A private financial compass

Dobbs Financial

Bring everyday money, long-range plans, and the full story between them into one calm, protected place.

Private by designFinancial records encrypt before cloud sync. Guided, not judgmentalClear next steps without needless noise. Your complete pathFrom today's cash flow to future freedom.

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Finances

Plan Planning studio

Monthly Planner

Saved locally

Home

Today at a glance

Handle what matters now, then open the deeper workspace only when you need it.

Daily review

Needs attention

Cash & spending

Liquid Cash Balances

Next 30 days

Upcoming Obligations

Revolving accounts

Credit Cards

Longer-term debt

Loans I Owe

Expected inflow

Income

Expected repayment

Loans Owed To Me

Long-term assets

Investments

Personal balance sheet

Property & Important Records

Your cash, goals, and long-term value

Move through your money like the accounts themselves.

Checking stays operational, savings stays goal-focused, and investments remain easy to find without turning your financial life into one long database table.

CheckingOperating cash and activity
SavingsEarmarks and personal goals
InvestmentsLong-term value and history

Financial relationships

Choose where you want to focus

Move between institutions without losing the portfolio-level picture above.

Review the balance, activity, terms, tools, and reconciliation history for this financial record.

Asset library

Property & Important Records

Current property stays in focus; archived and disposed records remain available as history.

Open one complete property profile for identity, ownership, coverage, valuation evidence, and locally stored proof.

Activity

All Activity

Every account, with temporary filters cleared.

Transactions

Account activity

Search, narrow the view, or open a transaction for its full details.

Filters

Connected transfers and payments

Money Paths

See a deposit, its transfers, and final payments as one journey. Every underlying entry remains in Activity above.

Merchant intelligence

Understand where the month actually went.

Posted merchant spending is separated from transfers, credit-card payments, and pending activity so the picture stays honest.

Monthly Spending Snapshot

Choose a month and optionally narrow the view to one account.

Activity entry

Record transactions

Record one transaction quickly, build a batch, or import transaction activity. Everything is reviewed before saving.

How this works

For manual entry, choose the account and enter activity. For imports, choose the file first, then confirm each source account. Review the exact batch before saving; Forecast values stay unchanged.

1Choose file and destinationImports inspect the file before asking for account mappings.
2Prepare and reviewCheck every row and classification.
3Confirm and saveSave the verified batch once.

Choose where this activity belongs.

Step 1 · Source and destination

Transaction source
Manual entry uses one selected ledger. Imports inspect the file first, then show either one destination or a separate mapping for every exported source account.

Step 2 · Transaction entry

Build a transaction batch
Enter several transactions, review the batch, and save it once. Forecast values are never changed here.
Add more rows without leaving the end of the worksheet.
Paste Date, Activity Type, Amount, Merchant / party, Spending Category, Note—or add Related Record before Note as a seventh column. Ctrl+D fills from the row above.
Review first. Save only when every transaction matches the account evidence in front of you.

Saved entry history

Trace each batch back to its source.

Recorded worksheets and reviewed transaction files remain grouped so a mistaken batch can be understood—and safely rolled back in the correct order.

Evidence log

Recorded batches

Rollback removes the remaining transactions and reverses the batch balance adjustment. Existing historical source details are preserved.

Balance confidence

Know which accounts agree with reality.

Compare each active ledger with trusted statement evidence, then focus first on mismatches, stale checks, and accounts never confirmed.

Account evidence

Reconciliation status

Open an account to record a confirmed balance checkpoint or inspect its durable reconciliation history.

Your commitments, in one calm place

Know what is due, what you owe, and what needs attention.

Bills, credit cards, and loans keep their own account-level workflows here. The Monthly Planner remains the saved plan for how checking cash will fund them.

Household commitments

Bills & Providers

See each relationship as a living service account: what it normally costs, when it is due, whether autopay is active, and whether the provider currently owes you or is owed.

Filter this service-account view without changing the saved providers.

Revolving accounts

Credit Cards

Review balance, available credit, utilization, statement minimum, due date, recent activity, and installment plans from each card account.

Installment debt

Loans I Owe

Open a servicing-style view for principal, repayment terms, scheduled payments, posted cash activity, and lender-statement reconciliation.

Review the provider profile, funding plan, balance or credit, and posted activity.

Review one personal repayment relationship, its terms, expected timing, deposit routing, and evidence.

Your priorities remain yours

What would you like help with?

Choose any number of current focuses. The app may place an objective cash or record-integrity issue first, but it never changes your records or locks another path.

Explainable next steps

The next right things—not a mystery score

Each suggestion identifies the recorded observation, why it may matter, a bounded next step, alternatives, and what the app cannot know.

0 active suggestions

A flexible path

Stabilize, create room, build resilience, then grow

These paths can overlap. The highlighted stage is a starting point based on recorded coverage—not a judgment or a requirement.

Optional outcome measure

Financial well-being check-ins

A validated self-report measure can show change that account totals miss. It is never a diagnosis, financial grade, credit score, or feature gate.

Take the optional ten-question CFPB check-inAbout three minutes · removable at any time
How this is used The official self-administered wording and score conversion are used locally. No individual answer changes an account, transaction, plan, or recommendation by itself. About the CFPB scale
Saving creates only a dated check-in record.

Practical guidance at the moment it matters

Learn the concept, use the checklist, return to the work.

Every guide separates general education from your records, links to primary or official sources, and takes you back to the relevant part of the app.

What are you trying to understand?

Search a decision or problem such as shortfall, medical bill, savings, debt, bank fee, insurance, retirement, or investing.

Prepare for a difficult month

Protect what matters before optimizing the rest.

Choose essential priorities yourself, connect them to recorded obligations when useful, and keep official assistance routes beside the cash evidence.

Reusable guided plan

Your current stability plan

This plan organizes choices only. It never creates an obligation, changes a Forecast value, or posts Activity.

Which recorded obligations are essential in this plan?

The app does not infer this from merchants or spending categories.

Which risk areas matter right now?
Saving changes only this planning record.

Needs that are not ordinary obligations

Plan-only essentials

Use this for an immediate need you do not want to turn into an ongoing bill.

Official starting points

Resources to review—not promises of eligibility

Each path links to current official guidance and can be marked reviewed or not relevant for this plan.

Create breathing room

Checking and savings account health

Review purpose, recurring costs, ownership, deposit-insurance evidence, overdraft choices, and the date terms were last checked.

Debt Strategy Studio

Compare methods with the tradeoffs visible.

Use recorded balances, APRs, and minimums to compare avalanche, snowball, cash-flow release, and your own order. Specialized debts remain on specialized tracks.

User-controlled scenario

Scenario assumptions

Saving a scenario does not create payments, schedules, transfers, or account Activity.

Debt records in this comparison
The comparison uses monthly interest and the entered payment evidence.

Same debts, same monthly amount

Method comparison

Estimated dates and interest depend on the saved assumptions and can differ from statements.

Selected scenario

Estimated payoff sequence

A planning timeline only; nothing here is a payment instruction.

Investment policy and evidence

Decide the rules before the market tests them.

Connect purpose, time horizon, liquidity, risk, rebalancing, fees, and review dates without turning an evidence prompt into a trade.

Your rules

Personal investment policy

This is a record of your choices, not a recommendation or suitability determination.

Accounts governed by this policy
Saved targets remain comparison markers only.

Deterministic review

Evidence prompts

These prompts compare recorded facts with your own policy and targets. They never select a security.

    Protection and recovery

    Keep coverage evidence and review questions in one place.

    Track what a policy is intended to protect, its dates and source evidence, plus optional credit and fraud safeguards—without declaring a universal coverage amount adequate.

    Recorded policies and searches

    Protection records

    A shopping record can preserve questions before a policy exists.

    Guided record

    Add a protection record

    Use only the fields supported by a policy, quote, or verified source.

    Linking a premium obligation does not create or alter it.

    Optional safeguards

    Credit and fraud review

    The app records no made-up credit score.

    Decision queue

    Work the next right thing

    Immediate cash and integrity risks rise first. Follow-up evidence and housekeeping remain visible without pretending they are equally urgent.

    Read posted performance, verify month-end evidence, and preserve a durable financial record without changing the saved Forecast plan.

    Reporting period

    Choose the month you want to understand

    Current and future months remain open. Completed months can be preserved with every evidence exception visible.

    Select a completed month to save a close snapshot.

    Closing evidence

    Month close checklist

    Review what supports the selected month. Any unresolved item remains attached to the saved snapshot as an explicit exception.

    Portfolio evidence

    Investment Snapshot

    Current manual values and holdings context. Month close uses the latest eligible dated valuation for the selected month.

    Spending intelligence

    Merchant Spending by Spending Category

    Posted checking and card purchases are counted once. Transfers and card payments remain outside merchant spending.

    Personal balance sheet

    Historical net worth

    Saved month-close observations only. This is preserved monthly evidence—not an invented daily valuation—and the table retains the exact amounts.

    Financial record

    Month close history

    Open a preserved month to inspect exact balances, component movement, exceptions, and prior snapshot revisions.

    See the expected path of checking cash without changing the saved monthly Forecast plan.

    Horizon

    Projection assumptions

    Estimated events are identified explicitly. Posted actuals never rewrite Forecast values.

    Chronological cash events

    Running cash includes only events that affect checking accounts included in Forecast.

    Your working plan

    Shape each pay cycle, carry its ending balance forward, and compare the plan with posted activity without letting actuals rewrite it.

    Monthly Plan Builder

    Plan totals come from the line-item cells you fill in. Posted transactions show below as actuals after they happen.

    Month income $0.00
    Month spending $0.00
    Month change $0.00

    Monthly Review

    Compare the selected month plan against actual transactions as they land.

    Insights

    Planning observations follow the full monthly plan and review.

    Monthly Change History

    Review saved changes without crowding the planner.

    Manage expected income timing, employment details, and confirmed paystub history without overwriting Monthly Planner amounts or changing account balances.

    Paycheck planner

    Try hours and overtime before payday. This is a private estimate; only a confirmed paystub becomes payroll history, and neither one changes an account balance.

    Show annual federal tax outlook

    Income Sources

    Pause a source when it should remain in history but stop contributing to expected monthly income.

    Paycheck records

    Paystubs explain gross pay, withholding, deductions, and contributions. Only linked posted Activity changes an account balance.

    Personal accounting for the long view

    Long-Term Planning

    The same account balances you already maintain, organized by purpose and ownership without creating duplicate accounts or guessed activity.

    Planning profileBirth month and year for age-based scenarios
    The app will not infer a year from your age.

    What needs attention

    Deterministic review cues from the information recorded in this app.

    My retirement assets

    Current values come only from the account ledger, holdings, or explicit valuations.

    Other personal long-term assets

    Investing and long-term savings that are yours but are not classified as retirement or HSA.

    Custodial assets managed

    Held or managed by you for someone else. These stay visible but do not enter your personal net worth or retirement projections.

    Other assets excluded from personal net worth

    Accounts you explicitly chose to track here without counting as yours.

    Recorded contribution history

    Confirmed paystub evidence only. These totals never change an account balance.

    Accounts needing a purpose

    Choose what each investment account is for. Nothing is guessed from its name.

    Allocation, freshness, and recorded value change

    Portfolio

    See how your recorded investments are distributed, whether their values are current, and how they compare with targets you choose. The app surfaces drift but never tells you to trade.

    Allocation

    Holdings divide each account's current value across asset types. Accounts without holdings stay visibly unclassified.

    Edit allocation targetsOptional percentages for comparison only
    Targets should total 100%. Saving targets never changes holdings.

    Account value freshness

    Values more than 90 days old, or values without a date, are marked for review.

    Recorded value change

    A transparent change calculation from saved valuations. It is not presented as investment performance when cash flows are incomplete.

    Balances, evidence, and what-if planning

    Retirement & Investing

    Current account values stay separate from paystub contribution records. Scenarios use only assumptions you enter and never change an account or create Activity.

    Saved scenario comparisons

    Base, downside, and upside results use assumptions you control. They are not guarantees.

    Create a retirement scenarioOpen the assumption workbench
    Custodial accounts are never eligible. No scenario result posts to an account.

    My retirement accounts

    Account values are authoritative; paystub contributions are explanatory history only.

    My other long-term investing

    Custodial assets managed

    Shown separately from your finances.

    Purpose before projection

    Long-Term Goals

    Assign part or all of an existing long-term account to a goal, set your own target and assumptions, and see whether the recorded path is on track. Account values remain authoritative.

    Goals

    Progress uses only the account portions you assign. No goal changes an account, transaction, or Forecast row.

    Add a long-term goalTarget, timeline, and account allocation
    Account portions assigned to this goal
    An account can support more than one goal; choose the percentage assigned to this one.

    Work-credit reference, not a benefit prediction

    Social Security

    Recorded withholding and covered wages remain separate from official SSA evidence. The app can reference historical work-credit thresholds, but it never predicts a benefit.

    Year-by-year history and work-credit reference

    Official credits you enter always win. Otherwise, the app uses recorded covered wages and the official threshold for that year. This is eligibility evidence, not a benefit prediction.

    Add annual historySSA earnings record, W-2, or manual historical total
    Saving this record never creates Activity, changes an account, or estimates a benefit.

    Owned, purpose-restricted, and evidence-backed

    HSA & Medical Savings

    Keep qualified-expense details, reimbursements, and receipts together while the HSA remains in true net worth and outside everyday Forecast cash.

    Expense and receipt history

    Keep records showing the distribution was for a qualified expense, not reimbursed elsewhere, and not also claimed as an itemized deduction.

    Add a medical expense recordDetails, Activity links, and receipt evidence
    Save first, then attach one or more receipts to the saved record.

    HSA accounts

    The balance changes only from posted HSA Activity or explicit investment values—not from payroll contribution lines.

    Other medical savings

    Health-purpose savings that are yours but are not legally classified as an HSA stay separate from HSA tax evidence.

    Planner organization

    Shape the structure behind your monthly plan.

    Create and order the categories that make sense to you, then place each Forecast line item exactly where you expect to find it.

    Placement controls

    Line Item Assignments

    Move the planning sources you already use without changing their saved dollar amounts.

    Category library

    Forecast Categories

    Add, rename, remove, and sort the sections available to each monthly plan.

    Your private finance control studio

    Keep the system trustworthy, organized, and yours.

    Privacy, backup readiness, reusable finance language, matching rules, and device health live here—separate from the decisions you make with your money.

    Reusable setup

    Guided Setup Paths

    Add consistent accounts, income sources, obligations, and long-term records—or complete an account you already have without rebuilding it. The full editors remain available from every guide.

    Comfort on this device

    Appearance

    This preference stays on this browser and contains no financial information.

    Optional encrypted continuity

    Encrypted Sync, Security & Devices

    Loading device synchronization status.

    Independent recovery

    Backups & Privacy

    Protect the data stored in this browser and keep a separate recovery copy.

    Protected maintenance

    Danger Zone

    These actions change or remove large portions of your local finance history.

    Read-only diagnostics

    Know whether your financial record is healthy.

    Review local saving, browser retention, data size, file coverage, and broken relationships. These checks report what they find and never alter your records.

    Diagnostic findings

    Records needing review

    Use this after imports, major cleanup, or whenever something looks out of place. Clear results are shown just as explicitly as warnings.

    Classification Health

    Review the shape of your categories—without exporting finances

    This read-only inventory contains names and aggregate counts only. It excludes amounts, balances, accounts, dates, notes, statement descriptions, files, and transaction rows.

    Preview exactly what is included

    One map, shared sources of truth

    See and maintain how your financial records connect.

    This page edits the same funding, deposit, matching, and merchant records used everywhere else. Transfer routes make safe suggestions only; they never post activity by themselves.

    Relationship directory

    Every mapped connection

    Change individual canonical targets here, or open the specialized editor for merchant and provider behavior.

    Reusable transfer suggestions

    Add a Transfer Route

    Use an account type for a broad rule, then optionally include only or exclude specific accounts. A selected-account route takes priority over a broad account-type route.

    Intentional bulk maintenance

    Bulk Mapping Editor

    Apply one canonical account target to selected records or every eligible record in a family. You will see the exact count and confirm before anything changes.

    Coverage and integrity

    Relationship Checks

    Broken targets, active routes with no source accounts, and equally specific conflicting transfer routes appear here.

    Financial behavior library

    Define what each kind of activity means.

    Activity direction, Forecast treatment, and merchant reporting remain separate so a familiar label never hides the behavior behind it.

    Reusable transaction language

    Activity Types

    Add a personal label only after choosing the exact financial behavior it should reuse.

    Merchant-spending vocabulary

    Keep Spending Categories useful and distinct.

    Categories explain what merchant spending was for. Transfers, card payments, and other financial behavior belong in Activity Types instead.

    Spending vocabulary

    Spending Categories

    Open a category to review its use, rename it, deactivate it, or merge it. Historical labels remain readable.

    Merchant classification studio

    Give each familiar name a small, useful profile.

    Set separate money-out and money-in behavior, related records, aliases, and optional note defaults without changing existing Activity.

    Recognized names

    Merchant Profiles

    Click a name to edit its defaults. Profile changes affect future suggestions only unless you separately choose Apply to history.

    Remembered transaction intelligence

    Control what the app recognizes next time.

    Review the saved rules that classify imported activity and link merchants / parties to obligations. Posted history and saved Forecast values remain untouched.

    Import memory

    Account-aware Import Rules

    Rules are saved only when you choose to remember an import classification. Pause a rule to keep it for reference without applying it to future imported rows.

    Obligation recognition

    Provider Matching Rules

    Rules guide future suggestions. Existing Activity changes only when you explicitly choose Apply to history, review the exact safe count, and confirm a recovery checkpoint.

    Your personal finance operations manual

    Understand the system—not just the buttons.

    Learn what changes balances, what remains only a plan, how evidence is preserved, and what to review when a number looks surprising.

    What do you want to do?

    Search for a task or term such as variable bill, card payment, informal loan, reconciliation, Forecast, backup, or month close.

    11 help sections available.

    1

    Start here: the normal weekly workflow

    A small repeatable routine keeps the system accurate without turning it into a daily chore.

    1. Capture activityRecord transactions, transfers, and bill payments.
    2. ClassifyConfirm Activity Types, Spending Categories, and obligation links.
    3. ReconcileCompare the app with the bank or provider statement.
    4. Look aheadReview Cash Calendar and the Action Center.
    5. Back upExport a private recovery copy after meaningful changes.
    Setting up, adding, or completing a recordUse Guided Setup Paths for new accounts, Income Sources, obligations, and Long-Term Planning. Use Review existing accounts to find missing account details and update the same record in a focused popup. Every guide shows the effect before saving and offers the full editor when needed.
    On a phoneHome, Activity, Obligations, and Plan stay in the bottom bar. Choose More to reach Cash & Assets, Money Owed, Review, Settings, and every detailed tool.
    2

    Cash, assets, cards, and loans

    Accounts hold balances; provider obligations describe commitments and bills.

    Cash & Assets

    • Checking can be spendable and optionally included in Forecast cash.
    • Savings and investments count toward net worth but never become spendable Forecast cash.
    • A confirmed balance edit creates a dated adjustment instead of rewriting history.

    Debt accounts

    • Credit-card purchases increase debt; card payments reduce it.
    • Choose Institutional loan when a lender statement determines how each payment splits among principal, interest, and fees. Checking changes immediately; principal waits for reconciliation.
    • Choose Informal loan for a friend or personal agreement without lender statements. Each posted payment reduces the amount owed by its full amount.
    • Informal expectations can be every paycheck, a calendar schedule, or flexible. Extra payments are always allowed.
    • Institutional statement corrections preserve earlier versions; mistaken statements can be deleted without rewriting closed month snapshots.
    3

    Obligations and provider balances

    A provider's current balance and the next scheduled cash estimate are related, but they are not the same number.

    “Upcoming scheduled cash” is not an unpaid warning.It means the app expects money to leave checking on a future due date. The Provider balance separately says Credit, Owe, Settled, or Balance not entered.
    Fixed bill

    Save the normal amount and schedule. That amount is projected for each occurrence, reduced by current provider credit. A larger amount currently owed can raise the first occurrence.

    Variable bill with an estimate

    Use this for utilities when an average is still useful for planning. The Cash Calendar labels it as an estimate. Once a current provider charge is entered, the known amount owed takes precedence for the first due occurrence.

    Variable bill with no estimate

    Keep the due schedule but leave the amount unknown. No guessed dollars enter projected cash. When the bill arrives, record one Provider charge; then record the actual payment through Record Bill Payment.

    How to balance a bill correctly
    1. If starting mid-cycle, enter the provider's current Credit or Owe balance and its as-of date once.
    2. When a new bill arrives, add a Provider charge.
    3. When you pay, use Record Bill Payment. Keep Add to Activity and account balances on to create the real ledger history. Turn it off only when correcting or advancing the saved due schedule; that mode creates no Activity, payment history, provider-ledger entry, principal change, or account-balance change.
    4. Do not also enter a posted payment as a Provider credit. Use Provider credit only for a refund, courtesy credit, or adjustment issued by the provider.
    5. Confirm that Provider balance says Settled when charges and payments offset.
    4

    Activity, entries, and transfers

    Transactions are actual activity; a Forecast row is only a plan.

    PostedAffects balances, reports, and eligible Forecast actuals.
    PendingVisible for review but excluded from posted balances and reports.
    Spending CategoryDescribes the purpose of merchant spending, such as utilities or groceries.
    Activity TypeControls financial behavior such as purchase, refund, income, fee, or transfer.
    • Record Transaction opens Quick Record on a phone and the Batch Worksheet on a wider screen. Both modes remain available on every device.
    • ChatGPT Finance CSV is the primary import path. Use Copy ChatGPT export prompt for the exact all-linked-accounts request, replace its start and end date placeholders after pasting, then return with the downloaded CSV.
    • Export a bounded date range, choose the consolidated file once, and map every source identity to a different compatible local account.
    • Choose Remember account match when the mapping is correct. Institution + Account + Account Subtype + the final 3 or 4 digits can fill future exports automatically; Account Type and Official / Product Name remain supporting evidence. Similar names alone are never used.
    • Recorded on is the account that owns an imported history row. Related record / plan is its other side or purpose and never changes that source ownership.
    • Use Internal transfer when money moves between your owned accounts. Use Credit card payment or Loan payment when cash pays a debt account. Use Refund / reimbursement for money returned by a merchant.
    • Every proposed Activity field remains editable before saving. Exported categories are preserved as source evidence and merchant-profile details, but do not override your Activity Type or Spending Category rules. Possible duplicates are skipped unless you deliberately include them.
    • Explicitly linked transfer sides may post on different dates. The importer keeps them linked, uses the money-out date for the canonical Activity, and preserves a source warning about the date difference.
    • Every transaction-file import is history only. It records Activity while preserving current account values; balance reconciliation is a separate workflow.
    • Other one-account CSV files remain available as a fallback: choose one destination account, check its sign convention, and review every proposed row. They follow the same history-only balance rule.
    • Search for a known Merchant / party or type a new name directly. Related record / plan can connect a row to an obligation, card, loan, Money Owed record, or transfer destination.
    • Use Entry History to inspect and roll back the newest active batch affecting an account. A multi-account ChatGPT Finance import stays together as one recoverable batch.
    5

    Forecast, Cash Calendar, and Monthly Planner

    The two Forecast tools answer different questions.

    Cash Calendar

    “Will the checking accounts I included stay above zero over the next 14, 30, 60, or 90 days?” It combines posted starting cash, pending activity, saved schedules, and explicit assumptions.

    Monthly Planner

    “How do I intend to allocate income across pay cycles?” Its ending plan balance carries into the next pay cycle and saved month, but transactions never rewrite the plan.

    Always read the evidence label.Posted, Pending, Saved schedule, Assumption, Comparison only, and Covered by linked activity mean different levels of certainty.
    6

    Action Center, reports, and month close

    Review pages turn raw records into a manageable attention list and preserved history.

    • The Action Center prioritizes upcoming cash, stale evidence, unclassified transactions, and records needing review.
    • Open Why this appeared to see the evidence used, a bounded next step, the finding basis, and what the app cannot determine.
    • Projected shortfalls come from Cash Calendar. Exact possible duplicates and unusually large merchant purchases are conservative pattern checks on posted Activity.
    • Reports use posted transactions only and keep merchant spending separate from Forecast-treated cash outflow.
    • Month close preserves balances and evidence as of month end. Later posted changes make a close stale instead of silently rewriting it.
    • Reconcile accounts and refresh investment values before closing a completed month.
    Recorded factDirectly supported by saved records or validation.
    Derived projectionA calculation from recorded balances, schedules, plans, and assumptions.
    PatternAn objective similarity or amount comparison that still needs human review.
    AssumptionA visible uncertainty or possible overlap the app refuses to resolve silently.
    Findings never rewrite your books.They can explain, prioritize, link, and suggest. They do not edit, merge, delete, classify, or invent a transaction, balance, plan, or relationship.
    7

    Checking and savings goal buckets

    Buckets organize money already inside an account; they do not create cash, move funds, or create another account.

    • Checking buckets: internal earmarks and guidance only. They never reduce Forecast cash or change the checking balance.
    • Emergency fund: fixed target or months of essential expenses.
    • Sinking fund: target amount, target date, and required monthly contribution.
    • Periodic reserve: optionally link one annual obligation; only savings buckets participate in automatic Forecast reserve-source handling.
    • Savings stays outside spendable checking cash even when a goal is fully funded.
    8

    Property, documents, and important records

    Reference records stay separate from financial accounts.

    • Purchase price is historical cost; conservative market value is optional net-worth evidence; insurance replacement value is for coverage planning.
    • Only an opted-in, dated conservative market valuation enters net worth.
    • PDFs and safe JPEG, PNG, or WebP images stay local and do not create transactions.
    • Stored files are included in complete backups; plain JSON backups contain readable copies.
    9

    Data safety, backups, and recovery

    The app is local-first, so your backup routine is part of the system.

    • IndexedDB is primary storage; localStorage is the compatibility fallback.
    • The app selects the newest valid local copy and reports recovery diagnostics in Data Health.
    • Encrypted sync is optional and starts only when you choose it in Settings from the protected hosted app. Save the recovery key outside the app before connecting another device.
    • Concurrent device edits stop for your choice instead of being merged silently. A displaced copy is preserved as encrypted recovery history.
    • Replacing the shared recovery key re-encrypts the current cloud copy and disconnects browsers that still hold the old key. Save the new key before reconnecting a trusted browser.
    • Deleting the encrypted cloud copy removes synchronized ciphertext and cloud recovery history, but does not erase finance data already stored locally on any browser.
    • Export a backup after important updates. Sync is not a backup, plain backups are readable, and encrypted backups require their separate passphrase to restore.
    • A one-level safety checkpoint can undo supported destructive cleanup, but it is not a substitute for a separate backup.
    • Data Health reports problems without changing records.
    10

    Install Finances on a Home Screen

    The installed app and the ordinary website are two ways to open the same protected service.

    1. Open app.corey-dobbs.com in Safari and sign in to Dobbs Financial.
    2. Tap Safari's Share button, choose Add to Home Screen, then confirm Add.
    3. Open the new Finances icon and sign in again if asked. If iPhone treats it as a separate browser store, connect it with your current sync recovery key and choose the cloud copy.
    • The Safari website remains available and is not replaced by the Home Screen app.
    • The app shell can open offline after a successful online visit. Synchronization waits for a connection, and sync API responses are never cached.
    • Local finance data still depends on the phone's passcode and physical security because full-app passphrase protection remains deferred.
    11

    Quick glossary

    The terms that most often look similar but mean different things.

    Forecast
    Your manually saved plan.
    Forecast actual
    Posted checking-cash activity assigned by explicit treatment rules.
    Merchant spending
    Posted purchases from checking and cards, excluding card payments and internal transfers.
    Provider balance
    What the provider account currently shows: positive credit, negative amount owed, or settled.
    Upcoming scheduled cash
    A future checking outflow projection, not automatically an unpaid bill.
    Reconciliation
    A comparison between the app ledger and a trusted statement balance.
    Net worth
    Included assets and receivables minus confirmed debt and provider payables.