Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to common questions about Less Panic.
General
Basic questions about Less Panic
Less Panic tracks what comes in and out of your checking account — primarily credit card payments, bills paid directly from checking (like rent or mortgage), and income. Unlike budgeting apps that track every transaction, Less Panic focuses on predictable money that affects your checking account balance, so you always know if you have enough to cover what's due.
Budgeting apps like Mint or YNAB focus on categorizing every transaction. Less Panic focuses on what hits your checking account — credit card payments, rent, loans, and income. You don't track every coffee purchase; you track the credit card payment that includes those purchases. This makes it simpler while giving you visibility into whether you have enough to cover what's due.
Yes! We use industry-standard security practices including bcrypt password hashing, encrypted storage for integration credentials, CSRF protection, and rate limiting. Bank connections (via LunchMoney or Plaid) use bank-level security. We never store your bank login credentials.
We believe your data belongs to you. You can request a full export of your data at any time by contacting [email protected], and we will provide it within 30 days as required by privacy regulations.
Yes! Many users track their monthly credit card payments as routines. When your Chase or Amex statement arrives, forward it to your unique Less Panic email address, and our AI will extract the amount and due date automatically. You can also manually create credit card payment routines with the 💳 Credit Card Payment category.
Only if they're paid directly from your checking account. Most subscriptions are paid via credit card, so they're already included in your credit card payment routine. Less Panic focuses on what hits your checking account, not individual charges on your credit cards.
Accounts & Routines
Managing your accounts and recurring routines
From the Accounts page, click "Add Account" and enter the account name and current balance. You can optionally connect it to LunchMoney for automatic balance syncing.
Less Panic supports three routine types: Expense (bills, subscriptions, payments), Income (salary, freelance income, etc.), and Internal (transfers between your own accounts like moving money to savings).
When you create a routine, Less Panic automatically generates lineup items for each occurrence. For example, a monthly bill creates a lineup item for each month. You mark items as complete when you've paid them.
When you complete a lineup item, Less Panic updates your account balance accordingly. For expenses, it decreases the balance; for income, it increases it. This helps you track your projected balance over time.
Integrations
Connecting banks, email forwarding, and more
If you use LunchMoney, you can connect your LunchMoney account to sync balances from any banks you've connected there. Direct Plaid integration (13,000+ institutions) coming soon.
Each user gets a unique forwarding address. Forward your bills to this address and they appear in your pending review queue. For first-time vendors, you set up extraction rules (which fields contain the amount and due date) — this is a one-time setup per vendor. After setup, future emails from that vendor are automatically extracted by AI using your saved rules, and the extracted information appears in the lineup for your review. Emails are stored for 14 days then permanently deleted.
The AI extracts amounts, due dates, and payee information from credit card statements, utility bills, rent notices, loan statements, insurance premiums, and any other bills paid from your checking account. It works with any email format (HTML or plain text) from any vendor.
The AI is highly accurate for standard bill formats, correctly extracting amount, due date, and vendor information in most cases. You always have a chance to review and edit the extracted information before creating a routine, so you can catch any errors or make adjustments.
Yes! Email bill detection works with any email provider. Simply forward your bills to your unique Less Panic address from Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, iCloud Mail, or any other email service. You can also set up automatic forwarding rules in your email client.
Yes. Only the forwarded email content is processed by our AI for bill extraction. We never access your email account directly or store your email credentials. Forwarded emails are automatically deleted after 14 days. All extraction happens securely on our servers.
All extracted bills go to a pending review queue where you can verify the information before creating a routine. If something is wrong, simply edit the amount, due date, or vendor name before saving. You can also provide feedback to help improve the AI accuracy.
If you use LunchMoney for budgeting, connect your LunchMoney account to sync balances from any banks you have connected there. This enables automatic balance syncing and lineup item matching. Direct Plaid connection coming soon.
Less Panic syncs with connected bank accounts daily at 2:00 AM UTC. You can also trigger a manual sync anytime from the Integrations page or the What's Coming page.
Billing
Questions about pricing and subscriptions
Your 30-day free trial starts when you create your account. You get full access to all features during the trial. After 30 days, you have a 15-day grace period to subscribe before features become limited.
After your trial and grace period, you can still access your data but some features become limited. Your data is never deleted - subscribe at any time to regain full access.
You can cancel your subscription anytime from your Account Settings. Go to Billing and click "Manage Subscription" to access the billing portal where you can cancel.
Yes, you can switch between monthly and annual billing at any time from your billing settings. If you upgrade from monthly to annual, you'll receive credit for any unused time.
Security
How we keep your data safe
Passwords are hashed using bcrypt, an industry-standard algorithm. We never store passwords in plain text, and even we cannot see your actual password.
Yes! You can enable TOTP-based 2FA from your Profile settings. It works with any authenticator app like Google Authenticator, Authy, or 1Password.
We never see or store your bank login credentials. Bank connections go through secure third-party providers (LunchMoney or Plaid) which handle authentication directly with your bank. We only receive secure access tokens that are encrypted before storage.
Yes, you can delete your account from Settings. There's a 7-day recovery window in case you change your mind. After that, all your data is permanently deleted from our servers.
Still have questions?
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