Managing your budget without connecting your bank.
Many apps demand access to your accounts. It is not compulsory: here is how to keep an accurate budget while keeping your banking data to yourself.
Why go without a bank connection?
Manual entry has one advantage aggregation does not: discretion.
Most budgeting apps plug into your bank to read your transactions. It is convenient, but it means a third party sees every last one of your expenses.
With a bankless budget, you decide what the app sees, not the other way round.
Manual entry turns that around: you record your spending yourself, and no banking data ever leaves your pocket.
Keeping an accurate budget by hand, without losing your evenings to it
The chore of data entry is a myth: a few seconds per expense is all it takes.
The worry is the typing. In reality, a few seconds at the moment you pay is enough, and the habit keeps you aware of every expense.
With the envelope method, each expense drops into a category (groceries, going out, transport), and you see the remaining balance in real time.
After a month, the app knows your habits and can even suggest envelopes calibrated to your real spending.
Which apps work without a bank?
From a spreadsheet to a dedicated app, several tools require no connection at all.
Several tools run on manual entry: a simple spreadsheet, Goodbudget, or iBudgetAll, with physical and virtual envelopes.
iBudgetAll requires no bank connection by default: no ads, no ad tracking, your data never resold. And if one day you want automatic tracking, the bank connection is still there as an option (optional connection, PSD2, more than 2,500 banks in Europe, and in Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam), to turn on or not.
No bank today, connected tomorrow if you want
You are not locked into any choice: both modes coexist, and you switch whenever you want.
Manual entry
You record your expenses yourself. No banking data shared, maximum privacy. This is the default mode.
Bank connection (optional)
You link your accounts (PSD2, more than 2,500 banks in Europe, and in Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam) and your spending fills in on its own. Turn it on or not, at any time.
Frequently asked questions
Is a budget without a bank connection reliable?
Can iBudgetAll work entirely without a bank?
Try a budget without the bank
iBudgetAll works with manual entry, no card for the trial. iOS and Android, in English.