Groundwork 2.1.46 is here: free for Windows, macOS and Linux. · See what's new in 2.0 → · Already using Groundwork? Updating keeps your records →

Available now · Free for Windows, macOS and Linux

Groundwork 2.0 is here.

The biggest update we've ever built: an assistant that answers from your own records, a Health page, reports you can ask for in your own words, and privacy its own tests hold it to. All of it on your own computer, toward one horizon: financial independence, for everyone.

Download free for Windows Watch the tours ↓

The new AI tools Get my accounts Health Reports Privacy Updating

Already using Groundwork? 2.0 is a free update.

Groundwork tells you itself: an update notice appears inside the app. 2.0 updates a 1.1 install in place, and keeps a dated copy of your data first. Your records come with you. How updating works →

New in 2.0 · The new AI tools

Ask. Groundwork does the math.

An assistant that knows your budget, your debts and your spending, because it reads your own records, on your own computer. It doesn't guess, it doesn't sell, and it can't make a number up.

Every figure in an answer is written by Groundwork from your records. The AI only chooses what to show.

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The assistant answering · sample household, made-up figures

Ask

Ask in plain words, typed or spoken. "Are we on budget this month?" "Would $200 more on my Visa make a difference?" Groundwork answers from your own records.
Every figure is Groundwork's. The AI only chooses which of Groundwork's sentences to show. It never does the arithmetic, so it can't make a number up.
"Did you mean the Cashback Visa?" It asks about the closest match instead of guessing, and keeps your answer. You can see and remove every name it keeps.
It says when it doesn't know. When your records hold too little to answer, it says so, and what would let it know.

Do

Changes only on your Yes. File transactions, make an import rule, add a budget line or mark a bill as recurring. It shows exactly what would change, and Undo puts it back.
Ask why. A number looks wrong? Groundwork checks your records, says what it found, and shows any fix before it happens.
Explain this page. What each page works out, and what its numbers mean, in plain words.
Ask for a report. "Monthly totals of debt payments, June to September", and the report is built. This works with the AI turned off.

Talk

Talk with Groundwork. Tap the microphone and talk. It stays on until you're done, and answers aloud in Groundwork's own voice.
It follows how people talk. Loose phrasing, a correction halfway through, a pause to think, and figures said back to you.
Only voices it knows. Teach it your voice in five sentences, and it answers only the voices it has learned, not the television. A voiceprint is 256 numbers, not a recording.
Read aloud. Point at any part of a page and hear it in Groundwork's own words, made on your computer.

Look after you

A monthly review and a Sunday check-in. When a month is complete, what came in and went out. Every Sunday, the week behind you and the week ahead.
When money feels like too much. Words of stress or despair about money bring calm, fixed words and where to find help, never AI-written advice.
It can't be talked into anything. "Ignore your rules" is refused before the AI sees it: typed, spoken, or hidden in a bank memo.
Everything works with the AI off. Every page and every report keeps its figures. The AI only adds the explanation.

New in 2.0 · Groundwork does the legwork

Your statements, with one press.

Show Groundwork your bank once. After that, Get my accounts visits each bank for you, signs in from your computer's own password vault, downloads your statement and offers it to you to review. You type any code your bank sends; Groundwork never reads one, and never presses Pay.

Straight from your bank to your computer. No company in between.

How to set it up →

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Get my accounts · sample household, made-up figures

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Bills read from the biller · sample household, made-up figures

Your bills, read straight from the biller.

The amount due and the due date from the company's own website, beside what you planned, once you confirm them.

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Bring in your bank's file · sample household, made-up figures

Or bring in your bank's file yourself.

Any bank's CSV, OFX, QFX or QIF file, read on your computer, with every line you already have recognised.

New in 2.0 · Health

Health care costs, recorded, never judged.

A whole page for what care costs: medical bills as the provider sent them, your plan year as your insurer reports it, a reserve for a bad year, and who care was for. Health care is a cost, never a lever to cut.

How the Health page works →

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The Health page · sample household, made-up figures

Medical bills

Kept as the provider sent them: the amount, the dates and the account number.
Yours only when you say so. A bill becomes something you owe when you press This bill is mine to pay.
"Amount owed now" shows its working: the payments you link, what insurance changed, and any payment arrangement the provider agreed.
Asks instead of guessing. When a card charge may be the same bill, Groundwork counts both until you say.
What your record can sustain: monthly amounts your own record supports. It never says what to offer, and never contacts anyone.
Collections kept apart. On the Health page, never in Debt Payoff, with the collector's running balance, no interest or fees made up, and a note on getting legal advice.

Plan and reserve

Your plan year: the deductible and out-of-pocket maximum, met so far, as your insurer reports them, with dates. Never worked out from your spending.
An old reading says it's old. When bills were paid after your last reading, Groundwork says so instead of guessing.
Changes and corrections kept. A new plan or a corrected figure never rewrites the months before it.
A health reserve in an account you already have, aimed at your out-of-pocket maximum: the most a covered year can cost.
Your choice of timing: build it before, alongside or after your last debt, each shown with its debt-free date. None is labelled best, and your payoff plan follows the one you choose.
HSA and FSA: balances, the yearly IRS limits, and an FSA's deadline.

Spending, people and records

What care has cost, month by month and for the year so far. A record, not a budget: no limit to beat and no "over".
Whom it was for, payment by payment, as you said it, never guessed. Names are labels, not locks, and the page says so.
A visit report for each provider, ready to print.
The year in review for tax time: medical costs laid out for Schedule A, with HSA detail for Form 8889, and what Groundwork can't see said plainly. Never tax advice.

Care is never a lever

Never a cut. Groundwork never suggests spending less on care: not on the Budget page, the dashboard, the debt plan or in the assistant.
Never priced in months. Necessary care is never measured against your debt-free date.
Care is recognised: Medicine, Rx, Insulin, Urgent Care, Glasses, Hearing Aids, Orthodontist and more.
Private: health records are kept out of the AI log, and out of exports unless you tick the box. You can hide Health from the sidebar; your records stay.

New in 2.0 · Reports

Reports, built the way you ask for them.

Say what you want to see, or stack the sections yourself, for any period in your own words. Pick how it looks, save it, and it's ready again next month.

Every figure is worked out by Groundwork from your own records, with the AI on or off.

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Build your own report · sample household, made-up figures

Build it

Build a report from sections: monthly totals, a trend, a list, a snapshot, a comparison or a what-if.
About what you choose: spending, one category, payees, income, debt payments, debt balances, net worth, recurring charges, bills due or room in your budget.
Start from one of Groundwork's reports, or from nothing, and save it. Next month it's ready again.

Ask for it

In your own words: "monthly totals of debt payments from June to September". If Groundwork isn't sure what you meant, it asks one question, with buttons.
Periods the way you say them: "last month", "this year", "June to September".
With the AI on or off. Groundwork reads the request itself first; no figure ever comes from the AI.

See it your way

Six styles: text and grid, text and charts, charts first, text only, print / PDF, or compact. One section can differ from the rest.
Comparisons line up the two periods you name, with the change for each line.
What-ifs: what "$200 more a month" on a debt would change.
Every page prints as a report, and every report prints or saves as a PDF.

Straight with you

Says when it can't answer. When your records can't answer yet, the section says so, and what would let it.
Never a gap counted as $0. A month with no statement is left out and named, not counted as nothing owed.
Every summary without AI: each report shows its full summary, charts and figures. With AI on, an explanation is added; it never restates the figures.
Health and tax time: the visit report, the year in review, and a year-end packet for you or your tax preparer.

The privacy push

Your money stays on your computer. Here's how we hold to that.

Groundwork 2.0 does more for you, so it guards more for you: the AI, your voice, your passwords, your backups and your health records all stay on your machine, and the app's own tests fail if anything tries another way out.

Exactly what leaves your computer, and why →

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Private by design · sample household, made-up figures

$0always: no subscription, no upgrade

Noneaccounts to make, or logins

Nonecloud AI options

Nonetelemetry, ads or partner offers

Nothing leaves on its own

One door out. Every request the app makes goes through one place in its code, which refuses any other address. Groundwork's own tests fail if a request is made anywhere else.
No cloud AI, ever. The AI ships inside Groundwork and runs on your computer, or not at all.
No account, no telemetry, no ads. We never see your data. This website counts pages, not people.

The AI is on a short leash

It has no hands. It can't move money, pay a bill, delete anything or change a setting.
Outside text is data. A bank memo or a web page can't give the assistant orders.
The AI log keeps every request to the AI, as sent and as it came back, on your computer. Your questions to the assistant are answered and forgotten.

Locked on your machine

Protected backups. A password and a 24-word recovery key. A protected backup can't be opened by anyone who finds the file.
Passwords in your computer's own vault, not in Groundwork: bank and bill sign-ins stay in Windows Credential Manager or the macOS Keychain.
Your bank, only when you ask. Groundwork opens your bank's site when you press the button, never on a schedule, and never presses a payment button.

Your voice and your health

Voice stays here. What you say is recognised on your computer, never sent anywhere or kept. The browser's own speech recognition is switched off.
Health stays out: kept out of the AI log, and out of exports unless you tick the box.
Nothing about your health leaves your computer.

And there's more

Everything else new in 2.0

Groundwork 2.0 does more of the work for you, explains more of what it finds, and still keeps every number on your own computer.

Your statements, with one press

No more logging in to download files. Tell Groundwork which bank you use, and when you ask, it opens your bank's website in a window inside Groundwork and brings your statements back for you to review. It only goes when you ask, never on its own or on a schedule. Your password stays in your computer's own secure vault, not in Groundwork.

Your bills, read straight from the biller

Groundwork can read what a bill says on the company's own website, like the amount and the due date, and put it right next to that line in your budget. You confirm it before it's used. And Groundwork never presses a Pay button: paying is always yours.

Set aside, and available

Savings goals live inside the accounts you already have. Every account shows its balance, what's set aside and what's available, and a purchase can be paid from the goal you saved for it.

Your pay, employer by employer

Groundwork reads each paycheck on its own. If one stops showing up or drops, it tells you plainly and shows a few ways the month could go from there. If your pay changes with overtime or holiday pay, it asks once, so a slow week is never mistaken for a pay cut.

Possible futures

See your next twelve months side by side: as things are, and what happens if your most expensive months come back, a month goes by without income, or you pay only the minimums. Every future says what it assumes. If one doesn't fit your life, tell it what's missing and they all recalculate.

Before You Buy, with the whole cost

Thinking about a big purchase? See what it really costs each month, interest included, and whether financing it costs more than paying down what you already owe. We're not here to talk you out of anything. We show you the numbers.

Trips, priced from real fares

The trip planner opens Google Flights and Google Hotels right inside Groundwork and uses the price you pick. Haven't picked one yet? It uses the government's average fare for that route instead of a guess.

Gifts, as the yearly cost they are

Birthdays and holidays come every year. Groundwork adds up the next twelve months of them and shows what to set aside each month, so December never arrives as a surprise.

Utilities and fuel, from public prices

Groundwork estimates your gas, electric, propane, heating oil and gasoline costs from the U.S. government's published prices for your state. It asks which state you're in and never looks up your location.

Research, shown honestly

Where a well-known study backs up an idea, like saving automatically, Groundwork shows you what the study found and what it doesn't show.

Every number shows its working

Groundwork shows where its figures come from: the inputs, the math, and any assumption behind them. If it can't show how it got a number, it doesn't show you the number.

Easier on the eyes

One type scale, a Text size setting, and every piece of text checked against every background, so nothing in Groundwork is too faint to read.

Updating

Updating from Groundwork 1.1

Groundwork tells you itself: when 2.0 is ready for you, an update notice appears inside the app, with a link to the download. 2.0 upgrades a 1.1 install in place and keeps a dated copy of your data first.

Windows: run the 2.0 installer. It removes the earlier version for you, then installs 2.0.
macOS: drag Groundwork into Applications and choose Replace.
Linux: the install script replaces the earlier version.

Your records are never touched. The update goes one way: 1.1 isn't made to use 2.0's records, and 1.1 gets no more updates. Read the full changelog →

Download free for Windows

Financial independence for everyone,
one understood decision at a time.

That's why Groundwork explains every number it shows you, and has nothing to sell you.

Get Groundwork 2.0, free