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Getting started

TallyBeacon shows where your money is headed: your balance day by day for the weeks ahead, and its lowest point. To get there, the Overview's Getting started card walks you through five steps:

1. Add an account. Start with checking: the forecast begins from its balance.
2. Import a file, or enter today's balance. Either gives the account a starting point.
3. Add your paycheck: when it comes and how much.
4. Add 3 regular bills, like rent, utilities and your phone.
5. See your forecast on the Overview.

Each step ticks itself off however you do it, and the card goes away once they're all done.

Your forecast

The Overview opens with one sentence, such as the lowest your balance will get and on which day, then a chart of your checking and savings balance for the weeks ahead. It counts:

• transactions you've entered with a future date;
• every upcoming paycheck, bill and transfer you've set up as recurring;
• predicted card and loan payments, from your latest statement or how you usually pay;
• on Plus, predicted paychecks and bills: money that's come in or gone out of checking or savings on a regular schedule, such as every other Friday or around the 12th of the month, that you haven't set up as recurring (you can switch predictions off);
• what's left in your budgets, spread across the month (you can switch this off too).

Safe to spend is what you could spend today and still stay above your cushion, the amount you want to keep in checking and savings, for the next 30 days. Change the cushion on its card.

Choosing accounts: with more than one checking or savings account, Choose accounts on the card, or Options above the forecast, sets which ones count. Leave out a credit union account kept at its minimum, or a business checking account, and neither its balance nor its activity counts in safe to spend, the forecast, or the low balance alert. A transfer between it and a counted account counts as money in or out.

A shortfall alert appears at the top of the Overview when your checking and savings are projected to fall below your cushion in the next 14 days. It names the biggest payment before then, so you can see what to move. On Plus, you can also have it emailed: choose Email me before this happens on the alert, or Turn on under your cushion. You'll get one email per shortfall, and another only if it gets earlier or worse. Every email has a link to turn them off.

Tired of overdraft fees? How to avoid overdraft fees covers why they happen between paydays and how to see your lowest balance first.

The alert sound: a soft chime plays when a shortfall alert first appears while TallyBeacon is open, and again only if the shortfall goes below zero. Browsers only play sound after you've clicked or tapped the page, so an alert that's already there when you open the app shows without one. To turn it off, clear Play a sound under Notifications in Profile & settings; it's set for each device.

Notifications: on Plus, the same alerts can also come as notifications on your phone or computer. Under your cushion, choose Turn on next to Notifications on this device, and allow them when your browser asks; a test one arrives straight away. Turn them on in each device you want them on. On an iPhone or iPad, install the app first: Apple only sends notifications to installed apps. A notification says what the alert's email would, in a line, and tapping it opens TallyBeacon.

A card alert appears when the last safe day to pay a card or loan statement is two days away or less and the payment isn't made or scheduled yet. It's the same advice as the payment planner: the days you can pay from checking and still keep your cushion, leaving 2 days for the payment to post. With alerts emailed, you'll get one email per statement.

What if…, on Plus, lets you try a change before you make it: a purchase, a deposit, or moving or skipping something that's scheduled. A dashed line on the chart shows your balance with the changes, and the panel says where your new low point would be. To try a purchase or a deposit, you only need its amount and day. Nothing changes until you choose Make it real: for a purchase or deposit, it asks for the payee and category (filled in from the payee's usual one) and adds it to your register; for a payment, it moves it. Predictions can be moved or skipped only as a what-if.

A forecast that only goes down usually means nothing coming in is scheduled yet. Add your paycheck as a recurring transaction and it will appear.

A predicted paycheck or bill says why it was predicted, such as "Every other Friday, $1,842.10 (came in 8 times since Jun 5)" or "Around the 12th, about $118.40 lately (paid 6 times since Apr 12)". When a paycheck varies, it counts on the lowest of the last three; when a bill varies, on the middle one. A bill in a category with a budget isn't predicted, since what's left in the budget already counts. Bills charged to a card aren't either: they're part of the card's predicted payment. Once the real one is entered or imported, the prediction goes away. Open the list of scheduled transactions under the chart to make one recurring, so you can set its exact amount and category, or to stop predicting it.

Importing files

TallyBeacon reads four kinds of file: QIF, the format most personal finance apps can export, and OFX, QFX and CSV, the downloads banks and card companies offer. Every import is shown to you first, and nothing is saved until you confirm it.

Coming from another finance app

Prefer to watch first? The 5-minute walkthrough on YouTube shows the whole move, from exporting the file to your first forecast. The switching guides have the export steps for Quicken Classic, Quicken Simplifi, YNAB and Monarch.

Export a QIF file from your old app; the option is usually under its File menu, as Export. Choose all accounts and all dates. Then, at the top of the Import page, use Moving from another finance app?: choose the file, and TallyBeacon lists every account in it, with its type, dates and the balance it ends on. For each, pick a new account (its type is filled in) or one you already have, untick any you don't want, and bring them all over in one step. Anything already in TallyBeacon is recognized and not added twice, so it's safe to run again. You can also import a file one account at a time further down the page.

From a budgeting app or website: export a CSV of all your transactions, from all accounts (look for Export or Download transactions), and choose it the same way. TallyBeacon lists each account in the file and each of its categories. For a new account, enter its balance today, or what you owe on a card or loan, since those files don't say. Each category goes into one of yours with the same name, a new one, or is marked as a transfer; transfers and card payments between your accounts are paired up and linked, so each lands once.

A QIF file brings:

• Categories, including subcategories, whether each is income or spending, and its tax line. You choose which to add, and see any that would change one you already have.
• Payees and how you file them, so the next transaction from the same payee is categorized the same way.
• Split transactions, kept as splits. If a split's lines don't add up to its total, the lines are written into the memo instead, and the preview tells you.
• Transfers between your accounts, like a card payment from checking. You match each account name in the file to one of your TallyBeacon accounts, or create it, and TallyBeacon remembers your choice for the next file. When you import the other account later, its side of each transfer is linked rather than added twice. Any other row can be made a transfer in the preview too: choose the account from its Category list (a card payment, say), and next time that payee comes in, it's offered again.
• Investment transactions, when you import into an investment account.

Classes are added to each transaction's memo. Budgets and security prices in a QIF file aren't imported.

From your bank or card

On your bank's or card's website, look for a Download or Export option next to your transactions, and pick OFX or QFX if it's offered: those files say which way each amount goes, so there's nothing to set up. Otherwise choose CSV. In a CSV file:

• you say which columns hold the date, amount, payee and memo (common column names are picked for you);
• money going out should be a negative amount, or in parentheses;
• dates like 2026-10-04, 10/04/2026 and 10/04/26 all work. A row whose date can't be read is skipped and listed in the preview.

Step by step

1. Add the account first, under Accounts on the Overview, if it isn't there yet.
2. Open the Import page, or choose Import a file in the account's register.
3. Choose the account and the file. The format is picked from the file's name; for a CSV file, check the column choices that appear.
4. Choose Preview. Any warnings about the file are listed at the top.
5. Review: untick any category, payee or transaction you don't want, and match transfer accounts if the file has any.
6. Choose Add to the register.

Transactions you already have

Ones you entered by hand are matched with the same transaction in the file, and the match marks yours cleared instead of adding a copy. You see each match in the preview and can change it before anything is saved.

Ones you imported before are marked as duplicates in the preview and left out. Show duplicates only lists just those, and you can include or leave out all of them at once. So it's safe to import a download that overlaps last month's.

Filing a payee the same way every time

A rule files a payee under a category on its own: in imports, in bank-sync reviews, and as you type it in the register. You can still change any one of them. A rule can match a payee exactly, or any payee that contains some words, which catches bank downloads that add codes to a name ("AMZN MKTP US*2K4" contains "amzn"). A rule can also show the payee as one of yours: "ANYTIME MAILBOX ANYTIMEMAILBO NV" comes in from the bank as Anytime Mailbox, under that payee's usual category unless the rule names one; the bank's own text is kept with it. While you review an import, Rename under a payee shows it as one of yours for this import, and Make it a rule… keeps doing it: the other rows it matches change straight away. In business mode, with more than one business, a rule can also file the payee as one business's.

You don't have to write rules yourself. When you've moved the same payee to the same category three times in the register, TallyBeacon offers one and shows the other transactions it would move, so you can fix those too. Your rules are on the Payees page, where you can add, change or delete them.

Two payees that are really one, such as the bank's "ANYTIME MAILBOX ANYTIMEMAILBO NV" and your Anytime Mailbox? On the Payees page, Rename one and type the other's name to merge them: its transactions, categories, remembered split and rules move over, and it leaves the list. Rename works the same for a new name. Either way, you can have imports and bank sync show the old name as the new one from then on, so the next download doesn't bring it back.

To clear out several payees at once, tick them (or search, then Select all shown) and choose Delete selected; their transactions stay as they are. A category is renamed on the Categories page with Rename, next to Delete: its transactions, subcategories, budgets and rules carry on under the new name.

After your import

Check that the account's balance matches your bank's, then add your paycheck and regular bills so your forecast can look ahead. To check an account against a statement transaction by transaction, see Matching your statement.

Bank connections

On Plus, you can connect a bank or card and TallyBeacon fetches its new transactions for you, so you don't have to download files. It's your choice, for each account: importing files always works too, on any plan.

Is it safe?

• Connections go through Plaid, a service many finance apps use. You sign in to your bank in Plaid's window, so your bank password never reaches TallyBeacon.
• TallyBeacon can only read your accounts and posted transactions. It can't move money or change anything at your bank.
• Nothing goes into your register until you've reviewed it.
• You can disconnect any time, and that ends access at Plaid too. See the Privacy Policy for what's kept and for how long.

Connecting a bank

1. Open Bank connections (in the sidebar, or under You on a phone) and choose Connect a bank.
2. Read what connecting means, tick the box to agree, and choose Continue to Plaid. If you signed in with Google or Apple, you'll first enter a code to confirm it's you.
3. In Plaid's window, find your bank, sign in, and pick which accounts to share. Some banks send you to their own website or app to approve it, then bring you back.
4. Back in TallyBeacon, choose where each bank account goes into: one of your TallyBeacon accounts, or a new one made for it. Connecting the account you've been importing into keeps its history in one place.
5. Turn Sync on for each account you want. Nothing is fetched for an account until you do.

What syncing brings in, and the starting balance

Turning sync on brings in about the last 90 days of transactions (as far back as your bank shares), then new ones as they post. It doesn't bring the account's whole history, so on its own an account would start at $0 about 90 days ago. Two ways to get the balance right:

• Want older history? Import a file from your bank's website into the account. Transactions that are in both are matched, not doubled.
• Starting from the synced 90 days? Once you've reviewed them, the account's register shows what your bank says the balance is. Choose Match my bank's balance and TallyBeacon sets the starting balance so they agree. You can undo it, or choose Not now.

Reviewing new transactions

TallyBeacon checks for new transactions when your bank says there are some, and every few hours otherwise. Only posted transactions come in: pending ones change or disappear, so they arrive once they post.

You can do it all from the account's register: when the account syncs, a line under the filters says when it last synced, with Sync now to check right away and Review new when there are transactions waiting. (Bank connections has the same buttons for every account.) The review is the same preview as importing a file: ones you entered by hand are matched and marked cleared, ones already imported are marked as duplicates, and you can change categories before choosing Add to the register. Then you're back where you started, in the register or on Bank connections.

Transactions you untick are set aside, usually because they're already in your register, so they don't come back with every sync. Bring back, next to the account, puts them up for review again.

When a connection needs you

• Sign in again: banks ask for this from time to time, for example after you change your password. Until you do, new transactions don't come in. The Overview tells you which bank.
• Add accounts: you opened an account you didn't share when you connected. Add it to sync it too, or choose Not now.
• Access ended: if you removed TallyBeacon's access at your bank or at Plaid, its account details and the transactions waiting for review are deleted. Connect it again to keep syncing.
• Investment accounts sync too, if you allow investments when you connect (an older connection offers Allow investments). Each sync brings what the account holds, with the bank's prices, and its investment transactions from up to the last 24 months. They wait for review like any other transactions: a buy, a sale or a dividend becomes a trade, and a contribution or a fee becomes a cash row. An account that already has trades from a file is only fetched from after its latest one, so nothing comes in twice.

Disconnecting, and going back to Free

Disconnect stops syncing and drops any transactions waiting for review. Everything already in your register stays.

Without Plus, syncing pauses. If you don't have Plus again within 30 days, the connection is ended and its waiting transactions are deleted. Your register is never touched, and importing files keeps working.

Paychecks and bills

Anything that repeats on a schedule, such as a paycheck, rent, a phone bill or a transfer to savings, is a recurring transaction. Add one on the Bills & paychecks page (Add a paycheck, Add a bill), or from a transaction in the Register with Repeat….

Already have a few months in your register? The Bills & paychecks page lists what repeats there but isn't scheduled yet, under Found in your register, with why each was found. Choose Add to set one up as recurring, or Dismiss if it isn't regular.

Paid twice a month, on set days rather than every other week? Choose Twice a month and pick the two days, such as the 1st and 15th, or the 15th and the last day. The last day follows each month's length.

Only the next one of each appears in your register. When its day comes, it's entered for you and the next one is scheduled. Every later one still counts in your forecast. To change or stop a series, edit it on the Bills & paychecks page.

Setting one up a day late? The next date can be in the past, as far back as the day after your last reconciled transaction. If you were paid yesterday, start your paycheck from yesterday: it's entered right away, and if it's already in your register with the same date and amount, that one becomes part of the series instead of being added twice.

A paycheck can be split, for example into salary, taxes and a 401(k) contribution: choose Split… in the category list.

Bills you can pay a little later

Some bills are still on time a few days after the date you have them on, like an electric bill due on the 15th that you've set for the 10th. Set its Due to how many days after its date it can still be paid.

If a bill's date would take the account it's paid from under your cushion, Bills on the Overview shows the first day that doesn't and is still on time. On Plus, Move to… moves that one payment there; the next one stays on its usual date. A bill whose date is already fine stays put: paying earlier never leaves you with more. With alerts emailed, you'll get one email per payment to move.

Paying your card

TallyBeacon can tell you the safest day to pay a credit card or loan: a day when the payment won't push checking below your cushion, given everything else that's scheduled, and that still lands before the due date.

1. On the Overview, find the card under Card and loan payments.
2. No statement yet? Choose Enter statement and type its date, balance, due date and minimum payment.
3. Open the planner. It shows the safe window and lets you schedule the payment from your checking account.

Already paid it? Mark that payment as made for the statement, and the forecast stops predicting it.

New to statement dates and grace periods? When to pay your credit card bill walks through them.

Matching your statement

Reconciling checks your register against a bank or card statement, so you know the numbers are right. In the Register, choose Reconcile:

1. Enter the statement's ending date and balance.
2. Tick each transaction that appears on the statement, or tick the box at the top of the list to tick them all and untick any that aren't on it. Add any that are missing.
3. Finish when what you've ticked matches the statement: the difference is $0.00.

Your ticks are saved as you go, so you can stop and pick it up later with Resume reconciling. For cards and loans, balances are shown as what you owe, the way your statement shows them.

A loan's statement goes quicker: its payments up to the statement date are ticked for you, and when the balance matches, they're marked reconciled as soon as you enter it, from the Register or from Enter statement on the Overview. If it doesn't match, it stays open so you can find the difference. A loan statement's balance is the whole loan, but only one payment is due: enter the statement's Amount due, or TallyBeacon uses your recurring payment, escrow included, to plan it.

To take back the most recent statement, choose Reconcile and then Undo beside it under Recent statements. Its transactions go back to cleared, any balance adjustment it added is deleted, and the statement is removed; you can undo earlier ones the same way, newest first. Reopen instead keeps the statement and lets you change its ticks and finish again.

Entered in the wrong account?

In the Register, open the transaction's ⋯ menu and choose Move to another account…, then pick where it belongs. It works between any of your open accounts: checking, savings, cards, loans and the rest. Everything else about it stays the same, and a transfer stays a transfer with the same account on its other side. Show it in the note that appears takes you to it in its new account.

Only uncleared transactions can move. A cleared one has been matched against that account's statement, so moving it would throw off the account's cleared balance. If it really belongs somewhere else and isn't reconciled yet, choose Mark uncleared first. A split moves as a whole, from its own row, and the cash side of an investment buy or sell can't be moved on its own.

Keyboard shortcuts

The register works from the keyboard, the way desktop finance apps do:

• Double-click a transaction to edit it in place. On a split's other side, it opens the split.
• Enter saves the transaction you're editing or adding, and Esc cancels an edit.
• Tab moves to the next box: date, payee, category, memo, amount.
• In the payee box, ↑ and ↓ move through the payees you've used, Enter picks one (and fills in its category), and Esc closes the list without cancelling.
• In the category box, start typing to narrow the list to the categories with that in their name (and the accounts to transfer to); Enter or Tab picks the top one, ↑ and ↓ move through them. The same in a split's lines.
• In a split, Enter saves the whole transaction. Leave one line's amount blank and it takes whatever is left of the total.
• While reconciling, Enter in the row for a missing transaction adds it.
• Esc closes a transaction's ⋯ menu and the year picker.

Budgets

A budget is a monthly limit for a category. The Budgets page shows, for each month, what you've spent, what's still scheduled and what's left. What's left counts in your forecast as spending still to come, from the account you usually spend that category from.

Spending without a budget lists the categories you already spend in, with your recent average as a place to start.

Savings goals

A goal is money you're saving toward something, like a $2,000 vacation by June. Open Goals (under Plan), give it a name and an amount, pick the account its money is kept in (usually savings), and schedule a transfer toward it. On Free and Plus alike.

• Set aside, not spendable. What you've saved toward a goal isn't counted as money to spend: your forecast and safe to spend leave it out, and each transfer toward a goal counts as money going out. Other money in the same account still counts.
• Moved on safe days. Each goal says whether its next transfer is safe: whether your balance stays above your cushion for 30 days after it. If it isn't, it says how much is, and Move … instead changes just that transfer. Within two weeks of one that isn't safe, the Overview says so too, and on Plus your alert emails and notifications do.
• Timed to payday. When you schedule a transfer, TallyBeacon offers the day after your paycheck lands, on the same schedule, so the money moves when there's the most of it. On Plus it also offers the paychecks it predicts from your register.
• Kept in savings. Money kept in checking is easy to spend by mistake, so TallyBeacon suggests a savings account. A goal's transfer is changed on the goal: editing it from Bills & paychecks or the register opens the goal. If you close the account a transfer uses, it stops, and the goal says why.
• Spending it. When you pay for what you saved for, mark the purchase as spent from the goal: Spend from it on the goal, or Spent from … in the register's ⋯ menu. That money stops being set aside from that day. Mark the purchase, or moving the money back to checking, not both.
• Done with it? I've used it stops the goal's transfers and sets nothing aside for it any more. It moves under Done, with what you saved and spent, and Reopen brings it back. Deleting a goal also stops its transfers; the money stays where it is, and the transfers stay in your register.

Reports

Reports put the past next to what's coming: spending by category, income and spending by month, and net worth, with projected months shown lighter. Choose any bar, month or point to see the transactions behind it.

Every report downloads as a CSV file on any plan. Plus also downloads them as Excel or PDF and goes further back and further ahead.

Your home, car and retirement accounts

Net worth counts what you own as well as what's in the bank. Add a home or a car as an account of type Asset, then choose Update value from the ⋯ menu on its card on the Overview and enter what it's worth. A 401(k), an IRA or a mortgage works the same way: enter the balance from your latest statement. From that day on, the account's balance is that value, plus any contributions or payments you enter after it. Update it now and then, and the net worth report shows how it's changed over time.

Each value shows in the account's register as a Value set row, so you can see where the balance came from. Assets aren't part of your forecast or safe-to-spend, since you can't pay a bill with them.

A loan you match to its statements (Enter statement) takes its balance from those statements instead, so it doesn't offer Update value.

Mortgage and loan payments

Add the loan as an account of type Loan, then choose Set up payments beside it under Card and loan payments on the Overview. With your latest statement in hand, enter what you owe and the statement's date, the interest rate, the monthly payment, when it's next paid and from which account, and any escrow for property taxes and insurance. You'll see your first payment split before you save: interest, principal and escrow, and about when the loan is paid off at that payment.

If your payments are already in your register, imported or typed in, Set up payments lists them under Found in your register. Choose Use this and the amount, the next date, the account and your own categories for interest, principal and escrow are filled in; add the rate and save. Past payments with principal filed under a category can then move into the loan.

Setting up payments, changing a loan's details or balance, and moving principal each show Undo at the bottom of the screen for a little while afterwards. It puts the loan, its balance and its payments back as they were.

From then on each payment works out its own principal and interest, on what's still owed: interest gets smaller and principal grows, and the loan's balance comes down by the principal only. Each payment says how it was worked out, under its split in the register, and Card and loan payments shows the next one. The forecast keeps the whole payment going out of checking. The interest goes in Mortgage Interest, on Schedule A's home mortgage interest line (Student Loan Interest for a student loan), unless you choose another category in Loan details.

You can also set it up by hand: schedule the payment in Bills & paychecks as a split, with principal as a transfer to the loan, interest in its category and a line for each escrow item, then enter the rate and interest category in Loan details.

To start the loan from a particular statement, such as your first one, choose Edit from its card's ⋯ menu and enter what you owed and the statement's date. Transactions after that date bring the balance down from there, and payments TallyBeacon split are worked out again on the corrected balance; ones you edited by hand stay as you typed them. Edit works the same way for any account.

If your payments have principal filed under a category instead, such as "Home:Mortgage" in data from another finance app, choose it as the Principal category in Loan details. TallyBeacon lists the payments with a line in it and moves the ones you keep ticked into the loan as transfers: the account that paid stays exactly as it is, and the loan comes down by each one. If the loan's balance came from a statement, enter its date, and payments up to then stay part of that balance. From then on, a principal line you type, import or sync goes to the loan on its own. Two loans can share a principal category, such as a first and a second mortgage: TallyBeacon tells their payments apart by payee, from each loan's recurring payment and the payments already moved into it. A payment from a payee neither loan has seen stays in its category; the move list shows it unticked, marked "new payee", for you to decide.

Escrow lines stay as you enter them. When your servicer changes them, usually once a year, edit them on the recurring payment. If your rate changes, update it in Loan details. Matching the loan to your servicer's statement catches any difference, such as an extra principal payment. Put the interest category on a tax line (Schedule A's home mortgage interest) and the year's interest appears under Taxes; check it against your Form 1098.

Taxes

On Plus, Taxes (under Insights) totals a year by tax line, such as Schedule A's home mortgage interest or Schedule C's advertising, from the tax line on each category. It opens on last year until April 15, then this year. A category's tax line is set on the Categories page, next to Personal or Business, or right on the Taxes page: choose Add a category, or pick a line for one listed as not on a tax line yet. That list includes a category with money filed directly under it when its subcategories are on lines, such as "Business Income" when only "Business Income:Sales" has one. Categories imported from another finance app keep the tax lines they came with. Choose any category to see its transactions. Download the year as CSV, Excel or PDF for your accountant.

Business mode (Schedule C)

Self-employed, or a side business alongside your job? On Plus, name your business under Profile & settings, then Business, and Business appears under Insights: the year's profit or loss from your business, line by line as Schedule C has it (gross receipts, then advertising, supplies, travel and the rest), down to line 29, the tentative profit or loss. Run more than one? Add each there: every business gets its own Schedule C, and you pick which one to see next to the year.

• Your money stays where it is. Business income and spending stay in your accounts and register, next to everything else, under business categories: any category on a Schedule C line. Turning business mode on adds a Business Income and a Business Expenses group, each category already on its line, unless you have business categories already, such as ones brought from another finance app. Every business shares them.
• Which business. With more than one, a business transaction is a business's when the first of these says so: the transaction itself (choose the business under its category in the register, reconciled ones too; the choice shows once the category is a business one, so for history brought from another app under other categories, mark those categories business on the Categories page first), its category (tied to one business on the Categories page, which also makes its money business money), or its account (a business's own bank account or card: choose the business in the account's Edit on the Overview, and everything in it follows). A split can give each line its own business, under the line's category, for a receipt that's part one business's and part another's; a line without one follows the transaction. A recurring bill can carry its business too, and so can a rule for a payee (on the Payees page), which fills it in for imports and as you type. Wherever business money shows, it says whose. Business transactions nothing says whose are listed on the Business page: tick them and give them a business together. Removing a business keeps its transactions; they just say no business.
• Nothing missed. A category marked Business that isn't on a Schedule C line is listed below the lines; pick its line there, or on the Categories page.
• For your return. Choose a category to see its transactions, and download the year: a CSV of every transaction by line, for your tax software or accountant, or the page itself as Excel or PDF. Meals are what you spent: the deductible part is often half. TallyBeacon is not tax advice.
• Down to the net profit. If the business sells goods, put the categories for what goes into them on the cost of goods sold tax lines (purchases, labor, materials, other costs), and under Inventory, home office and car on the Business page enter the inventory at the start and end of the year; the start fills in from last year's end. That's Part III, which comes off your gross receipts. For a home office, choose the simplified method (square feet, at $5 each up to 300, and no more than the profit before it) or enter the amount from Form 8829. The page then goes down to line 31, the net profit or loss, which the headline shows. Each business keeps its own, year by year.
• Car and truck (line 9). Under Mileage log on the Business page, add your vehicles and, for each year, their odometer at the start and end of the year (and any commuting miles, which are personal). Log each business trip: the date (and, for a trip over several days, the last day under Through), the vehicle, its odometer readings (the miles are worked out) or just the miles, and what it was for; Edit on a trip corrects it. The IRS asks for a log either way. A vehicle's business use is the business miles over its total miles for the year. Line 9 is then either your actual expenses (what's filed under its categories: fuel, repairs, insurance), held to that business use, or, if you choose the standard mileage rate for the year, the logged miles at the IRS rate for each trip's date (in 2026, 72.5¢ a mile to June 30 and 76¢ from July 1), leaving those categories out. With more than one vehicle, say which vehicle each line 9 category is for, so each counts at its own business use. Parking and tolls count on top either way: put them under a category on the Parking and tolls (business) tax line. A vehicle's depreciation (line 13, from Form 4562): choose the vehicle next to its category in the mileage log, and it counts at that vehicle's business use, or not at all under the standard mileage rate, which already includes depreciation; other depreciation, like equipment, counts in full. Part IV, the vehicle information, fills in from the same, and its yes-or-no questions (lines 45 to 47b) are answered right there on the Business page, year by year.
• Quarterly estimated taxes. Under Estimated taxes on the Business page, put your payments in the forecast, due April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15. Each is either a share of what your businesses made (all of them together, income less expenses) through its months, less what the earlier payments came to, or the same amount each quarter, such as last year's tax divided by four. Each shows as money out on its due day, from the account you choose, and safe to spend keeps back what's set aside for the ones due later, so the money's there when they come due. File each payment under Taxes:Estimated Tax (added for you) and it's marked paid; a share of profit that wasn't paid carries into the next payment.
• Turning it off hides the page and takes estimated taxes out of the forecast. Nothing else changes.

The report adds up what you've recorded; it isn't tax advice, and some lines have limits or rules a tax professional can help with.

Searching all your accounts

Type in the search box at the top of the sidebar (on a phone: Insights, then Search) and press Enter. It looks through every account at once: payees, memos, categories ("auto" finds Auto:Fuel), check numbers, transfers, and amounts ("45.99" finds $45.99, in or out). With several words, a transaction has to match them all. Narrow it by account, category, dates, money in or out, or how much. Choose a result to open it in the register.

Save as report keeps a search, like "Amazon this year", on the Reports page. Each time you open it, it runs again on your latest transactions, with the total and a bar for each month. Any search downloads as a CSV file, on any plan.

On your phone

TallyBeacon works in your phone's browser: sign in at tallybeacon.com. The tabs along the bottom group it by what you're doing:

• Today: your forecast, safe to spend and what's due next.
• Plan: recurring transactions and budgets.
• Accounts: the register, to add or check a transaction.
• Insights: reports.
• You: your plan, importing and exporting, categories, payees, settings and help.

Imports and reconciling work on a phone too, but they're easier on a bigger screen.

Install the app

TallyBeacon can sit on your Home Screen and open like an app, full screen. On an iPhone or iPad, open tallybeacon.com in Safari, tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen. On Android or in Chrome or Edge on a computer, choose Install the app under the You tab (or at the bottom of the sidebar), or the install button in the address bar. Nothing about your money is stored on the device: without a connection, the app just says you're offline.

Plans and billing

TallyBeacon has two plans. Free covers accounts, the register, imports, reconciling, budgets, savings goals and a 30-day forecast. Plus looks further ahead, plans payments for every card and loan, adds bank sync, and longer report history and Excel and PDF downloads. Open Plan & billing in the app to see your plan, today's prices, and everything Plus adds.

• New accounts start with a free trial of Plus. No card is needed to start it.
• Cancel any time from Plan & billing. You keep Plus until the end of the period you paid for.
• Going back to Free never deletes anything. What you've entered stays, and anything that needs Plus says so.

Sharing with a partner

On Plus, you can share your household with one partner. You both see the same accounts and the same forecast: what's coming in, what's going out, and the lowest your balance gets. Your Plus covers you both.

• Open Profile & settings, find Household, and enter your partner's email. Choose full access (they can add and change things) or view-only (they can look, not change). The invite lasts 14 days.
• Your partner signs in, or signs up with that email, and chooses Join on the Overview. They keep their own password and sign-in codes.
• If your partner already has accounts of their own, they stay theirs: you never see them. Under Household, they can switch between your household and just me.
• Your partner can get the household's alerts too, at either level of access: by email to their own address, and as notifications on their own devices. They turn them on under Notifications in Profile & settings, and your own choice stays as it is.
• Only you, the owner, change the plan and billing, connect or remove banks, and choose who shares. You can change their access or stop sharing any time, and they can leave. Anything they added stays in your household.
• If your plan goes back to Free, nothing is deleted. Sharing pauses until you have Plus again.

Your data

Your data is yours to take on any plan, any time. On the Export page, download:

• a complete backup (a ZIP of everything you've entered);
• every transaction as one CSV spreadsheet;
• a QIF file per account, for another finance app.

To go back to a backup, choose Restore from a backup on the same page. Everything returns to how it was the day the backup was made, in place of what's there now, so a backup of what's there downloads first. Your sign-in, plan, household and bank connections stay as they are. A backup from another TallyBeacon sign-in restores the same way. In a shared household, only the owner can restore.

To delete your account and everything in it, open Account & security and choose Delete your account. You're offered the downloads first, then it's deleted right away. See the Privacy Policy for what we keep and why.

Signing in

• Two-step sign-in is on for every account: after your password, you enter a code from your email or an authenticator app.
• Trust this browser for 30 days, when you enter a code, skips the code on that browser for 30 days. Don't tick it on a shared computer.
• Passkeys let you sign in with your fingerprint, face or device PIN, with no password or code. TallyBeacon offers to add one on a device that can hold one, or add one under Account & security. Next time, choose your passkey from the email field's suggestions on the sign-in page, or Sign in with a passkey.
• Forgot your password? Choose Forgot password? on the sign-in page and we'll email you a code.
• Locked out? After too many wrong tries, sign-in pauses for a few minutes. Still stuck? Contact us from the email address on your account.

TallyBeacon will never ask for your password or a sign-in code by email, phone or chat.

Contact us

In the app, open Help & contact (at the bottom of the sidebar, or under You on a phone) and send us a message. It tells us which screen you were on, so you don't have to explain where. Or email [email protected].

A person reads every message and replies by email within one business day. Please don't send passwords, sign-in codes or full account numbers.