Questions, answered plainly

A Fund is a named home for your money — like a digital envelope. Instead of one big account balance, you split your money into funds such as Groceries, Rent, or Vacation 2027. Spending funds cover everyday life, while sinking funds build toward a target amount by a target date. When every dollar lives in a fund, spending decisions get easy: you just check what that fund has left.

Each fund can run in one of two modes. In Fund mode, leftover money carries forward at month end — perfect for irregular expenses like car repairs, where unspent months build a cushion. In Budget mode, the fund resets to your budgeted amount each month — perfect for steady categories like groceries. You can mix modes freely and change a fund's mode anytime.

Steward closes the month automatically. Funds in Fund mode carry their remaining balance forward into the new month, and funds in Budget mode reset to their budgeted amount. On paid plans, the Monthly Budget Review then walks you through the month — what went over, what went under, and what you might adjust — but nothing changes without your confirmation.

Steward is free while we build. Manual Mode stays free forever, and planned pricing is about $99 a year for Essentials and $149 a year for Premium — no credit card required to start, and your funds, transactions, and history stay yours on every plan.

Manual Mode is Steward's permanent free plan: the complete fund-based budgeting system with up to 15 fund categories and 100 manual transaction entries per month, plus dashboards and basic reporting. Exports carry a small watermark. It has no ads and no time limit, and your data stays yours — export it anytime.

Yes — one click in your account settings, no phone calls, no hoops. You keep paid features until the end of your current billing period, and then your account moves to Manual Mode with all of your data intact.

No. Steward's AI suggests which fund a transaction likely belongs to and surfaces patterns in your own data — and every suggestion waits for your confirmation. AI guidance is informational only — it isn't financial, legal, or tax advice. Steward never moves money or applies changes without your confirmation. For big decisions, talk to a licensed professional.

Both, anytime. You can export your complete data in open formats (CSV and PDF) whenever you like, on every plan. If you delete your account, there's a 30-day grace period during which you can change your mind and restore everything; after that, your data is deleted on the schedule described in our Privacy Policy.

Yes. Steward supports CAD alongside USD, and Canadian bank connections are supported through Plaid. We design our data-handling practices to comply with PIPEDA, Canada's federal privacy law, and we plan to bill Canadian members in CAD at launch.

Steward never sees or stores your banking username or password. Connections are made through Plaid, and wherever your bank supports it you sign in on your bank's own site via OAuth. Steward receives read-only transaction data through an encrypted token — we can't move your money, and we couldn't leak credentials we never hold.

No. Bank sync is a convenience, not a requirement. Manual entry is a first-class feature on every plan and always will be — some members simply prefer entering transactions themselves, and Steward fully supports budgeting that way forever.

After the web app reaches general availability. Steward's web app is mobile-first and works well in your phone's browser today; native iOS and Android apps are on the roadmap once the core product is polished and stable. Waitlist members will be the first to hear.