You don't need to be a spreadsheet expert to use Tiller. You just need to know your way around the grid, which cells are yours to change, and how the tabs connect. This guide covers exactly that.

It's for anyone who is new to spreadsheets, or who has used them without ever feeling sure of what's going on. Examples use the Tiller Foundation Template, and everything works in both Google Sheets and Excel.

How to use it: read sections 1 through 4 in order. They're the must-knows. Then jump to whatever you need. Each section ends with a short "Try it" you can do in your own Tiller sheet.

Every spreadsheet is a grid, and every square in that grid has an address. Once you can find an address, the rest gets much easier.

One file holds many tabs, and each tab has its own job. Here's what each tab in the Foundation Template does (source):

Some tabs are hidden, so the tabs you see aren't always all there is.

In Google Sheets, the ≡ button at the bottom-left lists every tab, and View > Hidden sheets shows the hidden ones.

In Excel, right-click any tab and choose Unhide.

Try it: open your Tiller sheet, navigate through each tab along the bottom.

The biggest beginner surprise: clicking a cell once selects it, and typing right away replaces everything in it. Double-click when you want to change just part of what's there.

Find is the quickest way to locate a transaction. Press Cmd/Ctrl + F on the Transactions tab and type part of the description, like "Costco."

Later we'll discuss adding a filter, which is another way to search for a specific description.

What a cell shows and what it holds can be two different things. The formula bar, just above the grid (column letters), always shows what the cell really holds.

Most of the numbers on Spending Trends, Monthly Budget and Balances are formulas. They update on their own when your transactions and balances change. If you type over one, it stops updating. That's the most common way a Tiller sheet quietly breaks, and it's why the next section matters.

The same number can appear as 42.5, $42.50 or 42.50. Underneath, it's the same value. Dates work the same way: 3/15/2026 and Mar 15, 2026 are the same date, just formatted differently.

Try it: click a total on the Monthly Budget tab and look at the formula bar. Then click a description on Transactions and compare.

The rule of thumb is simple in Tiller: light green cells are yours to edit. On every tab except Transactions, leave the other cells alone. The white cells are usually formulas that other tabs depend on.

Light green cells are where the template expects your input. For example:

The Transactions tab is your data, so you can change almost anything on it. Tiller keeps a copy of the original data, so edits are safe (source).

Why row 1 matters: Tiller reads the header names to know where to put each piece of data. If "Description" gets overwritten, your next fill won't have descriptions. That's why Google Sheets shows a Heads up warning when you edit row 1. If the edit is on purpose, like turning on a filter, click OK and continue.

Try it: open the Categories tab and find the light green cells. Then open Monthly Budget and change the month with the date picker.

The Foundation Template's formulas are already built for you. You don't need to write any to use Tiller, and many of them are quite complex so there's not need to try and understand what they're doing unless you want to advance your spreadsheet knowledge. Knowing some basics helps you understand where a number comes from.

Click the cell and look at the formula bar. Every formula starts with =, then tells the sheet what to do and which cells to use.

Usually these errors show up when you edit a part of the workbook that isn't meant to be edited (see section 4 above).

If an error shows up on a template tab you didn't touch, try Undo or version history (section 8). If that doesn't fix it, contact Tiller support.

Try it: click a number on the Balances tab and read its formula. Can you spot which tab it's pulling from?

Filtering is how you answer questions like "what did I spend at restaurants last month?" It hides the rows you don't want to see, without deleting anything.

You can filter more than one column at once, like Category and Account together. To show everything again, open the same menu and choose Remove filter (Sheets) or Clear (Excel).

Use the filter icon to sort, too. Click the icon on Date and choose to sort newest to oldest, or click Amount to see your biggest expenses first. Sorting from the filter icon moves whole rows, so every amount stays with its description.

Avoid selecting a single column and sorting it on its own. That can reorder one column without the others and mix up your transactions.

If transactions seem to be missing, a filter is probably still on. Look for:

Remove the filter and they'll come back. Filters never delete data.

Try it: filter Transactions to one category, then sort by Amount. Remove the filter when you're done and check that every row is back.

Your Tiller sheet is a chain. Tiller fills raw data into a couple of tabs, and the other tabs read from them to build your reports. Change the data and every tab downstream updates on its own.

Transactions → Spending Trends. When you categorize a transaction, Spending Trends picks it up and updates your charts.

Balance History → Accounts → Balances. Each refresh adds your latest balances to Balance History. Accounts reads them and applies your groupings and labels. Balances then shows the current total for each account.

Budgets follow the same idea: Monthly Budget and Yearly Budget combine your budget amounts from Categories with your spending from Transactions.

Because tabs depend on each other, a change in one place can show up somewhere else.

So if a number looks wrong on a report tab, start at the source. Check Transactions (is it categorized?) or Balance History (did the balance come in?) before editing the report itself.

Try it: categorize one uncategorized transaction, then open Spending Trends and find where it shows up.

It's very hard to permanently break your Tiller sheet. Between undo, version history and Tiller's own copy of your data, almost any mistake can be walked back.

Cmd + Z (Mac) or Ctrl + Z (Windows) steps back one change at a time. Press it as many times as you need. It works best right after the mistake.

Google Sheets saves as you go, so there's no Save button. Excel on OneDrive autosaves too. Both keep past versions you can restore.

If you make an accidental edit to one of your Tiller spreadsheet's tabs, you can use the Restore option in the Templates feature available from the Tiller Console or Tiller Money Feeds sidebar to fix it. (Read more)

Editing a transaction doesn't change what Tiller has stored. Tiller keeps the original data in its own database, and a new spreadsheet connected to Tiller will fill with it (read more).

Want to try something new? Make a copy first: File > Make a copy (Sheets) or File > Save a Copy (Excel). Or right-click a single tab and choose Duplicate, then experiment on the duplicate.

Try it: open version history on your Tiller sheet and click through a few past versions. Don't restore anything, just look.

Sharing lets a partner, family member or accountant work in your Tiller sheet with you, even at the same time. Google Sheets and Excel both do this well, but they set it up a little differently.

They'll get an email invite. To edit, they need to be signed in with a Google account.

Keep your financial data private by sharing with specific email addresses. Under General access, leave it set to Restricted rather than "Anyone with the link."

See Sharing and permissions in Google Sheets for more.

In Excel, where the file is saved matters. The workbook must be saved in OneDrive or SharePoint to share it. A file stored only on your computer can't be shared for editing together (source).

Avoid emailing the workbook as an attachment. That creates a separate copy, and changes won't sync between the two files.

Try it: open the Share menu on your Tiller sheet and review who has access today (only you by default).

The Foundation Template works the same in both apps. Only a few menu names differ.