Adding New Dashboards and Reports to Your Tiller Spreadsheet

Spreadsheets Microsoft Excel
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One of the most powerful features of a spreadsheet-based tool like Tiller is its flexibility. A feature many people don’t realize is that you are not stuck with the original worksheets in your Tiller-powered spreadsheet. You can pull in any worksheet from any other Excel workbook and integrate it into your main sheet. Be sure to check out the community provided Excel templates for you to import into your Excel spreadsheet.

Import Workbooks to Excel
Import Workbooks to Excel1600×900 135 KB

This means you can continuously evolve your financial dashboard without ever having to start over or lose your transaction history.

Why would you do this?

Here are a few key reasons you might want to add a new worksheet to your workbook:

  • To Add Community-Built Tools: The Tiller Community has a “Show & Tell” section (Excel Templates) for Microsoft Excel where people share their custom-built dashboards and reports. If you see a specialized debt tracker or a unique net worth visualizer you like, you can grab it and pull it right into your own workbook.
  • To Get Tiller Updates Instantly: When we release an updated Foundation Template with an improved dashboard, you don’t have to start from scratch. You can just download the new template and move the single improved worksheet into your existing file.
  • To Create Your Perfect View: Maybe you love the Foundation Template for daily tracking but want a super specific report for your side hustle income. You can build it in a separate file, perfect it, and then move it into your main Tiller spreadsheet to have everything in one place.

How To Do It (The Quick Guide)

It’s a three-part process that is pretty simple, but the last step is crucial.

  1. Download and Open: First, open both your main Tiller-powered workbook and the other Excel workbook that has the worksheet you want to move.
  2. Move or Copy the Tab: In the workbook you just downloaded, right-click the tab you want to move. Select “Move or Copy”. In the dialog box, choose your main Tiller spreadsheet from the “To book” dropdown, check the “Create a copy” box, and place it where you want it.
  3. IMPORTANT: Update the Links: Your new worksheet is now in your spreadsheet, but its formulas are still trying to get data from the old, original file. To fix this, go to the Data ribbon in Excel and click the Workbook Links button. From there, select “Change Source” and choose the current workbook you are in. This tells the worksheet to use your data.

That’s it. Your new worksheet should now be fully functional and running on your personal financial data.

This ability to endlessly customize is what makes a spreadsheet so powerful. It’s about giving you the tools to gain clarity on your money, your way.

What are some of the most useful custom worksheets you all have added to your spreadsheets?

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Good points.

This post would be more helpful if it mentioned Google Sheets as well as Excel.

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I make tips for Google Sheets all the time. I try to balance it out. In this case, it is specific to Microsoft Excel.

Thank you for the encouragment @dav.kellogg

-Alice
Tiller Evangelist

Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn

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Thanks for this. I am still relatively new to monkeying around with Tiller, and seeing different ways to expand it and get all my data into one place is helpful.

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:monkey: it’s a zoo out here! Just remember to backup any important data or customizations :slightly_smiling_face:

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I use Excel vice sheets. My workbook (foundation) contains columns for month, week, transaction ID and account ID. As I create other reports or displays, which of these, if any, are critical? What is the purpose of these columns? Much of the workbook is hidden, is the expectation that any reports utilize only the visible data fields?

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Hello @retirednavy68, some of the columns are indeed required. This help article can help you to understand the columns in the transactions sheet.

In your Foundation workbook, the Transaction ID and Account ID columns are both critical and should not be deleted. They provide unique identifiers used by the system for troubleshooting, managing linked accounts, and ensuring tools like the Transaction Splitter work correctly. The Month and Week columns are not critical for the template to function but are very helpful for simplifying your own time-based reports and pivot tables. Most importantly, your reports and dashboards utilize the underlying data and column headers regardless of their visibility, so the expectation is that reports use all the necessary data, not just the visible fields.

-Alice
Tiller Evangelist

Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn