Groundwork
Personal Finance
Starting up…
Help & FAQ
🧪 Testing mode — nothing here will be saved to your real data.
Welcome to Groundwork.
Groundwork's AI features run free, on your own machine, by default. Let's check what this computer can run.
Checking your machine…
Welcome to Groundwork.
We'll build a clear picture of your finances together — most people are ready in about ten minutes, and nothing you do today is permanent.
What brought you here today?
Let's begin.
The fastest start is bringing in your recent spending — Groundwork organizes it for you and shows you what it found. You can also set things up by hand.
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Let's start with what comes in.
One number — or two, if you're sharing finances with someone. There's no right amount here — we just need a starting point, and you can always update it later.
Sharing finances with a partner?
We'll track both incomes together from the start.
Your name
Partner's name
Monthly take-home income
Partner's monthly take-home income
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And what regularly goes out?
Just your steady fixed bills. Leave anything blank that doesn't apply — ballpark numbers are completely fine. You can fine-tune everything later in Budget.
Housing
Mortgage or rent ($/month)
Utilities
Electric ($/month)
Gas ($/month)
Water / Sewer ($/month)
Internet ($/month)
Phone / Cell ($/month)
Trash ($/month)
Food
Groceries ($/month)
Dining out / takeout ($/month)
Transportation
Gas / Fuel ($/month)
Car lease ($/month)
Here's what you've been spending.
We looked at your recent activity and found your typical monthly costs. Nothing here is final — adjust anything that doesn't look right.
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Now, let's get it all down.
Every card, every loan — balance, rate, minimum payment. This is the only time you'll need to gather all of this in one place. Once it's here, Groundwork keeps track of it so you don't have to carry it in your head.
There's nothing to judge in these numbers — just information we'll use to build a plan that fits your life.
Total debt $0
Interest at minimums only $0
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When you have money beyond your immediate needs, what would you most like it to accomplish?
There's no wrong answer, and nothing here is locked in. This just tells Groundwork what matters to you — once your real transactions are in, it will show what each choice does, without ever choosing for you.
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Where are you headed?
Getting out of debt is the first victory. But what comes after? Set a net worth target — even a rough one. It gives everything a destination.
Net worth target
By when
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Here's where you stand.
Auto-import tip: Save a bank statement (.csv, .ofx, .qfx) to your Downloads folder and Groundwork detects it automatically — a one-click import notification appears without you having to find the file.
Dashboard
Good morning.
Here's where things stand.
Week 1 — get set up
Five steps and the app knows enough to guide you.
Sunday check-in
This month
On track
$0
Spending this month
Upcoming
View all →

# Ledger

—
In
$0
Out
$0
Net
$0
⌕
Reconcile with statement
Statement closing balance
Check off transactions as you match them to your statement.
Cleared total: $0.00
Difference: —
Date
Description
Account
Category
Amount
Balance
Cleared
📒
No transactions yet
Import a CSV or OFX file from your bank, or add transactions manually.
Recurring charges detected
Based on merchants that appear monthly at consistent amounts.
Sinking funds
Set money aside monthly for irregular expenses so they never derail your budget.
Name
Monthly contribution
Starting balance (optional)
Target amount (optional)
Deadline (optional)
Note (optional)
YOUR PATH TO ZERO
—
▸ What if you paid extra?
Extra / month $0
Debt-free
—
Interest saved
$0
% of income to debt
—
Recent debt achievements
Monthly payment budget
Total available for debt each month ($)
Include minimums plus any extra. The more you put in, the faster you get out.
Payoff strategy
Avalanche: pay minimums on all cards, then apply extra cash to the highest-interest card first. Saves the most money.
Pending payment confirmations
Your cards & loans
Loan Forgiveness
Loans flagged for income-driven forgiveness (PSLF, IBR, SAVE) live here, separate from your other cards. Edit balance, payments, and forgiveness progress all in one place. The app won't recommend accelerating payoff on these; strategic minimum payment is the correct move. Uncheck the flag on a loan to move it back.
Debt-to-income ratio
—
Total interest
$0
at current plan
Debt-free date
—
Once debt-free
—
freed monthly cash
Groundwork's acceleration analysis
✦ AI
Interest saved
$0
Months sooner
0
New free date
—
Before You Buy
See what a purchase really costs your debt-free date before you decide.
Investments
Portfolio positions and performance.
Portfolio value
$0
$0 invested
Unrealized gain
$0
0.0%
Today's change
$0
0.0%
Positions
0
across all accounts
Allocation
Performers
Best
Worst
Returns overview
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Allocation vs target
Set target allocation
Set your target % for each asset class. Values must sum to 100%.
Positions

Security | Value · Alloc | Return
--- | --- | ---
📈 No positions yet Add your first holding to start tracking your portfolio.

Transaction history

Date | Type | Ticker | Shares | Price | Total | Note |
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
No transactions recorded.

Realized gains & tax summary
Closed positions — for planning, not tax advice.
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Net Worth
Assets minus liabilities.
Current net worth
$0
Assets
Total assets$0
Liabilities
Total liabilities$0
Update balances
Assets
Checking & savings ($)
Investment accounts ($) brokerage, taxable
401(k) / 403(b) ($) ${helpIcon('retirement_account')}
IRA / Roth IRA ($)
Defined benefit pension
Cash on hand ($)
Home estimated value ($)
Liabilities
Mortgage balance ($)
Credit card & loan debt
$0
Auto-calculated from Debt Payoff
Snapshots save automatically on the first launch of each month.
Milestones
Add a milestone
Name
Target ($)
Target date
Retirement readiness
Readiness inputs
Retirement age
Social Security / pension income ($/mo)
Social Security and pension income reduce how much your portfolio needs to cover. Add your estimated monthly SS benefit or pension here.
Debt vs invest
Extra mortgage payment vs. investing
Your debt is paid off and you've got a buffer — here's the real math on two honest options for the next dollar.
Mortgage interest rate (%)
Months remaining on the loan
Your full monthly mortgage payment (optional — whatever actually leaves your account)
If you've already entered "Rent / Mortgage" in your Budget, this fills in automatically — no need to re-enter it. Otherwise, just the number that gets withdrawn each month is enough — no need to look up how much is escrow, PMI, taxes, or insurance. We calculate the true principal & interest portion ourselves from your rate and balance above, and show you the difference. This field is only used to show that breakdown — it's never used in the payoff math itself.
Assumed investment return (%/yr, before inflation)
Default 7% sits in the commonly-used 5–8% nominal (not inflation-adjusted) range for a diversified, stock-heavy portfolio. Adjust it if you'd rather plan around a different assumption.
Balance is pulled from the mortgage balance you've entered above in Net Worth.
Required Minimum Distribution
IRS requires annual withdrawals from tax-deferred accounts after age 73.
Your current age
Tax-deferred balance ($)
Withdrawal sustainability
At your current spending, how long does this portfolio last?
Annual withdrawal rate (%)
The 4% rule is the historical standard for a 30-year retirement. Lower rates extend the portfolio longer. Higher rates risk depletion.
College savings (529)
Track savings toward college costs alongside your other goals.
Social Security timing
When you claim SS affects your monthly benefit for life. Enter your estimated benefit at full retirement age.
Monthly benefit at full retirement age ($)
Your current age
Birth year (for exact FRA)
Roth vs traditional
Pre-tax and post-tax accounts are taxed differently in retirement. Tracking the split matters for withdrawal planning.
Pre-tax (taxable in retirement)
Traditional 401k / 403b
Traditional IRA
Post-tax (tax-free in retirement)
Roth 401k / 403b
Roth IRA
Trophy Room
Your financial achievements.
Trip Planner
Plan a trip that fits your finances — without touching your debt payoff.
Where are you going?
Destination
Departure date
Return date
Travelers
Home city (for driving distance)
How are you getting there?
Vehicle details
Make & model
Year
MPG (highway)
Departure airport (IATA code)
Arrival airport (IATA code)
Live prices need both airport codes and your dates above. Without a search, flight cost is AI-estimated when you generate the trip budget.
Have a past trip to learn from?
Point to a past vacation's dates and Groundwork reads your real spending from that trip — hotel, dining, activities — to build this trip's budget from what actually happened instead of a guess.
Trip label (optional)
Start date
End date
Travelers on that trip
Have a quote, or just want to describe the trip?
Paste a hotel, VRBO, or flight quote — or just describe the trip in plain English. Groundwork reads what's actually there; nothing is filled in without your OK.
Your trip budget
How do you want to fund this?
Your trip budget
Gift Budget
Everyone you buy for, every occasion — planned and funded.
Settings
Preferences & data.
Household
Household mode
Two people, one app. Enables partner name and couples check-in.
Your name
Partner's name
AI features
Enable AI features
Dashboard insights, smarter Before You Buy, monthly reports
Provider
Checking…
Model
Advanced: endpoint override
Nothing leaves your machine. Needs Ollama running locally — free, no account needed.
Anthropic API key
No API key — AI features will be disabled.
Free key at console.anthropic.com. Stays on your computer.
AI narrative gate health
How often generated narratives get rejected before you see them, and why — the validation gate that keeps invented numbers off the screen.
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Budget settings
Default savings target (%)
Default debt budget ($/month)
Debt payoff strategy
Home state
Used for real natural gas & electricity price benchmarks in your budget — state is as precise as this data gets.
Import rules
Auto-categorize transactions on every import
Recurring transactions
Bills that auto-log every month so you never forget
Income & pay settings
Achievement sound
Play a short trumpet fanfare when you earn an achievement.
Commission or irregular income
Freelance, sales commission, seasonal work. Stops the app from treating slow months as failures.
Pay frequency
Categories
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Category cleanup
These categories aren't part of Groundwork's built-in list — either added on purpose, or left over from an older import. Merge any of them into a standard category, or leave them alone if they're intentional.
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Accounts
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Data & Backup
Auto-import from Downloads
Save any bank statement (.csv, .ofx, .qfx, .qif) to your Downloads folder — Groundwork detects it and offers a one-click import.
Backup location
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About
Groundwork v1.0.0.0
Personal Finance — Desktop Edition
All data stored locally. No cloud. No ads. No subscriptions.
Walk through the onboarding screens to test them — your real income, debts, and settings are not changed.
Re-categorize uncategorized transactions
Find transactions still in Other or Personal and apply Groundwork's current categorization rules to them. Only those two catch-all categories are affected — anything you've already categorized manually is left alone.
Fix miscategorized paycheck deposits
A bug meant direct-deposit paychecks could be filed under Transfer instead of Income. This has been fixed for new imports — run this once to move any already-imported paychecks still sitting in Transfer over to Income.
Danger Zone
Delete every transaction in the Ledger. A backup is created automatically before anything is deleted, but this cannot be undone from within the app — use it only if you're about to re-import your full history from scratch.
Export your data
Your data belongs to you. Export a full copy at any time — transactions, budgets, net worth history, debt accounts, and settings.
Before You Buy
Enter what you're considering. We'll load your real budget so you can see what has to move to make it work.
What are you considering?
Monthly payment ($)
Replacing an existing vehicle?
APR (%)
Term (months)
What's Left change
DTI
Debt-free date
Adjust your budget to make room
Your real budget below. Adjust any row — nothing saves until you commit.
New purchase
The item you're evaluating
What's Left
—
DTI
—
Debt-free
—
✓
Decision saved.
Are you sure?

Import transactions
Account
To add a new account, go to Settings → Accounts first.
File (CSV, TXT, OFX, QFX, QIF, or a credit card statement PDF)
Select an account above to continue.
Add Transaction
Date
Type
Description
Amount ($)
Category
Account
Memo (optional)
Backups
Create a backup before making big changes. Use Recover to restore a previous state — or restore from a backup file if you're setting up on a new computer.
Month
Anything unusual? AI reads this
Past reports
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Add holding

Record your current position. Enter your average purchase price if you have multiple lots, or use "Record buy / sell" to track individual lots for accurate cost basis.

Ticker symbol
Security type
Shares owned
Average purchase price ($)
Purchase date
Account
Current price ($) — optional, overrides live data
Note
Record transaction
Transaction type
Ticker symbol
Account
Shares
Price per share ($)
Total amount ($)
Fees ($)
Date
Split ratio (e.g. 2 for 2:1)
Note