Frequently asked questions

Vaulra is a free envelope budgeting app for individuals and couples with granular privacy controls for shared finances, debt tracking, and credit card expense management. You create envelopes for each spending category, allocate money, and track expenses against each one.

Yes. Vaulra is completely free. There is no paid tier, no trial period, and no credit card required. Every feature is available to every user at no cost.

Vaulra is a web application that works in any modern browser on desktop, tablet, and mobile. There is no native app to install. You access Vaulra through your browser at vaulra.app.

Envelope budgeting is a method where you divide your income into categories (envelopes) and spend only what is allocated to each one. When an envelope is empty, you stop spending in that category or move funds from another envelope. Vaulra automates this process and carries your structure forward each month.

Yes. Vaulra supports envelope groups, named categories like Housing, Food, and Transport that contain related envelopes. Each group shows a summary of allocated and spent amounts. When you create a new envelope, Vaulra's AI suggests the best-fit group based on the name.

No. Vaulra offers starter templates with common categories like Housing, Food, and Transportation. Pick one during setup and customise it from there. Your structure carries forward each month automatically.

Yes. Envelopes can contain sub-envelopes for finer tracking. For example, a "Food" envelope can have sub-envelopes for Groceries, Dining Out, and Coffee. Allocations and spending are tracked at both levels.

Yes. You can go back to any previous month and add or edit entries. This is useful if you forget to log an expense or need to correct a mistake. Historical data updates immediately.

Shared budgets run independently from personal ones. The budget owner controls what each member can see and do: read-only access, edit access, or hidden, per envelope, per person. You can share the grocery budget while keeping personal spending private.

One partner signs up, creates a shared budget, and sends a couple invite link. The invited partner completes a streamlined 2-step onboarding: they enter their name and preferred currency, then land directly in the shared budget. No separate signup flow is required.

Yes. Vaulra's granular visibility controls let you share a budget without exposing your income, personal spending, or other private financial details. Each member sees only what the budget owner has made visible to them.

When you add a debt account, Vaulra automatically creates a budget envelope for it. The budget coverage panel on the debt detail view shows whether your allocated amount covers the minimum payment, using a green, amber, or red indicator. Linked payments reduce the debt balance automatically.

Yes. You can add as many debt accounts as you need. Each one gets its own budget envelope and coverage indicator. The debt overview shows your total debt picture across all accounts.

Yes. When you log an expense, you can use the "Paid with" field to tag it to a credit card. Vaulra updates the card's debt balance automatically. The card payment awareness widget on your dashboard shows each card's balance, your allocated payment amount, and the gap between the two.

No. Vaulra does not require a bank connection. You can import transactions from CSV, Excel, or PDF files. All processing happens in your browser. File contents are not uploaded to Vaulra servers.

Yes. Each debt account shows a projected payoff date based on your minimum payment and interest rate. A progress bar shows how much you have paid off. These are estimates designed to help you plan, not guarantees.

Both Vaulra and YNAB use envelope budgeting. Vaulra adds granular per-member visibility controls for shared budgets, AI-assisted envelope group assignment, and credit card expense tracking with automatic balance updates. Vaulra is free; YNAB is a paid subscription app.

Splitwise tracks shared expenses after the fact. Vaulra is a full budgeting system with shared budgets, envelope budgeting, and a couple invite flow that routes your partner directly into the shared budget. Splitwise has no budgeting, no envelopes, and no privacy controls.

Monarch Money relies on bank connections via Plaid for transaction data. Vaulra works without a bank connection. You import transactions from files processed entirely in your browser. Vaulra also offers granular per-member visibility controls that Monarch does not provide.

Copilot Money commonly relies on bank connections and is centered on Apple platforms plus web access. Vaulra is a web app that works in any modern browser and does not require a bank connection. Vaulra offers shared budgets with per-member visibility controls and credit card tracking without Plaid integration.

Your budget data is stored securely and belongs to you. Authentication is handled by a dedicated identity service. Bank statements imported via CSV, Excel, or PDF are processed entirely in your browser and are not uploaded to Vaulra servers.

No. All transaction import processing happens in your browser. The file you select is read locally, parsed, and the extracted transactions are saved to your account. The original file is not transmitted to Vaulra servers.

You can roll back an entire import after it has been committed. Your budget returns to its previous state. Every transaction from that import is removed in one action.

Yes. When you import a bank statement, Vaulra detects transactions that match your credit card accounts and offers to link them automatically. You review and confirm before anything is saved.