Replying to original post:
I don’t view/categorize my transactions as frequently as i used to. (yes I have some set to auto), and this is something that really needs to be kept up on.
Any budgeting app that imports transactions must be accessed and updated from time to time so that categorization stays current. This holds true with Tiller, as it did with Mint, YNAB, Every Dollar, etc.
Amazon purchases require too much manual process to get entered and categorize. I was using the somewhat painful download and import method until Amazon broke it about a year or so ago.
Amazon purchases do require more work to label, especially when there are multiple items to an order, however, I spend much less time in Tiller categorizing Amazon transactions as I did in Mint. If you use the Amazon Store Card, you can automatically have your items appear in the Full Description field on the Transactions sheet. This is so much easier than Mint ever was, which required more steps to access that information on my credit card company website via the order number. Also, Tiller’s split tool is better than most I’ve used as it allows you to add Note and Tag fields directly to the split, saving a lot of time. This is something Mint never did. So ya, it takes time, but Tiller makes it a lot easier than what I’ve tried.
When I do decide to examine my tiller sheets (which might be monthly) almost always, more than one source has stopped syncing which requires quite a bit of troubleshooting and logging in to get working again.
This has more to do with aggregators and bank sites than it does Tiller. I experienced this occasionally as well with Mint, Personal Capital, etc. No noticeable difference with Tiller doing this more.
Launching Tiller requires too many clicks to get things syncing and transactions downloaded. In ye ol’ day of Tiller it was Tiller hosted and auto updated.
I always have my Tiller sheet open. I simply go to Extensions - Tiller Money Feeds - Fill Sheets in Google Sheets. Easier than having to login to Mint every single time and then forcing a refresh, which also takes time. Tiller also has the automatic refresh ability which I have not personally used yet, but I imagine would make things even easier in this regard. I’m good with how I do it now though, easy.
I don’t really do budgeting, so the real benefit to me was transaction searching and adhoc reports. But Tiller occasionally changes functionality which requires a new spreadsheet and new data (happened twice). So historical data is spread amongst different sheets.
You just need to get used to a workflow. The more I use it, the more I remember where to go for what information I’m looking for. Mint, other budgeting sites also added features over time that required you to make changes, learn new things, etc.
I’m glad tiller opened a community and has various community templates…but almost all are based on the need for folks to budget, rather than investigate.
Perhaps it’s because this original post is almost 2 years old, but I see tons of community sheets and Tiller stock sheets which allow you to dig deep down into the data. Budgeting goes hand in hand with tracking your personal finances. You budget for business, you budget personally. Without budgeting, tagging transactions, doing some work, I don’t see how one would effectively be able to obtain any meaningful information from their data.
Maybe I’m just getting older and want a less maintenance required approach.
Once you get this setup (which I admit, takes the longest amongst the competition I’ve used), it runs with minimal maintenance. The only maintenance I do now is adjusting Grouping, Categorizing, Budgets, Tags, etc, i.e. tweaking the way I track my own data. I do little troubleshooting because once the sheets work, assuming your data is aggregating, it just works. Mint on the other hand gave me massive headaches. I would get logged out all the time even though I was actively working. Transactions would show as updated, then I would refresh the page and they weren’t actually updated. I could go on and on. And that was from one of the most popular personal finance tools. Tiller is a piece of cake compared to the competition. Once you have it working, it just works. This is literally my dream personal finance/budgeting solution. Aside from the initial learning curve and setup, and the lack of pretty graphics that you seen on competitor sites, it’s leaps and bounds better due to the ability to customize and create literally anything you can think of with the spreadsheet framework. And let’s not forget - there are no ads here. Mint was terrible with ads and there was no way to get rid of it on Desktop. Not having ads of any kind when doing your own personal finance is great.
