Balance Helper
Join the waitlist
v0.1 · Private beta · Built in Italy

Understand where your money goes — before you change bank.

Balance Helper organizes your real monthly expenses, separates fixed costs from variable ones, and lets you compare your current bank against alternative scenarios. No spreadsheet chaos. No bank connection required.

Start organizing your expenses Compare your bank scenario
No bank connection required for the first version. You stay in control of your data.
The problem

Your money is spread across too many places to think clearly.

A current account, a Revolut card, a Fineco card, a meal voucher app, some cash, an installment for the dishwasher. Five tools, no shared view. The spreadsheet you started in January stopped being useful in March.

01
BankCardCash

Expenses scattered across accounts and apps

Current account, prepaid cards, fintech apps, cash, meal vouchers — each with its own log, none of them talking.

02
Fixed?Variable?

Monthly costs that are hard to classify

Is the gym a subscription or a habit? Is fuel fixed if you commute daily? Categories shift, and totals stop being trustworthy.

03
FeesCommissionsLoans

Bank fees that you never really compare

Account costs, card fees, transfer commissions, ATM withdrawal costs, loan installments — they erode the balance quietly.

04
ExcelNotesScreenshots

Spreadsheets that go stale by week three

Manual formulas break. Categories drift. The file gets shared, copied, abandoned. The intention was good. The system isn't.

What it is

A small, focused helper. Not a bank. Not an advisor.

The first version of Balance Helper ships with two modules. One organizes the expenses you already have. The other helps you reason about whether your bank still makes sense.

Module A · Monthly expense reporting

Better than a spreadsheet — by design.

Structured input, reusable categories, a cleaner dashboard, exportable reports. Less formatting, more clarity.

  • A.01Manual expense entry, fast and forgivingMVP
  • A.02Categories & subcategories you can reuseMVP
  • A.03Recurring expense detectionMVP
  • A.04Fixed vs. variable cost separationMVP
  • A.05Monthly summary & trendMVP
  • A.06Exportable monthly report (CSV, PDF)MVP
  • A.07Notes, tags, payment method (cash · card · bank · app)MVP
October · last entries
7 of 84
Esselunga — groceries Card · variable € 62,40
Vodafone mobile SDD · fixed € 9,99
Netflix Card · subscription € 12,99
Loan installment · dishwasher SDD · fixed € 38,00
Caffè · bar di sotto Cash · variable € 1,40
Module B · Bank switching scenario

Compare scenarios. Decide what's worth investigating.

Enter your real costs — account fees, card fees, transfers, withdrawals, installments — and compare your current setup against alternative scenarios you define. It's an estimation tool, not financial advice.

  • B.01Input fees, commissions & recurring financial habitsMVP
  • B.02Side-by-side scenario comparisonMVP
  • B.03Estimated yearly cost differenceMVP
  • B.04Break-even point highlightedMVP
  • B.05Qualitative pros & cons checklistMVP
  • B.06"Bank switching" preparation checklistMVP
  • B.07Plain-language disclaimers, every stepMVP
Scenario · yearly estimate
user-provided inputs
Cost line
Current
Alternative
Account fee
€ 96
€ 0
Debit card
€ 24
€ 12
SEPA transfers (12)
€ 18
€ 0
ATM withdrawals (24)
€ 48
€ 24
Overdraft assumption
€ 132
€ 48
Estimated annual cost
€ 318
€ 84
How it works

Three steps. No bank login. No magic.

You enter the numbers you already know. Balance Helper structures them, summarizes them, and lets you simulate alternatives.

Step 01

Enter your real monthly expenses

Add what you spent, where, and how. Cash, card, bank, or app. Tag fixed vs. variable. Categories you've used before suggest themselves.

Esselunga € 62,40
Trenitalia € 14,20
+ add expense ↵
Step 02

Review your monthly picture

A clean dashboard separates fixed costs, variable costs, subscriptions, bank fees, and loans. Export the month as a PDF or CSV if you want.

Fixed € 1.142
Variable € 876
Subscriptions € 84
Step 03

Compare banking scenarios

Enter your bank's fees and define an alternative. See the estimated yearly difference, the break-even point, and a checklist of what to check before switching.

Current / year € 318
Alternative / year € 84
Estimated diff. −€ 234
Dashboard preview

One screen. The month, the year, and the alternative.

A concept of the app dashboard. Designed to be read at a glance — not to look impressive in a screenshot.

Privacy & responsibility

A serious tool, with serious limits.

Balance Helper does not connect to your bank, does not give financial advice, and does not make decisions for you. It organizes the information you provide and shows you what it implies.

Privacy-first

Your data stays on your side.

The MVP works without bank scraping, without Open Banking / PSD2 dependencies, and without uploading your transactions to a third party. Data minimization by default.

Not a bank

Not a bank. Not an advisor.

Balance Helper is a personal finance helper. It is not a regulated advisory service, not an investment platform, and does not issue financial recommendations.

You decide

You stay responsible for the decision.

Scenarios and comparisons are estimates based on the figures you enter. The final decision — and the responsibility for it — remains entirely yours.

Disclaimer This is an estimation tool, not financial advice. Bank fees, card costs and product terms change frequently; always verify current conditions directly with the institution before opening, switching, or closing an account.
Sustainable, transparent monetization

Free where it matters. Paid where it pays for itself.

We intend to keep core monthly reporting free. The model below is a direction, not a commitment — and never includes dark patterns, hidden affiliations, or manipulative financial claims.

Free · always

Expense reporting & monthly summary

Manual entry, categories, fixed/variable split, monthly dashboard. No paywall on the basic picture of your own money.

Premium

Advanced scenarios & PDF reports

Multi-scenario comparisons, break-even analysis, exportable monthly PDF reports designed for your accountant, partner, or future self.

Optional · transparent

Affiliate & sponsored, clearly labeled

If a banking product is referenced commercially, it will be labeled as such and never positioned as a recommendation. No undisclosed referrals.

Future app · suggested IA

Information architecture, in one map.

A first-draft information architecture for the future app. Lighter than a typical finance product on purpose — the goal is clarity, not feature breadth.

Reporting
  • Overview
  • Expenses
  • Categories
  • Recurring
  • Subscriptions
  • Income (later)
  • Budgets (later)
Banking
  • Bank fees
  • Card costs
  • Scenarios
  • Switching checklist
  • Loan tracker (later)
  • Mortgage comparison (later)
Export & share
  • Monthly PDF report
  • CSV export
  • Print-friendly view
  • Share with accountant (later)
  • Couple / family mode (later)
Account & trust
  • Settings
  • Data export & delete
  • Privacy policy
  • Disclaimers
  • Sync across devices (later)
  • Encrypted cloud backup (later)
Scope

What ships first, what comes later.

We're deliberately not building a "bank-connected AI financial advisor". We're building a focused helper for people who currently live inside a tired Excel sheet.

In the box · v0.1

MVP

  • ✓Manual, structured expense entry
  • ✓Categories, subcategories, tags & notes
  • ✓Fixed vs. variable separation
  • ✓Recurring expense detection
  • ✓Monthly dashboard & summary
  • ✓Bank scenario comparison (manual inputs)
  • ✓Exportable monthly report (PDF, CSV)
  • ✓Local-first data, no bank connection
Later · if validated

Future

  • +Encrypted cloud backup & multi-device sync
  • +Couple / household mode
  • +Budgeting and savings goals
  • +Mortgage & multi-loan scenario tools
  • +Italian-tax-aware reporting helpers
  • +Bank product catalog (transparent, sourced)
  • −Automated bank scraping · not planned
  • −Autonomous AI financial decisions · not planned
Private beta · waitlist

Tired of your monthly Excel?

Join the waitlist for early access. We'll invite a small group of users to test the first version and shape what comes next. Tell us how you currently track expenses — we read every response.

↳ Italian users with multiple accounts, cards, or fintech apps are especially welcome.

No spam. One short email when the beta opens. You can delete your record any time.
✓ You're on the list. We'll reach out when the first invites go out — usually one short email, nothing else.
FAQ

Honest answers to the obvious questions.

If something here isn't clear, write to us — better questions make a better product.

No. Balance Helper does not hold money, does not issue cards, and is not a regulated financial institution. It's a small tool that helps you organize your own data and reason about it.

Not in the first version. The MVP works entirely with information you enter manually — no PSD2 / Open Banking integration, no scraping. We may evaluate optional, opt-in integrations later if the community asks for them.

No. Scenarios, comparisons and figures are estimates based on the inputs you provide. Balance Helper does not recommend banks, products, or financial actions. The final decision is always yours.

The MVP is designed to keep your data local first. If, later, cloud backup is introduced, it will be optional and clearly explained — including what is stored, where, and how to delete it.

A spreadsheet is infinitely flexible — which is also its problem. Balance Helper enforces just enough structure (consistent categories, fixed/variable split, recurring detection, scenario inputs) so that the dashboard stays trustworthy month after month, without you maintaining formulas.