Getting started
Bring in your transactions, set a monthly budget, and see where your money goes. You can try it all with sample data first.
For Pulse Local 0.4.0
Start with a bank export
Download your transactions from your bank as a CSV file. A CSV is a simple spreadsheet file. Open Pulse Local and choose Import a bank export, then select the file.
Check the preview before importing. Make sure the dates, descriptions and amounts look right. If Pulse needs help recognising a column, choose what it contains. Importing an overlapping bank export skips rows it recognises as duplicates.
Just looking around? Choose try the sample data on the welcome screen. It uses made-up transactions, so you can explore without adding your own.
Check your categories
Open Transactions and check where your purchases have been placed. If a category is wrong, open that transaction and change it.
For a shop or service you use often, add a rule on Categories. Future transactions from that merchant will use your chosen category.
Needs review flags items that need your attention. For example, money coming back into your account may need to be identified as a refund.
Set your first budget
On Spending, choose Set target beside a category and enter a monthly amount. Start with a few categories you want to watch, such as groceries, eating out and shopping.
You can set a target for an individual category or a whole group. Turn on carry if you want unused money from the previous month to increase this month’s allowance. Check the preview before saving.
Plan tools offers a starting point for categories without targets. You can adjust the amounts to suit your household.
Ask about your spending
Open Ask Pulse, or press ⌘K. Start with a question such as “How much did I spend on groceries last month?” Then try “by merchant” to see the breakdown.
Check the month and category shown above the answer. You can change them there, or type another question. See how to get useful answers.
The first time you open Pulse Local, it downloads its AI models once, about 2.9 GB in all. The largest, 2.5 GB, double-checks every money answer. Until it is ready, spending answers end with “Not double-checked yet”. With the check on, a money answer takes 12 to 14 seconds. You can turn it off in Settings under Better understanding.
Understand the totals
Spending is your purchases after refunds, with transfers and debt repayments left out.
Refunds reduce spending in their category. If refunds exceed purchases, the extra appears separately as a refund credit.
Money in and money out show cash movement. Loan repayments can count as money out without counting as spending. Transfers between your own accounts are kept separate.
This month includes transactions up to today. Future-dated transactions do not count towards spending so far.
Keep a backup
Your data lives on your machine. Pulse does not keep a cloud copy for you. Time Machine can back it up if your home folder is included.
Data & export saves your transactions as a CSV. This includes categories, split transactions and hidden rows, but not your budget targets, rules, goals or account balances.
Make a full copy or move to another machine
Quit Pulse Local before copying anything. In Finder, open the Go menu and choose Go to Folder. Paste ~/Library/Application Support/ and copy the entire Pulse Local folder to your backup location.
To move it, install Pulse Local on the new machine and keep it closed. Put the copied folder in the same location there, then open the app. If a Pulse Local folder already exists, back it up before replacing it.
Your transactions, budgets and settings come with the folder. Set up bank connections again on the new machine if you want to keep using bank sync. Disconnect them on the old machine when you no longer use it.
Start fresh removes your transactions, budgets, rules, goals and balances from this machine. Make a backup first if you want to keep them.
Last updated 6 October 2026