Leaving a budgeting subscription without losing the budget
The hardest part of cancelling a budgeting app is not the cancelling. It is that years of categorised history live inside it, and the habit you built is tangled up with the interface. Here is an order of operations that keeps both.
Get the data out first, cancel second
Do the export while the account is still active. Most budgeting apps put an export somewhere in account settings and hand you a CSV of transactions, and sometimes a second file for budgets or categories. Save it somewhere you will find it again, and open it once to check it is not empty. An export you never opened is not a backup. Only then cancel. Note when the paid period actually ends — you usually keep access until then, which is free time to set up the replacement in parallel.
What is actually worth carrying over
Less than you think. Three things do most of the work: · Your category list. This is the real asset — it took months to settle on, and it is the part that makes a new app feel like home on day one. · The current balances of your accounts. · What is currently sitting in each envelope, so nothing that was already set aside disappears. Years of individual transactions are mostly reference material. Keep the CSV as an archive rather than trying to force it into a new app's format.
Starting again without losing the habit
Set the new budget up in the same sitting as the export, while the old one is still open on the other screen. Create your envelopes with the same names. Enter each account's current balance as an opening balance so the totals match. Then assign what is currently set aside into the matching envelopes, and stop — the history is in the archive, and re-typing it buys you nothing. The habit is a time in the week, not an app. Keep the same slot, and the switch will not break it.
Doing it in handbudget
Open the browser edition, rename the starter envelopes to yours, and add whatever is missing. In Settings, enter each account and its current balance as an opening balance — that money shows up as ready to assign. Then assign it into the envelopes to match where you were, and carry on entering transactions from today. Export the file at the end to have your own copy, and keep it wherever you keep your export from the old app. The whole move takes one sitting, and the only thing you have paid for is nothing at all.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import my old app's CSV directly?
Not today — handbudget reads and writes its own JSON file rather than other apps' formats. In practice the balances and the envelope list are what you need, and both are a few minutes of typing.
Will I lose my budgeting history?
Not if you export before you cancel. Keep that file as your archive; it stays readable in any spreadsheet long after the subscription is gone.
What if I want to go back?
Everything in handbudget can be exported as a plain JSON file, which is readable by anything. There is no lock-in in either direction, which is rather the point.
More guides
Other things we made
Also in English, made by the same people.
Also in English, made by the same people.
Also in English, made by the same people.
Also in English, made by the same people.