Since the beta has been out for a while, I am interested in being a beta tester now and in the future. Is that possible?
You can find a link in this post: Need Help with Update to Budget Plan Keep in mind weāll be posting it to TCS soon, so you might have to start over again for it to work with the update feature of the TCS extension.
And if I make extensive changes to the sheet it will probably prevent me from leveraging further updates of the sheet, right?
On that note, how do updates work in general? Is it the case that the non-green cells, the ones with the formulas, get replaced with the new version? Or do I get the new version of the sheet into my workbook and then have to copy my personal info (ie, the green cells) into the new version? Or something else altogether?
If youāre going to modify it, youāll probably want to just stick with the beta version so itās isnāt updated, since an update would wipe out all your updates. Updating usually works best by choosing the ābackup/archiveā option, then copying the stuff in green and pasting āas valuesā in the new version. Then update the formulas in the Categories sheet to point to the new sheet, and once the new version is working, deleting the old sheet.
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I did some experimenting to narrow down the cause of the performance degradation of my Tiller file after using the Budget Plan. As mentioned by davemole, even updating a description or category on the transaction sheet triggers a long recalculation of the file. For me, replacing the formula on the Categories sheet by āpaste valuesā didnāt help. However, going to the Budget Plan and changing all line items using the frequency of āPast Descriptionā or any other āPastā¦ā designations to one of the other choices fixed my performance issues. I have 60 line items using āPastā¦ā, so I might be an extreme example.
Not sure if there is anything that can be done at a formula level to improve performance, but as a user building my budget, I can use the āPastā¦ā frequencies to see the resulting numbers on the Budget Plan, and then choose a āMonthly,ā āAnnualā or any other frequency that will reference the āAmountā column rather than reading the entire Transaction tab. I like how that solution will keep the formulas on the Categories tab pointed to the Budget Plan.
Thanks for sharing, I know the sheet is processor intensive, but didnāt realize the āpast frequenciesā were the main culprit. The formula needs to look through all your transactions and pick out the ones that are of the specified category/description and date range, so Iād guess that those with fewer transactions probably have less of an impact. Your solution is similar to what Iāve done, use one of the Past options to see what last year looked like, and then use that info to inform my decision moving forward, usually with a weekly/monthly option.
Hi JP,
Iāve just noticed an irregularity between my Budget Plan figures and my categories sheet. In one category only the budget figures donāt match. Any suggestions on how I can troubleshoot this?
Donāt worry, found the issue. my formulas in the category sheet were gone. I must have inadvertently erased them at some point. All working now.
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Hi, awesome sheet. I am having issues with the sheet being broken if I try and sort any of the rows even if I am following the instructions on this info page. There will be a bunch of #REF in the right hand columns where the $ figures should be and all the $ figures are gone tooā¦Anything I can do to get around this issue?
Yea, unfortunately sorting doesnāt work as well as I intended. I have an update in the works that fixes that. If you want a sneak preview, you can download it at Need Help with Update to Budget Plan. Otherwise, weāll probably be releasing in within a week as an update in the Tiller Community Solution add-on.
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Hi @jpfieber - in the documentation for ExternalSource it says that
The source of the budget data should be included in the āNotesā column in the form
āSheet Nameā!A1:L2.
But it only works for me when I use a string of the form Sheet Name!A1:L2 (without the single quotes) and I propose updating the documentation to reflect that so others donāt hit the same snag I did. Cheers
Edit: Iāll note that in my case the source sheet was named Budget Support (with a space)
Thanks for pointing that out. I found that when using the single quotes, you need to use an ā=ā first or the first quote doesnāt show up. Thought I had updated the documentation, but apparently not! Sorry about that, I just updated for both Sheets and Excel!
Hi JP,
Interested to know how you handle something like budget amounts for mortgage payments that can fluctuate up or down at random points in the year depending on the prevailing economic conditions. It seems strange to have to add a new category to the budget sheet every time there is a change in interest rate?
Thanks
Brian
Luckily I havenāt had to deal with that. I would imagine trying to average it out over the year might be best, but maybe someone else with more experience in that situation could chime in.
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Hi Brian,
Iāve always found that when dealing with unknowable fluctuations the best that you can do is give it your best monthly estimate and allocate your funds appropriately.
A budget is just that, a best guess at what your expenditures are going to be. If the monthly amount changes during the year your budget variance identifies that, and you react to that as needed. You donāt actually change your budget values midstream.
Having said that, I have learned over the years that itās never my way or the highway. So, I am interested in why you want to change your actual budget during the year rather than just keep track of the variance.
Fred
Thanks for your reply Fred. I agree with both you and JP on this. My question is more toward how to actually put a different amount in the budget planner from month to month. So, for example, I estimate that perhaps for the remainder of 2023 letās say I want to budget for 2 more interest rate rises. So I want my budgeted amount of my mortgage repayments to be $xxxx for April and May, then increase, say, $120 in June and maybe increase again by $150 in August.
In the foundation template you could just change your budgeted amount as you desired from month to month but with the planner it doesnāt seem that flexible, unless Iām mistaken?
You can create as many line items as you need in Budget Plan, and each could have different dates. So if you wanted $120 in June, you could create a line item with the dates 6/1/23 to 6/30/23, then create another line item with the dates 7/1/23 to 7/31/23 with the amount $150.
Thanks JP. Does that method apply the values to the same category or, by adding line items, are you effectively creating a new category in the catagory sheet (which is what Iād prefer to avoid).
Yes, definitely in the same category. The main point of Budget Plan is to enable creating as many items per category as you need, not being limited to one number per category.
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Aaaaahhh. OK, Iāve misunderstood how that works. Thatās great!