How Groworth works — everything the site mentions

1. Basics and price

What is Groworth?

A budgeting app where everything revolves around your financial goal — a savings target, a first down payment, killing debt, or freedom. Every euro saved, every debt payment and every investment earns XP (experience points) and raises your level; level 100 is your goal reached. No other budgeting app does this.

Who is it for?

Anyone who wants to see their money and make one conscious decision every day. It does not matter whether you start at −€40,000 in loans or with €5,000 saved — both start from their own point at level 1.

How much does it cost?

The core is free forever: unlimited budget and transactions, CSV import, unlimited manual accounts, the debt plan, XP and levels, one goal and two themes. Pro — €5 a month: planned payments, multiple goals, deeper XP and full reports, up to 3 connected bank accounts, all themes. Elite — €8.99 a month: everything in Pro plus net worth and the portfolio (crypto wallet following, unlimited positions) and up to 5 connected bank accounts. Friends — €17.99 a month: one payer, four seats, Pro for everyone. The yearly plan gives two months free. Language will never sit behind a paywall.

Why do only some things cost money?

We only cap what costs us money. A connected bank account costs us a fee every month, so it has a cap (free 0, Pro 3, Elite 5). A manual account and CSV import cost us nothing — so they are free and unlimited, and that is the product, not a stopgap.

2. The goal

Why set a goal first?

The goal is the scale everything is measured against: XP, levels, the progress bar. No goal means no XP, because there is nothing to measure against. That is why onboarding asks for a goal before anything else.

What is the starting point?

Your net worth at the moment you set the goal — it can be negative. The road from the starting point to the goal amount is 100 levels. Someone at −€32,000 and someone at +€5,000 each have their own road, but both start at level 1.

Can I change the goal?

Yes. Changing the goal changes the scale, so XP is recalculated against the new road — the level is honest to the goal in force now. Several goals at once is a Pro feature.

3. Categories and subcategories

What is a group?

The pockets every euro lands in: NEEDS (rent, food, bills; target ≤ 60 % of income), WANTS (cafés, entertainment, subscriptions; 10–30 %), INVEST (savings and investments; ≥ 10 %) and DEBT (loan payments). There is also INCOME, OTHER and ⇄ "Between accounts".

What is a category?

A shelf inside a group: "Groceries", "Transport", "Subscriptions". Each category can have up to 10 subcategories — that keeps the list readable. Income and ⇄ transfers between accounts can be categorised too. You pick the group on the transaction — proportions and limits are computed from it.

What is a subcategory?

A refinement inside a category: "Groceries → Rimi", "Transport → Fuel". You need it when you want to know not just "how much on groceries" but "how much of that at Rimi". A transaction can be moved to another subcategory after sorting too — double-click it in Transactions.

What happens when I rename a category?

Its whole history moves with it automatically. Renaming never breaks old months.

Why are savings and debt payments not spending?

Because they are the same choice: the money stays yours. Saving, investing and paying off a loan all raise net worth and all earn XP. Spending is what leaves.

4. Transactions and sorting

What kinds of transactions are there?

Three: income (money in), expense (money out) and transfer (money moving between your accounts, or into savings, an investment or a loan). A transfer between your own accounts is not spending and never shows up as an expense.

What is "Spending" on the overview?

Consumption only — NEEDS, WANTS and "Other". Money that went to savings, investments or loans is contribution, not spending; it is shown separately. Otherwise the month you saved the most would look like the month you spent the most.

What is sorting?

A daily habit: every new transaction (from the bank, CSV or typed in) arrives unconfirmed, and you confirm or correct it — group, category, subcategory, account. You choose the category yourself — that way every report stays accurate. In the sorter, categories are chips, not a dropdown — one click.

How do I fix an already-sorted transaction?

In Transactions — double-click the row. The same chip picker opens with categories and subcategories.

If I tag one Rimi purchase, will the rest sort themselves?

Yes — tag one and the app offers the same category for every other transaction with that merchant. Confirm in one click.

5. CSV import

Which banks can I import from?

Any bank that gives you a statement as CSV (also XML or PDF for many formats). The app recognises the columns — date, amount, description, counterparty — from the header; if it cannot, you map them by hand once.

Will duplicates be imported twice?

No. Duplicates are caught by date, amount and account, and by the bank's transaction identifier when there is one. Import the same statement again and only the new transactions come in.

Why do imported transactions have no category?

On purpose. Imported rows arrive unconfirmed and uncategorised. Confirming is your decision — and the daily streak rests on exactly that decision.

6. Accounts: manual and connected

What is the difference?

A manual account — you enter the opening balance, transactions come from CSV or by hand, the balance computes itself. Free, unlimited. A connected bank account — transactions arrive on their own through the bank connection. Those are capped (0 / 3 / 5) because each one costs us money.

What is the "Cash in accounts" asset?

Account money does not count in net worth by itself — otherwise the same money could be counted twice (in the account and as a "savings" asset). So when you create your first account, the app automatically creates one cash asset, "Cash in accounts", that follows the total balance of your accounts. It is the only door through which account money reaches net worth, and it is visible in the asset list precisely so that you do not enter another "€2,000 savings" next to it with the same money. The Net worth page has a line "In accounts right now" that tells you how much is there and whether it is already counted.

The balance does not match my bank — what now?

An account has "calibrate balance": enter what the bank shows today and the app records a correction without a transaction. It is neither spending nor income.

7. Budget and limits

How do limits work?

Each group (and, if you like, each category) has a monthly limit. Its state is never colour alone: every limit carries a word ("fine", "on the edge", "over") and a pattern, so it reads without colour vision too.

What happens if I overspend?

The limit shows it — and that is all. Overspending never takes XP or levels away. Showing it twice would mean the app shows blame more often than progress.

What are proportions?

What share of your income went to each group. Target proportions: NEEDS ≤ 60 %, WANTS 10–30 %, INVEST ≥ 10 %. A "clean month" in achievements is a month where all three are within range.

8. XP and levels

What earns XP?

Only decisions: saving, investing, paying off debt. All three are one choice — the money stays yours. For a debt payment, the part up to the minimum payment counts with weight 0.2 and the part above it with weight 1.0: what the bank would have taken anyway is a smaller decision than what you pay on top. Paying 10 % or more of a loan's balance in one go is a "killshot" — ×1.5.

What earns no XP?

Salary and other income (being paid is not a decision). Dividends and rent (same reason, plus: if dividends earned XP, the progress bar would recommend dividend stocks — investment advice we refuse to give). Market moves — neither up nor down: a crash never takes levels away. Sales (money only changes form). Ordinary spending — zero, not minus.

Can XP be negative?

No. The worst month is zero points, not a penalty.

Why is there no daily cap?

400 XP a day is the daily goal for the activity ring, not a ceiling. Total XP is always exactly proportional to how much money you have moved towards your goal — one €500 payment earns exactly as much as five of €100.

Why is my level 14 a different amount of money from my friend's level 14?

Because levels are percent of your goal, not euros. Level 100 is 100 % of the road. With a €5,000 goal, level 10 is different money than with a €500,000 goal — and that is fair. That is also why there are no leaderboards. Ever.

9. Streaks and the daily check-in

What keeps a streak alive?

A decision, not data entry: the daily check-in where you confirm or correct the sorting and answer one question. That is exactly why the streak survives bank automation — the data will arrive by itself, the decision stays yours.

How do I read it?

The ring shows the number of days. Hover it to see how many days of this month you have budgeted. A broken streak is just a number that starts again — no shame notifications, because this is a money app and you already carry enough anxiety. We want you to want to come back at least once a week.

10. Achievements

What can I earn them for?

Streaks (100, 200, 300, 500, 800, 1,000 days; weeks; years), levels, a clean month with proportions in range, an investment share of 10 / 15 / 20 % of income (awarded only at month end, once everything is counted), several goals set and reached, debts killed. No achievement is about an amount of money — different people have different goals.

Why is the quote visible only after earning it?

Each achievement carries a thought from a wise person. It is a reward, not an advert — so it opens when you have earned it.

11. Net worth

What is it?

Assets minus liabilities. Assets come in 11 kinds — cash, savings, portfolio, property, vehicle, pension, P2P, business, valuables, money lent, other. Liabilities are loans. Net worth can be negative, and the goal road is measured from it.

What does "What moves the curve" mean?

This month's anatomy: you paid off debt, you invested / saved, a new loan was taken and the market moved your portfolio (only if you have one). An asset value or loan balance corrected by hand is not this month's event — it is a more accurate number about the past, so the curve shows it, but "this month" does not count it.

Why does the curve move by month, not by day?

A snapshot is saved on the first day of every month. The past without a snapshot is reconstructed from your transactions, and the curve says so honestly. We do not draw invented history.

12. Debts

What do I enter?

Name, type, the amount originally borrowed and its date, today's balance, the minimum payment and the annual rate (APR). Progress is measured from the original amount, so you see how much you have killed from day one; if the original is unknown, from the balance.

How does the calculator work?

Enter how much you can pay per month in total. The calculator lines your loans up by snowball (smallest first) or avalanche (most expensive first), rolls freed-up minimums onto the next one, and a single chart shows every loan's balance month by month down to zero. Below it are levers tied to your own spending: if you cut WANTS or pay loans before investing, how much sooner you are free.

How do I record a payment?

As a transaction in a debt category (the DEBT group), linked to the loan. It comes from a statement or by hand — there is no separate "pay" button, because a payment is a fact in your account, not a button in an app.

13. Portfolio: crypto, stocks, property, other

How do I add crypto?

In one field: type "BTC" or "Bitcoin" and pick from the search — then quantity, purchase amount and date. Or paste a wallet's public address (Solana, Ethereum, Bitcoin) — the app detects the chain itself and starts following the wallet.

What is the difference between "manual" and "from wallet"?

A manual position: you record purchases and sales with date and time; a purchase earns XP. From wallet: the chain knows the quantity, transactions cannot be recorded, no XP. Tokens above €10 become positions; smaller ones are dust and are not shown in the table (you see the count on the wallet). The same token in a wallet and manually is two rows — so you can see which is which. Wallet following is an Elite feature.

Do wallet tokens count in net worth?

Yes — positions above €10 count in the portfolio and net worth. But they never move your level: wallet money is not a decision made in the app, and it has no cost basis against which to separate market from contribution.

How does selling work?

"− Sell" on a manual position: amount, quantity, date and the account the money goes to (or none). Quantity and cost basis drop proportionally and the app tells you the realised gain. No XP for a sale — the money stays yours, it only changes form.

What does "The market moved your portfolio" mean?

Price movement on positions you already hold — the part you do not control. It shows on the curve and the goal bar, but earns no XP in either direction.

Stocks and ETFs?

Search by Yahoo ticker (VWCE, VOO, AAPL…) — prices in euros, US exchanges converted at the ECB daily rate. Buy and sell just like crypto. A dividend is income with 0 XP; an automatically reinvested dividend (DRIP) is not a transaction at all — nothing became spendable.

Property?

You enter the value and refine it whenever you like. If a property has a loan, it shows as a pair: value − balance = your share, and it grows as the loan shrinks. Rent is income (0 XP) but has its own report — the property's income and costs separately. Mortgage principal is not spending: it moves money from the account into your share; net worth does not change.

Other?

P2P, pension, car, business, valuables, money lent — anything whose value you enter yourself, with purchase amount and date. A portfolio tracker for anything.

14. Price sources

Crypto — CoinGecko; decentralised-exchange tokens — DexScreener by contract address; stocks and ETFs — Yahoo Finance; exchange rates — the European Central Bank. The server fetches each price once and shares it with every user — so nobody can tell from the queries who holds what. Prices are not real-time: crypto refreshes every few minutes, stocks less often, and the app openly shows how old a price is. No price here is advice to buy or sell.

15. Statistics

A yearly table by category or subcategory: every month, year to date, average and trend. Click a row to pin its line to the chart. The table is full height — the page scrolls as one.

16. Security

Personal fields are encrypted in the database, passwords are stored only as bcrypt hashes, there is two-factor authentication (2FA) with a QR code, every device has its own session with separate sign-out, sign-in attempts are rate-limited, and encrypted backups are made nightly off the server. The promise in three words: encrypted, not sold, deletable in one click. We do not say "we cannot access your data" — the server holds the key, because otherwise password reset by email could not work. Details: privacy policy.

17. Payments and cancellation

Payments are processed by Stripe, the invoice is issued by SIA Appmeway — card details never reach our server. Invoices are in the app under your plan. Cancel any time; the paid period stays active until it ends, and your data goes nowhere — the account returns to the free plan. Right of withdrawal and refunds: section 6 of the terms.

18. Your data

Export — in settings, one file. Deleting the account requires your password (and 2FA if enabled) and erases everything irreversibly: transactions, goals, history, wallet addresses. No "we keep it for 90 days". We do not sell data or send it to ad networks.

19. Bank connection

The bank connection runs through Enable Banking (~28 European countries). Two honest things: data comes via PSD2, which refreshes about 4 times a day, not in real time — so we do not promise "you just bought a coffee" notifications; and even with a bank you confirm transactions yourself, because your streak rests on exactly that decision. Connected accounts: Pro 3, Elite 5.

20. Language, mobile apps, cookies

Which languages?

Latvian, English and Polish — both the site and the app. Language choice will always be free: it is written into the terms as a principle.

Will there be a mobile app?

Yes — iOS and Android are on the way. Until then the app works in the browser on your phone too.

Why is there no cookie banner?

Because there is nothing to ask consent for: the only cookie is your language choice (functional), visit statistics are cookieless and without IP addresses on our own server, and there are no ad trackers.

More questions?

Write to support@groworth.xyz. Legal: terms of service · privacy policy.