How savings goals work

A savings goal is a plan, not an account. It names what some money is for — an emergency fund, a trip, Christmas — and points at the account where that money already sits. You don’t need to open a new account for it, and nothing moves just because a goal exists.

Setting one up

On a computer, choose + Add › Goal at the top of any page; on a phone, the + at the top of the Goals page. An empty Goals page has a New goal button of its own. A goal asks for:

• A name, and a savings category to file its money under — a new one named after the goal, or one you already have.
• To account, where the savings are kept. This one is required, even if it is a cash account you keep by hand: saved money is always sitting somewhere.
• From account, where the money comes from. Choosing one sets up a standing transfer. Leave it out and the schedule becomes deposits straight into the savings account — they show on your calendar, but your budget’s Savings line only counts money it watches leave another account.
• Target and By, both optional. With no target the goal simply tracks a running balance.
• The schedule: how much each time, when it starts and how often. Every goal has one, and its Per month figure is worked out from it, so there is only ever one answer to “how much a month.”

If the app can see savings accounts and you have no goals yet, the page offers them as a list with nothing ticked. Tick only the accounts that hold money you are saving on purpose; each one you tick becomes a goal for that whole account.

What counts as saved

When an account holds one goal, the goal’s saved amount is the account’s balance, read as it changes. The card says Kept in.

When an account holds two or more goals, each one is a slice of it — the card says Part of — and each slice grows with the contributions assigned to that goal. That keeps the same money from being counted twice. It also means a slice can start lower than you expect, until your earlier transfers are assigned to it. A transfer scheduled for a later month isn’t in the slice until that month comes.

The figure at the top of the page, “Saved toward goals,” adds up the goals that have a target, each counted only up to its own target, and compares that with the targets. Money in goals with no target is real savings too; it is shown on its own line beneath, so it never makes the percentage look further along than it is.

Pace

Each card says when the goal will be done at the pace it is set to — “Done by Nov 2027 at this pace.” The count starts with this month, or with next month once this month’s planned contribution is in, so a month you have already paid is never counted twice. A small extra deposit on its own doesn’t count as the month’s contribution while the planned one is still on its way.

• On track: it finishes by its By date.
• On plan: it has no By date, and it has a monthly amount behind it.
• Watch: at this pace it finishes after its By date. The card then suggests the monthly amount that would make it — for example, “$69 a month finishes by Dec 1” — rounded up to whole dollars so it never falls short, and Adjust opens the goal so you can change its schedule.

A paused goal, or one with no target, has no pace to judge.

This month’s contributions

Every savings movement dated this month is listed, marked Added once it has gone through and Scheduled until then. When the money goes to an account holding a single goal, the app usually assigns it for you. When the account holds several goals, or the transfer happened before the goal existed, the row asks which goal it was for. Pick one, or change it back, at any time. Add money on a card opens a new transfer into that goal’s account, already assigned to that goal, even when the account holds several; you choose where the money comes from.

Transfers between your own accounts are never spending or income — see Transfers between your own accounts.

Linking a transfer you already have

If you were saving before you set up the goal, the standing transfer may not be tied to it yet. Link a transfer lists the schedules that move money toward savings but aren’t tied to a goal, and you pick the goal each one funds. Each goal has one schedule, so a goal that already has one isn’t offered, and nothing is saved until you press Link.

Where it’s kept, and the funding order

Where it’s kept shows each account behind your goals, split by goal, and any money no goal claims shown as not assigned. If the goals on an account claim more than it holds, the page says so in amber; nothing is moved to make it fit.

Funding order is the order your goals are listed in — which matters most when a month can’t cover all of them. It never moves money on its own.

Pause, archive and delete

• Pause stops the goal asking for its monthly amount in your budget, and keeps everything else. Resume brings it back.
• Archive is for a goal you have finished. It moves to the archived list at the foot of the page with its history, and stops its monthly claim. Restore brings it back.
• Neither pause nor archive stops the transfer behind the goal. Its schedule stays on Bills & Income until you change it there. Each of the four can be undone from the message that appears.
• Delete asks first, because it removes the goal and its schedule, including any transfers that haven’t happened yet. Transfers that have already gone through stay where they are, and so does the goal’s savings category.

A Spouse with Read Only access sees every goal and figure here, but none of the buttons that change them.