Questions about Atticus Fin

Atticus connects to your bank, watches your spending, and texts you what your money is doing — patterns worth noticing, bills coming up, taxes to reserve, and answers when you ask "can I afford this?" It lives in your text messages instead of an app you have to remember to open.

Budgeting apps make you open them, build a budget, and check in. Atticus comes to you. It watches in the background and texts you only when something matters, in plain language. It thinks in cash runway — "how long does my money last at this rate?" — rather than rigid monthly categories. There's a web page for setup and history, but the day-to-day product is the text message.

Anyone who wants to see what their money is actually doing without managing a spreadsheet. It's especially useful if your income is irregular — freelancers, contractors, founders, commission earners, or anyone whose money doesn't arrive on a fixed monthly schedule — because it tracks runway and helps you reserve for taxes. But you don't need irregular income to use it.

Atticus uses Plaid to connect to your bank — the same service used by apps like Venmo, Robinhood, and Chime. You log in to your bank through Plaid, not through Atticus. Your bank password never touches our servers. The connection is read-only: Atticus can see your transactions, but it cannot move, send, or spend your money.

No. Atticus has read-only access. It can see your transactions and balances to tell you what's happening, but it cannot transfer funds, make payments, or touch your accounts in any way. It observes and reports — nothing more.

Your bank credentials are handled by Plaid and never seen by us. Your data is encrypted at rest, and bank access tokens are encrypted with per-user keys. You can delete your account at any time, which revokes Plaid's access to your accounts and removes your personal data. Full details are in our Security and Privacy pages.

Atticus tracks how much of your income you should reserve for taxes (30% by default, adjustable) and keeps that figure in front of you so a tax bill doesn't catch you off guard. It earmarks the amount and reminds you — it does not move money into a separate account or file taxes on your behalf. Atticus is not a tax professional, and this is general information, not tax advice.

No. Atticus texts you when something is worth your attention — a spending pattern, an upcoming bill, a low balance, a tax reminder — not on a fixed schedule and not for the sake of it. You can set quiet hours, and you can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages.

No. Atticus gives you clear, factual information about your own money so you can make your own decisions. It is not a financial advisor, tax professional, or attorney, and its observations are not personalized financial advice. For decisions that matter, consult a qualified professional.

There are two tiers. Self-Hosted is free and open-source for people who want to run it themselves. Hosted is the full-service version where everything is handled for you. See the Pricing page for current details.

Yes. You can reply STOP to any text to stop messages immediately, and you can delete your account at any time from settings. Deleting your account revokes bank access and removes your personal data.

When you delete your account, Plaid's access to your bank is revoked immediately, and your personally identifying data is removed within 30 days. Full details are in the Data Retention policy.

Email ian@onuskabrown.com. Atticus is currently small and personally supported by the founder — emails are read and answered directly.