Pick the actual day this landed — handy if you're paid on an irregular schedule. Powers your "next payday" countdown and a daily budget based on real cash flow, not just an even monthly average.
What you own, minus what you owe, across every account you've added.
Export this month as a CSV (data) or a PDF report (summary + transactions), or import expenses from a CSV (columns: name, amount, category).
Small daily amounts are easier to feel than a monthly total — here's today's number.
Manage this on the Dashboard's Income card — changes sync everywhere automatically.
You're using 0% of your monthly income
Recommended: keep total expenses under 70% of income to leave room for saving and goals.
Add a limit for only the categories you actually want to watch — no need to fill in all of them. Picking a category that already has a budget updates it instead of creating a duplicate.
For a loan or debt, adding the original amount unlocks a payoff-progress bar and a quick way to log payments.
Live exchange rates. Rates are cached for offline use. Requires an internet connection for live rates.
How is my data saved?
Everything is stored locally in your browser (localStorage). Nothing is sent to a server, so your data stays private to this device. Clearing your browser data will reset the app.
How does income work?
Enter an amount and pick a frequency — Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly or Yearly — and OlaPurse works out the equivalents automatically, including an hourly estimate for salaried income (based on a standard 40-hour week).
What's a recurring expense?
Check the "Recurring" box when adding an expense (like rent or subscriptions) and it will automatically appear in every new month going forward, so you don't have to re-enter it. You can stop any recurring item at any time from the Recurring Items list on the Transactions page.
How do category budget limits work?
Set a limit per category in Budget Planner. When your spending in that category gets close to (85%+) or exceeds the limit, you'll see a warning badge on the Dashboard and Reports pages. Picking "Other" lets you name your own custom budget line.
What's the difference between Home Currency and Display Currency?
Home Currency (in Settings) is just the default new entries start with. Display Currency (the "Currency & Exchange" card on the Dashboard) is purely a viewing preference — like light/dark mode — that converts every total, budget, goal and chart for you to look at. Neither ever changes the original currency a transaction was actually entered in.
Does currency conversion need internet?
Yes — it fetches live exchange rates from a public API. If you're offline, it uses the last successfully fetched rate for that currency pair if available, and clearly shows the original amount if no rate has been cached yet. You'll never lose data because of a missing rate.
How do I switch months or years?
Use the Year and Month dropdowns in the top bar. Recurring expenses automatically carry forward when you move to a new month.
What does "Clear data" do?
It opens a dialog where you pick exactly what to remove — this month's expenses, this month's income, savings goals, budget limits, net worth accounts, or the assistant chat — and anything you leave unticked stays. Every box starts unchecked, so nothing is removed by accident. There's also a "full reset" option to wipe the whole profile. It can't be undone, so back up first if unsure (Settings → Backup).
Should I encrypt my backup?
By default, a backup is a plain file — anyone who opens it can read your numbers. Ticking "Protect this backup with a passphrase" in Settings encrypts it before download, so it's unreadable without that passphrase — useful if you'll store it in email or cloud storage. There's no way to recover a forgotten passphrase, so keep it somewhere safe.
What does "date received" do for my income?
It's the actual day that source landed (or will land) in your account — pick any date, which is especially useful if you're paid on an irregular schedule rather than the same day every month. OlaPurse uses it to show a real next-payday countdown and a "real cash-flow" number on Planner: how much you've actually received so far this month, not just an even monthly average.
How does the Net Worth trend chart work?
It plots one point per day you open OlaPurse with accounts added, so it needs at least two different days of data before a line appears. If it looks empty, that's expected for a new account or a fresh profile — it fills in automatically the more you use the app.
Why did a "How's OlaPurse working out?" pop-up appear?
Every so often (never in your first few days, and no more than once a month), OlaPurse asks a quick one-star-and-a-comment check-in so the team knows what's working and what isn't. It goes straight to the same private feedback inbox as the Help page's form. You can dismiss it, or turn it off entirely with "Don't ask me again" — and you can always rate your experience on your own terms from this page.
Can my family or partner see and edit the same budget as me?
Profiles let you keep a household budget separate from your personal one, but everything is stored locally on one device — there's no server keeping two devices in sync in real time. If your household shares a budget, the simplest approach is managing it from one shared device, or one person owning data entry and sharing an exported backup with the other. This is a deliberate trade-off for keeping your data private and off any server, not a bug.
Is the Financial Assistant private?
Yes. It runs entirely on your device and reads the numbers you've already entered to answer your questions. Nothing you type or track is sent anywhere.
Is OlaPurse the same as AFOLAOLA?
OlaPurse is the product you're using — its own name, icon and experience. AFOLAOLA is the company that builds it. You'll see "An AFOLAOLA Product" in the sidebar, footer and here in Help as company attribution, but nothing about how OlaPurse works or looks changes because of that.
What does password-protecting an export actually do?
It depends on the file type, and it's worth knowing the difference. A protected CSV is packaged into a real, standard password-protected ZIP file — it opens with a normal password prompt in Windows, macOS, and most zip tools. A protected PDF works differently: OlaPurse encrypts it itself, so it will not prompt for a password in a PDF reader like Adobe Reader. Instead, you unlock it back in OlaPurse (Settings → Export Security → Unlock a protected export) to get the readable PDF back. Either way, the password is never sent anywhere and can't be recovered if you forget it — keep it somewhere safe.
I protected a PDF export — how do I open it again?
Go to Settings → Export Security → "Unlock a protected export," select the .olapurse-protected.json file you downloaded, enter the password you set for it, and the original PDF will be decrypted and downloaded — ready to open normally.
Can I use OlaPurse in a language other than English?
Yes — Settings → Language, with English, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Yorùbá available. Switching updates the app instantly with no reload, and your choice is remembered next time. Coverage is broadest in navigation and Settings right now, with more of the app being translated over time; anything not yet translated simply shows in English rather than breaking.