Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 30, 2026

Upbeat Money is a budgeting program that runs on your own Windows PC. This page says what it does with your information, in plain words.

Everything stays on your PC

Your plan - your paycheck, bills, balances, benefits, the records you save and any statements or pay stubs you drop in - is kept in files on your computer:

Website edition: in the program's own folder (...\Programs\Upbeat Money\data).
Microsoft Store edition: in Documents\Upbeat Money.

Nothing in your plan is sent to us or to anyone else. Upbeat Money has no account, no sign-in and no server of ours that it talks to. We cannot see your numbers.

When it goes online

Upbeat Money only goes online in these cases, and never sends your plan:

Checking for updates. The Microsoft Store edition asks the Microsoft Store whether a newer version is out (Windows does this on your behalf, under Microsoft's privacy policy). The website edition reads one small file from upbeatmoney.com that says what the newest version is - like any web page, that request carries your internet address, and nothing else about you. You can switch the website edition's check off in Settings.
Reading a store listing. The Wants & needs add-on can read a store listing you drop or paste in (Amazon, Newegg, Micro Center and others) to fill in the item's name and price. When you do that, the program fetches that one page from the store's website, the same as your browser would. Nothing about your plan is sent with it. You can switch this off in Settings.
Asking a linked AI (only if you link one). Penny, the helper, answers from the program's own help on your PC. If you choose to link an AI in Settings (Penny's brain) with your own account and key - Anthropic's Claude, or another AI such as OpenAI's ChatGPT - each question you ask Penny is sent to that company, with the names and help text of the boxes on your screen. Your plan's numbers are sent only if you tick "Let the AI see my plan's summary figures", and then only the summary figures (no bill names or account details). That company's own privacy policy covers what it does with it. Your key is kept only on your PC, never in your plan, backups or exported files. You can unlink it any time with "Forget my key".
Talking to Penny (only if you use the microphone). With an AI linked, Penny has a microphone button. Your speech is turned into words by the speech recognition built into Microsoft Edge, which sends it to Microsoft's speech service under Microsoft's privacy policy. Upbeat Money never records, saves or sends the sound itself - only the words end up in the box. Penny's own cartoon voice is made by the program on your PC. If you choose a Windows voice to read her words instead, the voices installed in Windows read them on your PC; voices whose name ends in "Online" are read by Microsoft's online service, under Microsoft's privacy policy.
Knowing what you've bought. The Microsoft Store edition asks Windows which add-ons and updates you have bought. That is Windows talking to the Microsoft Store on your behalf, under Microsoft's privacy policy; Upbeat Money only reads the answer.

Support and feedback emails

The Support and Feedback buttons fill in an email for you, addressed to support@upbeatmoney.com or feedback@upbeatmoney.com, with details about your copy filled in underneath where you type: the version, edition, build, which add-ons are switched on, how long updates are included, this PC's Machine ID (website edition, for licence keys) and the Windows version. Nothing is sent by the program. The email opens in your own email program (or you copy it into webmail), you can read and delete any of it, and it only reaches us if you press Send. No numbers from your plan are put in it. We use what you send only to answer you and to fix and improve Upbeat Money.

Statements and pay stubs

If you use the statement reader or pay stub reader, the PDF you drop in is read on your PC and filed in the program's folder on your PC. It is not uploaded anywhere.

What we collect

Nothing automatically. The program has no analytics, no crash reporting and no tracking. If it ever runs into a problem it writes a crash-log.txt on your PC; it is only ever seen by us if you choose to attach it to an email.

If you buy the website edition or an add-on key from upbeatmoney.com, checkout is run by our payment company, Stripe, which handles your payment details under its own privacy policy - we never see your card number. We receive your name, email address, what you bought and your PC's Machine ID, and use them to make and send your licence key, to honour the licence later (a new PC, a lost key) and for our sales records. The key is emailed to you through our email service, Resend, which sees your name, email address and the key in order to deliver it.

The website edition's Buy a key button opens upbeatmoney.com in your browser with this PC's Machine ID in the address, so the key you buy is made for this PC. The Machine ID is worked out from your PC's motherboard; it says nothing about you or your plan. Nothing else is sent.

Children

Upbeat Money is a household budgeting tool for adults. It does not knowingly collect anything from anyone, of any age.

Contact

Questions: privacy@upbeatmoney.com