Script for matching Simple Bank expenses to transaction categories

I wrote some Google Apps Script code for updating transaction categories in a Tiller transactions spreadsheet based on transactions exported from Simple Bank. The code is available on Github at https://github.com/bmccormack/tiller-simple-bank-match.

What is the goal of your workflow? What problem does it solve, or how does it help you?

I use Simple Bank to help with the cash flow aspect of our budget. By using Expenses, we get a real time sense of where we’re spending money, which helps us control our spending.

Simple is our “source of truth” for transaction categorization, so I’ll often spend time in the Simple app making sure transactions are mapped to the right Expenses. The problem is that this data doesn’t doesn’t show up in my Tiller spreadsheet, so I end up having to recategorize the transactions all over again.

This script automatically finds the transaction information from Simple and matches it to the transaction in my Tiller spreadsheet, updating the category based on the Expense in Simple.

How did you come up with the idea for your workflow?

I came up with the idea for the workflow based on my experience with Google Apps Script and parsing JSON files.

Please describe your workflow. What are the sheets? Does it use any custom scripts or formulas?

See https://github.com/bmccormack/tiller-simple-bank-match for information on how to get set up. It’s a bit of a manual process, but when there are a lot of transactions to categorize, it saves time and duplicate work.

Anything else you’d like people to know?

If you find this helpful, let me know. I’m @bmccormack on Twitter.

Is it ok for others to copy, use, and modify your workflow?

Yes. It’s released under the MIT license.

If you said yes above, please make a copy of your workflow and share the copy’s URL: https://github.com/bmccormack/tiller-simple-bank-match