[Show and Tell] Sinking Fund and Mega Savings Goal Tracker (YNAB-Style)

[Lulu]

Sinking Fund and Mega Savings Goal Tracker

I recently made the transition from YNAB to Tiller, and while I love the flexibility of Tiller, I really missed the “Savings Targets” and sinking fund logic I was used to. I built this template to bridge that gap for my own workflow, and I thought others in the community might find it useful too.

This is my first template, so I’d love to get your feedback on how it works for your specific setups!

Install the template here: Sinking Fund and Mega Savings Goal Tracker Template.

Above: Sinking Funds Table with an end-of-year balance estimate and account reconciliation.

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What this template does

I found it difficult to manage “one big pot” of savings across different goals. This sheet allows you to virtually split a dedicated savings account into specific “envelopes” (like Christmas or Car Maintenance), so you know exactly what that money is reserved for, whilst still allowing you to spend from a savings category.

The key differentiator here is the focus on the “Sinking Fund” flow: building up a balance and then drawing it down for its intended purpose, while still keeping an eye on your long-term progress using a balance forecast.

It also includes a “Mega Goal” section for big milestones (like a house deposit, retirement or education fund) that might be spread across multiple savings categories, investment accounts, or retirement accounts.

Above: Mega Goal Table with a “life ladder” timeline visualisation.

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How it is set up

For this to work in my own sheet, I use a two-category system in the Foundation Template:

• Savings Input Categories (Type: Expense): This is the category you budget for your monthly savings. Importantly, this is also where your actual spending transactions should be categorised when they occur.

• Savings Spending Categories (Type: Transfer): This is a “theoretical” category used in your budget to plan for the outgoing spend without affecting your net income twice.

By separating these, the template can track the “Sinking Fund” effect accurately without impacting your monthly bottom line.

Above: Sinking fund table with three target types.

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A few things to note

The Three Target Types

I’ve brought over the three core logic types from YNAB to help automate the maths:

1. Have a balance of $: A goal to reach a specific total amount by a specific date.

2. Set aside another $: A goal to contribute a fixed amount every month, regardless of the current balance.

3. Refill up to $: A goal to top the envelope back up to a set limit (e.g., “I always want $500 available for car repairs”).

Video: Learn How to Get the Most Out of Targets in YNAB.

Additional Features

• Edit Green Cells Only: Like most Tiller templates, you should only change the cells highlighted in green. The rest is automated by formulas.

• Budgeting: It is designed to be “read-only” for budgets. You just update your usual Categories sheet, and the forecast here updates automatically.

• Sanity Check: I added a small reconciliation area that compares your virtual goals to the actual balance of your savings bank account. It will give you a warning if you have accidentally allocated more money than you actually have in the bank.

Above: Hidden Forecasting Table for sinking fund categories with month-by-month projections.

Above: Example Categories sheet set-up for savings goals - expense and transfer type categories.

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Dependencies

• Year-To-Date Comparison Template: This sheet relies on the Tiller Year-To-Date Comparison template to pull spending data. You will need that installed first for the formulas to work and to set the time period to “Through Present Period”.

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Getting Started

1. Set Up Categories: In your Categories sheet, plan your budgeted savings inputs (Expense) and planned spending (Transfer).

2. Add the Tracker: Copy the tab into your Tiller workbook and remove the words “Copy of” from the name.

3. Map your Sinking Funds (Green Cells): * In the first table, select your dedicated savings account.

   • Fill out the goal details (amount, date, target type).

   • Map the Input (where actual savings and spending happens) and Transfer (budgeted outgoing) categories for each goal.

4. Map your Mega Goals (Green Cells): If you have a big milestone, use the second table to group your sinking fund totals with external account balances (like retirement accounts).

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Version 1.0 and Feedback

This is version 1.0 and I am very open to feedback. Please let me know if you run into any issues or have suggestions on how to make it better for different sheet setups.

Inspiration

• YNAB savings goal approach - YNAB was a fabulous tool to learn good budgeting practices, but I like the one year at-a-glance view I get from Tiller. Now I can combine them!
• (This post) by @morgan on estimating EoY savings - I learnt to use two categories per sinking fund saving goal (expense and transfer type).
• Tiller Savings Budget Sheet - I learnt not to obsess about tracking actual saving transfers, it’s better to use the Categories sheet to budget them.
• Tiller Savings and Debt Sheet - Love the account reconciliation approach.
• Tiller Savings Goals Sheet - Great donut charts.

Permissions

Yes - share, learn, modify.

[heather]

This is awesome! I can’t wait to hear how Tiller customers respond and I’ll try to find some time to give it a try.

[Clint.C]

It looks really useful @Lulu. I’m using Excel so, unfortunately can’t use it right now. Thank you for developing it and providing excellent documentation.

[morgan]

Wow This is amazing!!!

[teamhill03]

Hi Lulu, I’ve got your ‘Sinking Fund & Mega Savings Goal Tracker’ template installed on our family Foundations sheet and “kicking the tires” to see how it works, how to use the data, etc. You are quite the spreadsheet developer - this is very impressive.

[Lulu]

Thank you! I learnt A LOT in the process of turning it from a personal sheet to a generic one others could use (for example what an array formula is haha). Let me know if you have any issues

[PCB]

Hello @Lulu

Thanks for making the template. I watched the targets video you recommended and one thing I think is different is that they could assign a target to every categories in YNAB?

In the template I think each account has 4 available categories and savings category each needing its own transfer category.

During your building process have you looked at having one main account that could handle several expense categories (groceries, clothing, electricity, gas, etc…) and tracking the required balance without having individual transfer categories, especially for day to day stuff?

I guess I could use pay as a blanket savings category for that main account and then have the general expense categories as the transfer categories, but then I would need more than 4-5 lines per account.

Some people have over 100 categories or 10 accounts, so using the template for a zero sum budget would require many more rows. I guess it would be straightforward to had lines, but is there something I should be careful with?

Finally, and thanks for bearing with me, how should be handle rollovers from one year to the next?

Sorry for all the questions!

[Lulu]

Thanks for giving it a go.

1 - As you say this isn’t an efficient solution for non-savings categories because each saving goal needs two categories in your budget (unhidden categories). Other templates may be more elegant if that’s your approach. YNAB is a dedicated envelope budgeting system, so each category can have targets. If you’re looking for a Tiller template for envelope budgeting, I’ve seen some around. Perhaps @heather can share a link.

My solution isn’t meant to replicate that fully. I find the typical Tiller templates great for checking accounts and use envelope budgeting only for savings accounts.

2 - If you want to add more lines, you can. You’ll need to duplicate the “Sinking Fund Savings” table and the “Sinking Fund Forecast” table as they work together. Before you do, consider how complex you want to make your system to balance simplicity with clarity.

• Do you have over 100 savings goals this year?
• If you have 10 dedicated savings accounts, that sounds like you already have a very granular view of your savings, how much more detail would be useful vs the time you spend monitoring?

3 - Rollovers should be covered with the “starting balance” (column F). After setting the initial starting balance, you just check the “account reconciliation” is correct each week/month (columns Q and R). If it isn’t correct then you either (1) haven’t sent enough money to the savings account (compared to your budget allocation). (2) Or you’ve spent from the saving goal, via your checking account, but you’ve forgotten to transfer that money from the savings account into the checking account.

Once a saving goal is achieved, I remove it from the budget in the following year. Keeps it clean.