Hi, there đź‘‹. Welcome to the accountantguy.
Today, we are going to learn how we can create this fantastic minimalistic Notion Sinking Funds Tracker to easily track savings, monthly contribution amounts, and overall progress to assess how much we can save each month!
Our tracker seamlessly integrates with your Notion account and allows you to easily categorize your sinking funds, set the monthly contribution amounts, and much more.
Here are some important things you need to know first before we dive deep into the process of creating this Notion Sinking Funds Tracker.
Benefits of Notion Sinking Funds Tracker
Here are 5 prominent benefits of using this minimalistic Notion Sinking Funds Tracker:
- Keep track of your saving goals in one central location.đź’°
- Contribute money to a sinking fund each month to stay on track toward your savings goals.đź’˛
- Assign the priority for each sinking fund and save money each month.âś”
- Assess any shortfall or excess contribution towards any fund to meet your savings goals.🔝
- Access your sinking funds tracker from any device, anywheređź’»
Where can I download this Notion Sinking Funds Tracker?
You can download this Notion Sinking Funds Tracker from here.
You can also visit theaccountantguy.gumroad.com to check out more templates.
Check it out NOW!!! 🔥
Related: How to build Notion Debt Tracker
Features of using this Notion Sinking Funds Tracker
This minimalistic Notion Sinking Funds Tracker has the following 3 segments in the dashboard:
Summary
This shows a complete summary of all the sinking funds contributions and their related savings progress as of the date for you.
Here are the things noticeable for the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker in the summary segment:
- Goal – Indicates the targeted amount that we are looking to create savings for.
- Amount Saved – This shows the total amount saved to date from all contributions made so far.
- Amount Left – This shows the total remaining amount left to save from further contributions towards the sinking funds.
- Contribution (in %) – This shows the proportion of all contributions made towards savings in comparison to the targeted amount till now, i.e. (Amount Saved / Goal) * 100.
Sinking Funds Overview
This section shows the overview of the sinking fund obligations divided into 6 types of sinking funds, i.e. Education, Events, Family, Healthcare, Transportation, and Utilities.
Under each type of sinking fund, the following things are reflected:
- Goal – Indicates the targeted amount that we are looking to create savings for.
- Amount Saved – This shows the total amount saved to date from all contributions made so far.
- Amount Left – This shows the total remaining amount left to save from further contributions towards the sinking funds.
- Contribution (in %) – This shows the proportion of all contributions made towards savings in comparison to the targeted amount till now, i.e. (Amount Saved / Goal) * 100.
- Goal Date – Indicates the date by which we will be able to meet the sinking funds targeted amount.
- Contribution (each month) – Indicates the monthly contribution saved towards the sinking funds.
Note: The contribution amount each month affects the status of contributions as reflected in the Sinking Funds Progress.
Sinking Funds Progress
This section indicates the progressive sinking fund contributions during the year with the status indicated as ✔ or ❌ as you proceed during the period.
- âś” indicates that the contribution made for the month is at least equal to the minimum contributions per month as per Sinking Funds Overview.
- ❌ indicates that the contribution made for the month is less than the minimum contributions per month as per Sinking Funds Overview.
As you can see above, Education contributions towards the Sinking Funds need to be at least $875 per month to be equal to the minimum contribution amount. But, for some months the amount is less than that and thus it reflects ❌, eg Apr 1, Apr 15, and May 15, while for other cases it is equal to or greater than the minimum amount and thus it reflects ✔, eg Mar 1, Mar 15 and May 1.
As you contribute for any specific month, the status gets updated automatically as a ✔ or ❌ depending upon the minimum contribution each month as calculated above in the Sinking Funds Overview database.
Here’s a screenshot describing the situation above.
How to create a minimalistic Notion Sinking Funds Tracker?
We need to fill in the Sinking Funds Details onto a database to help us create a minimalistic Notion Sinking Funds Tracker.
For this, first, we need to create a page to store the necessary information related to Sinking Funds Details as shown below.
Alongside this, we need to create the following databases to help us create this minimalistic Notion Sinking Funds Tracker:
| Database | Purpose |
| Sinking Funds Database | Holds the database of all the sinking fund-related information such as Sinking Fund Contribution Amount, Date of contribution, Min Contribution details, Minimum Contribution amount alongside category of the sinking fund as well. |
| Sinking Funds Overview | Has the information related to Sinking Fund Goal Amount, Total Amount Saved, Total Amount Left, Targeted Savings per month, Contribution (in %), and sinking fund goal date. |
| Sinking Funds Summary | Shows the summary of the sinking fund-related information such as Goal Amount, Amount Saved, Amount Left, Contribution (in %), Contribution each month, and Goal Date by which you will be free from the sinking fund. |
| Total Sinking Funds | This shows the information related to the Total Sinking Funds Amount, Total Amount Saved, Total Amount Left, and the Contribution (in %) for all sinking funds individually. |
We will discuss how to create each database one by one.
Building the Sinking Funds Database
In order to create a new database, simply type “/database” and then select “Database-Inline” to create a database for storing the sinking fund details.
Important Note: Repeat the above process for creating other databases as mentioned above such as Sinking Funds Overview, Sinking Funds Summart, and Total Sinking Fund.
This database will help to hold the details related to all the sinking funds.
In this database, we will get all the details related to sinking funds and will enter the details here before starting out using this Notion Sinking Funds Tracker.
Why do we need to create the Sinking Funds database?
This database will help build the necessary structure for other databases such as the sinking fund Details database, sinking fund Overview, and more.
In nutshell, this is the brain of the entire template we are about to build.
How to add properties to the Sinking Fund database in Notion Sinking Funds Tracker?
Let’s get to know the properties of this Sinking Fund database one by one.
- Sinking Funds
This indicates the type of sinking fund being created by the one looking to save money such as Healthcare, Transporation, Utilities etc.
This has the default Title property which is created when you create the database for the first time.
- Goal
Next up, we have the Goal which states the sinking fund amount that is targeted during the lifetime by anyone saving money.
This has a Number property which is displayed in US Dollars to reflect the total amount of sinking fund that is created.
- Starting Balance
This is the starting balance of the sinking funds before we start contributing money further towards the goal.
This is the initial money we put in to start with the sinking fund.
This can be considered similar to the downpayment of any loan which can be paid at the inception of the loan period.
As for the Number type, we need to specify this as a Number to state the amount of contribution made towards the sinking fund.
Note: Thus before we start contributing towards any sinking fund, if we have placed any savings to any sinking fund, then this will reflect the same for us.
- Start Date
This is the date when you first start contributing towards the sinking fund. Thus, this is the beginning date when you first contribute money towards a sinking fund.
This has a Date property associated with it.
- Goal Date
This reflects the end date or the goal date by when we are looking to reach the targeted goal amount for the sinking fund.
This can be considered similar to the downpayment of any loan amount which can be paid at the inception of the loan period.
This is again a Number format that is specified in the US Dollars type.
- Months
This has a Formula property that reflects the difference between the Goal Date and the Start Date, i.e. the time period between starting the Sinking Fund and the targeted End Date.
This means this would be the time available since the starting date to reach the targeted amount (goal) for the sinking fund.
This is thus a formula property as shown below…
dateBetween(prop(“Goal Date”), prop(“Start Date”), “months”)
This has thus a Number property specified in US Dollars.
- Payment Breakdown
Next up, we have the payment breakdown which shows the monthly contribution required each time.
This is a Formula property as shown below:
round((prop(“Goal ($)”) – prop(“Starting Balance”)) / prop(“Months”))
This is again represented as a Number and put in US Dollars in the database.
- Account Name
This is the name of the bank account where we are creating the savings for the sinking funds.
This has a Text property.
- Amount Saved
Then, we have the Amount Saved which shows the amount of contribution saved till now for the specific sinking fund.
This is pulled up from the Sinking Funds Details database as a rollup which we will discuss later. Once the figures are rolled up onto another column, we use the following formula to calculate the amount saved for each type of sinking fund.
if(prop(“Sinking Funds”) == “Healthcare”, prop(“Healthcare Contribution”), if(prop(“Sinking Funds”) == “Transportation”, prop(“Transportation Contribution”), if(prop(“Sinking Funds”) == “Utilities”, prop(“Utilities Contribution”), if(prop(“Sinking Funds”) == “Events”, prop(“Events Contribution”), if(prop(“Sinking Funds”) == “Family”, prop(“Family Contribution”), if(prop(“Sinking Funds”) == “Education”, prop(“Education Contribution”), toNumber(“”)))))))
In this formula, we essentially check for contributions towards each sinking fund and match the same with the rolled up values from the Sinking Funds Details database to project the required values here.
This is again represented in the US Dollars Number format as shown below.
Note: We will repeat the above process for the Amount Saved as well except we need to pull the values from another property this time, i.e. Amount Saved.
Building Sinking Funds Details Database
Now, let’s create a new database and name it “Sinking Funds Details Database”.
Here’s a quick overview of all the properties to be used in the sinking fund Details database in the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker:
| Properties | Property Type | Purpose |
| Details | Title | Specifies the details related to the sinking fund to be made. |
| Category | Relation | Related to the Sinking Funds Database specifying the category of sinking funds created |
| Date | Date | Reflects the dates when contributions are made towards sinking funds |
| Opening Balance | Number | Specifies the starting balance of the sinking fund at the start of the month (equal to the prior month’s closing balance, except for the first month) |
| Contribution Amount | Number | Specifies the contribution amount made towards sinking fund |
| Closing Balance | Formula | Specifies the closing balance of the sinking fund at the end of the month (equal to Opening Balance + Contribution for the month) |
| Contribution Required (per month) | Rollup | Rolled up from the Sinking Funds Database as contribution amount per month (equal to the total targeted goal/months available for sinking funds) |
Note: We need to create the same database for all 6 types of sinking funds to be contributed such as Education, Events, Family, Healthcare, Transportation, and Utilities.
Why do we need to create the Sinking Funds Details database?
Creating this database will help to form a relationship with other subsequent databases that can help in building the entire sinking fund Tracker in Notion.
We need to create the Sinking Funds Details database in order to create the different sections of the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker as discussed earlier.
This database will also help to create the above sinking fund progressive payments list as the above database is linked to each of the individual types of sinking funds such as Education, Events, Family etc.
Now, let’s learn how to create and add a new property to a Database.
How to add properties to an inline database in Notion?
Once you have created an Inline Database, you can click on “+” at the top right of a new database to add new properties as shown below.
How to assign the property type to a sinking fund Details inline database in Notion?
In order to assign a property type to an inline database in Notion, first click on the property created and then specify a property of your choice as shown below.
There are multiple properties to choose from, such as Text, Number, Select, etc.
Let’s understand each property to create in the sinking fund Details database in the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker database:
- Details
This is the first property that is created while creating a database.
This has a Title property which is used to record the details related to the contribution towards sinking fund for each month etc
- Category
This is related to the Sinking Funds Database while creating this Sinking Fund Tracker.
This stores information related to the type of contribution made towards the settlement of the sinking fund. This has the Relation-Type property.
- Date
This is the next property that is required while creating the sinking fund Details database.
This is the date property that stores the date on which a contribution is made towards the sinking fund to settle the sinking fund payments.
- Opening Balance
This is the next property that has the starting balance of any sinking funds database for a particular month. This is equal to the previous month’s closing balance of any sinking funds.
For the first contribution to be made, we need to manually enter the opening balance as the same amount which we filled as Starting Balance while building the Sinking Funds Database.
👉 This will be the same amount that is reflected in the Starting Balance in the sinking fund Database as discussed earlier.
Afterward, for each subsequent month, we need to copy and paste the previous month’s Closing Balance (after all adjustments) to the next month’s opening balance.
As an example, for the Month of March 15, 2023, as shown above, the opening balance of the Education would be equal to the Closing balance of the Education for the month of March 1, 2023, i.e. $900 (as seen above)
This has a Number property and is in US Dollars.
- Contribution
This is a Number property that calculates the contribution made towards a sinking fund during a month.
This should be atleast equal to the Contribution (each month) as calculated in the Sinking Funds Details database so as to create the minimum savings as required for each month.
Note: This is represented in US Dollars for easy representation purposes as shown below.
- Closing Balance
Next up, we have the Closing Balance which reflects the closing amount of contribution saved at the end of the month.
The formula is as below:
prop(“Opening Balance”) + prop(“Contribution Amount”)
Thus, this is calculated by the opening balance of the fund and contribution added for the month.
Note: This is represented in US Dollars for easy representation purposes as shown below.
- Contribution Required (per month)
This is represented by a Rollup. This is pulled up from Sinking Funds Database from the Payment Breakdown column which reflects the contribution to be made each month.
Let’s now build the Sinking Fund Overivew database.
Building sinking fund Overview Database
This database will help to create an overview of the sinking fund to be repaid which includes the following:
- Type of Sinking Fund
- Goal or the targeted amount of the sinking fund
- Amount Saved towards sinking fund,
- Amount Left,
- Targeted Savings (each time)
- Contribution (in %) and
- Goal Date
Now let’s look at why we need to build the sinking fund Overview Database.
Why do we need to create the sinking fund Overview Database
The sinking fund Overview Database helps us to build relationships and create a functional workflow with all other databases connected to the sinking fund Tracker in Notion.
All the properties specified in this database carry relevance and hold significance when its connected to other databases.
How to add properties to the sinking fund Overview database in the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker
Let’s get to know the properties of this sinking fund overview database one by one.
- Name
This indicates the type of sinking fund being created, such as Healthcare, Transportation, Utilities etc.
This has the default Title property which is created when you create the database for the first time.
- Goal
This is a Formula property that reflects the targeted amount of savings you need to create for the sinking funds.
This formula helps to extract the rolled-up value of the targeted Goal AMount for the specific sinking fund from the sinking fund Database.
This is rolled up from the Sinking Funds Database for the sinking funds.
- Amount Saved
Then we have the Amount Saved which reflects the amount that has been saved to date from the sinking funds that are being created.
This is again a Formula property that helps to extract the rolled-up value of the Amount Saved towards the sinking fund from each of the Sinking Funds Details databases.
Essentially, this formula captures the Amount Saved and contributed to date towards a sinking fund.
Again this is represented in US Dollars in the Number Type property.
Note: We need to repeat the same process for all other properties such as Amount Left, Targeted Savings, Contribution (in %), and Goal Date with the exact process.
Essentially we are linking the database to the Sinking Funds Overview database where we are rolling the necessary properties as required for use in this database.
Building Sinking Funds Summary Database
Next up, we are building the Sinking Funds Database wherein we are finding the following details for each type of sinking fund discussed:
- Goal.
- Amount Saved.
- Amount Left.
- Contribution (in %).
- Goal Date
- Contribution (each month).
Why do we need to build a Sinking Funds Summary Database
We are building this database to build the Sinking Funds Overview Database section on the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker dashboard page.
How to add properties to the Sinking Funds Summary Database
Let’s get to know the properties one by one.
- Name
This signifies the 6 things that we are trying to extract from the database, i.e.:
- Goal
- Amount Saved
- Amount Left
- Contribution (in %)
- Goal Date
- Contribution (each month)
This has a Title type property to define the above things.
- Final Amt
This column helps us to find the details related to the information as described below.
In order to find the Goal, Amount Saved, Amount Left, and Contribution (each month) we are using the following formula:
if(prop(“Name”) == “Goal”, prop(“Healthcare Goal (Rollup)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Amount Saved”, prop(“Healthcare Amount Saved (Rollup)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Amount Left”, prop(“Healthcare Amount Left (Rollup)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Contribution (each month)”, prop(“Healthcare Targeted Savings Each Time”), toNumber(“”)))))
Essentially, we are calculating the values of the Goal, Amount Saved, Amount Left and the Contribution (each month) for all the types of sinking fund specified earlier.
All the above values are obtained using a rollup relating the same to the individual loan details database.
Here’s an example describing the same from the Student Loan database…
| Final Amount | Rolled up the Goal value from the Healthcare Details in the Sinking Funds Overview database |
| Final (in %) | Rolled up the Contribution (in %) from the Healthcare Details in the Sinking Funds Overview database |
| Final (Date) | Rolled up from the Goal Date from the Healthcare Details in the Sinking Funds Overview database |
Note: We need to do the same for each of the sinking fund details such as Transportation, Events, Family, Utilities etc.
In the Final Amt column, we are calculating and picking the values from the desired database.
- Final Amt (in %)
This helps us to calculate the percentage of contribution of Healthcare contributed to date.
Here’s the formula used for the same:
if(prop(“Name”) == “Contribution (in %)”, prop(“Healthcare Contribution (in %)”), toNumber(“”))
In here, essentially we are calculating the total contribution amount as a proportion to the total targeted amount.
This is again represented in the Percent format to get the value in percentage, represented in the Green bar.
- Final (Date)
Finally, we have the Sinking Fund Free By represented by a Formula.
Here’s the formula we would use:
if(prop(“Name”) == “Goal Date”, prop(“Healthcare Goal Date (Rollup)”), “”)
Essentially, this picks up the value of the Sinking Fund Free By Date derived from a rolled up value related to individual Sinking Funds Details databases.
Building Total Sinking Funds Database
Finally, we are building the Total Sinking Funds database.
In this database, we will essentially capture the following things:
- Goal
- Amount Saved
- Amount Left
- Contribution (in %)
Why do we need to create a Total Sinking Funds Database
We are building this database to build the Summary database section in the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker dashboard page as shown above.
How to add properties to the Total sinking fund Database
Let’s get to know the properties to add in the Total sinking fund Database, one by one.
- Name
This calculates the following 4 properties:
- Goal
- Amount Saved
- Amount Left
- Contribution (in %)
This has a Title type property.
- Final Amount
This is a Formula-driven property, where we get to obtain the following things:
- Goal,
- Amount Saved,
- Amount Left and
- Contribution (in %).
Here’s the formula in use:
if(prop(“Name”) == “Goal”, prop(“Goal Amount (Rollup)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Amount Saved”, prop(“Amount Saved (Rollup)”), if(prop(“Name”) == “Amount Left”, prop(“Amount Left (Rollup)”), toNumber(“”))))
From the above formula, we can see that each of the individual properties is obtained from the respective values rolled up from the related databases.
As an example, the Goal, Amount Saved, and Amount Left are obtained from the Sinking Fund Overview database using the respective values from the Sinking Fund Overview database.
Similarly, we need to calculate the Final Amount (in %) to calculate the ontribution (in %).
- Final Amount (in %)
This is again a Formula property used to calculate the contribution (in %) for the total amount contributed with respect to the targeted amount (goal).
Here’s the formula used for the same:
if(prop(“Name”) == “Contribution (in %)”, prop(“Contribution Rollup (in %)”), toNumber(“”))
As you can see, here we have calculated the contribution (in %) considering the total amount contributed rolled up from the Sinking Fund Overview database.
Here we complete building all the required databases for the purpose of building the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker.
Now it’s time to create the primary dashboard.
Building the Primary Dashboard of Notion Sinking Funds Tracker
The primary dashboard of Notion Sinking Funds Tracker consists of 3 sections, i.e.
- Summary
- Sinking Funds Overview
- Sinking Funds Progress
Here’s how we are going to build each part one by one.
- Summary
In order to create a summary of a database, we need to link it to the Total sinking fund database setting it onto a Gallery mode of presentation.
After this, we need to enable the desired properties and hide the remainder to get the view we require.
- Sinking Fund Overview
Next up, we need to set up the Sinking Fund Overview section in the primary dashboard.
For this, we need to link this to the Sinking Funds Summary database setting it in Gallery mode of presentation.
Further, we need to enable the desired properties to get the right presentation as required.
- Sinking Fund Progresss
This is the last part of the primary dashboard in the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker which is linked to the individual sinking fund details database as shown below.
Linking it to the respective Sinking Funds Details part for each of the 6 types of sinking funds, we need to set it in List mode of layout to get the desired output.
Subsequently, we have applied the status where we have set the conditions to check if the contribution for the period is at least equal to the contribution required for each month.
- If the contribution for the period >= Contribution (each month) = âś”
- If the contribution for the period < Contribution (each month) = ❌
In here we have also set the filter for the date to be for the year as shown below:
Note: We need to repeat the same for all the types of sinking funds we have created during the year.
In order to see more contributions, just change the filter to show dates beyond a year as required.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of the preparation of this minimalistic Notion Sinking Funds Tracker.
In order to create the Notion Sinking Funds Tracker, all we need is a database to hold all the details of the sinking fund and a database to calculate the monthly contribution amounts for the sinking fund.