AceMoney Studio
Privacy and security in AceMoney Studio
AceMoney Studio is built local-first: your accounts and transactions live in a document on your own device, and nothing leaves it unless you ask for something that needs the internet, Studio downloads exchange rates, or you sync it with AceMoney Cloud. This page lists exactly what those things are, how the document password and backups protect the file, and what the app does not do. The legal text is the privacy policy.
Your data stays on this device
- Your ledger is a document file. On a computer you choose where it lives and can keep several.
- No account is needed. The free version and the AceMoney Studio license both work without signing in. Signing in is optional: it is for AceMoney Cloud, and for claiming a Cloud license you bought.
- Studio on a computer sends no crash reports, usage statistics or analytics, and shows no ads. There is nothing to opt out of.
- Help inside the app (the ? button) is text bundled with the app. It is not an AI assistant and does not send your question anywhere.
- Nothing is uploaded to MechCAD unless you subscribe to AceMoney Cloud, sign in and sync a document. Without that, MechCAD cannot see your accounts, balances or transactions.
When you sync with AceMoney Cloud
AceMoney Cloud keeps your document in step between your devices. The sync is end-to-end encrypted: your data is encrypted on your device before it is sent, with a key MechCAD does not hold. MechCAD stores it for you but cannot read it. Your document password, your backups, your settings and your market-data keys stay on each computer. What syncs, and when, is on Sync between your devices.
What leaves the device, and when
| When you do this | What is sent, and to whom |
|---|---|
| Update exchange rates (Settings ▸ Currency & Quotes), and by itself while Update exchange rates automatically is on (the default): when a document opens, every hour while it is open, and when a new currency is used | Only currency codes, to a free public exchange-rate service. |
| Turn on Download this rate from Coinbase for a coin or token you added as a currency (Settings ▸ Currency & Quotes; off by default) | Only that currency’s code (for example BTC), to Coinbase, to get today’s rate. |
| Update quotes on the Portfolio page, or searching a symbol when adding an investment | Only the ticker symbols, to the quote source you chose for each investment. If a source needs your own free key, the key is stored on this device and used only for that request. |
| Connect a bank feed via SimpleFIN and Sync now (Settings ▸ Connections) | Your SimpleFIN setup token, then requests for your transactions, to SimpleFIN. You log in to your bank on SimpleFIN’s own site; Studio never sees your bank credentials. |
| Connect bank under Bank feeds (AceMoney Cloud) (Settings ▸ Connections; AceMoney Cloud, US banks) | You finish in your browser and sign in to your bank through our bank-feed provider; your bank sign-in details go to that provider, never to Studio or MechCAD. Your bank transactions are sealed to your Cloud key before they reach your document. |
| Sync now on the Cloud page (AceMoney Cloud) | Your document’s changes, encrypted on this computer before they leave it. |
| Open a trip that has a recorded route on the Mileage page | Map tiles are fetched from a map service to draw the route. |
| Open login page on an account | Your browser opens the address you saved; the app sends nothing itself. |
| Launch, then about once a day, on a computer | A request to the update feed to see whether a newer version exists. |
| Activate an AceMoney Studio license on a computer, and later launches while online | The license check-in described below. |
Everything else, including the register, reports, search, scheduled transactions, bill splitting and Document Doctor, works entirely offline.
What activation sends
The Activate license card on the Account tab carries this notice, headed Works offline. Checks in when it can.:
The card links to the full privacy policy with Read the full privacy policy.
Protect a document with a password
On a computer you can encrypt a document that is saved as a file (Settings ▸ Document ▸ Enable encryption…). This device’s copy of the file then stays unreadable without the password, wherever that copy travels: a copied file, a stolen disk or a cloud-drive folder. A copy on another of your computers is protected on that computer, which offers to protect it when the document is protected elsewhere; the password never syncs. Studio gives you a one-time recovery code when you enable it; keep it somewhere safe.
Three things to know:
- Without the password and without the recovery code, nobody can open the document, including MechCAD. There is no reset.
- Files you attach to transactions (receipt images, PDFs) are stored next to the document and are not covered by the password.
- The built-in default document cannot be encrypted. Use your device’s lock screen and disk encryption for it.
The full flow is on Protect a document with a password.
Backups
Studio keeps complete copies of your document on the same device: once a day when you open it, before an import, before a restore, before a repair and before any change to the document’s internal format, plus any you make with Back up now. Backups of an encrypted document are encrypted with the same password. They never leave the device. See Backups and restore.
Account numbers in exports and on screen
On the Accounts page, account numbers are masked (••••7890) until you press Show account number. Exporting the account list asks Include account numbers? and explains why they are left out by default; choose Exclude (recommended) unless the file truly needs them. Never paste a login link that contains a password or token into Login page URL (optional); the field is for a plain web address.
From version 1.2, File ▸ Export Everything… saves all of a document’s data as one file with its attachments. The dialog warns: “The export is not encrypted: anyone who can open the folder can read your data.” It includes account numbers and payee contact details, even for an encrypted document. Keys, passwords, license and sync identifiers are never exported. Keep the folder somewhere private, and delete it when you no longer need it.
Location on a phone
From version 1.2, the first release of AceMoney Studio for phones and tablets. Studio on a phone uses your location only for mileage. Nothing is recorded until you turn on Track mileage in this app on the Tracking tab of Mileage and allow location access; the app then explains that location is used in the background only while you drive and is processed and stored on the phone. Turn it off at any time on the same tab. If AceMoney Receipts is installed on the same phone, it does the tracking and Studio records nothing itself.
Two computers, one document
Do not open the same document from two computers over a network share at the same time. Studio detects this and refuses to open the second copy (“This document is open on another computer…”), because writing from two places would damage the file. To use one document on several computers, sync it with AceMoney Cloud, or copy it with File ▸ Save a Copy As… and open the copy there.
iOS (iPhone and iPad)
From version 1.2. The document stays inside the app’s private storage on the device, and no document password is available there. Share crash & diagnostic reports in Settings is off by default; nothing is sent unless you turn it on. Settings also has a Privacy policy row.
Android
From version 1.2. As on iOS. Android’s own backup of app data can include the document, if you have that turned on for your Google account; that is Android’s feature, controlled in Android’s settings.
macOS
The app is signed and notarized. Your documents are ordinary files you can keep in any folder, including one that a cloud drive syncs; if you do that, enable the document password first.
Windows
The app installs for your Windows user only. Documents are ordinary files in the folder you chose.
Linux
The app installs into your home folder. Documents are ordinary files in the folder you chose.
Common questions
Can MechCAD see my finances?
No. Your document never leaves your device unless you sync it with AceMoney Cloud, and then it is end-to-end encrypted with a key MechCAD does not hold. None of the other requests listed above carry account names, balances or transactions. Activation sends only the license key, the purchase e-mail and an installation value.
Is my document encrypted by default?
No. On a computer you choose to enable the document password; the app offers it once when you create a new document file. The default document is protected by your device’s own lock and disk encryption only. AceMoney Cloud sync is always end-to-end encrypted, whether or not the document has a password.
Does Studio use AI or send my data to an AI service?
No. Nothing in Studio is sent to any AI service, and the in-app help is plain text stored with the app.
Do you share or sell my data?
No. What MechCAD keeps from a license activation, and for how long, is in the notice quoted above and in the privacy policy.
How do I delete all my data?
On a computer, delete the document file and the attachments folder next to it, then delete the app’s own data folder, which holds its backups; uninstalling the app alone does not remove that folder, and support can tell you where it is on your operating system. If you signed in for AceMoney Cloud, also choose Delete account… in Settings ▸ Account. It deletes your AceMoney account and the data stored for it on our servers, including AceMoney Receipts data on the same account; the ledgers on your device are not deleted. Deleting the account does not cancel a Cloud subscription, so cancel that first. For a privacy request, write to support@mechcad.net.
What does “Sign in” on the Account tab do?
It signs you in to use AceMoney Cloud and to claim a Cloud license you purchased. Your desktop license, Free version or unlocked, never needs an account. See AceMoney Cloud.
Troubleshooting
I forgot my document password. Open the document, choose Forgot password? Use a recovery code and enter the code you saved when you enabled encryption. You will set a new password and receive a new recovery code. Without either, the document cannot be opened by anyone.
I lost the recovery code too. The only way back is a copy of the document made before it was encrypted, if you kept one elsewhere. Studio deletes its own plain-text backups when encryption is enabled, on purpose.
I want to remove an old unencrypted backup after enabling encryption. If the app warned that an old plain-text backup could not be removed, contact support; the Backups section itself has no delete control.
“To connect a bank, set up AceMoney Cloud sync on this device first — your bank transactions are sealed to your Cloud key.” Cloud bank feeds need this computer to sync with AceMoney Cloud first. Set up sync on the Cloud page, then choose Connect bank again.
The app contacted the internet although I did nothing. That is the automatic exchange-rate download (Update exchange rates automatically, on by default, sends only currency codes), or, on a computer, the daily update check or the license check-in after activation. None carries financial data, and all are silent if offline. With AceMoney Cloud, changes from your other computers also arrive while Studio is open.