How to use Orbiq — the complete user guide

Getting Access

Orbiq is open for registration. Head to orbiq.online and sign up with your Google account — no waitlist, no approval process required.

Requirements

• A Google account (or an Apple account)
• Any modern browser — Orbiq runs on phone, tablet, and desktop

Try the Demo

Not ready to import your own data? Demo Mode loads the full application with pre-populated sample transactions, budgets, goals, and recurring payments — no real data required.

How to launch

1. 1
   Sign in at orbiq.online with your Google account
2. 2
   Click Try Demo in the navigation or settings area
3. 3
   Sample data loads — transactions, categories, budgets, goals, recurring payments
4. 4
   A guided tour auto-starts, walking through every feature step by step

What you can explore

• Dashboard, charts, and budget views
• Goals with linear projection — see on-track vs behind-pace indicators
• AI categorization suggestions and confidence scores
• Multi-currency view switcher
• Recurring payment detection

Signing In

Orbiq uses your existing Google or Apple account — there is no separate Orbiq password to create or remember, and Orbiq never sees your Google or Apple password.

Sign in with Google or Apple

1. 1
   Go to orbiq.online and click Continue with Google (or Sign in with Apple)
2. 2
   Choose the account you signed up with and approve the sign-in
3. 3
   You are redirected to your dashboard

Your session is protected by a short-lived, server-verified token. There is no email code step — a single tap through Google or Apple is all it takes.

Signing Out

Click your profile picture (top-right) and select Sign Out. Your session is immediately invalidated on the server — any copy of your session token stops working instantly.

Install as App

On phones, the native apps are the best experience — Orbiq is live on the App Store for iPhone & iPad and on Google Play for Android, with home-screen widgets, on-device receipt OCR, haptics, and local bill reminders.

Orbiq is also a Progressive Web App (PWA) — you can install it on your phone or desktop and use it like a native app, with a home screen icon and a full-screen experience.

Installing on iPhone / iPad

1. 1
   Open orbiq.online in Safari
2. 2
   Tap the Share button (box with arrow pointing up)
3. 3
   Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen
4. 4
   Tap Add — the Orbiq icon appears on your home screen

Installing on Android

1. 1
   Open orbiq.online in Chrome
2. 2
   Tap the Install banner at the bottom, or tap the three-dot menu → Add to Home Screen
3. 3
   Tap Install

Installing on Desktop (Chrome / Edge)

1. 1
   Open orbiq.online in Chrome or Edge
2. 2
   Click the install icon (⊕) in the address bar, or look for an Install Orbiq prompt in the browser menu
3. 3
   Click Install — Orbiq opens as a standalone window

Offline

If you lose connectivity, Orbiq shows an offline banner. Your last-loaded data remains visible; new imports and syncs resume automatically when you are back online.

Dashboard Overview

The dashboard is your financial command centre. It shows:

Use the month selector at the top to navigate any previous month. Flip the Currency Lens (the currency selector) to read every amount in your home currency, the original currency, or any of the six supported currencies — CAD, USD, INR, GBP, EUR, and AUD.

Setting Up Your Accounts

Before importing transactions, set up your bank accounts in Orbiq.

1. 1
   Navigate to Accounts in the sidebar
2. 2
   Click Add Account
3. 3
   Fill in: Name, Type (Chequing / Savings / Credit Card), Default Currency, Credit Limit, Statement Day, and Utilization Target

Importing Bank Statements (CSV, PDF, OFX, Screenshots)

By default, Orbiq needs no bank connection at all. You export a file from your bank's website — or just screenshot your banking app — and drop it into Orbiq. Orbiq auto-detects the format and routes it to the correct import flow, so file and screenshot import is the standard path and your credentials never come into it.

Prefer hands-off? Orbiq Connect is an optional tier that links a bank once, read-only, through a regulated provider so transactions flow in on their own — see Bank Sync with Orbiq Connect below. See it on the features page →

Supported formats at a glance

CSV and Excel import

The most common path. Export your statement from your bank's website and drop it in.

1. 1
   Navigate to Import in the sidebar
2. 2
   Drag and drop the file, or click to browse
3. 3
   Orbiq detects your bank and shows a preview — check dates, amounts, and descriptions
4. 4
   Select which Account to import into
5. 5
   Click Confirm Import

Orbiq skips duplicate transactions automatically (detected by a hash of date + amount + description), applies your categorization rules immediately, and sends uncategorized transactions to the AI.

Manual column mapping

If your bank format is not auto-recognized, a column mapping screen appears. Assign the date, amount, and description columns once — your mapping is saved and applied on future uploads from the same file layout.

OFX / QFX / QBO bank file import

OFX-format files (used by Quicken, Mint, and many Canadian institutions) are structured data — no column guessing. Orbiq parses them directly and can auto-match multiple accounts by their last 4 digits.

1. 1
   Export an .ofx, .qfx, or .qbo file from your bank (look for "Download to Quicken" or "Export financial data")
2. 2
   Drop the file on the Import page — Orbiq detects the extension and opens the bank file flow
3. 3
   Account matching: Orbiq reads each account block in the file and tries to match it to an existing Orbiq account by last 4 digits. Matched accounts are confirmed automatically; unmatched ones show a picker. You can also create a new Orbiq account on the spot.
4. 4
   Sign review: A preview shows sample transactions with amounts already signed correctly. Credit card accounts default to flipping signs so purchases appear as positive expenses — toggle the flip if the preview looks wrong.
5. 5
   Click Confirm Import — Orbiq de-duplicates by bank transaction ID (more reliable than hashing), so re-downloading the same period never creates duplicates

PDF statement import

No CSV or OFX export? Drop your bank's PDF statement in. Orbiq lifts the transaction table straight out of the document — dates, amounts, and descriptions — and routes it into the same preview-and-confirm flow as a spreadsheet, column mapping included.

1. 1
   Download your statement as a .pdf from your bank (many banks offer "PDF / CSV" on the same download screen — e.g. TD and Scotiabank)
2. 2
   Drop the file on the Import page — Orbiq detects the .pdf and runs the statement parser
3. 3
   Password-protected? Enter the password when prompted. The PDF is unlocked on your device — the password never leaves your browser and Orbiq only receives the already-decrypted contents.
4. 4
   Pick the Account, review the extracted rows, and confirm — duplicates are flagged just like any other import

Screenshot import

No CSV? No problem. Drop a mobile banking screenshot or a photo of a paper statement — Orbiq's AI reads the image and extracts each transaction for you to review before importing.

1. 1
   Take a screenshot of your banking app transaction list (PNG, JPG, WEBP, or HEIC — up to 5 images per batch)
2. 2
   Drop the images on the Import page — Orbiq detects them as screenshots and opens the screenshot flow
3. 3
   Select the Account to import into and tap Parse Screenshots
4. 4
   Orbiq processes the images and shows a list of extracted transactions. Each row shows date, description, amount, and direction (expense/income). Rows with low confidence are flagged.
5. 5
   Review flagged rows — tap any row to edit the date, amount, or description inline before importing
6. 6
   Click Finalize Import to save the reviewed transactions

Migrating from YNAB or Lunch Money

Switching from another budgeting app? Unlike a normal one-account import, a YNAB or Lunch Money export holds many accounts in one file. The migration flow splits it apart, recreates your structure, and links transfers so they're never double-counted.

1. 1
   Export from your app — in YNAB: Budget → Export → register CSV; in Lunch Money: Settings → Export → Transactions CSV
2. 2
   On the Import page click Switching from YNAB or Lunch Money? and drop the CSV — Orbiq detects the source automatically
3. 3
   Accounts — each source account becomes a new Orbiq account (edit type and currency), or map it onto one you already have. Lunch Money users confirm the amount-sign convention here.
4. 4
   Categories — choose Bring my setup to recreate your category tree, or Use Orbiq categories to map each one onto Orbiq's. Investment categories are detected and classed for you.
5. 5
   Review — see per-account new vs. duplicate counts and how many transfer pairs will be linked. A backup is taken automatically before anything is written.
6. 6
   Click Import everything. Per-row currencies are converted with dated rates, duplicates are skipped, and transfer legs are paired so they don't count as spending.

Import history & rollback

Every import is recorded. Navigate to Import → History to see each past import with the file name, date, transaction count, and duplicates skipped.

To undo an import, click it in the history list and select Roll Back. This removes all transactions brought in by that specific import — transactions that already existed or were added by other imports are untouched. Rollback is permanent; export a backup first if you are unsure.

Bank Sync with Orbiq Connect

Orbiq Connect is an optional tier for people who would rather link an account once and let transactions flow in on their own, instead of importing files. Both plans run the same engine — the only difference is how your transactions get in.

What it is

• Read-only link through a regulated provider. Plaid connects to your bank in read-only mode. Your credentials never touch Orbiq — Orbiq never sees or stores your bank password.
• Automatic sync. New transactions arrive on their own and run through the same categorization, duplicate detection, and cross-border checks as an imported file.
• Coverage. Automatic sync is available for Canadian and U.S. banks today, with the EU & UK coming soon. Everywhere else, file and screenshot import remains the fast path.

Enabling it

1. 1
   Go to Settings → Subscription & Plan and move to the Orbiq Connect tier (CAD $15/mo — see Subscription)
2. 2
   Open Bank Sync in the sidebar (it appears once Connect is active)
3. 3
   Choose your bank and complete the provider's secure, read-only link — the sidebar icon turns green once a bank is connected

Categorizing Transactions

Categories form the basis of your budgets and spending analysis. Orbiq categorizes transactions in three passes — the fastest and most accurate method available runs first.

Three-pass automatic categorization

1. 1
   Your rules run first. If a transaction matches a saved rule (e.g., "Netflix" → Entertainment), it is categorized instantly — no AI involved.
2. 2
   Keyword heuristics. Common, unambiguous merchants (grocery stores, internet providers, major dining chains) are categorized deterministically before any AI call. Fast and always correct for known patterns.
3. 3
   AI fills the gaps. Any transaction still uncategorized is sent to the AI, which returns a suggested category with a confidence score. Low-confidence suggestions (especially "Other / Miscellaneous") are flagged for your review rather than applied silently.

Reviewing uncategorized transactions

1. 1
   Click Uncategorized in the sidebar (the badge shows the count)
2. 2
   For each transaction, review the AI suggestion and its confidence score
3. 3
   Accept the suggestion, pick a different category, or skip
4. 4
   Optionally check Save as rule — future transactions matching the same description will be categorized automatically, no AI needed

AI quota and rate limits

When running Suggest All on a large batch, Orbiq may reach the AI provider's rate limit. When this happens, Orbiq shows your partial progress — how many were processed, how many matched, and how many remain — so you know exactly where to continue after a short wait. You are never left with a silent failure.

Bulk categorize

Select multiple transactions with checkboxes in the transaction list and use Bulk Categorize to assign the same category to all at once.

Creating and managing categories

1. 1
   Navigate to Categories
2. 2
   Click New Category → set name, icon, and class (Expense / Income / Investment / Investment Income / Transfer)
3. 3
   Enable Exclude from summary for inter-account transfers so they do not inflate your spending totals

Categorization rules

Navigate to Rules in the sidebar to manage all saved rules. Orbiq offers two powerful rule-building modes:

• Simple mode — keyword and category matching. Select a category and enter a keyword (exact or contains match) — perfect for quick, common patterns like "Netflix" → Entertainment
• Advanced mode — nested conditions, logical operators (AND/OR), and rule groups. Build complex rules like "(Merchant contains 'Grocery' AND amount > 50) OR (Description contains 'Market')" for sophisticated categorization

Switch between modes anytime — Simple rules convert to Advanced and back without data loss. Rules are prioritized from top to bottom; the first match wins.

Cross-Border Transfers & Remittances

If you move money across currencies — sending remittances home, funding a foreign account, or shifting between your own accounts in two countries — Orbiq recognizes those flows instead of mistaking them for ordinary spending.

How detection works

Orbiq runs a short waterfall of checks over each transaction:

• Named remittance services. Transactions involving recognized providers like Wise, Remitly, or Western Union are flagged as likely cross-border transfers.
• Currency mismatch. Money leaving an account in one currency and arriving in another is a strong cross-border signal.
• Pattern checks. Amount, timing, and account context help confirm a genuine transfer versus a lookalike purchase.

Transfer pairing — no double-counting

When Orbiq spots the two legs of one transfer (the debit leaving one account and the credit arriving in another), it links them as a pair. A linked transfer is counted as neither income nor an expense, so moving your own money never inflates your spending or your earnings.

Reviewing and correcting

Suggested transfer pairs and flagged cross-border items surface in the Inbox (in the sidebar — the badge shows how many are waiting).

1. 1
   Open Inbox in the sidebar
2. 2
   Review each suggested transfer pair — Orbiq shows both legs side by side
3. 3
   Confirm to link them, or dismiss/unlink if it isn't actually a transfer

Splitting & Spreading Transactions

Two tools help a single charge reflect reality instead of distorting one category or one month.

Split a transaction across categories

Got one receipt that's really several things — groceries plus a gift plus household supplies? Split it so each part lands in the right category.

1. 1
   Open the transaction and choose Split
2. 2
   Add a line for each portion, set its amount and category — the parts must add up to the original total
3. 3
   Save. The original stays as one bank record, but your budgets and charts see each portion separately

Spread a big purchase over months

Booked an annual insurance premium or a flight in one hit? Spread it so it doesn't blow up a single month's budget.

1. 1
   When adding or editing a transaction, open Split over months
2. 2
   Enter the number of months to spread the amount across — Orbiq shows the per-month figure
3. 3
   Save. Budgets and pacing treat the cost as monthly instalments instead of one spike

Tags

Tags are colored labels you attach to transactions — independent of categories. Use them to group spending across any cross-cutting theme: a vacation, a home renovation project, a client, a one-off event. A transaction keeps its category and gains as many tags as you like.

Creating Tags

1. 1
   Navigate to Tags in the sidebar
2. 2
   Click New Tag
3. 3
   Enter a name (e.g. Bali-2026) and pick a color
4. 4
   Click Save — the tag is now available across the whole app

Tagging Transactions

• One at a time: open a transaction → click inside the Tags field → type to search or pick from the list → save
• Bulk apply: select multiple transactions with checkboxes → click Apply Tag in the bulk action bar → pick one or more tags
• By date range: click Tag by Date Range in the Transactions header → set a start and end date, optional account/category filter, and choose tags → Orbiq tags all matching transactions server-side in one step

Filtering and Searching by Tag

• Use the Tag filter in the transaction list filter bar to show only transactions with a specific tag (OR logic — any selected tag matches)
• Type #tagname in the search box to filter by tag inline, e.g. #bali dinner finds transactions tagged bali that also contain "dinner"

Tags in Charts

In the Chart Builder, select tags as a filter or choose Group by Tag to see spending broken down per tag.

Renaming and Deleting Tags

Open Tags in the sidebar → click the edit icon on any tag to rename or recolor it, or the trash icon to delete it. Deleting a tag removes it from all transactions automatically.

Budgets

Set spending limits per category and track how you are doing in real time.

Creating a Budget

1. 1
   Navigate to Budgets
2. 2
   Click Add Budget
3. 3
   Select a category and set an amount — fixed (e.g., $500 for Groceries) or percent of income (e.g., 15%)
4. 4
   Choose the cadence: monthly or yearly, and whether it's recurring (auto-applies every period, on by default) or a one-off you place in specific months

Reading the Budget Dashboard

Each budget card shows: amount spent, budget limit, a progress bar (green → yellow → red), and amount remaining. The Global Limit at the top covers your total monthly cap across all categories.

Year view (12-month grid)

Toggle the budget header between Month and 12-Month to see every category's budget laid out across the whole year at once. Recurring budgets fill the grid automatically; one-off budgets appear only in the months you place them, so you can plan quarterly or seasonal spending without cluttering every month.

Annual envelopes

Set a budget to yearly and Orbiq tracks it as an annual envelope — one pot for the year, spent down as the months pass, so an irregular expense like insurance or gifts is measured year-to-date rather than forced into a monthly box.

Per-currency budgets

Each budget can be set in a specific currency, so a category you spend in INR is tracked and compared in INR rather than being flattened into your home currency. Amounts convert into the Currency Lens you're viewing when you look at combined totals.

Tag budgets

Beyond category budgets, you can set a budget against a tag — cap total spend for a project, a trip, or any cross-cutting theme (see Tags). Tag budgets track every transaction carrying that tag, regardless of category. See it on the features page →

Ask Orbiq — talk to your money

Ask Orbiq answers plain-language questions about your own finances. Type a question the way you'd say it out loud and get a grounded, currency-aware answer in seconds. It's multi-turn — ask a follow-up and it remembers what "that" referred to.

Open Ask Orbiq in the sidebar. The first time, you'll enable it once (a quick consent step), then you can start asking.

Things to ask

• How much did I send home this year?
• Where did my savings go last quarter?
• What's my fastest-growing expense?
• Am I on pace for my goals?

Cross-border tax helpers

Ask Orbiq is also where Orbiq's cross-border tax summaries live — the kind other budgeting apps have no concept of:

• T1135 foreign-asset summary — surfaces foreign accounts and whether they may cross reporting thresholds
• Taxable-income summary — a plain-language view of income Orbiq can see for the year
• FX-gain summary — foreign-exchange gains and losses across your currencies

Credit Card Health

Orbiq tracks your credit card utilization and helps you pay down your balance before your statement closes — the date your credit bureau records your utilization.

Setting up a credit card account

For the health dashboard to work accurately, each credit card account needs three values set:

Go to Accounts → click your credit card → click Edit to set these values.

Reading the Credit Card Health dashboard

Navigate to Bill Health in the sidebar (this is where credit-card utilization lives). For each credit card, Orbiq shows:

• Current balance — sum of all charges since the last statement date
• Credit limit — from your account settings
• Current utilization % — balance ÷ limit × 100
• Your target % — your self-set goal
• Status indicator — On target / Approaching / Over target

Prepayment alerts

If utilization is trending above your target before your statement date, Orbiq sends an email alert. Make a payment before the statement closes to keep your bureau utilization low.

1. 1
   Go to Settings → Notifications
2. 2
   Enable Credit Card Prepayment Alerts
3. 3
   Choose: Daily reminders (every day you are over target) or One-time alert (only when you first cross the threshold)

Recurring Payments

Orbiq automatically identifies recurring charges from your transaction history using a two-mode detection engine.

Detection Modes

Running a Scan

1. 1
   Navigate to Upcoming in the sidebar
2. 2
   Click Auto-Detect — Orbiq runs a Quick Scan and shows detected subscriptions with frequency, last charged amount, and next expected date
3. 3
   Optionally click Smart Scan to classify any unrecognized merchants with AI assistance
4. 4
   Review suggestions and click Add on any you want to track

Managing Recurring Payments

• Click Add Recurring Payment to log a subscription manually
• Click any existing payment to update amount, frequency, or next due date
• Mark payments as auto-pay to distinguish from manual bills
• Enable Amount varies for utilities or variable-rate bills

Goals & Investment Tracking

Orbiq's goal tracker goes beyond a progress bar. It applies linear projection to estimate when you will actually reach your goal based on your current saving pace.

Creating a Goal

1. 1
   Navigate to Goals
2. 2
   Click Add Goal
3. 3
   Set: goal name, target amount, optional target date, and optional linked category

Category-Based Goals

Link a goal to a spending or savings category. Transactions in that category automatically update the goal balance — no manual logging required.

Linear Projection

Orbiq calculates your projected arrival date based on contribution rate over recent months. The projection updates each time you import new transactions.

• Ahead of pace: projected date is earlier than your target — shown in green
• Behind pace: projected date is later than your target — shown in amber with a gap indicator
• No target date: projection shows estimated completion at current rate

Adding Money Manually

Open the goal → click Add Money → enter amount and date. Useful for cash savings or transfers not captured in imported statements.

Investments & Capital Flow

Orbiq's Investments view tracks deployment pace and FX history — how and when you moved capital across borders — rather than inventing a live portfolio value it can't actually see. It separates the money you contributed from the returns that came back, so your numbers stay honest.

What the tiles mean

• Working principal — capital you've contributed and still have deployed, after accounting for what you've pulled back out.
• True returns — dividends, interest, and payouts that actually reached you, kept separate from principal.
• Net FX impact and Unrealized FX — two different exchange-rate questions, explained below.

The two FX metrics

These are deliberately kept separate because they answer different questions:

Foreign coverage

Because Orbiq only sees what your statements show, it tells you how much of your cross-border holdings it can actually reconcile. Adding periodic account balances raises your foreign coverage, which in turn makes the return figures more complete. You can adjust the FX look-back window under Settings → Investment Window. See it on the features page →

Multi-Currency & the Currency Lens

Orbiq supports six currencies natively — CAD, USD, INR, GBP, EUR, and AUD — at the data-model level, not just as a display conversion. (More are on the way.)

Setting Your Home Currency

Go to Settings → Preferences → set Home Currency (default: CAD). All dashboard totals convert to your home currency automatically.

Per-Account Currency

Each account has a default currency. Transactions imported from that account are recorded in that currency, with the original amount and exchange rate preserved per transaction.

Viewing in a Different Currency

Use the Currency Lens (the currency selector) on the dashboard to switch views — read everything in your home currency, the original currency each transaction happened in, or any supported currency. Every chart, budget, and goal recalculates instantly. Exchange rates are fetched for the exact transaction date — not today's rate.

Custom Charts

Build and save your own visualizations from your transaction data.

1. 1
   Navigate to Charts
2. 2
   Click New Chart
3. 3
   Choose chart type (bar, line, pie), data source, date range, and filters
4. 4
   Click Save Chart to persist it on your Charts page

Saved charts recalculate in real time as you import new data and can be deleted at any time.

Email Notifications

Configuring

Navigate to Settings → Notifications. Toggle each type on or off. For prepayment alerts, choose between daily reminders or a one-time threshold alert. All notifications go to the email associated with your account.

Backup & Restore

Exporting Your Data

1. 1
   Navigate to Backup in the sidebar
2. 2
   Click Export Database
3. 3
   Save the backup file to a safe location (encrypted storage or external drive)

The export includes all transactions, categories, budgets, rules, accounts, and settings.

Restoring from Backup

1. 1
   Navigate to Backup in the sidebar
2. 2
   Click Import / Restore
3. 3
   Upload your backup file and confirm

Recommendations

• Export at least monthly
• Store in at least two separate locations
• Test your backup by restoring it in a fresh session periodically

Full export or erasure of your account

The backup above is your own self-serve copy of your data. Separately, you can request a full export or complete erasure of your account at any time — email [email protected] and Orbiq will handle it. You own your data, and there is no lock-in.

Subscription & Support

Plans

Both plans run the same engine — the only difference is how your transactions get in. Prices are billed as flat Canadian dollars via Stripe.

• 30-day free trial, no credit card required — start on either plan
• No annual lock-in — cancel any time, no questions asked
• Your data remains accessible and exportable after cancellation
• Manage your plan under Settings → Subscription & Plan, or see pricing on the home page

Buy Us a Coffee

If Orbiq has saved you time or money and you want to show support without a recurring subscription, make a one-time donation via PayPal: Donate here.

Account Settings

Personal Preferences

Open Settings from the sidebar to configure your Home Currency (CAD, USD, INR, GBP, EUR, or AUD), timezone, appearance, and display name.

Resetting Your Data

FAQ