Ok ignore that as this was if you started at my original sheet. You don’t need to do that if you are starting from scratch now.
My sheet is an add-on to the tiller foundation. My recommendation is to get up and running with the foundation template first. Setup your categories, budget, get transactions syncing, and your balances showing correctly.
Then once you are more comfortable using Tiller it will be easier to add the envelope sheet without it impacting anything.
Just my opinion
Yes. I was finished setting everything up before I added the envelope sheet. I ran the script and all of that. I just feel like I’m missing a step somewhere.
Hello. I am a longtime Mvelopes user (from before it was even called Mvelopes) who transitioned to Tiller last January. I have never gotten the hang of the Rollovers. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. It would work so much better if the last column of the Monthly Budget sheet represented the new balance of each envelope (category) after any Rollover column adjustments, instead of those adjustments affecting the first column. And “Net Transfers” still baffle me. I think the problem lies in that we often need to purchase items that are reimbursed in later months. It is not a workable solution for me to change the date of the reimbursement so that it matches the date of the expense. I have enjoyed Tiller over Mvelopes, but still working out a few issues that I am hoping will be solved by your sheets. But I’m a little unclear as to the steps to take to add them into my existing Tiller sheets. Also, I have not yet created a 2020 file (I emailed Help Center to ask about how to do that). Should I wait to add your sheets until I have done that?
In Mvelopes, I was able to see one envelope at a time over a designated time-period, so that I could see what was budgeted, what I spent, any rollover adjustment, etc. Have you created something like that in your sheets?
Thanks!
Lilly
Hi Lilly, I agree with you for the reasons why the original sheet didn’t meet my needs. Moreover, in the new foundations sheets they removed the roll-over capability. But, as I keep on saying, the greatest benefit to using Tiller is its flexibility to allow folks to build solutions to meet our very individual needs.
So I built my envelope add-on ( fyi standard disclaimer- not supported by tiller) to keep my money allocated into the envelope( category) and only to move the money when I want it to move. I also made sure I added a record of these movements ( Funding Transactions Sheet) so you can figure out what happened and back it out if needed. To me, the standard sheet would be workable if it offered this transparency on what was happening behind the scenes. Lastly, I wanted to add templates to allow me to fund my money in a consistent, easy way every paycheck. This is something that a ton of budget tools are missing.
The Sheet is made to work with basic sheets of Tiller ( Transactions, and Categories ( with a few added columns)). I don’t reference anything on the actual budget sheets, so it should work with both the older monthly budget sheet and the newer foundation sheet. I suggest you make a copy of the whole envelope sheet v 1.6 and just try it. If you don’t want to touch your current sheet, this gives you an option to do it without impacting anything. Also since Tiller allows up to 5 sheets to be connected, you could get live transactions on the envelope sheet and still keep your current one as is.
To your last question, about visibility to the Budget, What I spent, adjustments… The main sheet does an ok job of showing all of that for the current budget month. For more detail into this and to show the actual transactions, I created the Envelope Tracker Sheet, Here you can see all transactions funding, transactions for different date periods as well as view it by Account or Tags (if you use them). This sheets works perfectly with my envelope sheet. Let me know if you have any questions
Rich
Hi Rich.
I definitely want to try your sheets! What do I need to do? And what does it mean that Tiller doesn’t support them? Will they still support the part of my worksheet that uses their templates? Do you mind occasional questions on your sheets, if I have problems?
Also, in Mvelopes, the total of my envelope balances equalled my account balances. Have you found a way to do that in Tiller?
Thanks,
Lilly
I am sure Tiller will support their sheets and the add-in that connects to their service. They won’t however support the sheets that I have created. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about it The best place to start is to read the getting. Started doc I created. You can find it in the previous posts
Yes I have figured out a way to show the balance of the envelopes and match it to my bank balances. The way so donut is by setting the group field on the category(envelope) to the name of the bank account. Then in my sheet it displays envelopes by group and sums up the whole total. I then created a sheet that shows the bank balance, envelope balance, and register balance all together. Makes it easy to reconcile the balances.
Goodluck.
Rich
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Hi Rich,
I’ve been trying to use your template but I’m having some problems. My envelopes start out being negative since I have spent money before I set them up. The amount of money that it is letting me allocate is not enough to fill all of the negative envelopes. Am I doing something wrong? The only thing I can think of is that I need to manually import my older bank transactions so the spreadsheet has more income to work with.
Please let me know and thank you for sharing this creation!
Best,
Chase
So what did was create some initial balance transactions (category paycheck or other income category) I also set the date to a time before I started using the envelope systems ( I set mine to 1/1/2018). I then set the balance to the amount I need to get the correct amount in my envelopes. This gives you enough funds to properly fill the envelopes. Then to offset any of the transactions you may have I set some initial balances in the funding envelopes sheet to set the proper envelopes balances
Does this make Sense?
Rich
Thanks for replying so quickly! This makes sense but I’m not sure how much to put for the initial balance or the adjustment, I don’t currently have any envelopes filled, I want to start from scratch.
Also, the current money that I have to fund my envelopes with is my total income amount is this correct? Shouldn’t it be my net profit after expenses? Otherwise I’d be filling envelopes with money I already spent.
Thanks for the help! Sorry if I’m not understanding this correctly.
What I would do is First categorize all transactions. This is basically making your envelopes go really negative. Then fund your envelopes so they go back to a zero balance. Then you can see how much you have overfunded by ( let’s say it’s $1000) then add that to you current balance of your account balance ( let’s say (1500) Create an initial balance of transaction of 2500. This will get you back to having $1500 to fund. Go ahead and fund (fill) your envelopes until all the money is allocated. Then select action fund envelopes. There you go. You are all ready for future transactions.
Also. The way I have built my sheet is income Transactions is used to fund (fill)envelopes . The transactions from your banks removes money from the envelopes. If you do it this way you cannot in theory overspend what you have available.
Okay that makes sense! I just noticed that I was categorizing my savings wrong so once I fixed it I still had money left to use for funding envelopes even after balancing all of the envelopes to zero so I don’t need to add a starting balance.
One last thing (relating to the savings I just mentioned). I want to budget a certain amount to put into savings every month so I made a category for that and labeled it as an expense. I’m labeling the money that I move into savings as income to balance this out (before I kept the positive transfer into savings as a normal transfer) will your envelopes work with this system? It seems to be currently but I want to make sure I’m not counting additional income.
Thanks again!
So if it is working for you great. I do the same having a certain amount go to each envelope every pay period. What I do is only mark my initial paycheck as income. Or put another way. Only money that is new into my account gets added as income. Then with this money I fund the amount I want to save into the envelope. Funding is neither an expense or an income it’s just a virtual allocation of funds For a specific purchase. If I need to transfer funds from checking to savings then I categorize the transaction as a transfer, which excludes it from any of my envelopes or reports.
But to each their own
Good luck
How do you get the savings category to show on the list? For me it only shows if it is an income or an expense? Are you manually deducting from the savings envelope when you transfer into savings then or is there a way to connect a transfer to an envelope?
If you want to transfer funds from one envelope to another. Use the envelope sheet and in the funding area put a negative amount in one envelope and put the possitive in the other.
So -$1000 in vacation savings and $1000 in vacation expenses.
I get that but I want to move the money into my savings account every month. I want to budget a specific amount to transfer over but to do that I have to consider it an expense. Should I then consider the incoming transfer to my savings income or a transfer?
For both the incoming and outgoing transactions from checking to savings mark both as a transfer. Since you are not adding or reducing your net worth you are just moving the money around.
That’s what I’m doing but then I need to create a separate category to budget money to save so it shows up on the envelope sheet correct? Transfer categories don’t show there I have to make an expense called “monthly savings” or whatever and label it an expense. But then I can’t tie it to a transaction so I’ll have to manually decrease money out of the account.
Am I understanding this correctly?
Thanks!
Hi Rich,
A few questions:
I started out using the Tiller Budget with Rollovers template. I see now that Tiller has transitioned this template to Tiller Labs, and only officially supports the Foundation Template. So, in order to use your sheets, do I need to first migrate to the Foundation Template?
I’m unclear on the directions for copying the Envelope and Funding Transactions Sheets into my existing sheet. Do I just highlight the cells, and then paste them into a blank sheet in my worksheet?
I’ve been using Tiller for a full year. If I add your worksheets, would I be able to see last year’s data within the new sheets (Detailed Category Tracker, for example)?
Does your process for end of year differ from what is recommended by Tiller? Do you archive the worksheets then remove the previous year’s data from your live sheet?
Thanks!
Lilly
Q1 - I did originally create this sheet to work with the foundation sheet, since the original one already a roll0over capability. That being said, I think the only thing I need for my sheet to work with the Categories sheet. Which if I recall is a bit different in the foundation sheet. However, I think you can just add the columns i have need in my sheet and it should work. Just compare my category sheet to yours and adjust as needed
Q2: The best way to copy is to copy the whole sheet. From my envelope template sheet go to the bottom-tab where teh sheet name is, right click and go Copy Sheet - To Existing sheet - and find your sheet. DO this for both the envelope sheet, funding sheets, and any other ones you want. Then on your sheet that you copied to, Just Rename them ( REmove the “Copy of” part)
Q3 - Yes, just select the date in the dropdown field for the month you want to see.
If the transactions are there it will show correctly
Q4 - I dont do anything for archive purposes. So if you want to archive you will have to manually do it. This may be something I look to add in the future.
Yes, you need to create a category for the Savings ( For example - Vacation Savings ) mark it as an expense, set a monthly budget amount, add the per paycheck amount you want to save into the template amount, and if you want set a savings target amount
It should show up like this on the envelope sheet
i hope that helps.
Rich
