What Makes Tiller Different from Other Personal Finance Apps and Services?

Here are 12 ways Tiller gives you full control of tracking your finances so you can feel more confident about your money.

ByEdward Shepard
whytiller

Tiller is the only automated personal finance service built on Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, combining the flexibility of a spreadsheet with the ease of an app.

When we set out to build Tiller, we discovered that people who felt most confident about their finances had one thing in common – and it wasn’t wealth.

It was that they were all highly engaged with their money.

They tracked transactions, reviewed trends, and checked on the progress of their financial goals. And spreadsheets were the tool they used for the job.

Your financial life in your spreadsheets, automatically

That’s because spreadsheets are simple, private, and familiar. But more important, spreadsheets are endlessly flexible. They can be tailored for every stage of your unique financial journey.

So instead of building yet another app, our team focused on making spreadsheets easier for everyday personal finance.

Read: Tiller’s Values

Uniquely personal finance

Today Tiller is thriving, with tens of thousands of customers and an exceptionally high annual renewal rate. When we ask our customers what they love about Tiller, these twelve benefits rise to the top:

Say goodbye to data entry and CSV files.

Tiller Money Feeds connects your spreadsheets to your banks, credit cards, brokerage accounts, and 21,000+ other financial sources.

Import your daily spending, income, transfers, and balances with a click. Tiller is the fastest, easiest way to manage your money in a spreadsheet.

Try Tiller Free
“Tiller is a feature-packed budget and finance tool I have used for two years. It provides automatic data feeds from your banks and credit cards, allows you to customize your categories as much or as little as you want, and does not sell your information or advertise to you. I get to manage my monthly and annual budgets and see my annual progress on network growth and debt reduction.”
Aaron Heyman, Google Review

Gain powerful insights into your spending.

Tiller imports your daily transactions and account balances into a unified Transactions Sheet, where you can review everything at a glance and categorize your transactions according to your custom rules.

fill excel
  • Easily review all your expenses at a glance.
  • Search, filter, split, export, and delete all your transactions with ease.
  • Every transaction includes editable date, description, amount, and account ID.
  • See where your money is going each day, month, and year
  • Catch suspicious and unauthorized charges.
  • Always know what’s safe to spend. Never be surprised by a bank balance again.
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When GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop started using Tiller he immediately found $564 in savings from “various subscriptions for services that we no longer needed, didn’t know we still had or had otherwise forgotten to cancel.”
Todd Bishop, GeekWire, “Spreadsheets (2+2)ever”

Because Tiller is based on spreadsheets, you can customize almost everything about how you track your money.

compare
Custom Category Tracker from the Tiller Community

Create custom reports and charts. Choose your favorite fonts and colors. Try new spreadsheet templates for financial planning, budgeting, spending analysis, and more. Use your favorite spreadsheet formulas and functions.

And you always have complete control of your categorization rules.

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“All the other apps just weren’t cutting it for me. Needed something I could customize and dig into, with the support of really strong templates and an incredible community. I love Tiller.”
Kyle Kirkwood, Google Review

Tiller has the most customizable transaction categories of any personal finance service.

If you’ve ever been frustrated by the categorization rules used in other money apps, you’ll be happy to know that Tiller gives you complete control of your budget categories and categorization rules.

  • Use up to 200 categories in your Categories Sheet
  • Create, delete, and rename categories as needed
  • Use optional category groups and tags for even greater detail and control
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“I’ve always been frustrated with online banking’s limitation for customizing automatic categorization. Tiller to the rescue! I’d stick with Tiller simply for this functionality, but the helpful features are endless – adding your own categories, seeing your various income and expense categories, automatic syncing with all your accounts, etc. I’ll be a lifetime user.”
Sean Typher, Google Review

Tiller’s AutoCat feature automatically categorizes your spending, transfers, and income into the transaction categories of your choice.

autocat excel detail

And unlike any other automated personal finance service, AutoCat only categorizes transactions according to your custom rules.

AutoCat is optional if you prefer manual categorization – use it to categorize some, all, or none of your transactions. Learn more →

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“Tiller’s AutoCat feature intelligently categorizes based on simple rules under my full control. Result? It gets it right 100% of the time.”
Chris Lozac’h, Google Review

foundation template for google sheets
Foundation Template for Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel

The Foundation Template for Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel tracks the most important details of your financial life, including your daily spending, monthly budgets, account balances, and net worth – all in one place, automatically. 

Or experiment with free prebuilt templates from the Tiller Community Gallery.

You can even build your own custom template automated by Tiller!

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“Love being able to create the exact budget in Excel I want, both in the format I want and the categories organized how I want. This really has no limitations.”
Microsoft AppSource review, Sep 19, 2022

Unlike other personal finance services, Tiller doesn’t see or sell your data.

Tiller is also unique because our team is blind to customer transactions and balances. Your data remains encrypted and private externally and internally. 

Additionally, we have rigorous protocols in place to protect other information beyond transactions and balances, such as user names and email addresses. 

Tiller Security and Privacy Promise →

  • Tiller does not see or store bank credentials
  • No one on Tiller’s team sees your transaction data
  • Your spreadsheets are private
  • Tiller is audited by third-party security firms
  • You can easily request to have your data deleted
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“We consider our commitment to customer privacy and security with every tool and decision we make.”
Peter Polson, founder of Tiller

Tiller’s customer service is top-ranked as you can see in our many customer reviews.  Tiller’s team constantly communicates with our customers through chat, the Tiller Community, the Tiller Money Memo, social media, and email. 

We love hearing from you. Peter Polson, Tiller’s founder and CEO is always eager to chat with prospective and current Tiller customers. (Seriously – email him at peterp@tillerhq.com!) 

Try Tiller Free
“I can’t say enough good things about Tiller’s support – they are responsive, and they don’t just send a canned response like the other giant institutions I deal with. The Tiller team I’ve interacted with listens and updates me regularly on any issues. That alone is worth the price of subscribing :-)”
Randall Brison, Google Review

Join thousands of other Tiller users in the Tiller Community to learn about spreadsheets, personal finance, and using Tiller. Search discussions or ask a question about your spreadsheet.

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“I’m so happy with the functionality and community of Tiller. Customizable to your level of proficiency, Tiller delivers all you need to track your finances – right out of the box.”
Tanja Rohn-MacKenzie, Google Review

Know what’s safe to spend and catch any unexpected account activity – without opening your spreadsheet.

tiller daily email plain

Tiller includes an optional daily email that summarizes your posted account activity from all your accounts in up to five Tiller-powered spreadsheets. It’s perfect for days when you can’t get to your spreadsheets.

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“I wanted something easy to set up and view, but also something I could customize as I get more into tracking/budgeting over time. Tiller has been PERFECT for me.”
Emily Goodin, Google Review

Tiller supports all the familiar collaboration features of Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.

shared monthly budget spreadsheet

Even better, you can use both Google Sheets and Excel with one Tiller account.

That’s why Tiller’s customers say it’s “the best solution if you share your finances with your spouse/significant other.” (Joshua Brooks, Google Review, October 2022)

  • With Tiller, your shared finances are always ready to review in your shared spreadsheets.
  • One Tiller subscription can import data from all your accounts
  • Link up to five different spreadsheets with a single Tiller subscription.
  • You always have complete control of the accounts you choose to link and update
  • Tiller works with joint and individual accounts.

Beyond tracking shared household finances, you can use Tiller with your business partner, financial planner, bookkeeper, or accountant.

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“I started using Tiller because my wife wanted to track our spending on home construction work. There was a mix of contractors, cash, and online purchases. We use credit cards for most of our purchases and I knew I had to capture everything. So after setting up categories and groups in Tiller to cover all of our expenses, I could quickly provide my wife with answers.”
Bob Erenburg, Google Review

Tiller makes personal finance spreadsheets faster, easier, and more accessible for everyone. But if you want to unleash your spreadsheet skills on your financial data, Tiller has you covered.

Use your favorite formulas, charts, and analysis models to dig deep into your money and forecast your financial future.

Just make sure to visit the Tiller Community to share your knowledge and hang out with fellow spreadsheet superheroes.

Try Tiller Free
“I can’t say enough good things about Tiller’s support – they are responsive, and they don’t just send a canned response like the other giant institutions I deal with. The Tiller team I’ve interacted with listen, investigate, and update me regularly on any issues. That alone is worth the price of subscribing :-)”
Randall Brison, Google Review

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