Frequently asked questions

Money to live on is what's left for you to spend once your fixed charges and savings are deducted. The math is simple: fixed income + cumulative balance − fixed charges − savings goal. It's your real budget for the month.

Each month, if you spend less than your money to live on, the surplus rolls over to the next month. Conversely, if you go over, the deficit rolls over too. You can see the month-by-month breakdown in Settings > My situation > Cumulative balance.

Important, since version 1.4.0: each month is a frozen photo. Once closed, its balance never changes, even if you modify your income, charges or savings for the current month. Your past is untouchable.

The money to live on is your monthly budget (before any spending this month). The month balance (shown on the home screen) is what's left after this month's expenses and income: money to live on + income − expenses − subscriptions.

Many people are paid at the end or beginning of the month (the 25th, 28th, 30th…). To make your Kakei month match your real financial cycle, you can pick your month start day in Settings > Language & Currency > Month start day.

Example: if you choose 28, your « May 2026 » will run from April 28 to May 27. Every expense between those dates is counted in the same month, instead of being split in two by the calendar 1st.

At the start of each new month, Kakei shows a small popin: « Welcome to May 2026, review your situation ». It's a chance to consciously verify that your income, charges and savings are still current.

If nothing has changed, one tap on « Everything is the same ». If you got a raise, a new rent, a new recurring expense, tap « Update » to refresh. Align your budget tracking with your reality. This is the heart of the kakeibo philosophy.

No. Kakei offers a shortcut: just enter your starting balance (what you have left in your checking accounts today) in Settings > To get started, and check off the income / charges / savings already paid this month.

Kakei calculates your money to live on from that point, without you having to reconstruct your history. Next month, the shortcut disappears and the normal calculation takes over.

This month's savings: what you plan to set aside each month (a flow). For example: 200€ to your Savings A + 100€ to your Savings B. This amount is deducted from your money to live on like a fixed charge.

Cumulative savings: what you've already set aside over time (a stock), broken down by account. For example: Savings A 10,000€ + Life insurance 5,000€. Purely informational, you update it manually when you make a transfer.

No automatic link between the two: Kakei never syncs. That's the kakeibo spirit: everything is manual and conscious.

The starting balance is the amount you have on your checking accounts when you begin using Kakei. It's a one-shot reference point, used only to calculate your first month when you start mid-cycle.

Once your first month closes, the starting balance disappears. Your budget then runs on fixed income − fixed charges − savings, plus the cumulative carry-over from past months.

Active subscriptions are automatically deducted from your balance each month. Weekly subscriptions are converted to a monthly amount (×52/12), yearly ones to monthly (/12). Kakei also reminds you 3 days before each charge.

After a few expenses, Kakei calculates your average daily pace and projects where you'll land at month-end. If you're at risk of going over budget, an alert appears so you have time to adjust.

From the home screen, tap the « Expense » button. Enter the amount, pick a category, and you're done. Kakei is built so adding an expense takes under 10 seconds.

Kakei analyzes your habits and shows one insight per day on the home screen: comparison with the previous month, top category, weekend trend, unusual expense… Full insights are available in the Stats tab (Premium).

The streak counts the number of consecutive days you've logged at least one transaction. It's a small nudge to keep the habit going. No pressure: it's just for you.

Yes. On the home screen, use the left/right arrows to navigate between months. You'll see the balance, expenses and income for each past month.

Go to Settings > My situation this month. Enter your fixed income (salary, benefits…), your fixed charges (rent, insurance…) and your savings goal. Kakei automatically computes your money to live on.

The free version includes all the essentials: budget tracking, unlimited income and expenses, 6 categories, up to 5 subscriptions, 3-month history, one daily insight, and notifications.

Premium unlocks: unlimited custom categories, unlimited subscriptions, full history, detailed stats with all insights, and the shareable monthly summary. It's a one-time purchase of EUR 19.99, forever.

Yes. A single payment of EUR 19.99 and it's unlocked forever. No subscription, no hidden fees, no renewal. It's a budget app — adding a subscription would be a bit of a contradiction.

Kakei automatically tries to restore your purchases at launch. If it didn't, go to Settings > Premium > Restore my purchases. Use the same Apple ID and it will be restored.

Kakei can send four types of notifications, all optional: a daily reminder to log your expenses, a weekly summary on Sundays, a subscription reminder 3 days before a charge, and an inactivity reminder after 3 days without a transaction.

The daily reminder can be turned off in Settings > Daily reminder. For the others, manage them via your phone's notification settings (iOS Settings > Kakei > Notifications).

You have two options in Settings > Account & Sync, which can run side by side or independently:

• Apple or Google account (recommended) — your data syncs across all your devices in real time. If you switch phones, just sign in with the same account and everything is there.
• iCloud (iPhone) or Google Drive (Android) — local backup to your own personal cloud space. No account to create, but tied to a single device.

Both can be active at the same time for double safety. Backup runs automatically after every change, no action needed.

Apple or Google account is true multi-device sync. Your data lives in a Kakei cloud (hosted in Europe, protected by your sign-in and partitioned so only you can access it), reachable from any device signed in with the same account. Add an expense on your iPhone → visible on your iPad or Android phone within seconds.

iCloud / Google Drive is a simpler local backup: Kakei drops a file in your own personal cloud. You can restore that file on the same device after a reinstall, but it's not real-time sync.

If you only have one device and don't want to create an account, iCloud / Drive is enough. If you use multiple devices or might switch one day, go with the Apple or Google account.

With an Apple or Google account: install Kakei on the new phone, sign in with the same account, everything is there.

With iCloud only (iPhone → iPhone): your backup lives in your iCloud, so Kakei automatically detects it on the new phone and offers to restore.

iPhone → Android (or vice versa): iCloud / Drive backups don't cross platforms. You'll need the Apple or Google account, or the manual JSON export (Settings > Data > Export my data).

By default, all your data stays locally on your phone. Nothing is sent online without your explicit consent.

If you enable a backup, a copy is sent to your own space: your personal iCloud (iOS), your personal Google Drive (Android), or the Kakei cloud protected by your account (Sync). The transfer uses HTTPS, and files are encrypted at rest by Apple, Google, or our hosting provider. No one but you can access it.

If you had backup enabled, Kakei offers to restore around 2 minutes after onboarding ends (the time needed to detect your backup). You can also manually sign in to your Apple/Google account from Settings > Account & Sync to pull your data back.

If nothing was enabled and you uninstalled the app, local data is lost. That's why we recommend turning on a backup from day one.

Settings > Data > Export my data generates a JSON file with all your transactions, subscriptions, fixed charges, savings and settings. You can share it by email, AirDrop, or save it wherever you want. Same format as the cloud backups, so it's readable if you ever want to migrate.

Go to Settings > Data > Delete my data. This is irreversible and erases all your transactions, subscriptions, charges, savings and local settings.

Note: local deletion does not erase the cloud backup. To remove the cloud copy too, first turn off backup, then delete your data. To delete your Apple/Google account on Kakei's side, contact us via the contact page.

Long-press your home screen, tap the « + » in the top-left, search for « Kakei », and pick a size (small or medium).

The small size shows your monthly balance and progress bar. The medium size adds your latest transaction (income in green, expense in red) and the next upcoming subscription (with name, amount, and days remaining).

After a change in the app (new expense, currency switch, etc.), the widget may take a few seconds to a few minutes to refresh. iOS limits refreshes to preserve battery, it's not a bug.

To force an immediate refresh: long-press the widget, tap « Edit Widget », close the menu. Otherwise the widget updates automatically every few minutes.