Why Tiller Was Not a Good Fit for My Microsoft Access Workflow

Richard Rost shares his eight-month experience trying to use Tiller as a bridge between financial accounts, Excel, and a Microsoft Access database. The goal was simple: reduce the daily time spent checking balances and recent transactions across multiple accounts.

Instead, the workflow required repeated logins, account reconnections, authentication prompts, unreliable add-in behavior, and too many stale balances. Importing Excel data into Access was never the problem. The real issue was getting consistently fresh data into the spreadsheet without manual intervention.

This is a practical look at the difference between automation that sounds convenient and automation that actually saves time. Richard also explains why a supported API would better fit an Access-based workflow, and why he ultimately returned to gathering data directly from the financial sites he already checks.