Free template
Cost savings tracker
A cost savings tracker is the list of every improvement project with what it saves, kept the same way for every project so the total means something. The two numbers that matter are the cost per year before and after the change; the difference is the annual saving. Savings are usually split into hard savings, where spending goes down and Finance can see it in the accounts, and soft savings, where a cost is avoided or time is freed but nobody pays less yet. A tracker earns its keep when Finance checks each saving against the books before it is reported, so the CI team and the controller quote the same figure. Page 1 of this template is the log: project, area and owner, category, hard or soft, cost per year before and after, annual savings, one-time cost, payback in months, when the saving starts, and Finance's decision with the verified amount. Page 2 explains hard and soft savings with examples, has a worked example and a month-by-month glide path against the target. The Excel version works out the savings, payback and status, totals claimed against verified savings by type and category, and draws the glide path of verified savings against the year's target.
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
When to use it
When to use a cost savings tracker
- When a CI program has to show what it saved, not just how many projects it closed.
- When the savings the engineers report and the savings Finance can find are different numbers.
- To track a yearly savings target month by month.
- Before a budget review, to separate the savings that are real from the ones still waiting to be checked.
How to fill it in
- 1
Agree the rules with Finance
What counts as hard, which labor and scrap rates to use, when a saving starts and how many months it is counted. Write them on page 2.
- 2
Log the project
Owner, area, category and whether the saving is hard or soft. One row per project, even small ones.
- 3
Write the cost before and after
Cost per year as it was and as it is now, from real data: scrap reports, overtime hours, invoices. Annual savings is the difference.
- 4
Add the one-time cost
What the change cost to make: a fixture, a part, contractor hours. Payback in months = one-time cost ÷ annual savings × 12.
- 5
Get Finance to verify it
Finance checks the numbers against the accounts and marks the saving verified or rejected, with the amount they accept.
- 6
Track the glide path
Each month, verified savings to date against the target to date. The gap shows early whether the year's target is in reach.
A filled-in example
Illustrative, not a benchmarkAn example: one project in a machining plant (illustrative numbers).
- Before: 1,200 parts scrapped a month at $8.50 each, $122,400 a year.
- After a new fixture: 400 a month, $40,800 a year. Annual savings $81,600, hard, because less material is bought.
- The fixture cost $12,000: payback = $12,000 ÷ $81,600 × 12 = 1.8 months.
- The same project freed 5 hours a week of searching after 5S: 5 × 52 × $32 = $8,320 a year, logged as soft because nobody is paid fewer hours.
Finance checked the scrap cost against the material account and verified the $81,600. The $8,320 stayed in the soft column and was not counted toward the hard savings target.
Common mistakes
Mixing hard and soft
Adding freed hours to cash savings makes a total Finance will not accept. Keep two columns and report them apart.
No baseline
A saving with no cost before the change is a guess. Take the baseline from real data before the work starts.
Counting a saving forever
Agree how long a saving is counted, often 12 months from its start, so the same project does not inflate every year's total.
Reporting before Finance checks
Unverified savings are claims. Report them separately until Finance has signed them off.
Download the template
Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.
Run this template in LeanSuite
In LeanSuite every improvement project and its savings sit in one portfolio, workflow rules can require Finance to sign off on savings before a project closes, and hard and soft savings, cost avoidance and CapEx are tracked separately.
In the lean glossary
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FAQ
Cost savings tracker: common questions
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A shift handover sheet, a red tag log, a changeover checklist for one machine: if your team uses it on the floor, ask.