Missing rollover budget columns in categories sheet

Google Sheets
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1

Hi, in the Category sheet I only have

Category
Group
Type
Hide from reports
Months

how do I get the other columns ?

2

:wave:, @Petermtl!

I’m guessing when you say “how do I get the other columns” that you’re referencing columns specific to rollover budgeting (e.g. Rollover To, Savings Target, and Subtype)?

If so, those are available only via the Tiller Budget that you can install using the Tiller add-on. You’d want to start in a new sheet. The rollover features are not compatible with the Tiller Foundation Template.

Let us know if you have other questions or my guess wasn’t right :wink:

Heather

3

Heather, I have added a brand new sheet Tiller Budget via the Tiller Add-On and do not see the additional savings / rollover columns.

Has this functionality been deprecated?

4

The functionality isn’t deprecated, but it is possible that the setup scripts are running into a compatibility issue with your spreadsheet and not handling it well. Would you mind giving it another try, @hfinkelstein? You could also create a temporary new spreadsheet and see if the install script works. Pay close attention to any error messaging and share it in this thread.

Thanks for your patience.
Randy

5

Morning Randy.

Here is a quick video of me setting it up in a fresh sheet: https://www.loom.com/share/be7aa57217e44ed08523f967e5e7499d

I’m sure I’m missing something - let me know!

Thanks,
~Henry

6

Our domain language can be a little complicated at times and I see the problem now.
The video helped clarify the issue, @hfinkelstein.

The “Tiller Monthly Budget” in “Tiller Labs add-on” is not an envelope budget solution. There is a different Tiller budgeting tool called the “Tiller Budget” which has the envelope functionality. You can the “Tiller add-on” here:

If you run the budget installer in the Tiller add-on, you will see the new columns and have access to our envelope budgeting solution.

Hope this helps.
Randy

7

Ahh, that is indeed confusing. Thanks for clarifying

Unfortunately it appears that the Tiller Add-on budget is not compatible with the Tiller Labs Add-on budget. I set up everything in the latter and used a Savings group to approximate the desired functionality in the Labs version.

I’ll fiddle with the Tiller base version and see if I like that better.

Thanks for clarifying.

8

We have tried to build the setup workflows to support either the Monthly Budget or the Envelope Budget. (Both in the same spreadsheet are confusing and would likely result in problems.) If you want to use the Envelope Budget and are willing to give up the Monthly Budget functionality, I can peek at the code and see how to revert your spreadsheet into a state that will allow Envelope setup. Let me know if this would be helpful, @hfinkelstein.

Randy

9

Thanks Randy and I don’t think it’s necessary.

I poked around the envelope version and I’m going to stick with the monthly / annual. I’ve set up a “Savings” group with categories for each savings bucket and will use transfers to my savings account to help isolate the savings transactions against my savings budget.

A little clunky, but I think it actually works better for my workflow than the more complex envelope method.

10

I think that is a good call, @hfinkelstein. I wrote our envelope budgeting solution (about 20 months ago) and it can do some really powerful things. But, the Foundation Template Monthly Budget solution was developed more recently, better reflects our current product architecture, and is more performant.

Randy

11

Hi there, I’m new to Tiller and am interested in your setup for account for savings in the base template. I don’t really want to use the rollover feature as it’s overly complicated and also buggy. How are you keeping track of your savings budget vs transfers to a savings account?

12

Hey,

We do it somewhat simply though it gets a touch confusing.

We have savings accounts at the bank for every savings goal. We have a category for every savings goal in tiller that is marked as expense. Then we also have a “Dipping into savings acct XXX” for every savings account that is marked as income.

In our category sheet we budget savings contributions in the savings categories, and savings withdrawals in the dipping into savings categories. This allows us to plan out into the future.

Then in the actual transaction sheet, we add a category to whatever is coming out of or into the checking account. When we transfer from checking to savings (an outbound, negative number from checking) then we flag that as “Savings Goal AAA” category and the inbound to savings as just a transfer. When we are withdrawing, we mark the inbound checking amount (a positive number) as “Dipping into Savings CCC” and the outbound from savings as a transfer.

It’s makes transfers not zero out, which is wonky, and it makes high savings months look like really expensive months, which is counterintuitive as we spent less so we could actually save more. That said, once we made a custom view to make sense of the nuances of this strategy, it mostly works for us.

13

Hi I spent an hour looking for the missing columns as well to learn it isnt supported. Should the docs be updated?

The “Tiller Monthly Budget” in “Tiller Labs add-on” is not an envelope budget solution. There is a different Tiller budgeting tool called the “Tiller Budget” which has the envelope functionality. You can the “Tiller add-on” here:

Suggestion: Maybe also add the warning above inside the docs online. Also an alternate solution to adding savings goal withing the Tiller Monthly Budget would be helpful to see. Maybe hfinkelstiens workaround, would be good to see in the documentation.

Thanks a lot

14

Thanks a lot for this, I will give it a shot.

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