Restricted Funds & Grant Tracker Spreadsheet
This spreadsheet separates the money in the bank that is genuinely yours to spend from the money you are only holding for somebody else.
Restricted money is the strangest thing in a small charity’s accounts. It arrives in the same bank account as everything else, it makes the balance look healthy, and almost none of it can be spent on the thing that is actually keeping anybody awake at night.
What is in it
- Seven linked tabs, from Start Here through to a one-screen Overview.
- Setup — four numbers, and one of them is simply the bank statement.
- Funds — 40 rows. One per grant, typed once, with the funding period.
- Spending — 600 rows. One per payment, checked against the period of the fund it was charged to.
- By Fund — what is left in each grant, how long is left, and what you would have to spend every month to use it.
- What Is Actually Free — the tab you take to a trustees’ meeting.
Who it is for
Any organisation holding money that arrived with conditions attached: small charities, clubs and associations, school funds, community groups, parish councils, research budgets, anyone with a funder who said what the money was for.
The worked example
In the worked year the bank statement says $89,900, but $66,490 of that is restricted money not yet spent, so what is actually free is $23,410. The trustees’ own reserves policy asks for $28,800 — three months of running costs — which leaves the charity $5,390 short and holding 2.4 months of cover, not the nine months the bank balance appears to promise.
Behind that sit 11 live grants: $179,100 awarded, $114,245 spent, $64,855 still to spend, 63.8% of all grant money used. Four of those grants have a spend-by date inside 90 days and still hold $30,601 between them; the tightest is 13 days away. To use every restricted dollar in time the charity would have to spend $23,624 a month, and it has never spent half that. Two funds have already been overspent by $1,635 between them, quietly out of the free balance.
How it works
Compatible with Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install.
The download has two workbooks: one with the example above already filled in, so you can see what every column expects, and the same file completely blank for your own figures. A plain-English guide comes as a PDF. Order on WhatsApp — $9
Orders are taken on WhatsApp: message me and I’ll send the payment details, then the files as soon as the payment is confirmed.
A look inside the file
Questions people actually ask
How do I work out how much of our bank balance we can actually spend?
You list every grant and every payment against it, and the file takes the restricted money not yet spent off the bank statement to leave what is genuinely free. In the worked year the statement said $89,900, restricted money not yet spent was $66,490, and what was actually free was $23,410 — against a reserves policy of $28,800, a shortfall of $5,390 and just 2.4 months of cover. Measured against the bank balance the same charity looks like it holds nine months.
We are not a charity — does it still apply?
It does not care what you are: any organisation holding money that arrived with conditions has exactly this problem — a club, a school fund, a community group, a research budget, a parish council. The test for restricted is simple: if a funder said what it was for, it is restricted, whatever they called it — a grant, an award, a donation or a contract. It holds 40 funds and 600 spending rows across seven linked tabs.
Where do the figures come from, and what if our year end is not June?
Four numbers in Setup, one of which is simply the bank statement, then each grant typed once on the Funds tab and one row per payment on Spending — all of it off paperwork you already have. Put your own year end in Setup: every day count in the file is measured from it, so the whole workbook moves with you. Every payment is then checked against the funding period of the fund it was charged to, and anything dated after the spend-by date or before the money arrived is flagged.
Does it work in Google Sheets or do I need Excel?
Both — it is built as .xlsx for Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac, and it loads into Google Sheets through File then Import then Upload. LibreOffice opens it too. No macros, no add-ons, no account to create, nothing to install and no subscription: you download the file and it is yours.
Does it do fund accounting?
No, and it is not trying to — it sits alongside your accounts and answers the two questions they are slowest at: how much is left, and how long is left. It is not a bookkeeping package, not a grant application or fundraising tool, not payroll, invoicing or gift aid, and not tax, audit or legal advice. Nothing syncs and nothing logs in, and I never ask for a password, your bank or a funder portal. In the worked year four grants had deadlines inside 90 days holding $30,601 unspent, the tightest was 13 days away, and two funds were already overspent by $1,635 between them.
Need it built around your business?
This file assumes grants from named funders, each with a purpose and a spend-by date, all sitting in one bank account. If your money arrives differently — multi-year awards drawn down in instalments against claims, a service contract paid quarterly in arrears, appeal donations where the restriction is the donor’s own wording rather than a funding agreement, or funds shared across two organisations — I can build the same arithmetic around the conditions your money actually carries.
All other templates are listed on the Excel & Google Sheets Templates page.