Keep Above
A sinking funds app that works them out for you
A sinking fund is money set aside a little at a time for a bill that comes later. Keep Above treats every recurring bill you enter as one: it works out how much would need to be set aside by now for that bill to be covered when it lands, and projects those set-asides beside your balance, day by day. Every app in the table has its own word for the same idea, and the two columns that matter are who works out the amount, and whether the money is projected forward or tracked as a total.
Written and maintained by Manandai Ltd, the company that makes Keep Above. This is our comparison, not an independent review. No app here is scored, rated or ranked. How we compare.
Every competitor cell is taken from that app's own pages, quoted where a quote exists. The projected-or-tracked column applies one rule strictly: the vendor's own documentation has to describe the set-aside money in a forward view, not just a current balance or a balance that rolls into next month.
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Last verified 22 September 2026What should a sinking funds app do?
Every app here lets you put money aside for a bill that is not due yet. That is table stakes, and a page that stopped there would tell you nothing. So the table asks two harder questions.
First, who works out the amount. In some apps you decide what goes into the pot each month. In others you set a total and a date and the app divides. In Keep Above the app works it out from the bill and its date, and you set nothing.
Second, whether the money is projected forward or tracked as a total. A balance you can see today, or a balance that carries into next month, is tracked. A figure that appears in a future view, on a future date, is projected. Of the ten apps below, two document the second: Keep Above, and Monarch on the goal's own chart.
| What it calls it | Who works out the amount | Projected forward, or tracked? | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Budget | "Budget templates", which the vendor labels experimental. | Some template types compute an amount, for example toward a date. | Tracked. Its separate Balance Forecast report, also experimental, is not documented as including template or category balances. | docs |
| Cashew | "Goals". | You set it. | Tracked, as progress toward the goal. | README |
| EveryDollar | "Funds". | You set the planned amount each month; the balance rolls over. | Tracked; the balance carries month to month. | help centre |
| Goodbudget | "Envelopes", including Annual and Goal envelopes. | You set the total and due date; Goodbudget divides it per budget period. | Tracked, as a running balance. | help centre |
| Harbourline | "Set aside". | Its pages do not state whether the app calculates the figure or you enter it. | Tracked; its 13-week look-ahead is about bills, not the set-aside money. | site |
| Keep Above | Reserved funds. | The app, from each bill and its date. | Projected, day by day with the balance, up to 30 years. | support |
| Monarch | "Save up goals". | You set a target, a date and a monthly contribution; Monarch computes status and a projection. | Projected, on the goal's own timeline chart. | help centre |
| Plum | "Pockets". The money actually moves into the Pocket, held with a UK bank. | One automation is user-set, another is Plum-calculated. | Tracked, as a balance and progress. Its Pockets pages state nothing about a forward view. | help centre |
| Toshl | No named feature; its own advice is a separate account per goal, and budgets can roll a surplus or deficit into the next period. | You set it. | Tracked. Its Estimates extrapolate past trends and are not documented as including set-aside money. | blog |
| YNAB | "Targets". | You set the total and date; YNAB computes the per-period amount. | Tracked. Money in hand can be assigned to future months; future income is not. | site |
Is a savings pot the same thing as a sinking fund?
A Goodbudget envelope, an EveryDollar fund, a YNAB target, a Monarch goal, a Cashew goal and a Keep Above reserved fund are all labels on money that stays in your own bank account. A Plum Pocket is a place the money actually moves to, held on trust with a UK bank. That is a different product, and it sits in the table with that said rather than left out.
How does Keep Above work out what to set aside?
You do not create a sinking fund in Keep Above. You enter a bill, with its amount and when it falls due, and the reserved fund follows from that: the app works out how much would need to be set aside by today for the bill to be covered when it lands, and carries that figure forward day by day alongside your balance.
The safe line is the sum of those. It is the balance you would need right now to cover every bill still coming, and how far your balance sits from it is the figure the app is built around. The sinking funds per pay worksheet does the same arithmetic on paper if you would rather see it before installing anything.
What do you give up with a manual sinking-fund app?
You cannot move money between reserved funds, because they are not pots; they are answers. You cannot see what a fund has taken in and paid out over time, because Keep Above keeps no history. And if the amount the app works out is not the amount you want to set aside, the only lever is the bill itself. Envelope apps give you all three, at the cost of doing the arithmetic yourself.
Our comparison, not a review. Every competitor fact here is taken from that app's own pages on the date shown. Projections described here are conditional on the figures a person enters and on nothing changing. This page takes no account of your circumstances. Nothing here is financial advice.
Keep Above
Enter each bill and your income once, and keep your balance current now and then. Keep Above works out the balance you would need to cover everything coming, and projects your balance and your sinking funds — which it calls reserved funds — forward. No bank connection.
Common questions
What is a sinking fund?
Money set aside a little at a time for a bill that comes later, so that when the annual insurance or the quarterly rates arrive the money is already there. Every app in the table has its own word for it: envelopes, funds, targets, goals, pockets, reserved funds.
Which budgeting apps have sinking funds?
All ten in the table let you set money aside for a later bill. They differ on who works out the amount, and on whether the money is projected forward or shown as a current total. Of the ten, Monarch and Keep Above document a forward projection, Monarch on the goal's own chart and Keep Above alongside the daily balance.
Does Keep Above project sinking funds forward?
Yes. Each reserved fund is worked out from a bill and its date and carried forward day by day with your balance, up to 30 years, on the free plan and on Premium alike.
What is the difference between a sinking fund and a savings goal?
In most apps, nothing structural: a goal is a sinking fund with a name. The distinction that matters on this page is who works out the amount and whether it is projected forward, and the table records that per app rather than the label.