Business Sheet - multiple categories with the same name

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Hi!

I am attempting to build a spreadsheet for tracking my small business cash flow. I have used the Foundations template for my personal finances for several years and have been very happy. This is the first time I am attempting to modify the templates.

Problem: I have 3 aspects to my business, each with identical income and expense requirements. Tracking overall cash flow is not a problem. However, I would LIKE to be able to track income and expenses as totals (not a problem) AND as they relate to each of the three aspect to my business (problem).

The business is rental property. I’d like to see income total, and income for property #1, property #2, etc.

What I’ve tried so far: Inside the “Categories” sheet I have named each property as a separate category in the first 3 rows. Then each property is associated with the same “group”, “income.” So far so good,

Next I name three rows “utilities” in the “group” column. Now when I copy my 3 property names into the corresponding rows in the “category” column I get yellow cell fill indicating an error.

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Any ideas how to accomplish my goal within the constraints of a typical Tiller template?

Much thanks!

Luke

2

I use Tiller to track my rental properties (in addition to my personal finances, my business, and my condo treasury duties!).

Tiller requires each Category name to be unique, hence why it’s getting flagged in yellow in column A. What I do with mine is as follows:

Categories:
Property 1: Mortgage
Property 1: Insurance
Property 1: Income
Property 1: Repairs
etc. etc. across 18 categories
then:
Property 2: Mortgage
Property 2: Insurance
Property 2: Income
Property 2: Repairs
etc. etc. across the same 18 categories

This ensures you have all unique Category names, and also that you are able to correctly assign transactions to the correct category either manually or via AutoCat rule. Then the Groupings are:

Rental Income and Expenses: Property 1
Rental Income and Expenses: Property 2

I am more interested to see how each property is performing as a property, rather than knowing what my overall maintenance expenses were. And it’s also a good format to pass off to my CPA as he is reporting the numbers also by property and not overall across all properties.

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