A budgeting app that never asks for your bank login.

Why some people don't want to link their bank

Most budgeting apps start by asking you to connect your bank through a third-party service. For a lot of people that's a dealbreaker — handing out account access just to see your own money feels backwards.

There are practical reasons too. Sync connections break, transactions import twice or not at all, and smaller banks and credit unions often aren't supported in the first place.

• You'd rather not share bank credentials with another service
• Your bank or credit union isn't covered by sync providers
• You've been burned by broken syncs and duplicate imports

Doesn't manual tracking take forever?

Less than you'd think. Recording a transaction takes a few seconds, and once bills and subscriptions live in categories, most days need only a couple of entries.

There's a quiet benefit, too: money you record yourself is money you noticed. Auto-imported transactions are easy to scroll past — a number you typed is a decision you made.

How Methodical Money works without bank access

You add the accounts you already have — checking, savings, cash — and mirror their balances. Categories then split each balance by purpose: rent, groceries, savings, spending.

Because nothing syncs, nothing breaks. The app never sees your bank, and your household still shares one current picture of what's funded, what's short, and what's actually safe to spend.