @jill.kinnett, wrote in to ask about how to manage the balance of a bill payment account, after posting a roster of recurring transactions.
Please describe your workflow. What are the sheets? Does it use any custom scripts or formulas?
This is an added sheet that is dependent on the Balances sheet in its “out-of-the-box” format to identify the bill-pay account and its most current balance.
Anything else you’d like people to know?
Yes… a few steps…
- In the drop-down at B3, select the account with the balance you wish to monitor. This should be the cash account from which the recurring transactions will be paid.
- Set an account balance limit in B6. This is the cushion or buffer amount below which you hope the balance of the account doesn’t reach.
- List the recurring transactions in the sheet, programming each amount by month, if needed.
- Note that the current balance of the bill-pay account and the over/under amount appear only in the current month.
- The Over/under amount will color green if balance is within your limits, red if it falls below.
- Users will need to reconcile the appearance of a scheduled transaction after it clears the bank and is downloaded into the Transactions sheet. For these, place a check in the box to the right of the amount. Doing so reduces the sum still pending against the current balance by that amount. (Without doing so, the cleared transaction will reduce the bill-pay account balance, AND continue to be summed as a future, proposed deduction unless its amount is removed from the monthly total after it has cleared the bank.)
Is it ok for others to copy, use, and modify your workflow?
Yes…please feel free to offer improvements.
If you said yes above, please make a copy of your workflow and share the copy’s URL:
Of course. Here it is: