Will I lose my transaction history if I switch budgeting apps?

Not if your new app can import a CSV export. WealthMode reads exported CSVs from tools like YNAB, Monarch, and Mint, so your past transactions and categories come across instead of starting from a blank slate.

What file do I need to export from my old app?

A CSV export of your transactions. Most budgeting apps have an export or download option in their transaction or settings view. YNAB's is the Register.csv inside its budget export; Monarch and Mint export a standard transactions CSV.

Do I have to fix the columns myself?

Usually not. WealthMode auto-detects common columns — date, amount, description, category, tags, and notes — including YNAB-style Outflow/Inflow pairs and signed or parenthesized amounts. You confirm the detected mapping before anything is imported.

What happens to duplicate transactions?

WealthMode's import preview flags likely duplicates before you commit, so you can review them rather than ending up with double entries.

How to Switch Budgeting Apps Without Losing Your Data

About this guide: Steps for third-party apps below are based on publicly available information as of July 2026 and may change. Export locations and file formats are set by each provider and can be updated at any time — check the current app for exact menu names.

The most common reason people stay on a budgeting app they’ve outgrown is the fear of starting over. Months or years of categorized transactions feel like they’re locked inside the app, and rebuilding that history by hand is nobody’s idea of a good weekend. The good news: you almost never have to. If your old app can export a CSV and your new one can import it, switching is mostly a copy-and-confirm job.

Here’s how the move works, and how WealthMode handles it specifically.

The two things that make a switch painless

Switching cleanly comes down to two capabilities:

Your old app can export your transactions to CSV. Nearly all of them can — it’s a standard feature, usually in the transactions view or settings.
Your new app can read that CSV and map its columns. This is the part that varies. A good importer detects the columns for you and shows you a preview before it writes anything, so you’re not hand-editing a spreadsheet or hoping the amounts line up.

If both are true, your history moves with you. The rest of this guide is the actual steps.

Step 1: Export your data from your current app

Find the export or download option in your current budgeting app and save a CSV of your transactions. A few specifics for the apps people ask about most:

YNAB: Export your budget, unzip the download, and keep the file named Register.csv — that’s the one with your transaction history. Full walkthrough: moving from YNAB to WealthMode.
Monarch Money: Export your transactions to CSV. It’s a standard export, no special formatting needed. Full walkthrough: moving from Monarch to WealthMode.
Mint: If you still have account access, use the export option in the transaction view. A copy you exported before the 2024 shutdown works just as well. Full walkthrough: moving your Mint data to WealthMode.
Any other app or a spreadsheet: As long as it saves a CSV with a date, an amount, and a description per row, it can be imported.

Keep the file somewhere you can find it. That’s the only thing you need from your old app.

Step 2: Import the CSV into WealthMode

Create a free WealthMode account. No credit card required — the free tier is enough to import and start budgeting.
Open the importer and upload your CSV.
Review the detected column mapping. WealthMode auto-detects date, amount, description, category, tags, and notes. It recognizes YNAB-style Outflow/Inflow columns and reads signed or parenthesized amounts — so a -42.00 or (42.00) figure is correctly treated as an expense. Adjust anything that looks off.
Check the preview. Before anything is saved, WealthMode shows each row the way it will land — already categorized where a rule matches — and flags likely duplicates so you can review them instead of importing double entries.
Confirm the import. Your transactions, categories, tags, and notes land in WealthMode ready to budget against.

There’s no manual re-entry, and no need to run both apps side by side for weeks while you rebuild.

Step 3: Decide what to keep

Once your history is in, you get to make a choice you couldn’t make while it was locked in the old app: keep your existing category structure, or simplify it. A lot of people accumulate dozens of categories over the years and use a fraction of them. Importing is a natural moment to consolidate — but there’s no pressure to, and your imported categories work as-is if you’d rather leave them.

A few things worth checking before you commit

Your date range. Make sure the export covers the full history you want, not just the last 90 days some apps default to.
Split transactions. If your old app stored splits, check how they come across in the preview and adjust categories where needed.
Account mapping. If your CSV includes an account column, WealthMode lets you route those rows to the right account (or skip them) during the import.

Bottom line

Switching budgeting apps is far less work than most people expect, because your transaction history isn’t actually trapped — it’s one CSV export away. Export from your current app, import into WealthMode, confirm the mapping and preview, and you’re budgeting against your real history in minutes. If you’re still deciding where to switch to, the best budgeting apps in 2026 roundup lays out the main options, and the YNAB and Monarch alternative guides go deeper on each.