Moving from Monarch Money to Kilter, in Canada

What comes over

• Every account and its transactions, with Monarch's merchant, category, notes and tags on each one.
• Each account's balance history, so your net worth over time goes back as far as Monarch's does. That includes accounts without transactions, like a home, a mortgage or an investment you updated by hand.
• Your categories, kept as your own choices. Monarch's built-in ones go into Kilter's matching categories and the rest become new ones. You pick where each goes before anything is imported.
• Your home, car or shares in a private company, on your balance sheet with their value's history. A mortgage comes in as its home's loan.
• Each account as what it is in Canada, from chequing and credit cards to RRSPs, TFSAs, FHSAs, RESPs, RRIFs and LIRAs. Kilter guesses each one from its name and you confirm it.

Kilter learns from your categories too. Each merchant's usual category in Monarch teaches Kilter's categorization, so new transactions from the same places land where you're used to.

What Kilter adds

• A plan built from your real numbers. Add the events ahead, like buying a home, having a child or retiring early. See your chance of success across 2,000 simulations, and your net worth year by year.
• Federal and provincial tax for every year. Kilter works out your tax in every province and territory, and counts it in every simulation. A Quebec plan files Quebec's own return, with the QPP and QPIP.
• CPP and OAS by the rules. Your CPP starts from the estimate on your Statement of Contributions, and Kilter adds what your future pay earns. It applies the OAS clawback too.
• Saving and withdrawals worked out. Kilter decides each month where your savings go, and picks the withdrawal order that leaves you the most after tax.
• Tax strategies side by side. RRSP meltdowns, pension splitting, gains harvesting and when to start CPP and OAS, compared by what each leaves you. Included with Core and Plus.
• Your corporation, if you have one. Salary and dividends, with RDTOH, GRIP and the CDA tracked year by year. Included with Plus.
• Your Canadian banks, kept up to date. Connect your banks, cards and brokerages, and new transactions come in sorted. Included with Core and Plus.
• An assistant that knows your plan. Ask what if in plain English, and see each change it suggests before and after you apply it. Included with Core and Plus.

How to move

1. In Monarch, download your transactions (in Settings, under Data) and your balances (from Accounts). You'll have two CSV files.
2. Start free in Kilter. At “Do you keep track of your money somewhere?”, pick “In an app”, then “Monarch”, and choose both files with “Choose the files”.
3. Check what each account is. Kilter guessed from its name. Under “Categories”, check where each of Monarch's categories goes. A category of your own for card payments, like “Visa payment”, comes in as spending until you point it at Transfers.
4. Import. Your accounts land on your balance sheet with their transactions and history. Then answer Getting started's few questions to make your plan.

Already using Kilter? Open the Current Finances page, then “Connections” at the top right, “Add accounts” and “Import a file”. You can also attach both files to the assistant with the paperclip, or ask Claude or ChatGPT to import them once it's connected to Kilter (Core and Plus).

You can undo each account's import on the History page.

Common questions

Can I connect my banks afterwards without doubling everything?

Yes. When you connect a bank after the import, Kilter asks which of your imported accounts each one is. The history stays and no transaction comes in twice. Bank sync is included with Core and Plus.

What if I export from Monarch again later?

Import the new files the same way. Kilter recognizes the accounts it imported before and adds only what's new.

I plan in ProjectionLab too. Can my plan come over?

Yes. Kilter reads ProjectionLab's export and makes your plan from it. In Getting started, pick both apps and do ProjectionLab last, since it makes your plan and takes you to it. Bringing your ProjectionLab plan to Kilter has the steps.

What does it cost?

Importing your Monarch files is free, and so are tracking from files and one plan. Bank sync, the assistant, AI categorization, more than one plan and the tax strategies come with Core, at $19 a month or $149 a year. Plus adds corporations and a bigger AI allowance, at $39 a month or $269 a year. Prices are in Canadian dollars, before sales tax.

Every new account starts with 14 days of Plus, free and without a card.