Getting started
From invite link to a fully connected ledger in about ten minutes.
Ember is a personal finance ledger that pulls all of your accounts — checking, savings, credit cards, brokerages, mortgages — into one fast, keyboard-first workspace. This page walks you from a fresh invite to a fully connected ledger in about ten minutes.
What you need
- An invite. Ember is in private beta and invite-only, so there is no self-service signup yet. If you've been sent an invite link, opening it takes you straight to registration.
- A browser. Ember runs entirely in the browser, on desktop and phone. Phones get a purpose-built mobile app view automatically.
First steps
- Open your invite link and register. Pick a strong password — it's hashed with Argon2id and never stored in readable form.
- Connect a bank. From Accounts, choose Connect institution. Ember uses Plaid to link thousands of banks, card issuers, and brokerages. You authenticate directly with your bank through Plaid's window — Ember never sees your banking password.
- Or add accounts manually. Cash accounts, accounts at unsupported institutions, or anything you'd rather type in yourself work as plain manual accounts with the full ledger feature set.
- Watch transactions arrive. Connected accounts sync automatically. New transactions land in your ledger already de-duplicated, with merchant names cleaned up and categories suggested.
- Review and approve. Ember keeps a clear line between what the bank says and what you've confirmed. Skim the new arrivals, fix a payee or category where needed, and approve. On your phone, this is a card-swipe queue you can clear from the couch.
Migrating from YNAB or a spreadsheet
You don't have to start from zero:
- YNAB users can import their entire budget in one pass — every account, transfer, split, and starting balance — from a single register export. See Bank sync & import.
- CSV imports work per-account for bank exports, with automatic layout detection and duplicate protection, so importing a year of history and then connecting the same account through Plaid won't double-count anything.
Where to go next
- Bank sync & import — how syncing, deduplication, and migration work.
- The ledger — editing, search, splits, tags, and reconciliation.
- Investments — holdings, tax lots, and the sell planner.
- Automation — recurring transactions, rules, and the browser extension.
- Security & privacy — how your data is protected.