Dashboard
Use it for the current snapshot: health score, safe-to-spend, trend cards, and the fastest read on whether the week improved.
Guide | updated March 16, 2026
How Catalyst Cash works in practice.
This is the practical version: what to add, what each area of the app does, how the weekly operating loop works, and what changes when you upgrade.
Primary output
Weekly action packet
Status, risk, next moves, and follow-up questions on your actual numbers.
Input model
Manual or Plaid
Use manual entry, one live institution on Free, or broader coverage on Pro.
Free tier
2 audits / week
The core workflow is included. Pro expands usage, history, models, and ledger depth.
Getting Started
What to add before your first serious audit.
The app gets better as your balances, obligations, and timing become more accurate.
Cash accounts
Checking and savings are the core inputs for cash safety, runway, and spending decisions.
Debt balances
Credit cards, loans, APRs, limits, and due dates drive payoff order and utilization logic.
Recurring claims on cash
Renewals, bills, and known upcoming charges help the app distinguish a safe week from a risky one.
App Map
What each area of the app is for.
The product works best when you know which surface answers which question.
Audit
Use it for the weekly decision pass. It packages cash pressure, debt focus, renewals, and portfolio context into a readable action list.
AskAI
Use it for tradeoffs after the audit: affordability, debt sequencing, timing decisions, and “what if I do this instead?”
Portfolio Vault
Use it to manage banks, cards, loans, investments, crypto, other assets, and transaction previews in one place.
Cashflow + Renewals
Use these surfaces to manage budget envelopes, recurring charges, payment timing, and the 30-day cash-flow picture.
History + Ledger
Use History to compare old audits. Use the Pro ledger when you need search, filtering, export, and transaction-level cleanup.
Weekly Workflow
The operating loop that makes the app useful.
Most value comes from repetition, not from a one-time setup sprint.
01
Refresh the numbers
Sync through Plaid or update balances manually so the audit is working from current reality.
02
Run the audit
Start with the week color, safe-to-spend logic, debt priority, and the top action list.
03
Open the supporting tool
Use AskAI for the tradeoff, Renewals for recurring costs, Budget for pacing, or the ledger for cleanup.
Financial Logic
The main rules the product cares about.
Checking floor first
The audit treats your emergency floor as a hard safety boundary. If the floor is dishonest, the advice will be too.
Avalanche debt logic
The debt simulator prioritizes high APR debt to minimize interest drag, then lets you test the effect of extra payments.
Renewals are future cash claims
Recurring charges matter because of timing, not just total cost. Renewal pressure is part of weekly safety, not an afterthought.
History exists to validate decisions
Audit history should help you see whether your actions improved liquidity, reduced risk, or changed the trajectory.
Plans
Free vs Pro, without the spin.
Free includes the core workflow. Pro increases room, depth, and operational tooling.
Free
$0
forever
- 2 audits per week
- 10 AskAI chats per day
- Catalyst AI
- 1 Plaid institution
- Last 12 saved audits
- Core budgeting, debt, FIRE, renewals, and dashboard tools
Pro
Pro
$9.99
per month
- 20 audits per month
- 30 AskAI chats per day
- Catalyst AI + Catalyst AI CFO (GPT-4.1)
- Up to 6 Plaid institutions
- Full audit archive
- Full searchable ledger with export
Best Value
$89.99
/ year
Save $30
$7.50/mo effective — 2 months free vs. monthly
7-day free trial included. Billing through Apple.
Privacy
Where the data lives and what leaves the device.
The shortest accurate version is local-first by default, networked only when you use networked features.
Stored locally first
Balances, debts, renewals, settings, and audit history are kept on your device as the primary record.
AI on demand
When you run an audit or AskAI chat, the request is scrubbed and sent through the Catalyst backend proxy.
Plaid is optional
If you connect through Plaid, it helps keep balances and transactions current. You can also stay fully manual.
Next Step
Start with one honest weekly check-in.
Add the accounts that matter, run the audit once with current numbers, and use the result to decide whether this is the operating model you have been missing.