Everything you need to know.
Clear, honest answers about how Kaban works, how your data is protected, and how Tala assists your daily finances.
What makes Kaban different from traditional budgeting apps?
Traditional apps treat your bank balance as money you can spend today—ignoring the rent due in a week or annual insurance next month. Kaban introduces Safe to Spend, calculating your true available cash flow after spoken-for commitments, while keeping all data encrypted and private without intrusive ads.
How does Kaban handle variable or freelance income?
Safe to Spend adapts in real time. When client payments deposit into your treasury, the available spending pool expands immediately. If income is delayed, the system recalibrates your daily pace to ensure essential commitments remain covered.
Do I have to connect my bank credentials or give third-party access?
No. Kaban is architected around user sovereignty. You can track accounts manually, import statements via CSV, or scan receipts. We never require bank credentials for public surveys, feedback, or testing.
How does Kaban ensure privacy and data security?
Kaban uses a local-first offline architecture with IndexedDB client caching, TLS 1.3 encryption in transit, PostgreSQL Row-Level Security (RLS) on authenticated servers, and zero third-party advertising trackers or data-broker sales.
How does the Tala AI companion work?
Tala is Kaban's review-first money companion. She parses receipt photos with computer vision, highlights spending patterns, and answers natural language questions about your balances. Tala strictly follows review-first guardrails: she suggests and explains, but you remain the sole authorizer for any ledger change.
Does Tala share my data with OpenAI or public models?
No. Your financial records, transaction items, and receipt scans are never used to train public LLM models. All inference is strictly bounded and isolated to your private session.
Can I use Kaban on my mobile phone and tablet?
Yes. Kaban is engineered as a responsive, mobile-first Progressive Web App (PWA) with offline mutation queuing, full touch gestures, and an upcoming dedicated Expo React Native companion client.
What happens if I lose internet connection while logging expenses?
Nothing is lost. Transactions queue safely in your device's persistent IndexedDB outbox. When your connection returns, changes synchronize seamlessly in the background with zero data conflicts.
Is Kaban free during the Private Beta?
Yes. Private beta participants receive full, unrestricted access to the complete Kaban workspace for free. We also pledge that your data will never be held hostage behind a paywall; open exports are always free.
Can I export my data if I ever decide to leave?
Yes. You can export 100% of your accounts, transactions, and cashflow horizons in standard, open formats (JSON, CSV) anytime with zero lock-in.