About Even Cents
Money, one paycheck at a time
Even Cents is a paycheck-first money tracker. Instead of sorting every purchase into categories all month long, you do one thing each payday: send your check where it needs to go — bills, credit cards, savings — until nothing is left unaccounted for. It's the way a lot of people already budget on a spreadsheet, made faster and impossible to fat-finger.
Why it exists
Categories are where budgets go to die
Most budgeting apps ask you to tag every transaction across dozens of categories. It's a lot of upkeep, and the day you fall behind is usually the day you quit. Even Cents skips all of it. You name a payee — "Mortgage," "Amex," "Savings" — and that's the whole taxonomy. And because every amount is stored to the exact cent, you'll never chase a phantom penny the way a spreadsheet makes you.
How it works
The payday ritual
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01
Set your pay schedule
Tell Even Cents how often you're paid — weekly, bi-weekly, twice a month, monthly. Each payday a fresh pay period appears, starting at your paycheck.
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02
Send every dollar somewhere
List what you're paying — each bill, each card, each transfer to savings — and what's coming in. The remainder counts down live as you go, and recurring items show up automatically.
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03
Land on zero
Sweep whatever's left into savings so the period lands at $0.00. Close the app knowing every dollar has a job until your next check.
The model
Each paycheck is its own little budget
The home screen is your current paycheck — not a running feed of transactions. Whatever is left over at the end of a pay period carries into the next one, so the next period starts at your new paycheck plus last period's leftover. Bills land on the check that actually pays them, and a savings sweep takes you to zero. It mirrors the way a paycheck-by-paycheck spreadsheet works, without the math errors.
Encrypted with a key only you hold
Your financial data is encrypted at rest under a key derived from your password. We can't read it in our database or our backups, and neither can anyone who isn't you. The honest trade-off: if you lose both your password and your one-time recovery code, the data is gone for good — that's the price of a key we genuinely can't see, so keep that recovery code somewhere safe.
Who it's for
Made for regular paychecks
Even Cents is for people who get paid on a schedule and want to know, every payday, that the money is handled — bills covered, savings funded, nothing forgotten. If you've ever kept a "pay the bills on payday" spreadsheet, this is that, with bank-grade privacy, spreadsheet import, savings goals, multiple accounts, and household sharing when you need them.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Do I have to categorize every transaction?
No. You name a payee — Mortgage, Amex, Savings — and that's all. There are no categories or budgets to maintain, which is the thing that makes most budgeting apps exhausting.
What happens to money left over at the end of a pay period?
It carries into your next pay period. Each new period starts at your paycheck plus whatever was left over, so nothing falls through the cracks between checks.
Is my financial data private?
Yes. Everything you enter is encrypted at rest under a key derived from your password. We can't read your data in our database or our backups — and neither can anyone who isn't you.
What happens if I forget my password?
You can get back in with the one-time recovery code shown when you sign up. If you lose both your password and your recovery code, your data is unrecoverable — that's the unavoidable cost of a key only you hold, so store the recovery code somewhere safe.
Can I bring my existing spreadsheet?
Yes. You can import an .ods spreadsheet and Even Cents will map your historical pay periods and transactions. The penny-rounding fudge rows spreadsheets accumulate are dropped automatically, since money here is stored to the exact cent.
Can my spouse or household share the same finances?
Yes. You can invite someone to your household and they can view and edit the same data. It's shared by encrypting your key to their account — the operator still can't read it.
Can I track more than one account?
Yes. You can keep multiple accounts and switch between them, each with its own pay periods and history.
How much does it cost?
It's free to set up and start tracking your paychecks.
Ready to try it?
Free to set up. Bring your spreadsheet along.