Frequently asked questions

Phantom Budget is a personal finance app that helps you create a monthly budget, track spending in real time, and build better money habits. It gives you a clear, focused workflow — plan your money, log transactions as you go, and adjust as life changes.

Start by setting up budget categories that match your life and assigning your income to each one. As you spend, log transactions to see what's left in each category. At the end of the month (or anytime), review your spending breakdown and move money between categories to stay on track.

Phantom Budget is a zero-based budgeting app that takes the best of other budgeting apps into a simple unified experience. What truly sets us apart is our commitment to privacy, a generous 45-day free trial with no credit card, and a fair post-trial policy: your data becomes read-only instead of being locked away or deleted.

As a smaller team, we move faster and respond to user requests for enhancements, bugs, and polish in a way only a small team can. When you tell us something is broken or missing, it goes straight to the people building the product — not through layers of tickets and roadmaps. We've implemented over 90% of customer asks, and in a majority of cases we ship those improvements in less than 48 hours.

Phantom Budget is a paid product with a 45-day free trial — no credit card required. We don't offer a permanent free tier supported by ads or data sales. That keeps our incentives aligned with you, not advertisers.

Yes. Every new account gets a 45-day free trial with no credit card required. You get full access during the trial. If you don't subscribe when it ends, your budget becomes read-only — you can still view everything and export your data. You can also try a sandbox with demo data from the homepage without creating an account.

Your account becomes read-only. You can still sign in, view your budget and transactions, and export your data. Nothing is deleted. Choose a plan anytime to resume editing.

For up to one year after your trial ends. Visit Settings → General inside the app to download a JSON export of your categories, budget lines, transactions, tags, and tax data.

Yes. We use industry-standard encryption to protect your data in transit and at rest. We never sell your personal or financial information to third parties. [Placeholder: Add specifics about your hosting, auth provider, or security certifications as appropriate.]

Yes. Currently, you and your partner or spouse will use a single login to share your budget. We're working on adding separate logins for each person in the near future.

No. We don't require you to connect your bank accounts. You can manually enter your transactions as you go.

Yes — Phantom Budget is available as a native iOS and Android app (built with Expo), in addition to the web app and Progressive Web App (PWA).

Download from the App Store or Google Play (search for Phantom Budget), or install the PWA from your browser:

Install PWA on iOS (Safari): 1. Open phantombudget.com in Safari. 2. Tap Share → Add to Home Screen.

Install PWA on Android (Chrome): 1. Open phantombudget.com in Chrome. 2. Tap the menu → Install app.

The native app offers the best experience on mobile — native camera for receipt scanning, reliable background sync, and full access to every feature in the web app.

Yes. In Settings → General, use Import data and choose Import from EveryDollar. Sign in to everydollar.com on a desktop browser, run Phantom Budget's export script in DevTools (or paste getBudgetByDate and/or findByDateRange network responses), then upload the JSON in the import wizard. This works without an EveryDollar Premium subscription and preserves split transactions from EveryDollar allocations.

Yes. In Settings → General, use Import data and choose Import from Quicken. Export your transactions from Quicken as CSV (Reports → Transactions), then upload the file in the wizard. Phantom handles Quicken parentheses amounts, Parent:Child categories, and account transfers automatically.

Yes. In Settings → General, use Import data and choose Import from CSV (Phantom's column format) or Import from Quicken (native Quicken transaction export). The wizard explains the format, lets you upload or paste a CSV, map categories, and track multi-month import progress.

Yes. When adding a transaction, tap Scan receipt to open your camera or upload a photo. Phantom Budget uses OCR to read the merchant, total, sales tax, and purchase date, then pre-fills the transaction form so you can review and save — no manual typing required.

Your account becomes read-only, just like after a trial ends. You can export your data for up to one year. We don't delete your budget without your request.

Create an account from our homepage to start your 45-day free trial (no credit card required), try a sandbox with demo data, or request early access via the waitlist if you prefer that flow.

Once you're signed in, use the Contact page in the app sidebar to send us a message. For general inquiries before signing up, reach out to <wonglabs@proton.me>.