Finaura User Guide

Introduction

Finaura is a personal finance app built on a single principle: your financial data belongs to you, and only you. Unlike every major budgeting app on the market, Finaura stores your data exclusively on your device. There is no Finaura server, no account to create, and no bank to link. Your information never leaves your hands unless you actively choose to back it up to your own Google Drive.

Despite its privacy-first architecture, Finaura is a full-featured financial platform covering budgeting, transaction tracking, bill management, debt payoff planning, investment projections, tax estimation, and much more - all working completely offline.

What's New in 2.0

Finaura 2.0 is a major update: a full visual refresh, a smarter and more capable Veda, redesigned Tax/Investments/Retirement pages, and a wide set of everyday workflow improvements. The same core logic you already trust is underneath all of it.

A Whole New Look

A new color palette, a cleaner two-font system (Geist for words, a condensed font for numbers), and flat, grain-textured cards replace the old metallic sheen everywhere, in both light and dark mode. Every add/edit screen is wider and more spacious on desktop.

A Smarter Sidebar and Multiple Budgets

The new Balance Hub keeps every account grouped and visible no matter what page you're on. You can also keep entirely separate budget workspaces and build multiple dashboards for a narrower view.

Veda Got Sharper

Ask Veda to add a transaction and confirm it before it saves - Veda's one action beyond answering questions. Every insight across the app now comes from one shared Smart Insights engine, so the numbers you see always agree. Merchants get real logos and matching colors as you type.

Tax, Investments, and Retirement Redesigned

Each page now leads with one clear results card instead of scattered panels. A real vehicle mileage tax deduction uses the actual IRS rate for the date you drove. Paying down a credit card now correctly records as a transfer instead of counting as spending - see Transactions.

Everyday Tracking and Planning, Refined

Schedule a transaction for later and confirm it once it happens. Group and color-code Planning categories, split a paycheck exactly how you want, and use a real calendar and numeric keypad on mobile instead of the device default.

Installing the App

Finaura is a Progressive Web App (PWA) - it runs in your browser and can be installed to your home screen or desktop without an app store. Installation is optional but recommended for the best experience.

Option 1: Use it directly in the browser

Simply open Finaura in any modern browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge). No download required.

Option 2: Install as an app (Recommended)

Installing gives you an offline-capable, full-screen experience that loads instantly - even without an internet connection.

Figure 2: Finaura installed as a PWA on a mobile device, showing the Dashboard with bottom navigation.

First Launch

When you open Finaura for the first time, you'll be greeted by the Welcome screen. This is shown only once to introduce the app and its privacy-first approach. The personalize step now requires a quick agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy before continuing.

Figure 1: The Finaura Dashboard, the first screen you'll land on after completing setup.

Tap "Get Started" to begin the Setup Wizard. If you're a returning user restoring from a backup, tap "Returning user? Restore from backup →" instead.

Setup Wizard

The Setup Wizard walks you through the one-time configuration of your Finaura account. The whole process takes about 3-5 minutes.

Step 1: Personalize

Enter your first name and (optionally) your display name. You'll also check two required boxes agreeing to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy - both link to the real documents. Your name appears on the lock screen as a personal touch.

Step 2: Security

Choose how you want to protect your financial data:

• PIN: A 6-digit numeric PIN. Fastest to enter, ideal for mobile use.
• Password: A text passphrase (12+ characters, with upper/lowercase, a number, and a special character, checked live as you type). Longer but easier to remember for some users.

You'll enter your chosen credential twice to confirm it, then set a Recovery Password: a backup phrase used to reset your PIN if you ever forget it.

Step 3: Optional Security

A skippable step lets you set up an authenticator app (TOTP) or a passkey (biometric unlock) right away, instead of only being offered later in Settings.

Step 4: Income Categories

Add the sources where your money comes from - for example: Salary, Freelance, Rental Income. You can choose from suggested categories or type your own. Add as many as you need.

Step 5: Expense Categories

Add categories to organize your spending - for example: Groceries, Rent, Utilities, Dining Out. These become the rows in your budget grid.

Step 6: Savings Categories

Add what you're saving toward - for example: Emergency Fund, Vacation, Down Payment, 401(k). Savings are tracked separately from expenses.

Step 7: Gross Household Income

Enter your annual gross income (before taxes, from all sources). This is used to power retirement projections, tax estimates, and paycheck hints. You can skip this now and add it later in Settings.

Step 8: Household

Tell Finaura how many adults and dependents under 17 are in your household. This pre-fills your tax estimate and is used by a few other projections - you can change it later in Settings.

Step 9: Accounts

Add your real bank accounts - checking, savings, money market, cash, credit, or other - with their current balance. These become real Account records that show up grouped and live in the sidebar's Balance Hub (Cash & Banking, Savings, Credit Lines, and Other), not a one-off number.

Step 10: Advanced (Optional)

An optional step lets you set your pay frequency, tax filing status, opt in to budget rollover, and configure late-income shift, all up front. Skip it and configure any of these later in Settings - nothing here is required to finish setup.

Done!

After completing the wizard, Finaura automatically seeds your budget grid with a starting budget based on your income. A brief guided tour then walks you around the app.

PIN & Security

Every time you open Finaura after a period of inactivity, you'll see the lock screen. Enter your PIN or password to access your data. The lock screen now follows your device's light or dark mode preference, with a matching gold-accented keypad in both.

Lock Screen Features

• Biometric / Passkey unlock: If your device supports Face ID, fingerprint, or a saved passkey, you'll see a "Use Face ID / Passkey" button for one-tap access.
• Rate limiting: After 5 failed attempts, the lock screen enforces a 30-second cooldown to prevent brute-force access.
• Forgot PIN?: Tap this to enter your recovery password and set a new PIN without losing any data.

If You've Forgotten Both Credentials

If you've forgotten both your PIN and your recovery password, there is no server-side reset - Finaura has no account system. The only option is to clear all app data and start fresh. On the recovery screen, tap "Forgotten your recovery password too?" to access the Last Resort option, which permanently wipes all local data.

Changing Your PIN or Password

Go to Settings → Security to change your PIN, switch between PIN and password mode, update your recovery password, or set up a Passkey (biometric unlock). Choosing password mode now requires the same 12-character-plus complexity rule as setup, with a live checklist while you type.

Two-Factor Authentication (TOTP)

For an additional layer of security, Finaura supports TOTP (Time-Based One-Time Password) authentication - compatible with Google Authenticator, Authy, and any standard authenticator app. Enable it in Settings → Security → Two-Factor Authentication. Entering a code uses the same 6-box auto-advancing input everywhere it's needed, including at login.

Guided Tour

After completing setup, Finaura walks you through the key areas of the app with an interactive overlay tour. The tour adapts to your device:

• Desktop: Steps highlight each item in the sidebar navigation in order, including the Balance Hub.
• Mobile: Steps highlight the bottom navigation bar and explain the quick-add button.

The tour includes a dedicated Meet Veda stop introducing the chat assistant, on both desktop and mobile. After the navigation tour, a series of information cards covers privacy, the monthly workflow, power tips, the trophy system, Google Drive sync, and PWA installation.

Every main page also has its own shorter "Quick Tour," offered the first time you visit it, including a new tour for Settings covering Customize Sidebar, multiple budgets, and the Balance Hub group editor. You can replay any tour at any time: go to Settings → Help → Replay Tour.

Mobile "More" Tray

On mobile, the bottom navigation bar's "More" button opens a grouped icon grid - the same Obligations / Grow / Insight groupings used on the desktop sidebar - instead of one long scrolling list. Trophies and Settings sit together in a final "You" section. Every destination is reachable within a single thumb's reach on most phone sizes.

How Finaura Works

Finaura uses a plan-then-track approach to budgeting. At the start of each month, you set spending limits in Budget Planning. Throughout the month, you log what you actually spend in Transactions. The rest of the app - Dashboard, Budget Progress, Forecast, Reports - shows you how actual spending compares to your plan.

The Monthly Loop

Budgets vs. Transactions

It's important to understand the difference between the two core data types in Finaura:

Months & Periods

Finaura organizes everything by month (called a "period"). The period selector at the top of the Dashboard and Transactions views lets you navigate between months.

Late Income Shift

If you receive a paycheck near the end of the month and want it to count toward the next month's budget, enable Late Income Shift in Settings. Any income logged on or after your configured day threshold (e.g., the 25th) will be attributed to the following month's income total - even though it's dated in the current month.

This is particularly useful for people who are paid on the last Friday of each month, since that payment is really funding next month's expenses.

Categories

Categories are the backbone of Finaura. Every budget entry and every transaction belongs to a category. There are three types:

Managing Categories

Go to Settings → Categories to add, rename, reorder, or deactivate categories. You can drag categories to change their order, which affects how they appear in the Planning grid and Transactions.

Groups

In Budget Planning, categories can be organized into collapsible, renamable, color-coded groups. Drag a whole group at once to reorder it, or drag a category into, out of, or between groups. A category with no group simply floats freely - there's no permanent "Ungrouped" bucket to manage.

Automatic Icons

Every category gets a colored icon automatically, matched by keyword (e.g. "Groceries" gets a cart, "Mortgage" gets a house) - no two of your categories ever end up with the same icon. Click any category's icon badge in Budget Planning to override it from the full icon picker.

Balance Hub

Balance Hub is a persistent panel in the desktop sidebar, always visible no matter which page you're on, showing every account you track with its live balance. It isn't a separate page - it's part of the sidebar itself.

The Balance Hub, grouped into Cash & Banking, Savings, Credit Lines, and Other by default.

Groups

Every account belongs to a group. Four starter groups are created automatically based on account type, but you can rename, reorder, or delete groups from the gear icon at the top of the panel. Deleting a group never deletes its accounts - they simply move back to the default group for their type.

Adding an Account or Group

Use the "+" icon in the Balance Hub header to quickly add a new account (with its starting balance) or a new group, without leaving whatever page you're on.

Viewing Details

Click a group's summary row, or the "view accounts" icon, to open a popover listing that group's accounts with their own balances. A credit account's balance is shown as what's owed, not a positive number.

Dashboard

The Dashboard is your financial home base - a real-time snapshot of your income, spending, and savings for the currently selected month.

Figure 2: The Dashboard with summary cards, charts, and stat bar.

Summary Cards

Four colored cards show the current month's totals at a glance:

• Income: Total money received this month (emerald border)
• Expenses: Total money spent this month (red border)
• Savings: Total saved this month (teal border)
• Net: Income minus expenses minus savings (shows how much is left over)

Charts

The Dashboard includes several visualizations:

• Expense Donut: Two concentric rings: the inner ring shows budget amounts, the outer ring shows actual spending. Categories over budget appear in red.
• Budget vs. Actual Bar Chart: Side-by-side bars for each expense category showing budget vs. actuals. Red bars indicate over-budget categories.
• Money Flow: A Sankey diagram showing where income actually went, category by category.

Customizable Widget Layout

The Dashboard supports many optional widgets that you can drag to rearrange, lock in place, or hide. Turn on "Edit Layout" to rearrange, and use the "Available widgets" list at the bottom of edit mode to add anything currently hidden, including newer widgets like Spending Trends, Income vs Expenses, and Month-over-Month.

Switching Months

Use the month pills or the < > arrows at the top to navigate between months. The Dashboard and Transactions view share the same period - changing it in one changes it in both.

Month-End Surplus Recommendation

When you select a closed (specific, past) month with money left over, a Smart Insight recommends one concrete place to put it - your highest-interest debt, a 401(k)/IRA still short of its employer match, or your closest savings goal - based on the Goal Track you've selected on the Goals page. It's a suggestion only; Finaura never moves money or logs a transaction for you.

Multiple Dashboards

Beyond your original Dashboard, you can create additional dashboards for a narrower view - for example, one that's just bills and subscriptions, or one that's just charts.

The dashboard switcher: the original Dashboard, plus any you've created.

Creating a Dashboard

Use "+ New Dashboard" in the tab row above the month pills. A new dashboard starts completely blank - you build it up from the "Available widgets" list in Edit Layout mode, the same way you'd add a hidden widget back to your original Dashboard.

Switching and Deleting

Tap a tab to switch dashboards. A custom dashboard's tab has its own rename and delete icons; deleting one only removes that dashboard's own layout, never any of your actual data.

Budget Planning

Budget Planning is where you decide how much to allocate to each category each month. Think of it as writing your financial plan for the month before it happens.

Figure 3: The Budget Planning grid showing categories organized into groups, and 12 months of budget amounts.

The Planning Grid

The grid shows your categories as rows and all 12 months of the year as columns. Each cell is an editable amount for that category in that month.

Entering a Budget Amount

Click or tap any cell to edit it. Type the amount and press Enter or click away to save. Right after you save, a small "Apply $X to all months →" chip lets you broadcast that amount to the rest of the year in one tap.

Income / Expense / Savings Tabs

The Planning view is organized into three tabs - one for each category type. Switch between them using the tabs at the top of the grid.

"At a Glance" Panel

Near the top of the page, a toggle switches between "This Month" (a 2x2 card mirroring mobile's summary) and "This Year" (the same "To Be Allocated" strip as before), so you always know where you stand without scrolling.

Paycheck View

Switch to Paycheck View (once a pay frequency is set) to see your budget broken down per paycheck instead of per calendar month. Most categories split automatically and proportionally across paychecks, based on your real spending history where available; you can also set an exact percentage or dollar amount per paycheck for any category from its sliders icon.

Reordering and Grouping Categories

Drag the ☰ handle on any row to reorder categories, or use "+ Group" to create a collapsible, color-coded group. Drag a whole group at once, or drag a category into, out of, or between groups.

Budget Rollover

Enable Budget Rollover in Settings to carry unspent money forward to the next month. For example, if you budget $200 for Groceries but only spend $160, the $40 surplus rolls into next month's effective grocery budget. This is opt-in and can be toggled per-category.

Transactions

Transactions is where you log every dollar that comes in or goes out. This is your financial ledger.

Figure 4: The Transactions view with category filter, sort, merchant logos, and running balance.

Adding a Transaction

There are three ways to add a transaction:

• Quick-add (FAB button): Tap the large + button at the bottom right of the screen. A slide-up drawer appears with a form. This is optimized for speed - minimal taps, keyboard-friendly on desktop.
• Transaction Table: On desktop, you can also click "+ Add Transaction" above the table for the same form.
• Ask Veda: Tell Veda what to log (for example, "add a $40 expense for groceries") and confirm the drafted transaction before it saves.

"More Options" on Mobile

On mobile, every add/edit form across the app - Transactions, Bills, Debts, Goals, Subscriptions, Investments, Credit, and Gifts - shows only its essential fields up front. A "More options" toggle reveals secondary fields (notes, tax category, links, and similar) when you need them. Nothing is removed, only tucked away; editing an existing entry, or one already carrying optional data, opens with "More options" expanded automatically.

Merchant Field

On an expense transaction, start typing a merchant name and Finaura shows matching results with a real brand logo or a colored-initials badge, so you can see at a glance what you're logging. A merchant with no dataset match can still be saved as a custom entry with its own generated badge.

Transaction Fields

Paying Down a Credit Card

Add an expense from the account you're paying from, and set "Pay down account" to the credit card. This is recorded as a transfer, so it correctly reduces what you owe on the card without inflating your tracked spending totals - the older "Track card payments" mechanism is retired.

Vehicle Mileage Deduction

Choose "Vehicle Mileage" as the tax category on an expense, enter the miles driven and a purpose (business, military move, or charitable), and Finaura computes the deduction using the real IRS standard mileage rate in effect for that exact date, including the correct rate if it changed partway through the year.

Scheduled Transactions

Turn on "Schedule for later" on any transaction type to enter it ahead of time with no effect on your balances or budgets. It shows an amber "Scheduled" badge in the list; use the "Confirm" action on that row once it actually happens to count it.

Split Transactions

When a single purchase spans multiple categories (e.g., a store run where you bought groceries AND clothing), you can split it. Check "Split transaction" in "More options" to divide the total amount across multiple categories. All split amounts must add up to the parent total.

Editing and Deleting

Hover over a transaction row to reveal the edit (pencil) icon. Click it to open the edit form. To delete, click the trash icon - you'll be asked to confirm before the entry is removed.

Filtering and Sorting

Compact filter and sort icon buttons sit directly above the transaction table (both mobile and desktop). Filter by category or account; sort by date, amount, category, tags, details, or account.

Spend Map

Switch to Spend Map to see a calendar heatmap of your daily spending for the month - darker days mean heavier spending. Tap any day to see exactly what happened.

Running Balance

The transaction table shows a running balance column. If you've starred an account as primary in the Balance Hub or Settings → Accounts, this column anchors on that account's real balance and rolls forward from there instead of starting at zero.

Excluding Transactions

If a transaction should be visible in the ledger but excluded from budget calculations (e.g., a reimbursement you're tracking but don't want affecting your budget), mark it as Excluded in the edit form.

Budget Progress

Budget Progress shows how each spending category is tracking against its budget for the current month, across all three category types - income, expense, and savings. It answers the question: Am I on track?

Figure 5: Budget Progress with horizontal fill bars and pacing badges, income through savings.

Color Coding

• Green - On track or under budget for where you are in the month.
• Amber - Spending faster than expected for the time of month; watch out.
• Red - Over budget for the month.

Pacing Badges

Each category shows a pacing badge that compares your spending rate to how far through the month you are. For example, if you've spent 80% of your Dining budget but it's only the 10th of the month, you'll see an amber "Spending Fast" badge. For income and savings categories, the badge instead reads "ahead of pace" or "behind pace," since more is better there.

Covering an Overspent Category

If a category is over budget, you can cover the overage from another category with unspent room - including a savings category, which can act as a donor the same way an expense category can.

Activity Marker

Each row shows the most recent transaction that touched that category this period - a signed amount and a date - so you can see at a glance what just happened without leaving the page.

Unbudgeted Spending

At the bottom of the view, a footer lists any categories with transactions but no budget set. This highlights spending that isn't being planned for.

Bills

Bills tracks your recurring obligations so nothing slips through the cracks. It shows every bill's due date, amount, and payment status.

Figure 6: The Bills view with status badges and calendar.

Bill Fields

Marking Bills Paid

Tap the checkmark on any bill to mark it as paid for the current month. Bills reset to "not paid" at the start of each month automatically.

Logging a Bill Payment

Tap "Log it" to open a transaction drawer right in place, prefilled with the bill's amount and category - no need to leave the page. Saving it also marks the bill paid automatically.

Overdue Detection

Bills whose due date has passed without being marked paid automatically show as Overdue. High-priority overdue bills are highlighted prominently.

Bill Calendar

Switch to Calendar view to see all your bills and income transactions plotted on a monthly calendar. This helps you see cash flow timing - when money comes in and when bills are due.

Triple Paycheck Month

If your paycheck frequency means you'll receive three paychecks in a calendar month (happens a few times per year for biweekly pay), Finaura flags it in the Bills calendar so you can plan how to use the extra income.

Gifts & Holiday Planning

Gifts gives every recipient their own row - with its own budget, status, and savings pacing - so gift-giving is planned and tracked independently of your general expense budget. There's no combined multi-recipient "event"; a holiday with five recipients is five separate rows.

The Gifts list view, with the upcoming-holiday banner and a cross-gift collision warning.

Status Pipeline

Every gift moves through five stages: Idea → Budgeted → Purchased → Wrapped → Given. Use the inline status select in the list, or tap a gift pill on the calendar to advance it one stage at a time. Nothing forces linear order - you can move a gift backward too.

Recurring vs. One-Time Gifts

Gifts default to annual recurrence, anchored to the month and day of the event date (e.g. a birthday). Turn off "Repeats annually" for a one-time occasion, like a specific year's graduation gift.

No Category Picker

Adding a gift doesn't ask you to choose a category - Finaura automatically finds or creates a shared "Gifts" expense category the first time you add a gift. You'll never see a stray, unbudgeted gift category cluttering Budget Planning.

Calendar View

Switch to Calendar to see every gift plotted on a single full-screen month. Tap a gift pill to advance its stage; press and hold for a detail sheet with savings-pacing advice, last year's total for that recipient, and quick actions to log a transaction or edit the gift.

Savings Glide Path

For any gift that isn't fully funded yet, Finaura shows a "$X/week for N weeks" pacing hint so you know how much to set aside before the date arrives, both in the list and in the calendar's detail sheet.

Collision Warnings

When two or more gifts fall within a 10-day window, an amber banner totals them up - "4 gifts within 10 days totaling $240" - so a cluster of birthdays or a holiday season doesn't catch your budget by surprise.

Holiday Overlay

Toggle "Holidays" above the list or calendar to show a curated U.S. gift-giving holiday calendar (Christmas, Mother's/Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, and more) directly on the page. An amber chip banner surfaces any holiday due within 14 days; tapping a holiday chip - or a holiday label on the calendar - opens the Add Gift form prefilled with that date. This calendar is purely informational and never creates a gift on its own.

Logging a Gift as a Transaction

"Log it" opens a transaction drawer right in place, prefilled with the gift's amount, category, and a "Gift: [Name]" label. Saving it also advances the gift's status to Purchased, unless it's already further along.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions gives you a dedicated view of all your recurring subscription services - streaming, software, memberships, and anything else you pay for regularly.

Figure 7: The Subscriptions view showing monthly costs and renewal dates.

The Subscriptions view shows:

• Monthly equivalent cost for each subscription (annual billing is converted)
• Total monthly subscription spend: the sum of all active subscriptions
• Next renewal date for each service
• Expensive flagging: subscriptions above a threshold are highlighted for review

Debts

The Debts view helps you understand what you owe and plan the fastest path to becoming debt-free.

Figure 8: The Debts view with payoff timeline and interest cost breakdown.

Debt Fields

Payoff Strategies

Finaura calculates two payoff strategies:

• Snowball: Pay off the smallest balance first. Builds momentum with quick wins. Good for motivation.
• Avalanche: Pay off the highest interest rate first. Minimizes total interest paid. Mathematically optimal.

Linking Debt Payments

When logging a debt payment in Transactions, link it to the corresponding debt record. Finaura will automatically reduce the debt balance, keeping your payoff timeline accurate without manual updates - including correctly reversing that effect if you later edit or delete the transaction.

ARM Warning

Adjustable-rate mortgages and ARM loans are flagged with a warning banner reminding you that the rate will adjust.

Goals

Goals lets you set savings targets for anything you're working toward and track your progress over time.

Figure 9: Goals with progress bars, funding plans, and linked transactions.

Each goal has a name, a target amount, a current saved amount, and an optional target date. Progress bars fill as you save. A funding-plan card on each goal turns its target into a plain-language plan, whether that's a fixed monthly amount, a deadline-driven amount, a percent of each paycheck, a one-time windfall, or routing month-end surplus toward it.

Linking Transactions to Goals

When logging a savings transaction, you can link it directly to a goal. Finaura automatically updates the goal's progress without requiring manual edits.

Goal Celebration

When you reach a goal's target amount, Finaura triggers a celebration animation and awards a trophy.

Assets

Assets tracks everything you own outside your regular bank accounts - real estate, vehicles, and other valuables - alongside what you owe on them, for a net worth that reflects everything, not just what's in the bank.

The Assets view with estimated value and linked debt for each item.

Asset Types

Add assets like real estate, vehicles, jewelry, or other collectibles. Each asset has a name, category, and estimated current value that you update as it changes.

Maintenance & Renewals

Track registration, insurance, and service reminders per asset, and get nudged when it might be time to refresh a value that's gone stale.

Linking Debt to Assets

Link a debt (like a mortgage or auto loan) to the asset it's tied to. Finaura shows the asset's equity - its value minus what you still owe on it - alongside the raw value.

Net Worth Impact

Assets feed directly into the Net Worth Timeline on your Dashboard, alongside your accounts and investments, so your net worth reflects everything you own.

Investments

The Investments view tracks your investment accounts and projects their long-term growth - all without linking to a brokerage.

Figure 10: Investments with account groupings, allocation, and growth projections.

Account Types

Finaura supports 401(k), Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, HSA, TSP, and general investment accounts. Each account type has relevant settings for contribution limits and employer match.

Snapshots and Live Balances

Manually log the current balance of each account as periodic snapshots. Between snapshots, your displayed balance is a compounding-aware live estimate based on your expected rate of return, so the page doesn't go stale the moment you stop entering numbers - the recorded snapshot history itself is never rewritten.

Employer Match

For 401(k) accounts, configure your employer's match percentage and cap. Finaura calculates the effective value of your contribution including the match and shows if you're leaving match money on the table.

Retirement / FIRE Calculator

The Retirement view projects when you'll be able to retire based on your savings rate, current balances, expected return, and withdrawal rate. The first time you visit, you'll add a short retirement plan (current age, retirement age goal, and expected annual spending) to unlock the full calculator. Adjust the inputs afterward to model different scenarios; they now persist automatically as you edit them.

Figure 11: Retirement & FIRE Calculator with a consolidated progress overview and scenario inputs.

Forecast

Forecast shows you the next several months of your finances based on your current budget plan. It answers: Will my income cover my expenses over the next several months?

Figure 11: Forecast chart with stress-test toggles and what-if scenario controls.

The forecast uses your budgeted income and expenses - not just historical actuals - so it reflects your plan going forward. Try preset stress tests (a missed paycheck, a car repair, a rent increase, and others) or build your own what-if scenario to see how it affects the projection, and check the confidence card in the sidebar to see how much history is behind the numbers.

Reports

Reports provides chart-based views of your financial history, giving you insight into trends, patterns, and net worth over time.

Figure 12: Reports with the full tab bar, including the newer Month-over-Month and Spending Per Account tabs.

Available Reports

Customizing the Tab Bar

Use the "Customize" control next to the tabs to hide any report you don't use and reorder the rest.

Date Range Selection

Most reports let you select a custom date range - last 3 months, last 12 months, year to date, or a custom range.

Credit Health

Credit Health lets you track your credit score over time, monitor your credit utilization, and build a consistent payment history - entirely on your device with no credit pull required.

Figure 13: Credit Health with score history, utilization breakdown, and a ranked action plan.

Manually log your credit score whenever you check it (through a free service like Credit Karma or your bank's app). Finaura charts the history over time so you can see if your habits are moving the needle.

Add your credit cards and their limits to track utilization across all accounts. Keeping utilization below 30% (and ideally below 10%) is one of the strongest credit score factors. An Action Plan tab ranks concrete next steps - utilization targets, statement-timing hints, and payment-history nudges - by how much impact they'd actually have.

Tax Estimator

The Tax Estimator gives you a ballpark of your federal and state tax liability (or expected refund) for the year - without sending any data to a server.

Figure 14: The Tax Estimator's single consolidated results card, with the input sections below.

Supported Income Types

• W-2: Standard employee wages
• 1099 / Self-employment: Freelance, contractor, or business income
• Mixed: Both W-2 and 1099 income in the same year

Filing Status

Supports Single, Married Filing Jointly (MFJ), Married Filing Separately (MFS), Head of Household (HoH), and Qualifying Surviving Spouse.

One Consolidated Results Card

Your projected refund or amount owed, a full income and tax breakdown, average/marginal rate, quarterly estimates (for 1099 filers), and withholding guidance (for W-2 filers) all live together in one card at the top of the page, instead of scattered across several panels.

Deductions

The estimator compares the Standard Deduction to your itemized deductions and uses whichever is larger. Tax-deductible transactions tagged in your transaction history (medical, charitable donations, vehicle mileage, and more) are automatically totaled and pre-filled.

Vehicle Mileage

Business, military-move, and charitable mileage logged on transactions (see Transactions) flow into a dedicated mileage breakdown card, using the real IRS standard mileage rate for the date each trip happened.

State Taxes

Finaura includes built-in state tax tables for all 50 states. Select your state to include a state tax estimate alongside the federal calculation.

Trophies

Finaura awards trophies as you hit financial milestones and build good habits. They're a fun way to celebrate progress and stay motivated.

Figure 15: Trophies earned and upcoming achievements.

Examples of Trophies

Trophies is always reachable in the nav and can't be hidden - view every trophy you've earned, and every one still locked, from there any time.

Veda Assistant

Veda is Finaura's built-in chat assistant. Ask it plain-English questions about your own data - "How much did I spend on groceries last month?", "Am I on track with my Vacation Fund goal?" - and it answers using your real transactions, budgets, and balances.

Veda answering "How much did I spend this month?" using on-device data only.

Adding a Transaction

Veda's one action beyond answering questions: ask it to log something ("add a $45 expense for dinner") and it drafts an editable card - amount, date, category, details - for you to review and confirm. Nothing is written until you tap Confirm.

Veda's confirm card - editable, and never saved until you tap Confirm.

Fully On-Device

Veda runs entirely on-device, parsing your question against the local IndexedDB database. It never sends your question or your data anywhere, and it has no live internet access - so it can't check the weather, sports scores, or stock prices. If you ask something that would need a live connection, Veda explains why it can't help instead of guessing.

What It Won't Do

An oversized message or off-topic language gets a calm reply steering the conversation back to your finances - this is a courtesy filter, not a moderation system. Veda also recognizes when you're asking about a month that's in the future or before you started tracking, and explains why there's nothing to report instead of showing a misleading "$0".

Turning Veda Off

Settings → Customize has independent switches for Veda's insights and the chat assistant, so you can turn either off without affecting the other.

Notification Reminders

Beyond chat, Veda's reminder engine can also nudge you about upcoming bills, budget overruns, goal progress, subscription renewals, gifts, and scheduled transactions - each notification type has its own on/off switch in Settings.

Smart Insights

Smart Insights is the engine behind the small badges and suggestion panels you'll see across the app - a category over budget, a bill about to come due, an investment account with no recent snapshot, and dozens of similar checks, all computed once and shared everywhere they show up.

Where You'll See Them

A scoped insight panel is embedded on most pages, showing only what's relevant there. Reports' "Smart Review" tab shows the full unfiltered list at once, along with a 0-100 system-alignment score and a map of where your data connects across the app.

Dismissing and Snoozing

Dismiss an insight permanently, or snooze it for a week. A dismissal is smart about it - if the underlying condition changes (the bill gets paid, the budget gets fixed), the same insight can resurface even if you dismissed the old version of it. Use "Snooze all" or "Dismiss all" on any panel showing more than one insight to clear the whole list at once.

Turning Insights Off

Settings → Customize can turn off Smart Insights entirely, independently of the Veda chat assistant.

Settings Overview

Settings is where you personalize Finaura to match your life. Key settings groups:

Figure 16: The Settings view with all configuration cards.

Accessibility

The Accessibility card lets you scale text size up or down app-wide, turn off page/drawer/count-up animations, switch to a higher-contrast color scheme, use a dyslexia-friendly font, and always underline links. Every change applies live and is saved automatically - no separate "Save" step.

Language & Currency

The Language & Region card offers an English/Spanish/French interface selector (English is the complete baseline; Spanish and French cover navigation, page titles, empty states, buttons, and most toasts) and a currency display selector. Three additional display-only settings let you choose where the currency symbol sits, how thousands/decimals are separated, and how dates are formatted, without changing how any number is actually stored.

Customize Sidebar

Customize Sidebar (called "Customize Navigation" on mobile) lets you show or hide any nav destination, including Dashboard, Tracking, and Planning themselves. Reach it from the icon in the desktop sidebar's action row, or from the mobile "More" tray.

Hiding a destination hides it everywhere it appears - the sidebar, the mobile bottom nav, the mobile dock's configurable shortcut, and the "More" tray - and also suppresses its Smart Insights everywhere they'd otherwise show up. Settings and Trophies always stay visible, since Settings is where you'd undo a mistake here and Trophies is a permanent fixture rather than a workflow page.

Desktop Action Center

The bottom of the desktop sidebar has a row of quick actions: Undo, Redo, History, a light/dark toggle, an optional custom action you pick (Add Transaction, Ask Veda, Export Backup, or Import from CSV), and a collapse toggle that narrows the whole sidebar down to just icons.

Multiple Budget Workspaces

Keep entirely separate budget workspaces - for example, one for personal finances and one for a side business - each with its own categories, budgets, transactions, and accounts.

Creating and Switching

Go to Settings → Budgets to create a new workspace or switch between existing ones. A mobile budget switcher is also available near the top of the app on small screens.

What Stays Separate

Categories, budgets, transactions, accounts, groups, and most other data are scoped to whichever workspace is active. Settings that describe you as a person, rather than a specific budget, stay shared across workspaces.

Paycheck Planner

The Paycheck Planner reorganizes your budget around your actual pay schedule rather than the full calendar month. It shows which bills and expenses fall within each paycheck cycle, helping you avoid the stress of a large bill hitting between paychecks.

Set your pay frequency in Settings (weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly) and your typical payday. The Planner then divides your monthly budget into paycheck-sized slices and assigns each expense to the cycle when it's due - proportionally, based on real spending history where available, unless you've set an exact manual split for a category.

Google Drive Sync (Optional)

By default, your Finaura data lives only on one device. If you want to use Finaura on multiple devices - for example, your phone and your laptop - you can enable Google Drive Sync.

How It Works

When enabled, Finaura saves a single encrypted JSON file to a private folder in your own Google Drive account. No Finaura server is involved. The file is named finaura-sync.json and is stored in a Finaura-specific folder that only the app can access.

Enabling Sync

Household Sharing

You can share your sync file with a partner or household member so you both see the same data. Use Settings → Google Drive Sync → Pair with Partner and enter their email to grant them access.

Auto-Unlock

Once you've entered your sync passphrase once, you can opt in to have this device unlock sync automatically going forward using the same PIN or password you already use to open the app, instead of re-entering the passphrase every session.

Export & Backup

Regularly backing up your Finaura data is strongly recommended. Since data is stored locally, device loss or browser data clearing could erase your records without a backup.

JSON Export (Full Backup)

Go to Settings → Data → Export JSON to download a complete backup of all your data: categories, budgets, transactions, bills, debts, goals, investments, subscriptions, credit records, custom dashboards, account groups, settings, and more. This file can be used to fully restore Finaura on any device.

CSV Export

Export your transactions as a CSV file for use in spreadsheet applications. The CSV includes date, effective date, type, category, amount, details, and running balance.

Restoring from Backup

Go to Settings → Data → Import / Restore and upload your JSON backup file. Finaura previews the backup contents before applying. Restoration replaces your data, but keeps this device's own PIN, recovery password, and sync connection exactly as they are - a restored backup never overwrites how you unlock the device you're restoring onto.

Importing Data

You can bring in transaction data from external sources.

CSV Import

Go to Settings → Data → Import CSV. Upload a file exported from your bank: CSV, OFX/QFX, or QIF. Finaura's import wizard lets you map your CSV file's columns to Finaura's fields (OFX/QFX and QIF already have well-defined fields, so there's no mapping step for those). It also applies your auto-categorization rules automatically.

YNAB and Other Budgeting App Imports

If you're migrating from YNAB or a similar budgeting app, Finaura includes dedicated importers that understand their export formats, including category groups. Go to Settings → Data → Import and choose your source app.

Family Mode

Family Mode adds a layer of household awareness to your budgeting. When enabled, you can tag transactions and income sources with a family member name, making it easy to see each person's contribution and spending.

Enabling Family Mode

Go to Settings → Household & Family and toggle it on. Add family members by name.

What It Unlocks

• Transaction ownership: Tag each transaction as "mine," "theirs," or "shared."
• Income badges: Income categories show the family member badge in Budget Planning.
• Filtering: Filter the Transactions view by family member to see individual spending.
• Per-member credit tracking: Credit Health can track a separate profile per family member.

Privacy & Data Security

Finaura is designed from the ground up with privacy as a non-negotiable principle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Glossary