I’ve got more than I realized (and more than I should admit): 37
I like to test various templates, and I like to build my own. I’ve also got some old stuff laying around I should ‘clean up’ but haven’t yet.
I live in the Transactions sheet, with brief visits to the others. Dashboards are nice, but I like seeing the raw data.
This isn’t a contest, having the most or the fewest isn’t important, just wondering how others do it…
I have 20 in mine, and many of them are hidden. I pull templates out that I am testing for a bit or don’t use so I don’t have as many otherwise I would probably have closer to 40. My sheet is set to open on the Savings Budget tab, then I check the transactions next, especially when I see transactions need to be categorized. Sometimes I think I would like to open on a dashboard, but I have yet to figure out if I want to go to the effort on that.
Honestly, I would look into offshets or quarterdeck if you want a dynamic dashboard.
I have 22 Excel tabs. Some tabs are just personal tracking of changes or note logs. Most are Tiller core tabs. Only 2 active community solutions. Others are hidden and not currently using tabs.
I start viewing the Transaction tab simply because that is necessary to refresh new transactions and process them. I really spend most of my time in the Yearly Budget tab.
Yikes. 42!
I should probably do some cleanup.
I have 22 sheets, including a number of hidden sheets and a beta test or two that I may not keep going forward.
I start off the morning with the Transactions sheet. I look at any new transactions to be sure I recognize them and that they were categorized correctly, and I check my custom bill tracking sheet to make sure upcoming bills and cash flow are in order.
Then I head over to my custom Snapshot sheet, which gives me a complete snapshot of my finances in a format that works for me. It pulls in data from a couple of core Tiller sheets so I don’t have to look at them separately.
I rarely look at the other core Tiller sheets. Yesterday I looked at Spending Trends when I wanted to see how much we spent on a couple of recent vacation trips. I use categories to track spending but not for budgeting, so I never check the budget sheets.
What I have is mostly the original Tiller template, with some tweaks. I removed one redundant sheet from there, but added the Amazon transaction handler as experiment. So it’s 10 + 2 hidden.
I have 23. That includes 3 for beta holdings and 1 for beta pending. Not sure if i will keep the holdings data yet as I am still trying to figure out how to use it effectively
offshets or quarterdeck
I can see why wrapper products appeal to users on this forum. They give the comfort of keeping everything inside a familiar Google Sheet without requiring users to configure a separate database—even if a relational model eliminates latency, calculation quirks, and cold-start synchronization issues.
I had hoped an enterprise-grade model (SQL backend paired with a Power BI reporting layer) would show what’s possible when data is decoupled from flat spreadsheet grids: instant multi-page drill-downs, strict data integrity constraints, and exact fixed-point financial math.
Spreadsheets are great for ad-hoc entry, but there is a reason institutional analytics rely on relational engines. The real gap in personal finance tech isn’t building another UI wrapper over a 20-tab sheet—it’s providing a secure, turnkey bridge from bank feeds directly into structured database tables.
Just some thoughts…
Personally I have one sheet I inserted into the template it’s to facilitate more info in the database. When I do look at the sheets it’s the transactions sheet I am reconciling first.
As a former Wall Street software developer and bond trader, I recognize the value and power of relational databases and accompanying products but really this is overkill for individual users who are basically tracking cashflow and balances. Even what I do in just in Google Sheets is overkill. This is not rocket science. Some of us on here like me are just geeks for whom this is a hobby. For the average person, the tools provided by Tiller and the community are more than enough to stay on top of your finances. There was a recent conversation about tools to automate home and car prices. Sure that is cool but really these values are not jumping around like stocks. Manually updating once or twice a year is more than enough.
@buzzmaster1 , Mr Haim, I can appreciate your perspective here. I am sure that most users share your view that it’s overkill to put your finances in a relational database. It certainly is more costly to utilize! I agree with that too. But there is a reason that Mint utilized a database back end. Mint was very successful in its heyday. If you check today Monarch and Copilot utilize databases. There’s got be a reason that databases are still being utilized. For many people true the Spreadsheet can be just fine to use. But based upon the feedback in many threads on this forum it isn’t. It’s too much overhead for the average user. That’s my perspective and why I went the route I did. -David
David,
I believe you have successfully communicated your perspective and demonstrated that your solution does show what is possible. I certainly appreciate your demonstration and thoughts on this subject. Isn’t it a big ask for Tiller to change their architecture, design, coding, and reports to implement such a change?
@Clint.C Thanks, Clint. To clarify, it wouldn’t require Tiller to change their core architecture, redesign their templates, or rewrite their codebase.
At its foundation, Tiller is an aggregation engine that already writes banking payloads to Google Sheets and Excel. A database setup doesn’t even require direct API programming from Tiller.
In my own setup, there is zero custom programming on Tiller’s side:
It functions as a completely modular, asynchronous pipeline. Tiller continues doing what it does best (aggregating feeds) and reporting on spreadsheets, while the database layer handles storage, integrity, and enterprise PowerBI reporting without changing the basic design of Tiller at all.
