Settings, security, and export

Security and data

Where your financial data lives, who can see it, and the boundaries TallyFolio deliberately keeps.

Last updated 2026-09-11

Use this page — the Security & privacy section of Settings — to review how your data is protected, and open Security from there to manage your sign-in.

TallyFolio is a single-user personal finance app, private by design. Your financial records live in your own Supabase project — the database you set up and control — every record belongs to your account alone, and there is no shared backend pooling users' data.

Before you start

  • Know the deliberate boundaries: no bank connection of any kind (bank credentials are never asked for or stored), no investment advice, no shared accounts, and no tax return prepared, filed, or checked with a tax authority — income tax is estimated from rates entered by hand, for comparing your own scenarios.
  • Nothing AI-driven touches your numbers: every figure is produced by fixed, checkable rules.

How to use it

  1. Sign in with your email and password, a passkey, or an emailed magic link.
  2. In the Security section of Settings, set a strong, unique password and add passkeys for faster, phishing-resistant sign-in.
  3. Sign out on shared devices — your signed-in session is what protects your data on a device. If you forget, sign that browser out later from the Security section of Settings.
  4. Run the export in Settings periodically to keep your own backup copy of your data.

What affects this page

What happens to your data in day-to-day use:

  • Statement files you upload are read in memory for your review and discarded — never saved anywhere.
  • The export produces your own data only, generated on demand for the signed-in user, and is never stored publicly.
  • The Activity page shows recent changes, when they happened, and a plain label such as Transaction created or Import committed. It never stores amounts, descriptions, account names, merchant names, or uploaded file contents.
  • Every page and action requires your sign-in; your records are scoped to your account at every layer.
  • Error messages are kept generic on purpose, so details about your data never leak through them.

Review recent activity

Open Activity from Settings to see up to the 100 most recent changes TallyFolio recorded for your account, newest first. Each row gives a plain action label and when it happened, such as Transaction created, Import committed, or Upcoming item dismissed. It is a review trail, not an undo button, and older entries are not shown on this page.

You cannot edit or delete activity entries in the app; new entries are only added. The history stores the kind of action and the time — never an amount, balance, account or merchant name, description, note, or uploaded file contents.

See where you are signed in

The Security section of Settings lists your active sessions: each browser you are signed in on, and each device a connected MCP client signed in from. Every entry shows the device, its IP address, when it signed in, when it was last active, and the start of its session ID. The browser you are using is marked This device. Last active is approximate — it updates when a session renews its sign-in, about once an hour.

Sign out a browser you do not recognize, sign out every other browser at once, or sign out everywhere, which includes the browser you are using and every connected client. Signing out from your account menu ends only the browser you are using.

What does not affect this page

And what never happens:

  • No data goes to your bank or comes from it — there is no connection.
  • No other user can see anything — there are no other users in your workspace.
  • Browsing your own pages sends nothing to third parties. The two optional exceptions are below, and both are off by default.

The two optional outside requests, precisely

TallyFolio makes two kinds of request outside your own database, and both are off by default. Neither is needed to use the app.

The AI report explanation. If it has been turned on for your installation, requesting an explanation sends only small, already-calculated report summaries — minimized aggregates — to a language-model service to be restated in plain words. What is never sent: raw CSV files, your user ID, transaction IDs, account numbers, or raw transaction descriptions. The explanation never calculates values and never gives advice; the deterministic figures on your screen remain the only source of truth.

The fund holdings re-fetch. If it has been turned on, a fund's published holdings file can be re-downloaded from the provider that published it, instead of you downloading and re-mapping it each month. What is sent is the web address you saved, and nothing else — none of your accounts, balances, or holdings. The file itself is a public document, identical for every holder, and contains none of your records. The address must be a secure one belonging to a fund provider on a fixed list. The provider does learn that this installation holds that fund, which is why it is a choice rather than a default.

Common mistakes

  • Entering bank credentials somewhere because you expect a sync feature. TallyFolio never asks for bank logins — there is nothing to connect.
  • Relying on exports as your only backup and never running one. An export is a snapshot; make one on a schedule you'd be comfortable restoring from.
  • Sharing one TallyFolio account between two people. It's built for one person; there is no per-person separation inside an account.
  • Leaving yourself signed in on a shared computer. Sign out — the session is the key to everything. If you already left, sign that browser out from the Security section of Settings.

FAQ

Where is my data stored?
In your own Supabase project — infrastructure you set up and control. There is no shared TallyFolio backend holding user data.
Who else can see my records?
No one. TallyFolio is single-user: your workspace has exactly one account, and every record is scoped to it.
Is anything kept when I upload a CSV?
Only the transactions you approve in the review become part of your record. The file itself is read in memory and discarded — it is never stored.
What does Activity remember?
Only the kind of change and when it happened. It does not store amounts, descriptions, names, merchants, or file contents.
What does the AI feature see if I turn it on?
Small, pre-calculated report summaries only — never raw files, IDs, account numbers, or transaction descriptions. And nothing at all unless the feature was explicitly enabled; it ships off by default.
Does anything else reach the internet?
Only the fund holdings re-fetch, and only if it was explicitly enabled — it ships off by default. It asks a fund provider for the public holdings file you already chose to import, and sends none of your records with the request.
I see a session I don't recognize. What should I do?
Sign it out from the Security section of Settings; it stops working on its next request. If you think someone else has your password, set a new password first, then choose Sign out everywhere.

Where this lives in the app

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