I’d like to revive this in hopes of an actual Actuals comparison over months/years.
What did I spend 1st quarter last year compared to 1st quarter this year? All the months last year compared to all the months this year? etc.
Is there a way, for instance, to strip out Budgets from the Yearly Budget Sheet? Or, better yet, have one sheet where I can look at what I spent (by category is fine) compared to what I spent last year/month/quarter. Just the spending, no budget info at all. The Monthly Analysis and Monthly Budget do a bit of it but, of course, I want it all.
Seems like this should be an easy do but, for the life of me, I cannot ‘do’!
This is a cool idea. I’ve wanted something similar too. I gave it a try this afternoon.
Just copy the Period Comparison sheet from this spreadsheet into your spreadsheet install the Period Comparison template using the Tiller Community Solutions add-on.
I haven’t done a ton of testing and the features are pretty sparing. Let me know what you think.
Randy, This is very cool. It’s pretty much exactly what I wanted! I deleted the budget and available columns because all I really wanted was to see the actuals and this makes that spot on easy to see them perfectly clearly. Thank you!!
I’m glad you like it, @susandennis. Only warning… The custom period start and end dates reveal themselves in the columns you hid. Be sure to unhide those columns if you want a custom period.
I love seeing my finances this way but I’m also learning a great deal about past spending which is going to be valuable going forward. Really, thank you so much.
Better and even better! The delta bars are a great addition as is the category sorting that goes with them. I’m actually kind of shocked at how looking at the data this way makes such a difference in how I think about it.
I abandoned the hiding of the columns and, instead just made the data white so it’s out of view but there still. I really do like this tab. A lot. Thank you!!
One final update… I just published the new Period Comparison template into the Tiller Money Labs add-on.
If you have already installed it manually, I’d recommend deleting it and reinstalling via the add-on so Tiller Money Labs can track the version and let you know when there are updates.
Thanks for the ideas and the inspiration, @susandennis.
Would be nice to have this for the Envelope Budgeting but the Period Comparison is not compatible. A workaround I’ve looked at using is the Category Rollup Report. I create a six-month and an annual report, re-naming in between. Then I create an average for each main category in each sheet. It’s a bit cumbersome going back and forth for viewing. I’m considering developing a sheet that will pull in those values for ease in viewing.
While the Envelope Monthly Budget shows “Previous” spending what I’d like to see (instead of what I described above) is an extra column where I could see average spending based on a (drop-down specified) period (Previous Quarter, Six Months, Annual).
How do I obtain or fill in the budget for the previous year? since category sheet provide for current budget only, it means there won’t be comparison budget for the last year? Maybe I’m missing something here. Thanks
I’m not certain I understand your question, @adekunledauda, but I think you are saying that you overwrite the budget categories in your Categories sheet at the start of a new year. Another workflow is to add 12 columns to the right and keep your previous-year budget. (This is what I do.)
Is there a way to get it to skip categories marked as “hide” on the category sheet? I see a reference to the Hide column but don’t see it used in any of the formulas.
Thanks @randy , very helpful. Another suggestion: add options for “Last Year to Date” and “This Year to Date” to the drop downs. I know I can do it by using custom, but having pre-built would be helpful.
