Frequently Asked Questions

Okane is an envelope budgeting app that syncs with Google Sheets. You create budget categories (envelopes) for your spending — rent, groceries, fun money, savings — and track every dollar against them. The twist: your budget lives in a Google Sheets spreadsheet that you own, so you always have full access to your data outside the app.

• Download Okane from the Google Play Store or the App Store.
• Sign in with your Google account.
• Create a new budget — Okane copies a template spreadsheet into your Google Drive and you're ready to go.
• Set up categories and start adding transactions. That's it!

Yes! The core budgeting experience — envelope categories, manual transaction entry, and Google Sheets sync — is completely free. Okane also offers a premium tier that unlocks automatic bank sync via Plaid, smart analytics, and AI-powered categorization.

When you create a budget in Okane, the app copies a template spreadsheet into your Google Drive. Every transaction, category, and budget change you make in the app is written directly to that spreadsheet — and vice versa. You can open the spreadsheet anytime in Google Sheets to view, edit, or share your budget.

Okane requests access to:

• Google Sheets — to read and write your budget spreadsheet.
• Google Drive — to copy the template spreadsheet into your Drive on first setup.

Okane only accesses spreadsheets it created or that you explicitly connect. It does not browse or read other files in your Drive.

Absolutely. Your spreadsheet is a real Google Sheets file — edit it, add formulas, share it with a partner, build charts on top of it. Changes sync back into Okane the next time you open the app or pull to refresh. Your data is truly yours.

Nothing, as far as your data is concerned. Because your budget lives in Google Sheets, just sign in on a new device and reconnect to the same spreadsheet. Everything is exactly where you left it.

Okane uses Plaid — the same service used by Venmo, Robinhood, and thousands of other financial apps — to securely connect to your bank. Once connected, new transactions are automatically imported into Okane so you don't have to enter them manually.

Plaid connects in read-only mode. It can see your transaction history and account balances, but it cannot move money, make payments, or modify your accounts in any way. Okane only uses transaction data (merchant name, amount, date) to populate your budget.

Yes. Plaid uses bank-level encryption (AES-256) and never shares your bank login credentials with Okane. Your connection is tokenized — Okane receives a secure token, not your username or password. For more details, visit Plaid's security page.

Of course. Bank sync is a premium feature and completely optional. Many users prefer manual entry — it can actually help you stay more mindful of your spending. Okane works great either way.

Your budget data lives in a Google Sheets spreadsheet in your Google Drive. Okane does not maintain a copy of your budget on its servers. For premium users with bank sync, transaction data is temporarily held on our servers until you confirm it in the app, then it's removed.

No. Never. Okane does not sell, rent, or share your personal or financial data with advertisers, data brokers, or any third party. Period.

To remove Okane from your life:

• Revoke Google access — go to your Google Account permissions and remove Okane.
• Disconnect Plaid (if applicable) — go to Settings in the app and disconnect your bank, or contact us and we'll remove the connection.
• Delete the spreadsheet — if you want to remove your budget data entirely, delete the spreadsheet from Google Drive.
• Uninstall the app.

You can also email us at mike.from.okane@gmail.com and we'll help you with account deletion.

Your data is already exported — it's in Google Sheets! Download it as Excel, CSV, PDF, or any format Google Sheets supports. No lock-in, no proprietary formats.

Everything you need to budget:

• Envelope-style budget categories
• Manual transaction entry
• Full Google Sheets sync
• Custom categories and organization

Premium unlocks:

• Bank Sync — automatic transaction import via Plaid
• Smart Analytics — charts and spending insights
• AI Categorization — transactions are automatically sorted into categories, on-device

Yes. You can cancel your subscription at any time through the App Store or Google Play Store. You'll retain premium features until the end of your billing period, and your budget data stays in your Google Sheet regardless.

Okane is available on Android via the Google Play Store and on iOS via the App Store.

Most budgeting apps store your data on their servers — if they shut down, your data goes with them. Okane stores everything in a Google Sheets spreadsheet you own. You get a real, portable, editable file instead of a proprietary database. Plus, there's no paywall on basic budgeting — bank sync and analytics are premium, but the core app is free.

Try these steps:

• Check your internet connection.
• Pull down to refresh in the app.
• Go to Settings and verify you're connected to the correct spreadsheet.
• Sign out and sign back in to refresh your Google permissions.

If the problem persists, email us at mike.from.okane@gmail.com with details about what's happening.

Check your Google Sheets version history! Open your budget spreadsheet in Google Sheets, go to File → Version history → See version history, and restore a previous version. This is one of the perks of the spreadsheet-first approach.

First, try force-closing and reopening the app. If the issue continues, make sure you're running the latest version from the App Store or Google Play Store. If it's still happening, email us at mike.from.okane@gmail.com with your device model, OS version, and a description of what happened.