Backups & Data Exports

Zerosum has three recovery and portability tools: automatic budget backups, CSV exports, and GDPR data exports.

Overview

• Budget backups: server-side snapshots of budgets you own. Use them to restore a budget without uploading any files.
• CSV export: a spreadsheet-friendly copy of a single budget as two CSV files, one for transactions and one for the monthly budget.
• Data exports: a portable JSON archive of your account and owned budgets, for your records or account portability.

ℹ️ Important: Restores are server-side only. Zerosum does not restore a budget from an uploaded file; restore actions use a server-side backup ID, so backup files cannot recreate trial access or bypass account boundaries.

Automatic budget backups

Automatic backups are created for budgets you own and stored in a private server bucket. Zerosum keeps the latest 7 automatic backups per budget.

1. Open Manage budgets. Open the budget menu (your budget name at the top of the sidebar), then choose Manage budgets. The row menu of a budget you own has Budget settings, Rename, Members, Duplicate, Export budget data, and Delete.
2. Choose a budget. Select an owned budget to view its details and automatic backups. A budget someone else owns has only Budget settings and Leave in its row menu, and its backups are not shown to you.
3. Review backups. Backups are listed under Automatic backups, in the details panel on desktop and in a drawer on mobile. Each one has Download and Restore buttons.

Restoring a backup

Restoring a backup creates a new budget from that snapshot. It does not overwrite your current budget, so you can review the restored copy before deciding what to keep.

1. Open Manage budgets.
2. Select an owned budget to open its backup details.
3. Choose a backup and select Restore.
4. Confirm the restore name. Zerosum creates a separate restored budget.

💡 Tip: Because the restore is a new budget, you can compare it with your current budget and delete the restored copy later if you do not need it.

Backup downloads

Backup downloads are available for owned budgets. They are useful for personal records or support, but they are not import files.

• Download links are short-lived signed links and require owner authorization before they are generated.
• Downloading a backup does not expose any restore endpoint; restores still happen only from server-side backups.

Export a budget to CSV

A CSV export downloads a single budget as a zip of two spreadsheet files, ready to open in Excel, Google Sheets, or Numbers. Unlike a backup, it is meant for reading and analysis rather than restoring.

• transactions.csv: every transaction in the budget, with its date, account, payee, category, memo, tags, outflow, inflow, and cleared status.
• budget.csv: each month's budget by category, showing carried over, budgeted, activity, and available, plus the month's Ready to Budget.

To export, open the budget menu (your budget name in the sidebar) and choose Export budget data, or open Manage budgets and choose Export budget data from the row menu of a budget you own. The download starts right away. Members of a shared budget can export it from the budget menu too.

💡 Tip: A CSV export is a copy for spreadsheets. To move a whole budget within Zerosum, use a backup or duplicate instead.

GDPR data exports

A GDPR data export is a full account-level archive generated in the background. It includes your profile data, account metadata, activity, and full data for budgets you own. Shared budgets owned by another user are represented as membership metadata.

1. Request the export. Open Settings > Your data and select Request export.
2. Wait for the email. Zerosum queues the export and emails you when the file is ready.
3. Download while available. Settings > Your data lists your recent exports; select Download on a ready export while it is still available.

• Email notification: you receive a private download link once generation finishes.
• Latest three: Zerosum keeps the latest three export records per user.
• Private links: export files are private and served through signed download URLs.

ℹ️ Important: Export files are available for 7 days from request time. Email download links expire after 24 hours, but you can return to Settings > Your data to generate a fresh signed link while the export is still available.

Security boundaries

• Automatic backup restores require ownership of the original budget.
• Shared budget members cannot download or restore someone else's backups.
• Budget backups exclude live bank-sync credentials and provider secrets.
• GDPR exports exclude security tokens, password hashes, and provider credentials.
• All backup and export files stay in private server storage.

Where to next

• Multiple budgets
• Settings