Four ways in, receipts attached
Four ways in, each with a receipt.
Start with a file or fact you choose: an export, browser-extension capture, statement PDF, or manual entry. GlidePath previews what it read before anything saves, then keeps the source close enough that you can check freshness and changes later. The first fair question is still: if it doesn't connect to my bank, do I have to type everything in by hand?
No. The longer answer is the intake model itself: choose the source, inspect the read, then let the app reuse what it learned.
The one trade we made on purpose
It stays useful because the intake is visible.
GlidePath never logs into your bank. Each import starts when you export, capture, drop a PDF, or type a fact, then the app previews the rows and stores the accepted result on your computer. That visible path is the reason your financial file stays readable, portable, and easy to back up.
So the real question is: with nothing out there fetching your data for you, how do we keep the work small? By automating everything we responsibly can on your machine — and being straight with you about the small part that stays yours.
Two ways your data could travel
An auto-sync loop through another service — or a short receipt trail on your own machine.
Connecting through a bank-login aggregator keeps a standing sync path outside the app. GlidePath starts with a file or fact you bring in, previews it, and keeps the core financial file local by default. The contrast is the receipt trail.
What we do for you, and the part that's yours
The short column is the point.
That column on the right is short because we automated the rest. The part that stays with you is the part that should — the decision to bring something in, and a quick look to make sure it's right.
Four ways in — and they all stay on your machine
Bring in the raw material; GlidePath does the bookkeeping.
Drop an export
Download a CSV, tab-delimited file, Excel Workbook (.xlsx), or an OFX/QFX activity file from your bank, brokerage, or old budgeting app and hand it to GlidePath. It detects known layouts, shows you the rows first, and lets you map unfamiliar columns. OFX and QFX carry a signed amount and a stable transaction ID, so GlidePath verifies and locks that mapping instead of asking you to set it — one USD bank or card account per file, and investment-account OFX isn't supported yet, so export those as CSV. You choose and confirm the destination account before anything saves; GlidePath doesn't guess it from an account number or store the full identifier read from inside the file, though the original filename stays in local import history, so rename a file whose name holds a sensitive number. GlidePath remembers which bank or card source each account's OFX/QFX history came from, so a re-import is recognized, and that record moves with the account if you merge it into another. If an exporter starts or stops including institution details, GlidePath asks whether the file continues the same history instead of assuming it. When another imported source already has the same amount in that account within seven days, you see both rows and choose Keep or Skip. Legacy .xls isn't supported; re-save it as .xlsx.
Let the browser extension catch it
Install the Chrome extension and enable your bank. It watches qualifying CSV/PDF downloads and page-generated files on that bank's site, then sends a captured file to the GlidePath app address in Settings — localhost by default, or a remote address you choose. Version 1.2.1 forwards a page-generated blob only after a real export or statement action and a matching Chrome download; installed 1.2.0 copies may capture one without that action. It works with major bank accounts out of the box, and a few more with a one-time setup; brokerage exports come in through the manual export path instead. See the extension and privacy pages for the capture scope and optional diagnostic.
Drop in a statement PDF
A statement lands in a review queue, GlidePath reads what it can, and you confirm before it saves a thing. GlidePath has calibrated transaction readers for Chase, American Express, Bank of America, and Fidelity NetBenefits. For another readable, text-based statement it tries to recover the transaction table, and those rows don't become ledger money until you confirm what the columns mean and which way the statement writes money in and out. Scans and layouts it can't map remain captured for manual follow-up; readable text can also surface balance-transfer hints. Image-only scans are retained but not read or checked for those hints. GlidePath reads the PDF on your computer; the file isn't sent anywhere to be read.
Type it in
The floor under everything: add an account, a transaction, a holding, or a goal by hand, any time. Always there when you want it.
And underneath all four: you never enter the same fact twice. Balances, net worth, running totals, spending by category — those are calculated from what you brought in, not things you maintain by hand.
What actually leaves your computer
This is the part most apps gloss over, so here it is plainly.
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Drop an export, type it in, or read a PDF: nothing leaves. It's parsed and stored right on your machine.
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Refreshing prices: the only thing that goes out is the ticker symbol of what you hold — say, VTI — to look up today's price. Never how much you own, never your cost basis, never an account name or balance.
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Asking the built-in helper a question: it sees your question and which page you're on — never your accounts, balances, or transactions — and many questions are answered without anything leaving at all.
Why we think this is the useful deal, not just the private one
Receipts beat promises.
Connecting your bank to an aggregator can feel effortless, but the numbers often arrive without much context. The GlidePath way asks a little more of you — a few minutes when something new comes in — and gives you something back for it: the numbers are yours, in files you can read, with a visible trail from source to saved result.
We'll be honest about the trade the other direction, too: if a few minutes of upkeep is a dealbreaker, an always-on aggregator app may suit you better, and we don't think less of that choice. But if “I can open it, copy it, and see exactly what's there” sounds like the version you want, that's the whole idea.