One of the most powerful time saving tools in your new spreadsheet is AutoCat (Automatic Categorization). An advanced feature of AutoCat is “From Past 90 Days” to quickly create a bulk of rules for you.
What Is AutoCat and How Do I Access It?
AutoCat is a customizable, rule based tool within your Tiller spreadsheet. Its primary function is to look at your new transactions and automatically assign categories based on the rules you create. It can also perform more advanced tasks, like cleaning up messy transaction descriptions or adding tags by overriding columns in your Transactions sheet.
AutoCat is part of the Tiller Money Feeds add-on (for Google Sheets) or add-in (for Microsoft Excel). You can access it anytime by opening the Tiller sidebar in your spreadsheet and selecting AutoCat.
Building Your First Rules with the “From Past 90 Days” Option
This guide focuses on a specific feature, the “From Past 90 Days” option. It’s a helper tool that makes creating your categorization rules much easier.
Start by Categorizing Some Transactions
If you are just getting started with Tiller it is essential that you make a list of your income and expense categories on the “Categories” sheet. You will also want to set the budget amount in column E.
On the Transactions sheet you can select these categories. The drop down list in column D is based on the categories you set on the Categories sheet. Optionally, assign a few transactions a category.
Setup AutoCat Rules
In the sidebar, when creating AutoCat rules notice the buttons for “From Selection” and “From Past 90 Days.”
The “From Selection” button reads the row you actively have selected and creates your AutoCat rule based on that one row.
To speed up this process, instead, click on the “From Past 90 Days” button.
The “From Past 90 Days” helper is smart. For the best results, take a moment to manually categorize a few transactions on your Transactions sheet first. When the helper scans your history and recognizes a merchant you have already assigned a category to, it will automatically use that category in its list of suggestions.
This is different from the “From Selection” button, which creates a single rule based on one transaction you have selected. By using the “From Past 90 Days” button instead, you can build many rules simultaneously.
This allows you to make multiple rules at once, rather than one at a time.
How to Use the “From Past 90 Days” Helper
Instead of creating rules one by one, you can use this button to create a whole set of foundational rules in one go.
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Launch the Rule Builder In the AutoCat sidebar, choose the option to build rules “From Past 90 Days.” This tells AutoCat to begin its analysis of all your recent transactions.
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AutoCat Analyzes Your Spending Tiller will scan the descriptions of your uncategorized transactions from the last 90 days. It looks for recurring merchants and payees to identify patterns in your spending.
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Review the List of Suggested Rules This is the key step. AutoCat will not suggest just one rule; it will present you with a list of potential rules. For example, you might see separate, ready-made suggestions for “Amazon,” “Kroger,” “Netflix,” and “Shell Gas Station” all on one screen.
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Refine and Categorize Your List Now you can work through the suggested list. Go down the line and assign a category to each suggested rule (e.g., “Shopping,” “Groceries,” “Entertainment,” “Gas & Fuel”). You have full control to edit the suggested description criteria or delete any suggestions you don’t need.
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Create All Rules at Once Once you have reviewed and categorized the list of suggestions, you can finalize the process. With a single click, you can create all of the approved rules and add them to your AutoCat sheet simultaneously.
By using this helper, you can build out a dozen or more foundational rules in just a few minutes. This is a massive head start that saves significant time and effort, getting your spreadsheet organized and automated from day one.