Did you know you can customize column headers in a spreadsheet to be dynamic? In other words, the header includes information.
WARNING: Do not change specific column headers on the Transactions sheet.
You must not change the names of the headers for the Date, Description, Amount, Account, Account #, Institution, or other core data columns. Additionally, the name of the Transactions sheet itself must not be changed.
However, for columns you insert yourself you can create dynamic headers.
Concatenate - Combining text and data
The basics are to use the ampersand symbol such as
="Total "&SUM(E2:E)
Notice I put a space after the word Total.
Formatting Dynamic Values
When I concatenate the words "Report for " and TODAY() the result is not quite what I was expecting.
="Sales Performance Report - " & TEXT(TODAY(), "MMMM YYYY")
You will want to wrap the dynamic portion of the formula withTEXT( ). Note that the second part of TEXT is the format you want it to appear in.
Other Examples
="Current Balance: " & TEXT(E2, "$#,##0.00")
If you try to concatenate a sentence with a currency cell (="You have spent " & E2), the result will look ugly: “You have spent 1254.33333”. You lose the dollar sign and the comma separators.
=TEXT(B2, "yyyy-mm (mmm)")
To make your monthly analysis sort chronologically, not alphabetically. If you extract the month name from your transaction date using just “MMMM” (November), your Pivot Table will sort them alphabetically: April, August, December. This ruins financial trend analysis. Create a helper column in your Transactions sheet that puts the Year and Month number before the name.
=TEXT(B2, "dddd")
To discover if you blow your budget on weekends. Tiller gives you the date (11/30/25), but it doesn’t explicitly say “Sunday.” By converting dates to days, you can create a Pivot Table that sums your “Dining Out” category by Day of the Week.
=TEXT(B2, "yyyy") & "-Q" & CHOOSE(MONTH(B2),1,1,1,2,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4)
To group transactions by custom timelines (like Q1, Q2) rather than just months. If you are using Tiller for a side business or freelance taxes, you need to see estimated tax buckets. While you can do complex math to find the quarter, TEXT can help you label the visuals for reports.
-Alice
Tiller Evangelist