Monverdo · Questions

Questions and answers

Monverdo is in development. Some of what follows describes software that works today. The rest describes what is being built. Each answer is labelled accordingly, because the difference matters to anyone deciding whether this is worth their attention.Four companies, two of which hold anything about you.

Working today

Working today

Being built

Being built

Later, or never

Later, or never

About the product

Start here if you have arrived from a calculator or an article and are not certain what you are looking at.

What is Monverdo?

What is Monverdo?

Being built

Software that tells you what your money is actually doing.

Software that tells you what your money is actually doing.

It maintains a proper set of books for your personal wealth, across every account, property, loan and investment you hold, then reports on them the way a company reports on itself. Net worth you can audit. Returns measured properly rather than inferred from a statement.

Ten free calculators are live now. The full product is still being built.

Is this just a spreadsheet?

Is this just a spreadsheet?

Working today

No. A spreadsheet holds whatever you type into it, including two figures that quietly contradict each other. Nothing checks the result.

Monverdo runs on a double-entry accounting engine, the same discipline a company’s books run on. Every figure traces to an entry. Every entry balances. Where something does not reconcile, that is surfaced rather than buried.

The engine is built and tested. It is the longest-standing part of the product.

Is this financial advice?

Is this financial advice?

Never

No. Monverdo measures and reports. It does not give financial advice.

No. Monverdo measures and reports. It does not give financial advice.

It will never recommend a product, rank two options against each other or tell you whether you are saving enough. That constraint is structural rather than legal cover. It is set out in full on reporting, not advice.

Questions worth asking first

These are the answers most likely to rule Monverdo out for you. They appear near the top deliberately.

Does it connect to my bank?

Does it connect to my bank?

Later

Not today.

Not today.

Bringing data in means importing a statement file you download from your own bank in the ordinary way.

Direct account connections are planned. No date is attached to that. Nothing is announced until it works. There is no partnership with any bank or data aggregator. None is under announcement.

Why this answer is stated so directly. Products in this category routinely imply automatic bank connections earlier than they can deliver them. How a company words that particular claim is a fair test of how it words the others.

Why this answer is stated so directly. Products in this category routinely imply automatic bank connections earlier than they can deliver them. How a company words that particular claim is a fair test of how it words the others.

Do you see my bank login?

Do you see my bank login?

Never

No.

No.

Monverdo never asks for your online banking username or password. There is nowhere in the product to enter them. Since there are no feeds, no mechanism exists that would use them.

What does it cost?

What does it cost?

Not set

Pricing has not been decided, so no figure is published. Quoting one now and revising it later would be worse than saying nothing.

What can be said is this. The ten calculators are free and will remain free. Results are never withheld behind an email address. Those who join early access will see the pricing before it is made public.

When can I get it?

When can I get it?

Being built

Early access opens ahead of general release. The waitlist is how you hear of it first.

No date is promised. Software dates given early are usually wrong. There is little value in adding another.

Your data

Short answers here. The security page carries the full detail, including what is deliberately not claimed.

Is my data safe? Where is it kept?

Is my data safe? Where is it kept?

Working today

At present there is very little of it to keep safe, which is worth stating plainly.

The calculators run in your browser and send nothing back. The waitlist holds an email address and a record of your consent. That is the entirety of what Monverdo holds about you today.

The security page is explicit about which protections are designed for the product but not yet live. Every third party involved is listed at subprocessors.

What happens to what I built in a calculator?

What happens to what I built in a calculator?

Working today

It remains on your device. Nothing typed into a calculator is sent to Monverdo. Closing the tab clears it.

Results are never withheld behind an email address. You do not pay for a calculation with your contact details.

Once accounts exist you will be able to carry your work into one, should you wish. That is an option rather than a condition.

Scope and fit

Which currencies does it handle?

Which currencies does it handle?

Partly built

Multiple currencies sit in the foundations rather than being added afterwards. Each account holds its own currency. Everything reports into a single currency of your choosing.

Still under construction: importing statements in a foreign currency, plus automatic exchange-rate updates. Rates are entered manually for now.

Can my accountant use it?

Can my accountant use it?

Being built

That is the intention. The same underlying records are designed to be presented two ways: plain language for you, conventional financial statements for someone who reads them for a living.

A separate professional login, allowing an accountant or adviser to be granted access directly, is a later addition rather than part of the first release.

Why South Africa first?

Why South Africa first?

Working today

Because that is where the problem was first understood properly.

South African wealth is frequently spread across more than one currency and more than one country, held in wrappers with their own tax treatment. That is precisely the case most personal finance tools handle worst, usually by ignoring it.

Solving the harder case first travels better than starting simple and retrofitting. The foundations are not specific to South Africa.

Working today

Can I use Monverdo outside South Africa?

Can I use Monverdo outside South Africa?

Yes. The accounting underneath is jurisdiction-neutral: multi-currency, multi-account, double-entry. What is South Africa specific is the tax layer and the free tax calculators on this site, which are built to SARS rules and are labelled as such. Everything else works wherever your money is.

Still wondering

Still wondering

If your question is not answered here

If your question is not answered here

This is a short list by design. It will not cover everything. Send your question through and it will be answered directly. Useful ones are added to this page.

Ask a question