News & Updates

BudgetArk is on Google Play

The Android closed test is over. BudgetArk is now in production on Google Play, so anyone can install it from the store without joining a group or opting in to anything. It is the same app as on iOS: the same five tabs, the same encrypted on-device storage with no account and no server, the same six languages, free with no subscription - plus the Android home-screen Quick Entry widget. If you were in the closed test there is nothing to do; the production release reaches your phone as a normal update and your data stays where it is. Thank you to everyone who tested and sent feedback - the bank-connection work in v1.11.1 below came straight out of those reports.

Cards, connected

Version 1.11.1 is about the bank connections you already have, and it starts with credit cards. A card on the Debts tab only follows the bank once it is linked to the matching bank account, and until now the only place to do that was inside the card's editor, so a connected card could sit with a balance that never moved. The bank connection wizard and Profile → Bank Connections now offer a Cards on Debts choice right beside the Bridge accounts, point out accounts that look like credit cards, and push the bank's balance onto the card the moment you pick it. One account feeds one card, and a card never doubles as a Bridge balance. The card keep-alive watch shows its work, too: a watched card keeps its status dot while collapsed (green when all is fine), the expanded card says when it was last used and whether a connected account stamps that for you, the editor shows a live "last used · next use by" line as you change the window, and a long-overdue card keeps getting its weekly reminder instead of going quiet after four weeks.

Bank connections now tell you what is going on. Sync now answers every tap - synced just now, already synced with the time the next sync opens, the provider asked us to slow down, or reconnect needed - instead of a spinner that goes quiet. Each account shows the date of the bank's own data, and a balance that has not moved in two days is flagged as stale, so you can tell a sleepy bridge from a bank that wants a fresh login. A connection that needs attention raises a banner on the Bridge and Budget tabs that opens the manager, with Later to hide it for the session. Fixing a stuck bank is one tap: a troubled connection's Sync now skips the 15-minute cooldown, and if the SimpleFIN Bridge stops accepting a connection you can paste a new setup token right in the manager to reconnect it in place - accounts, card links, and imported history all stay. And if importing transactions fails partway through a sync, the pass still updates your Bridge and card balances and shows the error instead of silently stalling.

The Review Inbox never loses a transaction silently anymore. Sync now says how many rows it skipped and how many your rules auto-approved, and a new Recently skipped list holds every row that left the inbox without being approved in the last 30 days, with the reason - you skipped it, an Always Skip rule, your partner's phone, a match to something already reviewed, or a pending charge the bank stopped reporting - and a Restore button. A restored row is never skipped automatically again. Paychecks also stop piling on top of the plan: a recurring income can name its earner and how often they are paid, the inbox asks whose paycheck a deposit is (and remembers the payroll merchant), and the month blends what has landed with the estimate for the checks still to come - after the first of two checks half the estimate still counts, and once both arrive the month shows what was really paid. The per-person report under Profile → People shows each earner's income beside their spending, with a net line.

The Profile tab is shorter with nothing taken away: thirteen section cards are now eight. People, Businesses, and Help are one row each, with their reports, the tab-by-tab tour, the Update spotlight, and Redo onboarding inside the sheets they open. Categories, People, and Businesses share one Organize header, the Ship's Log line rides on your name card, Automatic Backups joined the Export & Backups sheet, Bank Connections says how many transactions are waiting in the inbox, Partner Sync is a single Sync Now row with an Auto pill and a ⋯ menu for Home Wi-Fi and Unpair, and Settings folds up behind a More settings row with Check for Updates always showing. On the Bridge, the Purchase Plans card opens on just its combined progress bar, with the individual plans behind a Show plans tap. This update arrives over the air on every 1.11.0 install - no store update needed.

Welcome aboard, in your language

Version 1.11.0 is out on the App Store and Google Play. It is the biggest change since launch that touches no numbers at all: BudgetArk now speaks six languages. English is joined by German, Russian, Ukrainian, Swedish, and Norwegian. Every screen, modal, and card across the five tabs, onboarding, achievements, the provider setup guides, the quick-start templates, and the data disclosures follow the language you choose. A new Language row in Profile → Settings, right beside Currency, offers Automatic (follows your phone, falls back to English) plus the six languages. Each one is listed in the language the app is currently showing, with its own name underneath, so if you ever land in a language you cannot read you can still find your way back. Switching re-renders every tab on the spot, re-issues pending reminders in the new language, and refreshes the Android widget; the iOS widget follows your phone's language. The setting stays on your device: it is never synced to a partner or included in an export.

The details were worked through rather than left to a machine - informal address throughout, proper one / few / many plurals for Russian and Ukrainian, and global search that matches the translated name of a category or debt as well as the original. A few things stay in English by design: the Captain's Course lessons (the reader says so), the US-only tax tools, release notes, theme names, and the sheet and column names in exported spreadsheets, so a workbook still round-trips.

Finding your way around gets easier too. Profile → Help has a new Feature guide: a searchable directory of every feature on your install, grouped by tab. Tap one to see where it lives, a few numbered steps, and a Try it button that takes you straight there. The old Feature tour is now the Update spotlight and only shows what is new in the current release, so it stops replaying slides you have already seen. Profile → Data folds six rows into two: Export (encrypted backup or spreadsheet) and Import (backup file, pasted backup text, spreadsheet, or bank statement). Every date picker in the app - the entry form's one-off date and recurring day, a debt's due day, and the Bill Calendar - now shares one proper calendar grid with a weekday header. That fixes the Bill Calendar's misaligned columns and a day-of-month that could land a bill on the wrong day west of UTC, and it keeps the 29th through 31st pickable in a short month.

Four bank-connection fixes ride along, all from user reports. Automatic sync used to arm itself only after you had visited the Connections section of the Profile tab, so a phone that never opened that screen could go days without a refresh; it now arms at launch every time (every six hours automatically, fifteen minutes between manual pulls, as before). A pending charge that posted at a slightly different amount - a tip added at settlement, say - was landing in the inbox twice; the app now recognises the posted twin, corrects an approved entry to the settled amount unless you have edited it yourself, and quietly retires pending rows the bank stops listing without ever swallowing a charge that posts late. The connection wizard's Done screen no longer freezes the app, and the Review Inbox keeps your place after Approve or Skip instead of jumping to the bottom. Because the language support adds native modules, this release comes through the App Store and Google Play rather than over the air - watch for the update prompt.

Every cent counts

A user on a comma-decimal keyboard could not add an expense under one unit of currency: the Add Entry form read "0,94" as 0 and kept the button disabled, and "12,50" was silently saved as 12. Every typed money field in the app - entry amounts, 401(k) contributions and 1099 set-asides, debt balances, rates and minimums, pay and repayment amounts, asset balances, share counts and cost basis, emergency-fund contributions, category limits, and the Hull step's extra payment and milestone targets - now understands a comma as the decimal separator. The blank-input behaviour of every field is unchanged, so validation works exactly as it did. This update arrives over the air on every 1.10 install - no App Store update needed.

Straight answers

The Hull step's Avalanche-vs-Snowball comparison could say "Not solvable" with a large interest total sitting underneath it - the amount that had accrued before the simulation gave up, which meant nothing. Now the interest column shows a dash for any plan that never finishes, and a note underneath explains why: which debt's minimum payment does not cover its monthly interest (or has no minimum logged at all), and what to do about it - raise the minimum or add an extra payment. When several debts are underwater it names them all.

The Purchase Plans projection chart has left the Bridge card. Every plan row there already prints its ready date, and the lines are straight, so on a glanceable dashboard it was height without information. It still lives in the Charts tab's Plan a Purchase tool, where comparing "one at a time" with "split evenly" is worth a picture. Dependency updates for a couple of tooling advisories round it out; none of them touch the app you install. This update arrives over the air on every 1.10 install - no App Store update needed.

Bring in your history

Bank connections are great from the day you connect, but everything before that lived only in your bank's website. Now you can bring it in: Profile → Data → Import Bank Statement takes a CSV downloaded from any bank and routes its rows through the same Review Inbox as a live sync. The app finds the header row on its own (Bank of America's summary block and Wells Fargo's headerless files included), guesses which columns are the date, description, and amount, and shows a live preview so you can correct it before anything is imported. Once you confirm a layout for a bank, it's remembered for next time. Re-importing an overlapping range never creates duplicates, and nothing touches your budget until you approve it - same as always.

Reviewing months of statement rows at once needed a faster inbox, so it gained a Group by Vendor view: every charge from the same place lands in one group, and a single "Approve all as…" files the lot under one category, with an optional "Always file this vendor here" that sweeps the rest of the inbox too. Imported card and loan payments can now be filed against a debt instead of a bill - pick the debt and Approve becomes Log Payment, which reduces the balance and adds the payment to the Debts tab without double counting it in the budget. If you already logged that payment from the due-day reminder, the app spots the match and quietly retires the bank's copy.

Two smaller things: exported Excel workbooks are easier to read, with columns sized to fit, money columns formatted with thousands separators, and each month's transactions collapsible under its subtotal (the file still imports back in unchanged). And the day picker on the entry form is now a real calendar with weekday columns, so "which Tuesday" no longer means counting. This update arrives over the air on every 1.10 install - no App Store update needed.

Anyone can join the Android closed test

The Android build has been in closed testing with a hand-kept list of testers. That list is now a Google Group anyone can join, so there is no waiting to be added: join the tester group, become a tester on the Play opt-in page, and install from Google Play - all with the same Google account you use on the Play Store. The full steps are on the home page. Testing helps the public launch arrive sooner, and bug reports and ideas are welcome through Send Feedback on the Profile tab.

Update, October 15: the closed test has ended and BudgetArk is on Google Play for everyone.

Banks that keep up, plans that add up, and lump sum vs. monthly

Two halves to this one. On the bank side, a connected account can now land in any Bridge category - 401k, investment, HSA, not just checking - and the app guesses the right one from the bank's own account name. If a bank on your SimpleFIN bridge needs a fresh login, BudgetArk now says so instead of quietly reporting "last synced 2 hours ago", and when the bank comes back it re-imports the gap on its own (up to 90 days). Two phones on the same bank no longer ask you to review the same transactions twice: approvals and skips travel with partner sync. Also fixed: the wizard's Connected screen could freeze the app on Done, and the setup screen's take-home pay and rent fields no longer hide behind the keyboard.

On the planning side, Purchase Plans add up: a summary of everything saved and still to go, snowball-style ordering, one monthly amount split across plans or poured into one at a time, a stacked savings chart, cost per use, what-if chips, and a line showing what the same money would do on your highest-rate debt. The Review Inbox can send a transfer straight to a plan's balance, offers "Always approve as…" after three matching approvals, and flags unusually large charges. The Bridge shows what a savings account earns at its APY, a new Subscription Detective finds recurring charges with no bill on file, and People gains Settle Up for monthly shared expenses. And the Compound Interest Calculator can now compare a lump sum invested once against monthly contributions - what each becomes, what both become together, and the year the monthly plan overtakes the lump sum. The same comparison is live in the compound interest calculator on this site.

Bills that settle themselves, cards that track themselves, and sturdier sync

Bills that change every month now settle themselves. Set electric or water up once with your best estimate; when the real charge arrives - from your bank or typed in with the new "Log actual" button - file it against the bill and the actual replaces the estimate everywhere, with no double counting. Tick "Always do this" and next month's charge is filed automatically; when actuals drift, editing the bill offers the three-month average in one tap. The Review Inbox can even spot a merchant that has charged monthly for three months and offer to create the bill for you. Credit cards on the Debts tab can now follow the connected bank account behind them, so the balance updates after every sync - with a switch to turn mirroring off, and the payoff ring never going negative when you charge more than the original balance.

The Budget tab learned a lot: a Limits sheet that sets every category at once ("Copy last month", "Use 3-month averages"), pace marks on every limited category that turn amber when you're spending faster than the month allows, a Spending Pace card that says so plainly, and real dates on entries instead of everything landing on the 15th. The Add Entry form remembers descriptions you've used, switches category when it recognises a name, and has "Save + another"; a "+ New" pill creates a category on the spot, built-in categories can be hidden, and an expense can be split across several people with per-person totals that still add up. The Bridge gains a "This month" card with your spending pace, last three entries, and a quick add. New installs open with the mission statement, can start from a quick-start budget template (single, couple, debt-heavy, zero-based) sized to your pay and rent, and are asked about Tracking Reminders during setup. After the occasional win, a small Tip Jar note explains that tips are optional and unlock nothing.

Under the hood, a deep pass over storage, sync, and restore. Fixed: a save on the Budget or Bridge tab could undo what a partner or bank sync had just written; removed budget limits never reached a partner's phone; restoring a backup now tells the next sync to start from scratch; and on Android, exporting a backup over about 1 MB could stall the app - backups are now shared as files with no size limit. Bank transactions match their posted versions even when the bank rewrites the description, spreadsheet exports carry keep-alive settings, applied payment amounts, and fund holdings, lesson progress rides along in backups, the app asks before the first exchange-rate fetch, storage errors now show a message where they happen, and plaintext export files are deleted the moment the share sheet closes. About 600 new automated checks cover storage, sync, bank import, and every calculator. This one is a store update on both platforms.

Change your bank account choices anytime

The account mapping you picked when you first connected a bank was one-shot - not anymore. Every linked account in the Connections manager now has its own "Import transactions" switch and "Balance updates" picker, so you can map an account to the Bridge (or create a new one inline) whenever you like. Also fixed: pending bank transactions that occasionally resurfaced as duplicates once they posted, and the Tip Jar can now log a completed tip as a Giving entry.

Emergency fund, linked to your real savings

Mark one or more savings accounts on the Bridge as your emergency fund and BudgetArk reads the fund's value straight from those balances - kept current by bank-connection updates. The Keel and Deck milestones in Build Your Ark, the Galley Stocked badge, the Budget tab, and the Charts emergency-fund plan all show the same number. Backups and partner sync carry the designation too.

Stability & security fixes - and Android enters closed testing

Fixes an onboarding freeze on some iPhones, storage failures at startup that could re-run onboarding or blank the Profile tab, and patches dependency security advisories. This is also the first build in the Google Play closed test - the public Android launch is getting closer.

Six more themes - sixteen in all

Slate pairs graphite greys with a mustard accent for a calm, focused look. Classic is a straight-faced throwback to the silver-and-teal desktops of 1998, square corners and all. Lighthouse is a true high-contrast theme - every color audited to at least 7:1 for maximum readability. Chart Room is a nautical chart with land-tone cards on sea blue, Harbor Dawn a peach sunrise over seafoam cards, and Ledger the classic green-bar accounting paper. Try every one of them on the themes section of this site.

App Lock, automatic backups, and a safe-to-spend number

Turn on App Lock and BudgetArk asks for a PIN whenever it opens - the PIN never leaves your device. Scheduled local auto-backups (weekly or monthly, encrypted with your device key) protect people who never tap Export, and password-protected exports are now tamper-evident. On the Budget tab, enter what's in checking at the start of the month and get a projected month-end and a real safe-to-spend figure. Also new: a US take-home pay calculator with federal, state, and FICA tables that never phone home; Private entries that stay off your partner's device; a merchant-rules manager for changing "always do this" decisions; and the Quick Entry widget arrives on iOS.

Search everything, count down to debt-free, and new Charts tools

Global search with advanced filters finds any debt, payment, or budget entry from the Debts and Budget tabs. The Debts tab gains a Debt-Free Countdown built from your real payment pace, plus a credit-card keep-alive watch that warns you before an unused card gets closed. The Charts tab picks up a currency exchange calculator, a "What if I stopped spending on…" projection, and a Plan-a-Purchase sinking-fund tool that tracks on the Bridge - where every account and category now shows how much it's up or down over the window you pick. Onboarding is now one searchable guide with a feature tour you can replay anytime.

Bank Connections - your bank, on your terms

Bring your own SimpleFIN or Teller credentials and let transactions import themselves. Nothing enters your budget until you approve it in the new Review Inbox, credentials stay encrypted on your device, and BudgetArk still operates no server - it never sits between you and your bank. The same release adds encrypted receipt photos and business expense tracking with a tax-time report, W-2 / 1099 paycheck tagging, assigning spending to people in your household, opt-in tracking reminders that never put amounts on your lock screen, an Android Quick Entry home-screen widget, the Deep Sea ambient theme, and an optional Tip Jar that unlocks nothing because everything is already free.

Captain's Course is complete

All 24 lessons across five chapters are now aboard: Stocking the Galley (emergency funds, HYSAs, sinking funds), Catching Wind (compounding, index funds, 401(k)/IRA/Roth, asset allocation), and Charting Far Waters (net worth, buy vs. rent, insurance, estate basics) join the first two chapters. The Budget tab's Debt Payments section also got a correctness pass - no more phantom planned rows in past months.

Live stock & crypto holdings on the Bridge

Add tickers under each brokerage on the Bridge and see their market value roll into your net worth. The feature is opt-in and shows a plain-language disclosure first: only ticker symbols leave your phone - never share counts, balances, or who you are - through a private proxy that stores no portfolio data. Crypto pairs like BTC/USD work too, converted into your display currency. Prices update daily as of v1.8.1.

Swedish Krona and real currency conversion

SEK joins the currency list, and switching currencies now offers to convert every stored amount at today's rate - or just change the symbol if your numbers are already in the new currency. Default milestone targets are localized for new plans, and achievement progress reads in your own currency.

Reliability + sync security

Partner sync moves to protocol v2 with the whole message envelope authenticated (both phones need this version to sync again). Net-worth history and custom categories now sync between paired devices, deleted items stay deleted after a sync, backups grew much larger import limits, and a dozen date and timezone edge cases were fixed across budgets and debt payments.

Welcome aboard - the BudgetArk website is live

The official BudgetArk site has set sail. This is the home port for everything about the app - what it does, why it's free, and every update along the way. Launch news for the App Store and Google Play will land here first.

Debt due-date reminders + Captain's Course Chapter 2

Never miss a payment again: every debt can now carry its own payment due day, and a reminder banner on the Budget and Debts tabs shows what's coming up - with a one-tap prompt to log the payment when the day arrives. Captain's Course Chapter 2, Patching the Hull, ships with six new lessons covering good vs. bad debt, how interest works, starter emergency funds, snowball vs. avalanche, refinancing, and debt snowflakes. Plus: batch-add multiple budget entries at once, and the budget now reflects planned debt minimums from the first of the month.

Ship's Log progress rings + Refinance calculator

Achievement badges in the Ship's Log now show live progress - a partial ring and an "X / Y" caption tell you how close you are to each one, across a dozen badges. A new legendary badge, Galleon's Hold, awaits anyone who reaches a $1,000,000 net worth. Utilities gained a Refinance Break-Even calculator that pulls straight from your debt tracker, so you can see in seconds whether a refi actually saves you money.

Appearance controls + full amortization schedules

Theme and design style are now separate choices - mix Solid or Glass looks with any color theme. Deep Forest gets a misty night-forest ambient background, and a new toggle lets you switch decorative backgrounds off for maximum readability. The Loan / Mortgage calculator now produces a full month-by-month amortization schedule with yearly summaries and CSV export.

Bill Calendar, custom categories, and a fresh look

The Budget tab gained a Bill Calendar - a monthly grid of every recurring bill, color-coded by category, with paid vs. remaining totals and your next bill at a glance. Custom budget categories with emoji icons, flexible recurring entries (monthly, quarterly, every 6 months, yearly), a 6-month cash-flow chart on the Bridge, and the opt-in Deep Space theme round out the release.