What Lightning does today
What It Does. Today.
Everything here works today: on Windows in the beta, on the phone in testing.
Version 1.5.0 for Windows and Android. No account, no bank login.
Pick a question
What Do You Want to Know?
Where do I stand?
Net worth, free cash and what it is made of, on one page.
- Every figure opens to show how it adds up
- Money you hold for others stays out
- Estimates say they are estimates
Where did it go?
Spending by category, against the budget you set from your salary.
- Budget by amount or percent of income
- Carryover from last month
- Transfers never count as spending
Will I make it to payday?
Every bill, loan payment and salary ahead, and the lowest point before it comes.
- Safe to spend until the next income
- Bills due and loans still to pay
- Three-month forecast
What do I own?
EGX and US shares, funds, gold by the gram, certificates and dollars.
- Gold valued per gram of its karat
- Certificates the way banks write them
- Dollars stay in dollars beside your EGP
Phone and PC?
Your phone holds the ledger; your PC borrows it over your own Wi-Fi.
- Pair once with a code
- No account, no server
- Encrypted profiles, each with its own password
Less typing?
Bring in a bank CSV, match the columns once, review only what needs you.
- Type 120+35*2 and it saves 190
- Dates as 31/1 or from a calendar
- Split one purchase across categories
All features
Every Feature, Group by Group.
Open a group to read it. One line a feature, only what works today.
OverviewThe Overview Page10
- Net worth. What you own less what you owe, in EGP.
- Free cash. What is yours to use after the bills you owe.
- What it is made of. Cash, gold, shares, funds and certificates side by side.
- If you sold today. An estimate of what each kind of asset would bring in cash, with a sale factor you can set.
- Needs you. One list of every statement to review and every entry without a category, beside bills due, missing prices and a plan short of what you mean to save.
- Cash flow and savings rate. What came in, what went out and what you kept.
- Where it went. Your spending by category for any period.
- Month by month. How each month compares with the others.
- Explain a figure. Click a figure on the Overview to see how it adds up.
- Financial health. Savings rate, emergency fund in months and debt to net worth against limits you set, with six months over time.
Phone and PCYour Phone and PC7
- Your phone holds the ledger. Tap + to add spending wherever you are.
- The same figures. Overview, accounts and cash planning, in a layout made for the phone.
- Pair once. Type the phone’s code on your PC; both screens then show the same six check digits.
- Your PC borrows it. Encrypted over your own Wi-Fi, opened with the same password as on your phone.
- One edits, the other reads. While it is lent, the phone shows Lent to Office PC · read only.
- Hand it back. Close Lightning near your phone and the ledger goes home; away from it, the PC’s edits are sealed for the next meeting.
- Bank SMS into review. After you allow it, new messages from your banks wait for you; nothing posts until you say so.
Accounts and transactionsAccounts and Transactions11
- Accounts. Bank, cash, wallet and investment accounts, each with a starting balance.
- Money in, money out and transfers. A transfer is never counted as spending.
- Split a purchase. Across several categories.
- Edit, void and restore. A wrong click never loses a record.
- Select many. Then categorise or delete them in one go.
- Search with Ctrl K. One box finds a page, an account, a name, a category, an investment or a #tag.
- #tags. A #tag in a note gathers its transactions, with their money in and money out.
- Check against the bank. A small difference becomes one adjustment; a bigger one is reviewed row by row.
- Export selected rows. Take the entries you choose out of a register.
- Counterparties. One name for each place you pay or get paid, with a default category.
- Rules. Set the category, tags or split by name, note, amount or account, in Settings.
Money held for othersMoney Held for Others3
- Held for others. Money and units you hold for someone else, shown apart from what you own.
- Cash ownership. Reassign cash between you and a saved person without changing the account's total.
- Paid on your behalf. Record an expense someone else paid and still count it in your spending.
CSV importBank Statement CSV Import8
- Bank CSV import. One signed amount column, or separate in and out columns.
- Column mapping. Match the columns once, then review.
- Review before posting. Only rows that need a decision need your attention.
- One decision per new name. A name typed on several rows is created once.
- Duplicates flagged. So the same row is not imported twice.
- Link to an entry you already made. So the same money is never counted twice.
- Name suggestions. Similar names are offered for you to pick, never merged silently.
- Import helper. A blank template and a ready prompt to shape any statement with the tool you choose.
BudgetBudget by Category9
- Amount or percent. Type 1,500, or 12% of your average monthly income.
- Average of recent months. Use what you usually spend as the plan.
- Carryover. See what the previous month left, category by category.
- Any period. All time, year to date, a month or a custom range.
- Loan payments. Planned for you until you set your own amount.
- Bulk plans. Apply a plan to many categories at once, and undo it.
- Fill this month. Plans the month in one click, up to the most you can plan.
- Your savings target. The plan leaves room for it, your goals and the emergency fund, and says how much to cut if not.
- Categories in three levels. Broad groups, categories and optional detail.
Cash planningSafe to Spend, Bills and Forecast13
- Safe to spend. Your cash until the next income, after what you owe.
- What you owe. Bills due and loans still to pay.
- Next 30 days and three-month forecast. Every payment and income ahead.
- Recurring bills, subscriptions and income. Suggested from your history, never created on their own.
- A payment finds its bill. A clear match settles it; an early or changed amount waits for you.
- Weekend bills. A bill due on Friday or Saturday moves to Thursday or Sunday.
- Skip a payment. And undo the skip.
- Loans. Progress and payoff date.
- Debt and fixed-cost ratios. Debt to net worth, debt to cash, loan payments to income and fixed costs to income.
- Reserves. Set cash aside for a goal and track what you have set aside.
- Goals with a date. Each says what it needs a month, and the budget and forecast count it.
- Emergency fund. Counted in months of income or of spending; its monthly top-up comes off safe to spend.
- Certificate interest and maturity. Shown in the forecast, apart from income.
InvestmentsShares and Funds12
- Buy, sell and dividends. Recorded inside your brokerage account.
- Prices. Typed in, fetched, or filled from the price files of the markets you follow.
- Egyptian Exchange catalogue. Pick shares and funds by name.
- US stocks and ETFs. About 400 stocks and 70 ETFs on Nasdaq, NYSE and Arca, picked by name and priced in dollars.
- Gulf and European shares. Pick the exchange and type the price; the currency follows the exchange.
- Foreign gain in two parts. A dollar holding shows its price gain and its exchange-rate gain apart.
- Net gain or loss. Gain from sales, price change on what you hold and dividends, in one figure.
- Yearly return (XIRR). Based on when your money went in, shown once a holding is a year old.
- Holdings after sale. An estimate of what you would keep after selling.
- Every price change recorded. Monthly revaluations and sale-day adjustments, each one traceable.
- Target allocation. Set the share you want in each kind of asset.
- Investment plan helper. Shows how to split new money towards your targets.
CurrenciesDollars and Other Currencies4
- Hold a currency. Dollar and other balances stay in their own currency beside your EGP.
- Convert between currencies. Records the rate you actually got.
- Rates with their age. A rate you typed or traded beats a market rate, and an old rate says how old it is.
- Exchange-rate gain. For each currency: average rate, gain not yet realised, gain realised and the spread you paid.
Gold and certificatesGold and Bank Certificates7
- Gold by piece. Net weight, karat and cost for each piece, valued per gram of the same karat.
- Buy and sell gold. Each purchase and sale is recorded against the piece.
- Certificates. Principal, rate, simple or compound, payout, earliest withdrawal and maturity.
- Maturity by date or term. Type a date, or a term in years.
- Interest forecast. An estimate only; you enter the real interest from your bank statement.
- Redeem a certificate. Enter what the bank actually paid back.
- Bank portfolios. Certificates grouped under the bank that issued them.
Privacy and backupsPrivacy, Backups and Recovery9
- Windows app. No Python or other software needed.
- Profiles. Named, each encrypted and opened with its own password.
- Recovery. A 12-digit recovery key and a security question reset a forgotten password.
- Backups. One is made every time the app starts, and you can back up whenever you like.
- Restore (early preview). Choose an encrypted backup from the lock screen and bring it back.
- Data checks. Compare totals across your ledger and reports.
- Export your numbers. One workbook prepared on your device; nothing is uploaded.
- Privacy mode. The eye beside Search blurs every amount on screen.
- Start fresh. A new empty profile, with the old one left exactly as it was.
ShortcutsTyping Shortcuts and Everyday Settings9
- Sums in amount fields. Type 120+35*2 and it saves 190.
- Dates. Type 31/1 or 2026-01-31, or pick from a calendar.
- English and Egyptian Arabic. Switch the language in Settings; Arabic screens read right to left, with amounts and dates in their natural order.
- Arabic digits. Amounts and dates typed with Arabic-Indic digits are understood.
- Type and pick. Choose your own accounts, categories and names by typing.
- Month picker. Pick a month; never type one.
- Answers first. Up to three one-line answers under each page title.
- Light and dark. Follows your device.
- Sample household. Try everything on a sample before you enter your own.
Beta testers wanted
Your Answers Decide What We Build Next.
Take the 3–5 minute survey: what you track, what you skip and what you wish Lightning did.
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