Tiller Foundation Template Required Sheets

Google Sheets
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1

Hello,

I am wanting to clean up my spreadsheet based on the “Tiller Foundation Template” and am wondering what sheets need to remain for the overall spreadsheet to function properly. I am intending to remove all unnecessary sheets (like things from Tiller Labs) and start fresh with the bare minimums.

I took a look at an untouched copy of the “Tiller Foundation Template” and noticed the following pages are included:

  • Insights
  • Transactions
  • Balance History
  • Categories
  • Monthly Budget
  • Accounts
  • Yearly Budget
  • Balances
  • Help

Are these all necessary? If not, which sheets are?

Related but somewhat of an additional topic, what happens if necessary sheets are deleted? Does the overall spreadsheet correct this automatically by introducing necessary sheets? Also, how can one tell which sheets are dependent on each other? For instance, if a Tiller Labs sheet requires the Transactions sheet, is there any way to know this?

Sincerely,

Nick Jensen

2

Good question, @njjensen. It depends a little bit on what you’re trying to accomplish. If you’re not interested in running a Tiller budget, you could remove these sheets:

  • Insights
  • Monthly Budget
  • Yearly Budget
  • Balances
  • Help

Further, you could remove Accounts if you’re not leveraging sheets like Balances or Net Worth.
You could also remove Categories if you’re not interested in a master set of categories available in your Transactions sheet.

For the most part, you can re-add any of the sheets you delete with the Tiller Money Labs add-on. The add-on can figure out if any sheets you deleted are needed when installing new solutions… and it will add those too.

Randy

P.S. Another option would be to simply link a new blank Google Sheet using the Tiller Money Feeds add-on and start over with a minimal, blank slate.

1 Like
3

Thanks @randy! That gives some good insight.

It sounds like you are saying that the “Transactions” sheet is really the only necessary sheet, is that correct?

4

Yes. If you want to go full minimalist, you can reduce to just the Transactions or just the Balance History sheet. Again, the easiest way to get there is to:

  1. Create a new Google Sheet
  2. Open the Tiller Money Feeds add-on in the new sheet
  3. Link accounts
  4. Run the initial feed
  5. Delete the Categories and Balance History sheets that were created (I believe they won’t be restored)

Good luck,
Randy

5

Actually, Balance History and Transactions are both required from the point of view of the Tiller Money Feeds add-on. If you delete either of them it will be re-created and re-filled with all your data for linked accounts the next time you run an update.

6

Ahhh that makes sense. I missed your idea in the previous message. Now I see what sheets get pulled in initially. Thanks @randy!