Frequently asked questions

Simple Balance is a free budget app and spending tracker. You use it in a web browser at app.smpl.money, or run your own copy from its public source code. Each answer below is the short version, with a link to the page that has the rest.

Plans, prices and ads have their own questions, answered on Pricing.

What is Simple Balance?#

Simple Balance is a budget app and spending tracker for your own money. It keeps every account on one page, gives each category a budget that can carry over, proposes the payments that repeat, and lets you open any total to see the transactions behind it. The free plan has every feature, for three accounts in use at once, with ads.

How is Simple Balance different from YNAB or Monarch?#

Simple Balance has a free plan at app.smpl.money, which YNAB, Monarch and Quicken Simplifi don’t, and it’s open source, so you can run your own copy. Those three can connect to your bank. Simple Balance has no bank connection today, so you download a file from your bank and import it. How Simple Balance compares puts them side by side, with a source for every fact about the other apps.

Which banks does Simple Balance work with?#

Any bank that lets you download your transactions as a CSV file. Simple Balance doesn’t connect to your bank. You download the file from your bank’s website and bring it in on Import CSV, and nothing in it counts until you’ve checked it on Staged. Importing a statement has the steps.

Can I import an OFX, QFX or QIF file?#

No. Simple Balance reads CSV files only, so if your bank offers a choice, take the CSV. Any CSV with a header row and a date, a payee and an amount works, in any column order, as long as its amounts are plain numbers. A figure with a currency sign in it, such as $12.50, isn’t read.

Is there a phone app?#

There’s no app to install from an app store. Simple Balance runs in your phone’s web browser the same as on a computer, with the sidebar tucked behind the menu button at the top of the screen. Finding your way around says what each screen is for.

Can two people share one set of books?#

No. Everyone who signs up has their own separate books, and there’s no way to share one set between two sign-ins.

Can I track investments and crypto?#

Yes, as accounts. An Investment account is for a brokerage or retirement account, and a Crypto wallet is for a wallet or an exchange. Simple Balance records what moves in and out of them, and a crypto account counts how much of the asset you hold. It doesn’t look up what an investment or a coin is worth today, so a balance is what you’ve recorded. Accounts lists every kind.

Does it work with more than one currency?#

Yes. Each account has its own currency or crypto asset, chosen when you add it. Simple Balance never converts between them at an exchange rate, so you see a separate total for each currency instead of one combined figure. More than one currency explains why.

Can an AI assistant use Simple Balance?#

Yes, through MCP, the Model Context Protocol. Simple Balance has an MCP server at https://app.smpl.money/mcp that an assistant signs in to with OAuth, and you choose what each connection may do: read your records, propose entries for you to approve on Staged, or make changes itself. No assistant can delete your account, set a password or touch billing. Connecting an AI assistant (MCP) has the details.

How do I get my data out?#

Press Export CSV on the Transactions page or on an account’s own page. It works on every plan, and saves the transactions that match the page’s dates and filters as a spreadsheet file, so set the dates to All time first to get everything. Budgets, templates and recurring transactions aren’t in an export. Your account and plan has the rest.

How do I delete my account?#

At the bottom of Settings, Delete this account removes everything in it, from your accounts and transactions to every connected AI assistant. It happens at once and can’t be undone, so export anything you want to keep first. Your account and plan has the steps.

Is Simple Balance open source?#

Yes. Its code is public on GitHub under the AGPL-3.0 license, and the copy at app.smpl.money is the same product.

Can I run Simple Balance on my own computer or server?#

Yes, for free, with no plan, no account limit and no ads. You install it, put HTTPS in front of it, and back it up and upgrade it yourself. Self-hosting starts there, and you can move your transactions between your copy and app.smpl.money later, in either direction.

How do I get help?#

Email info@smpl.money. If you’re new, start with Getting started, which goes from signing up to seeing where your money went in four steps.