Questions

Ahead does not connect to any bank. It does not use Account Aggregator (the system other apps use to read your bank statements), it does not read your UPI messages or SMS, and it never asks for a bank login. You enter transactions yourself, or import the statement file you download from your bank: a PDF, Excel or CSV. Ahead reads it, shows you every row, and adds only the ones you choose.

Yes. Cash is an account like any other: record what you withdraw, spend from it, and check it against what is in your wallet. Money spent in cash still shows up in your budget.

Yes, and this is where envelope budgeting helps most. You only plan with money that has already arrived. So a month with two payments and a month with none work the same way: you divide what you actually have.

Yes. Amounts use lakh and crore grouping, like ₹1,08,450, not ₹108,450. Paise are shown only when there are paise.

No. Reports show what happened and what they left out, and Runway shows the day your money will be lowest. What you do about it is your decision.

Money you have received but not yet put in a category. It is not a forecast and it is not your bank balance: it is the money you have, minus what you have already given to categories. When it reaches ₹0, every rupee has a place, which is the goal.

When you spend ₹2,000 on groceries with a card, Groceries goes down by ₹2,000, and at the same time ₹2,000 moves into the card's payment category. So the money for the bill is set aside as you spend. Paying the card bill is a transfer, not a second expense, so no report counts it twice.

Split one payment across categories, so ₹5,000 at the supermarket can be ₹3,000 of groceries and ₹2,000 of something else. Move money between your own accounts without counting it as spending. Repeat a transaction, like rent on the 1st, and skip one month without changing the rest. Check an account against your bank statement: any difference is added as a visible adjustment, not hidden. And tick a transaction when it shows up in your bank.

They mean different things. ₹0 means there was money and it is used up. A dash means nothing happened. This way, the budget can show you that a bill has not been paid yet.

Yes, that is how Ahead works. A household is one budget with several people in it, so there is no sharing setting to turn on.

There are three roles, checked on our server. An owner manages the household: invitations, its name and billing. A partner budgets just like the owner but cannot do those things. A viewer can see everything and change nothing. A household can have up to four people, at the same price.

Ahead works in the browser on your phone, and you can add it to your home screen so it opens like an app. On Android, Chrome offers Install app. On an iPhone, use Safari → Share → Add to Home Screen. It is not in the Play Store or App Store, and it needs an internet connection. Everything you can do on a laptop, you can do on a phone.

Because in many Indian families, money is lent and borrowed between relatives, and paying back a cousin every month is as real as an EMI to a bank. Enter the loan details once, and Ahead keeps the schedule, what is still owed and every repayment.

You can share that one loan with them, and it shows in both your budgets. When they record a repayment, it counts only after you agree, and neither of you can change the other’s numbers. Sharing is off until you both choose it, and nothing else in your budget is shared.

Yes. Add a running balance instead of a loan, and record each time you gave or got money. Ahead keeps one balance that says who owes whom, and it stays open when you are all square. It has no interest or end date, and you can share it like a loan.

Yes, and it often surprises people. 11% flat is not 11%: on ₹1,20,000 over two years it works out to 19.87% as a reducing rate. Ahead shows the real rate next to the quoted one, and what paying a lump sum early would change.

On a reducing-rate loan, yes. It shows both ways to use the same lump sum side by side: finish the loan sooner, or pay a smaller EMI. Finishing sooner saves much more, because interest is charged for time. On a flat-rate loan it does not show a saving, and explains why: the interest was fixed at the start, so paying early does not reduce it.

No. The schedule shows what should happen under the agreed terms. What actually happened is the repayments you record. The two are always kept separate, so a planned payment is never shown as received, and a late or different payment shows as it really was.

Each of you keeps your own record, so the two numbers can differ. When they do, Ahead shows both and explains why, without deciding who is right. A repayment the other person records waits until you agree or disagree. If you disagree, you can add a short note, and they see it. Nothing goes on your books, and you can still agree to it later with one tap. Nothing they do, even leaving, can delete your record of the loan.

Yes, as a link to that one loan. They can view it without an account, but cannot change it. You can add a password and an end date, and change both later. Your account names, categories, other transactions and private note never appear on it, and neither does a repayment you have not confirmed.

60 days free with no card, then ₹199 a month or ₹1,499 a year, or ₹4,999 once for the first 100 households, charged per household, not per person. Up to four people can share one budget at one price.

No. There is no UPI Autopay or e-NACH mandate, so nothing is ever debited automatically. You pay for each period yourself, and we email you before it ends. A lifetime plan has nothing to renew.

You can still see your budget, but not change it. Nothing is deleted, and you can start paying again and continue where you left off.

Nobody looks at them. Our support tool has no way to show a transaction, a balance or a budget, and no other household can reach yours. The server does the calculations, so it can read your numbers, and one person can sign in to it. We do not open the database, we never copy it to a laptop, and if a problem ever needs a look at your records, we ask you first. The Security page explains all of this.

Yes. You can download everything in your household as a zip file of CSV spreadsheets: accounts, categories, budget months, transactions, payees, loans, loan events, repeating rules and the wishlist, plus a file explaining each one. It works whether or not you are paying.

Ahead is new. There are no reviews or ratings to show yet, and we will not make any up. The trial is free and needs no card, so the best way to judge Ahead is to try it.

Yes, permanently, from Settings → Household → Your data. Only the household’s owner can do this, and you can download your data first.