Just wanted to share a few updates regarding Direct Fills since we announced the upgrade. Since Direct Fills are the future, we’re eager to make sure they’re working well so everyone can get switched over.
Here’s a summary of what’s fixed. If you ran into one of these issues trying to upgrade the first go around give it another try and please reach out to our support team via the chat if you’re still stuck.
Spreadsheet access permissions too broad or using Google’s Advanced Protection - try out the Advanced Security feature
Unsupported Table format - If your Transactions sheet or Balance History sheet was using Google’s “Table Format” you would have run into a Google Sheets API error after the upgrade. Table Format is now supported with Direct Fills (@jpfieber ) Google is pushing the Table format and there are some advantages, please keep in mind that formulas in the header row (row 1) are not supported in Tables (Google’s limitation, not ours). - there are still a few known reasons this API error can happen documented on the help center here that we hope to also fixed, but no ETAs yet.
Transaction ID column got added over and over - this is also fixed! No idea why it really happened, but it’s fixed
Activity Log error: error parsing hidden metadata - also fixed! This one had to do with a hidden sheet (that you shouldn’t edit or touch) having some duplicated entries. That’s all cleared up now.
Last, we appreciate all the feedback and everyone who’s been patient with some of these issues that came up after your upgrade. There was no way we could have anticipated everything people may have modified/customized in their spreadsheets (that’s the beauty of them, right?) so of course there were edge cases we couldn’t test for.
We’re excited about what’s in store, and stay tuned for another major announcement on Tuesday. Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday.
Hey Heather, can I assume this doesn’t apply to those of us using Excel? Sorry if you have answered this somewhere. I just pop in occasionally, so I often miss stuff in between.
Much appreciated! For those that would like to try converting to a table, if you are using @Mark.S excellent “Data Checker Tool” you’ll likely get an error because as @heather mentioned, you can’t have a formula in the header row. Fear not. To get around this, create a new blank column B, make sure it doesn’t contain any formatting, values or formulas (this separates your transaction data from the Data Checker Tool). Now click into your transaction data, go to the ‘Format’ menu and choose “Convert to table”. Your transactions should change to a table, with each row alternating in color. You can then delete the new column B you created and the Data Checker Tool will still work. You can rename the table by clicking on the drop down arrow next to it’s current name. Not sure what benefits tables offer yet besides the nice alternating row colors, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough!
Seems to be working for me, however, is it normal to get a ton of red banners though when I click the blue “refresh accounts” button on my tiller dashboard? The banners read something like “Update skipped, fill already in progress”, but then there were a few green ones as well saying that it succeeded. Here’s the activity log from my one button press.
@heather I just noticed I’m getting them too. Same red errors “Update skipped, fill already in progress” I got before, along with green notices that balances were added (no API errors though!). Makes it seem like the balances are working fine (I didn’t apply a table to the Balance History sheet) but the transactions are not. I reverted the table again, but can’t try to see if it made a difference since it thinks it just refreshed everything…
Not Heather, but I found this help page referenced when I was looking.
If you still need specific help or have questions after reading through this, just ask, and I can try to help, and I am sure others who see this will have ideas as well.
The only thing that might slow you down is if you have custom sheets or custom formulas/customization in the sheets. I know there are some nuanced differences between what excel is capable of vs what google sheets is capable and how each accomplishes a similar task.
Being patient and waiting for the right time was critical. At time I felt left behind but it was worth the wait, no breaking and everything worked perfectly.
Love this product and the team did a great job!
@pnorton@jpfieber yes, the “update skipped” is normal if you’re using the Refresh Accounts button. Sorry about the annoying toast messages (little red banners). We’ll get that cleaned up pretty soon.
We can’t perform a fill while one is already in progress and since the fills happen nearly immediately after we get data from the data provider if you’re using Refresh Accounts all the accounts are refreshing right in a row so you may see these skipped messages. Also the data can come in at different stages, sometimes just the balance, sometimes transactions. It’s a little mysterious for Yodlee especially as they send it in multiple little packets.
@bellbrookgal definitely recommend trying again. Just sign up at https://my.tiller.com/signup and reach out to the team via chat to learn more about how it all works and how best to use it (that’s a whole topic in and of itself, not directly related to this specific post so don’t want to go into it too much here).
The direct fills seem to be a week or so behind. Is there a way to make more real-time. The bank balances and transactions are routinely about 6 days old. If I log into tiller and refresh each account, then the the direct fill becomes up to date. Is the the intended process? I thought direct fill eliminated the need to fill sheets or refresh accounts. Can the direct fill automatically update daily? Or automatically update when I open the tiller sheet?
@peter.seidle I know we spoke via email about this, but just wanted to reply to close the loop and for others who may be wondering.
Direct Fills does not remove the requirement to refresh institutions that do not refresh automatically. It only removes the requirement to click the Fill button in the sidebar or wait for a timed fill via the Sidebar.
More guidance below on expectations about how refreshes work and which are automatic vs not.
Happy Friday, y’all!
@jpfieber ) Google is pushing the Table format and there are some advantages, please keep in mind that formulas in the header row (row 1) are not supported in Tables (Google’s limitation, not ours). - there are still a few known reasons this API error can happen documented on the help center here that we hope to also fixed, but no ETAs yet.
