How to Create a Savings Tracker in Google Sheets

Building a savings habit is easier when you can actually see your progress. Turning abstract financial goals into a tangible, visual tracker can give you the motivation needed to stay on course. This guide will walk you through creating a simple yet powerful savings tracker in Google Sheets, complete with automated calculations and visual progress bars to bring your goals to life.

Step 1: Laying the Foundation of Your Savings Tracker

First, we need to set up the basic structure of our spreadsheet. This is where we'll define our savings goals and the key information we need to track for each one.

Create a New Google Sheet and Define Your Columns

Start by heading over to sheets.google.com and clicking on "+ Blank" to create a new spreadsheet. Title it something clear, like "My Savings Goals." Now, set up the following columns in the first row:

• A1: Goal Name: The name of what you're saving for (e.g., "Emergency Fund," "Trip to Japan," "New Laptop").
• B1: Goal Amount: The total amount of money you want to save for that specific goal.
• C1: Amount Saved: The amount you have currently set aside for this goal. For now, you'll enter this manually. Later, we can automate it.
• D1: Amount Remaining: The amount you still need to save to reach your goal.
• E1: Percent Saved: Your progress shown as a percentage.
• F1: Progress Bar: A visual representation of your progress.

After creating your headers, go ahead and populate the first few rows with some of your actual savings goals. A little bit of real-world data makes the next steps much easier to understand.

Step 2: Automating Your Tracker with Basic Formulas

Manually updating every column is tedious and prone to error. Let's use some simple formulas to make Google Sheets do the heavy lifting for you. From now on, you'll only need to update the "Amount Saved" column, and everything else will recalculate automatically.

Calculating "Amount Remaining"

To find out how much you still need to save, you just subtract what you've saved from your goal amount. In cell D2, type the following formula and press Enter:

=B2-C2

To apply this formula to the rest of the column, click on cell D2, and a small blue square will appear in the bottom-right corner. Click and drag this square down to cover all the rows that have savings goals. Google Sheets will automatically adjust the formula for each row (D3 will use B3-C3, and so on).

Calculating "Percent Saved"

To calculate the percentage of your goal you've achieved, you divide the amount you've saved by the goal amount. In cell E2, enter this formula:

=C2/B2

Drag the formula down the column just like you did for "Amount Remaining." At first, these values will appear as decimals (e.g., 0.25). To fix this, highlight the entire "Percent Saved" column, navigate to the menu, and click Format > Number > Percent. This will correctly display your progress as percentages.

Your sheet is now automated! When you update an amount in the "Amount Saved" column, both the "Amount Remaining" and "Percent Saved" will update instantly.

Step 3: Visualizing Your Progress with Sparklines

Numbers are great, but visuals are more motivating. We can add a simple, clean progress bar right inside a cell using Google Sheets' SPARKLINE function. This tiny in-cell chart provides a quick visual cue of how far you've come.

In cell F2 (your first "Progress Bar" cell), we'll add our SPARKLINE formula. This formula tells Google Sheets to create a "bar" chart based on the percentage in column E.

=SPARKLINE(E2, {"charttype","bar","max",1})

Let's quickly break that down:

• SPARKLINE(E2, ...) tells the function to create a chart based on the value in cell E2.
• {"charttype","bar"} specifies that we want a bar chart.
• {"max",1} sets the maximum value for the bar at 1, which represents 100%. This ensures the bar fills the entire cell only when you reach your goal.

Drag this formula down the column, and you'll have instant progress bars for every goal. You can even customize the color by adding a new option to the formula:

=SPARKLINE(E2, {"charttype","bar","max",1, "color1", "#4285F4"})

Just replace #4285F4 with any hex color code you prefer.

Step 4: Creating a Contributions Log

For large goals like a house down payment or a new car, you're not just saving one lump sum. You're chipping away at it over time with smaller contributions. Tracking these individual deposits keeps a detailed record and helps automate 'Amount Saved' so you no longer need to update it manually.

Set Up a "Contributions" Tab

Start by creating a new sheet within your document. Click the "+" button at the bottom left of your screen to add a sheet. Right-click on the new sheet tab, select "Rename," and call it "Contributions." In this sheet, set up three columns:

• A1: Date
• B1: Goal Name
• C1: Amount Contributed

Use Data Validation for Goal Names

To ensure consistency and avoid typos when logging contributions, let's create a dropdown menu for the "Goal Name" column. In the "Contributions" sheet, select cell B2.

1. Go to Data > Data validation in the menu.
2. In the "Criteria" dropdown, select "List from a range."
3. Click the grid icon next to the text box and select the range of your goal names from your first sheet. If your first sheet is named 'Savings' and you have goals in cells A2 through A10, your range would be Savings!A2:A10.
4. Click "Save."

Now, cell B2 has a dropdown menu with all your goals. You can drag this cell down the column to apply the dropdown to future entries.

Connect Your Contributions with the SUMIF Formula

Here's where the real automation happens. We need a formula that automatically adds up all contributions for a specific goal and displays the total in the main tracker. This is a perfect job for the SUMIF function.

Go back to your main "Savings" sheet. Click on cell C2 (the first cell under "Amount Saved") and replace the manually entered number with this formula:

=SUMIF(Contributions!B:B, A2, Contributions!C:C)

Here's what this formula is doing:

• It looks at the 'Goal Name' column in your "Contributions" sheet (Contributions!B:B).
• It searches for a name that matches the goal in cell A2 of your "Savings" sheet (e.g., "Emergency Fund").
• Whenever it finds a match, it takes the corresponding value from the 'Amount Contributed' column (Contributions!C:C) and adds it to the total.

Drag this formula down the column for all your goals. Now, your entire tracker is completely dynamic! Every time you log a new deposit in the "Contributions" tab, your main savings dashboard updates immediately - totals, remaining amounts, percentages, and progress bars - all without any manual calculations.

Final Thoughts

Building a savings tracker in Google Sheets transforms a simple spreadsheet into a motivating, automated dashboard for your financial goals. By using a few key formulas like SUMIF and SPARKLINE, you remove the hassle of manual upkeep and get a clear, visual report on your progress every time you open the doc.

As you get comfortable, you might find yourself wanting to pull in data from other sources or build more complex dashboards without wrestling with formulas. We built Graphed to solve exactly this problem. Instead of tweaking formulas, you can connect your Google Sheet or financial accounts and ask questions in plain English, like "Show me my savings goal progress as a donut chart." We handle the technical side, turning your raw data into live, automated dashboards and reports in seconds, so you can spend less time managing spreadsheets and more time acting on your insights.