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How to Use Funds

David
Updated

A Fund, represented by a piggy bank icon, helps you track savings for occasional expenses, with balances carrying over from month to month. Funds are designed for occasional rather than regular spending, and you can manage savings across accounts by adjusting the balances of your existing savings.

 

Table of Contents

How to Create a Fund on EveryDollar.com

  1. Add a new budget item, or click on the existing budget item you wish to turn into a Fund.
  2. Click on the word Fund on the detail card to the right. 
  3. Click Make This a Fund. 
  4. Enter in a Current Balance if you've already saved money, or leave the Current Balance field at $0.00. Optionally, enter a Target Amount.
  5. Click Save. 

Pro Tip: Once you have created a Fund, enter the amount of this month's income you want to put into the Fund in the Planned column. The amount entered in to the Planned column will be added to your balance and will roll over month-to-month until you spend it.

 

How to Create a Fund in EveryDollar Mobile

  1. From the Budget page, choose Add Item and enter the item name for your fund, then tap Done. Alternatively, click on the existing Item you wish to turn into a Fund.

  2. Tap on the Item, then choose Fund from the list of options.
  3. Tap on the blue "Make This a Fund" button.

  4. Enter in a Current Balance if you've already saved money, or leave the Current Balance field at $0.00. Optionally, enter a Target Amount.

  5. Save any changes you've created.

 

Increasing the Fund Balance

Enter the dollar amount you want to put toward the Fund balance in the Planned column. EveryDollar counts the Planned amount as a credit toward the Fund balance. You do not need to track any transactions to increase the Fund balance.

 

Tracking Transactions

You do not need to track any transactions to increase a Fund balance. To decrease a Fund balance, track a transaction to the Fund.

If you transfer money from checking to savings, and receive an expense transaction out of your checking account and an income transaction in to your savings account, delete both transfers. 

EveryDollar is designed to track money coming in and going out, rather than money moving around your own bank accounts.

Pro Tip: Funds were not created for regular spending. Tracking expense transactions on a Fund will lower the Fund balance, but it will also lower your current month's remaining balance (throwing off your Insights page).

 

Savings Accounts

You can use either just one savings account to manage all of your savings or use multiple accounts. Either way, be sure to track your savings in your budget.

 

Existing Savings

Follow these steps to adjust the balance of your Fund to include money you've previously saved.

  1. Select the Fund you want to update.
  2. Select Fund Details from the list of options.
  3. Select the dollar amount in the Current Balance field.
  4. Update the dollar amount to match the correct amount.
  5. Choose Save to preserve your changes.

Note: Changing the balance of a Fund will create a new transaction called Balance Updated. The dollar amount of the Balance Updated transaction corresponds to the difference between the previous Fund balance and new Fund balance.

 

Next Steps

Open up EveryDollar mobile and try out the Account Balancer tool. It makes it easy to track any discrepancies between the Fund balances in your budget and the bank account the money lives in. Learn more here: Funds and the Account Balancer.

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