New Year in Tiller - Start Over or Add to Existing Spreadsheet?

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1

Just a general question for our community preferences when budgeting for and tracking in a new year. Do you prefer to continue everything in the same file or start a new file for each year and why?

2

Great question! Personally, I like to add 12 columns to the Categories sheet for the new budget year and continue in the same sheet so I have a single archive for all of my budget history (currently at about 20 years). I like that I can look back in time and compare without sifting through multiple files with misaligned datasets. I also like the continuity of being able to do rolling 12 month analyses into the prior year.

I know that some people prefer a clean sheet for a new year and it can improve performance to start fresh.

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3

Do you have your categories sheet for the budget year linked to the budget builder sheet?

4

Yes I do. I made the Budget Builder template for my own budgeting process.

To add a new budget year:

  1. Add 12 new columns to the Categories sheet for the new budget year.
  2. If you had previously used the Budget Builder template, stretch the Budget Builder formulas into the new columns (if not, add this formula in the top left corner of the new budgets and expand down: =iferror(offset('Budget Builder'!$AX$7,match($A2,'Budget Builder'!$C$7:$C,0)-1,match(G$1,'Budget Builder'!$AX$2:$BI$2,0)-1)))
  3. Copy the existing/previous year budget cells in the Categories sheet.
  4. Paste over the formulas as values (the previous year should no longer be formula driven).
  5. Update the Budget builder to the new calendar year in cell C1.
  6. Delete previous budget mods in the Budget-year Modifiers and baseline overrides sections.

Good luck.

5

Hi Randy -

When you have a minute, would you be kind enough to tell me the column header that each cell reference should be grabbing its data? I may have columns misaligned from something I did previously and need to tweak the formula slightly.

Budget Builder $AX$7
Budget Builder $C$7:$C
Budget Builder $AX$2:$BI$2

Categories $A2
Categories G$1

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks, in advance.
David

7

Sorry for the late answer, @dbashamjr:

  • Budget Builder $AX$7 - First budget month (e.g. “Jan 2021”)
  • Budget Builder $C$7:$C - First “Category”
  • Budget Builder $AX$2:$BI$2 - All budget table headers (“Jan 2021” to “Dec 2021”)
  • Categories $A2 - First “Category”
  • Categories G$1 - One column to left of “Jan 2021” budget
9

Hi Randy. A couple questions about that - primarily, I’d wonder how to edit / add / subtract categories in each new year. My sheets are rather granular, and I list car types for example, service providers by name. I’ve struggled with updating those when we make mid year changes. Coincidentally, I was in the community section looking for help with my 2022 version because the accounts and balances are not working. And like you I’d PREFER to see a rolling history, but I need help with managing it. Can I re-activate my 2021 version now that I’ve unlinked it from the accounts to try your method?

10

And before you ask…where do I find what template I used? :upside_down_face:

11

Hi Randy - how about if I used the Tiller Foundation template? Are there different instructions? Thx!

12

I should know about reactivating an unlinked spreadsheet. Maybe @heather has an answer here… :man_shrugging:

Most people start with a Foundation template by creating a new spreadsheet in the Console (by logging into the tillerhq.com site). That is probably what you used.

If you want to change categories in subsequent years in new spreadsheets, I’d consider creating a new Foundation Template, using the Tiller Community Solutions Migration Helper to add your old categories into the new spreadsheet, then using the merge & rename workflows to change the categories to what you want going forward.

Hope this helps.

13

Got help from Selina and relinked the 2020 sheet so I’m all set there.

So what I want to do is use this version (yes foundation template) and add 2022 and beyond with the “add 12 columns” approach you described above. Best-case, I can also merge 2020 and 2019 versions to have more history. But my categories and budgets are different in each version, so I’m not sure how it all works when combined.

Any advise / links you can offer up would be greatly appreciated! Otherwise I have to figure out what is wrong with my 2022 version and use individual years like I’ve been doing (not preferred)…