How to Use the Financial Goal Tracker

Welcome to the Financial Goal Tracker.

This app helps you set a savings goal, record contributions, withdrawals, and gains, and compare your progress against your plan over time.

If you need to make a payment for your subscription, please send payment via PayPal to fintrackerpayments@yahoo.com. Be sure to include enough information in the payment note so it can be matched to your account.

Sample accounts have been created for you so you can explore the tiers for yourself before fully setting up your own account. You can log in with Tier1, Tier2, and Tier3, and each sample account uses the password 1111.

Each profile has its own login, settings, dashboard, and entry history.

Getting started

To begin, create a profile with a username and password on the registration page.

After signup, the app sends you to Settings so you can adjust your tracker before you start using it.

Usernames must be 3 to 32 characters and may use letters, numbers, dots, underscores, or hyphens.

Passwords must be at least 4 characters long.

If you already have a profile, sign in on the login page.

Once you are signed in, the app opens your personal tracker dashboard and your profile-specific backend.

If a profile has been deactivated by an admin, it cannot log in until it is reactivated.

Set up your tracker

Your main setup happens on the Settings page.

There, you can update your account details and configure how the tracker measures progress.

The tracker config includes your goal amount, goal start date, goal length in years, initial monthly target per person, annual increase rate, the day your week starts on, the number of contributors, and each contributor’s name.

The app supports either one contributor or two contributors.

If you already have saved entries for contributor 2, the app will block switching down to one person until those entries are removed; in that case, you can either delete those entries or simply rename the second contributor instead.

The settings you enter are what drive the tracker’s pacing math.

The app uses your goal start date, goal length, starting monthly target per person, and annual increase rate to calculate the target for each month and the “target by today” number shown on the dashboard.

Your chosen week-start day affects weekly comparisons.

Add and manage entries

Use the Backend page whenever you want to add or manage your financial entries.

The backend is the entry manager for your profile.

You can add three kinds of entries: contribution, withdrawal, and interest.

Each entry includes a date, type, contributor, and amount.

When entering a withdrawal, type the amount as a positive number.

The app converts it internally into a negative value for tracking.

Interest entries are treated separately from contributor deposits and withdrawals.

Your historic entry list appears on the same backend page, with the newest entries shown at the top.

The page also gives you quick row counts for total entries, contribution rows, withdrawal rows, and interest rows.

You can delete individual entries at any time from the list.

A simple routine works best: update the backend whenever you make a deposit, record a gain, or log a withdrawal, then return to the main tracker page to see your charts refresh around the new totals and pace.

The dashboard is designed to reflect your latest saved entries.

Understanding the main dashboard

The dashboard starts with a summary area and progress cards.

At the top, you’ll see key numbers such as your overall goal, saved so far, target by today, total contributions, total gains, and the current monthly target per person.

The dashboard also shows a motivational message and status badges based on how your current pace looks.

The first dashboard section is Contribution balance & pace.

This section is there to show who has contributed more so far and how your pace compares over time.

It includes a contribution-only comparison view and pacing charts that can be toggled between ranges like week, month, and year, along with line-chart views for contributor-by-contributor versus combined progress.

The next section is Goal progress, gains, and momentum.

This area gives you the big-picture view.

You’ll see a goal progress chart showing how much has been saved versus the goal, a principal-versus-gains view so you can separate your own contributions from growth, and a current-month momentum gauge that compares actual progress with where you should be by this point in the month.

The momentum gauge can be switched between both contributors together or each contributor individually.

The gauge message changes based on whether you are ahead of pace, close to pace, behind pace, or not yet in an active target period.

The final section is Streaks & consistency.

This part tracks whether each contributor has met target in the three most recent completed months.

A three-month streak means all three completed months hit target with no shortfall.

The current month is shown as in progress until the month finishes.

A good everyday workflow

A practical way to use the app is to set your goal and contributor names first, then enter new deposits, withdrawals, and gains in the backend as they happen.

After that, use the main dashboard to answer the big questions: how much has been saved, how much of that is principal versus gains, whether you are on pace by today, and whether your current month is running ahead or behind target.

If you use two contributors, the dashboard helps you view progress both individually and together.

That makes it useful for couples, partners, or any two-person saving plan where both people want their own names but also want a shared long-term target.

Backing up your data

The backend includes tools to download your entries, upload a saved entries file, and clear all entries for a profile.

Upload replaces the current entry set with the file you choose, and clear removes everything for that profile after a confirmation prompt.

A good habit is to download your entries JSON regularly, especially after major updates.

That gives you a simple backup copy you can store elsewhere and re-upload later if needed.

Since the upload feature replaces the current entries, it is best used carefully and only with a file you trust.

Managing your profile

On the Settings page, you can change your username, keep your current password, or set a new password.

You can also permanently delete your account from the same page, although the app will not allow deletion of the last remaining profile in the system.

Helpful tips

If you are just starting, begin with Settings first, not the backend.

Entering a clear goal, realistic monthly target, and correct contributor names makes the rest of the tracker much easier to read.

If you log interest separately from contributions, the dashboard can give you a much clearer picture of what portion of your progress came from your own deposits and what portion came from gains.

If you want cleaner privacy, use a non-identifying username and contributor names that make sense to you without exposing personal information.

The app works fine with custom names, and those names flow through both the backend and the dashboard views.