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How to Import Bank Transactions into Google Sheets

Simple tips on getting your bank transactions into your Google spreadsheets.

When you link a bank account, Tiller pulls in a few weeks or more of transaction data. In some cases, it will even gather a few months of data.

When I began using Tiller, I needed to review my finances dating back to when I started my freelance consulting business. This was essential because I wanted to use Tiller to manage and track my business finances. Tiller didn’t quite pull in all the data I needed, so I had to manually add a few more months of transaction data into my Tiller Transactions tab.

The manual import process is pretty straightforward, but it does require several steps. We’ve outlined them for you here in case you have a similar need or just want to see all your data in one place. Sometimes, the more data you have available and categorized, the more intelligence you can build around your spending.

Start with your bank

how to import bank data into google sheets
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Log in to your bank or financial institution and download a CSV (Comma Separated Values) file for all the transactions you want to include on your Tiller Transactions tab. For my bank, I had to specify the date range before grabbing the data to ensure everything I wanted was included.

Now that you have the data, the next step is to format it for your Tiller Sheet. The best practice is to create a new Google Sheet in your Google Drive. You can easily do this by clicking the “New” button from your Google Drive and then select the “File Upload” option. You’ll then navigate to where the downloaded CSV file is stored on your computer, and you can upload it to your Google Drive. From here you can open the CSV file using Google Sheets.

Formatting the data

When you’re working with the data in the new Google Sheet you just opened, you’ll need to reformat it so that the columns match the column order of your Tiller Transactions tab. Your bank might have given you some extra data that’s not needed by Tiller.

You can delete any columns you don’t need. Rearrange the columns by hovering over the column header until you see a hand icon, which will allow you to drag and drop a column into a new location in the sheet.

Animation: adding and re-ordering columns so your imported data matches your existing Tiller Sheet.

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You’ll at least need the Date, Description, and Amount if you’re using the Tiller Standard template, and make sure to add a “Category” column as well to match your Tiller Sheet.

Depending on which template you’re using, and the customizations you’ve made to your Tiller Sheet, your column order may be different than the images we’ve included in this post.

Just make sure the columns in your imported data spreadsheet match your live Tiller Sheet. Once you have the columns ordered to match your Transactions tab, select all the data, copy it, and then open up the Tiller Sheet where you want to add the data.

Animation: copying your imported data from the CSV file. Hold down the shift key after selecting first upper left cell and click final lower right cell to select the area.

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Adding the new data to your Tiller Transactions tab

If you have a general filter turned on for all the columns (most templates come with this turned on by default) select all the data on the Transactions tab by clicking the selector rectangle in the upper left corner of the sheet. All the fields in the sheet will be highlighted and selected. Turn off the filter for the sheet by clicking the filter button in the toolbar.

Animation: selecting all data and turning off the filter.

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Scroll to the bottom of the transactions tab where there are empty cells. If you need to add more cells there is a handy button at the very bottom of your Tiller Sheet that will allow you to add more rows. Click the first empty cell to the far left, likely the Date column.

Paste the new transaction data you copied from the other Google Sheet into your Transactions tab. You’ll want to update the data for each of these newly added transactions for any other columns you may have in your Transactions tab that weren’t provided by your bank.  In the example below, I used data from transactions that Tiller had already pulled in to fill in some of the details such as the Account Name, Institution and Account #. For these manually imported transactions I used the same text from the Description column for the “Full Description” column.

Animation: pasting your transactions into your Tiller Sheet and filling in missing Account Name data.

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You can select all the data again using the selector rectangle and turn the filter back on. We turned the filter off initially to ensure that all the new data gets added to the filtered area.

Sorting the new data

Within a few hours the Tiller Feedbot will come along and re-sort your Transactions tab by the Date column, putting the newest first. You can go ahead and do this on your own if you’d like in the event that it’s not already ordered by newest first. Simply click the filtering and sorting arrow on the Date column and choose the Z→ A option.

Now you have a quick reference to use anytime you need to manually import historical data that Tiller might not be able to automatically pull in from your bank or credit card.

Have you manually imported your data into your Tiller transactions tab? Did you run into issues? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or via the live chat window on our website.

Heather Phillips

Heather Phillips

Heather comes from a background of user experience design & customer support. She loves helping others learn, explore and discover better ways to use applications and products that improve their lives. When she’s not coaching customers on Tiller best practices, tweeting or writing blogs, she’s probably at a yoga class, out for a hike in the Blue Ridge, or off volunteering for a variety of non-profits.

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