Guides / Bank Sync and Imports
Does a budgeting app store my bank password?
Not if it connects through a provider like Plaid or SimpleFIN. You sign in on the provider's own page, and the budgeting app only receives a token that can read your data, not your password. Apps that collect your bank username and password in their own form are the ones to question. Check where the sign-in page loads and whether the app explains what it keeps.
How bank sign-in usually works in a budgeting app
Budgeting apps get your transactions in one of a few ways. Some ask for your bank username and password in their own form and log in on your behalf. Others hand you off to a connection provider, you sign in on that provider's page, and the app receives a token that stands in for your login.
The second route is the better design. The app never holds your password, so it has no password to leak, log or lose. It holds a pass that is limited to reading data, which is a much smaller thing to lose than the key to your bank.
A third route skips live connections altogether. Many banks let you download a statement file, and the app reads the file. You sign in to your bank yourself, in the usual way, and the app is never involved.
How to check what an app really does with your password
You do not need to read source code. A few quick checks tell you most of what matters:
- Where does the sign-in page load? If it opens in the provider's window or on your bank's own page, the app is not typing your password for you. If it is a plain form inside the app, ask why.
- Does the app name its provider? Plaid, SimpleFIN and a bank's own server are all things you can look up. A vague promise of bank-level security is not.
- What does the privacy page say? Look for words like credentials, stored and encrypted. If the page never mentions bank logins, that is worth a question.
- What does the app keep, and where? Balances and transactions have to live somewhere. Find out whether that is the app maker's cloud or somewhere you control.
- Is there a no-connection option? Being able to import a file means you can use the app without handing over any sign-in at all.
How Manu handles your bank password
Manu is an iPhone app that talks only to a server you run. It connects bank accounts and cards through Plaid, through SimpleFIN, or by pointing at a bank's own OFX server. In every case, sign-in happens on the provider's own page. Manu never sees or stores your bank usernames or passwords. It never sees your broker credentials either.
What does arrive is the useful part: balances, transactions and credit card statement details. They land on your server, not in a third party's database, and stay there. After you connect once, the site says the data syncs every six hours.
There is also no Manu cloud to hold anything. Manu has no accounts of its own and no analytics inside the app. The only thing the phone keeps is your login for your own server:
- Your server address, stored in the iOS keychain and nowhere else.
- Your login for that server, stored the same way.
- Nothing about your bank sign-in, because Manu never receives it.
For the formal wording, see the Privacy Policy and the Data Retention and Disposal Policy. For the overall picture of how the app fits together, start at the home page.
What you still have to trust
Not storing a password does not make the trust question vanish. It moves it. When you sign in through Plaid, SimpleFIN or your bank's OFX server, that provider handles your credentials, so you are choosing to trust it. Read the provider's own privacy information before you connect, because Manu cannot vouch for how another company treats your login.
Running your own server also puts the data in your hands, which is the point, but it makes the machine that holds your bank data yours to look after. Manu needs a running Vritam server that your phone can reach, whether that is on your home network, over a VPN or on a host you expose yourself.
Manu is in private beta. It is not on the App Store, and it needs an iPhone on iOS 26 or later. You request access and get a TestFlight invite when a seat opens. It is free while in beta.
If you want no live connection at all
Some people would rather never link a bank to any app. Manu supports that too: statements can be imported by hand as OFX or QFX files, which is the fallback when a bank supports nothing else. You download the file from your bank while signed in to your own account, then bring it in.
The trade-off is effort. You lose the automatic sync and have to repeat the download each time you want fresh data. The step-by-step is in How do I import a QFX file from my bank?.
Manu is in private beta. One iPhone app for your accounts, investing and a trading bot you run yourself, all against a server you own.
Frequently asked questions
Does Plaid store my bank password?
That is a question about Plaid's own practices, not the budgeting app's, so read Plaid's privacy information. What Manu can say is that it never sees or stores your bank username or password.
What does Manu keep on my phone?
Only your server address and your login for that server, in the iOS keychain. Bank data arrives on your server, not on a Manu cloud, and the app talks only to your own server.
Is importing a bank file safer than connecting?
It avoids setting up a live link, since you download the file yourself while signed in to your bank. The cost is that you lose the automatic six-hour sync and have to repeat the download.
Does Manu see my broker login too?
No. Manu never sees your broker credentials. Your server is the part that is connected to your broker, and the app shows you what the bot there is doing.
Can I try Manu today?
It is a private beta on TestFlight. You request access and receive an invite when a seat opens, and it is free while in beta.