Emergency Fund Savings Tracker Spreadsheet

About this template

This emergency fund tracker shows how many months of essentials your savings would cover, and when the fund will be full at your current pace. It is for anyone building the fund that stops a bad month turning into a bad year.

Please read: This is a tracker tool only, not financial, tax, legal, medical or any other professional advice or advisory service. It records and calculates what you enter; you are solely responsible for checking all figures, rates, dates and results and for every decision you make. By purchasing, downloading or using it, you accept these terms (your statutory consumer rights are not affected).

The dashboard

Nothing on the dashboard is typed. Pick the full year or any month and the page shows the fund at the end of it.

• In the fund: the balance, with a mini chart of every month end
• Months of cover: how long the fund would pay your essentials, against your target
• The fund month by month, against the target line
• Put in and taken out, and the emergencies it paid for each month
• Full by: the month the fund reaches your target at the pace so far
• Milestones at one month, three months, your target and six months, reached or expected
• A month of essentials, with every share as a percentage
• What the fund paid for: the latest withdrawals with date and amount

A target with a date

Set a savings goal and a date, and the monthly amount it takes to hit it is calculated for you. Sinking funds sit alongside, so the emergency fund stops being the thing you raid for the car service. Every figure on the dashboard is calculated from the tabs behind it. Nothing is typed into a summary, so the front page can never disagree with the rows it came from.

Ten connected tabs

Every tab reads the same transaction list, so nothing is entered twice. It works as a full budget spreadsheet as well as a savings tracker:

• Money in, money out: 2,000 transaction rows, income by pay cycle, recurring bills, a bill calendar, and accounts with balances
• Twelve months: January through December, budget against actual, variance colored, start in any month, and an annual summary
• Build wealth: the 50/30/20 split, debt payoff, sinking funds, savings goals and net worth

You get real spreadsheet files, not a PDF with a link in it: Excel and Google Sheets, each filled in and each blank and ready for yours. The filled copy is the file in the photos, so you can see how it behaves before you type anything.

Works with

• Microsoft Excel 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365, on Windows and Mac, and LibreOffice. No Microsoft 365 subscription required.
• Google Sheets with a free Google account. No Google account is needed for the Excel files.
• No add-ins, no macros and no subscription

What you download

• The Excel workbook filled with a worked example, and the same workbook blank and ready for yours
• The instruction guide, which has one-click links to the Google Sheets versions (filled and blank)
• The terms of use as a PDF

Your files are ready to download as soon as payment clears. The files are for personal use on your own devices; please do not share or resell them. Questions before or after you buy? Use our contact page and we will help.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use this in Google Sheets or Excel?

Both. You download Excel workbooks for Excel 2016 or later on Windows and Mac, and the instruction guide has one-click links to the Google Sheets versions (filled and blank).

How does it work out months of cover?

It divides the fund balance by what a month of essentials costs you, and shows the result against the target you set.

Will it tell me when the fund will be full?

Yes. The dashboard shows the month the fund reaches your target at the pace so far, with milestones at one month, three months, your target and six months.

Can I track other savings too?

Yes. Sinking funds and savings goals sit in the same file, so planned costs are saved for separately from the emergency fund.

Do I need Microsoft 365?

No. It runs on Excel 2016, 2019, 2021 or 365 and on LibreOffice, with no add-ins or macros.