Migration Guide

How to Move from Monarch Money to Waypoint Budget: Import Your Transactions

Download your transactions from Monarch, upload one CSV, and Waypoint Budget rebuilds your categories, accounts and a starting budget from your own history. Here is exactly what comes over, what does not, and the order to do it in so nothing gets lost.

By Ahmad Jamal · Published October 7, 2026 · 9 min read

Quick Answer

Export your transactions from Monarch first (Settings, then Data, then Download transactions), then create a Waypoint Budget account, choose "Switch from another app" and "Import from Monarch", and upload the CSV. Waypoint Budget brings over every transaction with Monarch's merchant name and the original bank description, sorts your categories into Monarch's standard groups, creates your accounts, pairs up transfers between them, and suggests a monthly budget for each category from your last 12 months. You review all of it before anything is saved. Balances are not in Monarch's export, so you type them in or let Bank sync fill them once you connect. The import is free, and the whole switch takes about ten minutes.
Full transaction historyCategories in groupsSuggested budget amountsFree to import

Why People Leave Monarch in 2026

Monarch is a capable app, and plenty of people are happy on it. The reasons people give for leaving this year are specific, so here they are with dates. Everything below was checked on October 7, 2026.

  • The plan split in two (April 20, 2026). Monarch launched Monarch Plus at US$199 a year, annual only, adding forecasting, tools for business owners, fund analysis and gains and losses. Core stayed at US$99.99 a year or US$14.99 a month (Monarch's announcement; Monarch pricing). For anyone who wanted those features, the price of Monarch roughly doubled.
  • A short trial. Monarch's trial is 7 days (Monarch pricing). Several third-party setup guides say it asks for a card and charges it automatically when the week ends, though not every review site agrees. Either way, a week is not long to find out whether your banks connect.
  • Billing in US dollars only. Monarch's Canada page says all pricing is billed in USD (Monarch in Canada). Monarch said it was working on Canadian dollar billing when it launched in Canada in late 2023 (BetaKit), and it still does not exist as of October 2026. Canadians pay the exchange rate plus any card foreign transaction fee.
  • Reviews. Monarch's Trustpilot score was 2.3 out of 5 on October 7, 2026, with 55% of reviews at one star (Trustpilot). The repeated complaints are email-only support, duplicate transactions, and a sign bug where spending shows up as money coming in, which reviewers say started in October 2025.
  • Bank connections in Canada. Monarch's own Canada page tells Canadians to use the 7-day trial to confirm their institutions connect reliably (Monarch in Canada), and Trustpilot reviewers describe institutions they could not connect at all.

If any of those is your reason, the good news is that leaving does not mean starting from zero. If you are still deciding between the two apps, our Monarch Money alternative comparison lays out features and pricing side by side.

Step 1: Export from Monarch Before You Cancel

Do this while your Monarch subscription is still active. Once the file is on your computer, nothing that happens to your Monarch account can take your history away.

Download Your Transactions from Monarch

  1. 1.Open Settings in Monarch, then go to Data.
  2. 2.Choose Download transactions. Monarch exports every transaction across all your accounts as one CSV file (Monarch Help).
  3. 3.Keep the file as it is. Do not open and re-save it in a spreadsheet first. The import looks for Monarch's own column headers (Date, Merchant, Category, Account, Original Statement, Notes, Amount, Tags and so on), and a spreadsheet can rewrite dates and amounts on save.

Export first, cancel second

Check when your Monarch plan renews and leave yourself a few days before that date. Export, import into Waypoint Budget, look around, and only then cancel. If you joined Monarch in January, your annual renewal lands in January too, so this is worth doing before the holidays.

Step 2: Import into Waypoint Budget

The Monarch import sits on the first screen of a new Waypoint Budget account. Here is the exact path.

The Import, Step by Step

  1. 1.Create a free account. Sign up with no card. The free plan includes the import.
  2. 2.Pick "Switch from another app". The first setup screen asks "What brings you to Waypoint Budget?". Tick "Switch from another app" and two import buttons appear underneath.
  3. 3.Tap "Import from Monarch" and choose your CSV. A ZIP with the CSV inside works too. Waypoint Budget reads the file and shows progress while it sorts your categories and matches up your accounts.
  4. 4.Review your Monarch import. The preview opens with one line saying how many categories, transactions and accounts it found and the months they cover. Below that: your typical Monthly Income, your Expense Categories with a suggested monthly budget for each (tap one to change its amount, name, icon or group), and Your Accounts, where you keep the accounts you want and type in their balances.
  5. 5.Tap Import Budget. Waypoint Budget creates your categories, groups and accounts, sets up this month's budget, brings in your transactions, and opens your Budget page when it is done.

Already have a Waypoint Budget account?

The Import button on the Transactions page takes CSV files too, but it reads each file as one account's statement. You get the transactions, without the accounts, category groups and suggested budget amounts that the Monarch import on the setup screen builds. For a full move, the setup screen is the way to go.

What Comes Over

This is what the import does with each part of Monarch's file, in plain terms.

What Transfers

  • Every transaction, with its date, amount, category and account. Each one keeps Monarch's cleaned-up merchant name (or the name you gave it) and the original bank description beside it. That original description is what lets Bank sync recognise the same transaction later instead of adding a second copy.
  • Your notes and tags. Whatever you wrote in Monarch's Notes column comes over as the transaction's note, and Monarch tags become Waypoint Budget tags.
  • Your categories, in groups. The export does not say which group a category belonged to, so Waypoint Budget places Monarch's built-in categories into Monarch's standard groups: Groceries and Restaurants & Bars under Food & Dining, Gas and Parking & Tolls under Auto & Transport, Rent and Mortgage under Housing, and so on. Monarch's income categories, like Paychecks and Interest, come over as income.
  • Suggested budget amounts. Monarch's budget figures are not in the export, so each category gets a suggested monthly amount from your last 12 complete months of spending. A month you exported partway through is left out so it does not drag the averages down. Refunds count against the category they came back to.
  • Your accounts. Every account named in the file shows up on the preview. Waypoint Budget works out whether each is a bank account, a credit card or a loan from its name and from how its transactions behave, and creates the ones you keep checked.
  • Transfers, paired. In Monarch, money between your own accounts is a category (Transfer, Credit Card Payment, Balance Adjustments) rather than a link to the other account. Those rows come over as transfers and stay out of your spending. When exactly one matching row on the same date for the same amount exists on the other side, the two are paired. If the match is not clear, each side stays a transfer on its own rather than being paired with the wrong one. Loan, mortgage and student loan payments count as spending, the same way Monarch counts them.
  • Split purchases, as separate rows. Monarch exports each part of a split as its own row, so each part comes over with its own amount and category, already correct.
  • No duplicates from the file. Every Monarch transaction has an Id. If the same Id appears twice in the file, the second copy is dropped.

What Does Not Come Over

Monarch's transactions export only holds transactions, so anything that lives elsewhere in Monarch stays there. Better to know now than to go looking for it later.

What Stays in Monarch

  • Account balances and net worth history. The file has no balances, so the import does not guess them. Type each balance in on the preview or later, or connect the bank with Bank sync and the bank's own balance takes over.
  • Your own group layout. If you renamed Monarch's groups or moved categories between them, that is not in the file. Built-in categories land in Monarch's standard groups, and categories you created arrive ungrouped. You can set a group for any of them on the preview.
  • Your Monarch budget amounts. You start from the suggested amounts based on your spending instead, and can change any of them before or after you import.
  • Rules, goals and recurring items. None of these are in the transactions export. Waypoint Budget has its own rules, savings and debt goals, and repeating transactions, so set up the ones you still need.
  • Owner and Reviewed. These two columns carry nothing a budget needs, so they are not read.
  • A few rows on purpose. Rows for $0, rows dated more than three months in the future, and rows without a readable date or amount are skipped. Uncategorized transactions do come over, but Uncategorized does not become a budget category.

After the Import

Your history is in. From here you choose how new transactions arrive.

Two Ways to Keep Going

  1. 1.Connect your bank with Bank sync. On the paid Plus plan (one bank connection) or Pro plan (five), Waypoint Budget connects through Plaid and Flinks and brings in new transactions in the background. Both plans start with a 7-day free trial. When you connect a bank you imported from Monarch, the bank's own balance replaces the one you typed in.
  2. 2.Or stay manual, free. The free plan has no bank connections, but it does not expire. Add transactions as you go with Quick Add, import a bank CSV or PDF statement from the Transactions page, or snap a receipt.

Either way, spend five minutes on the budget itself: adjust any suggested amount that does not match where you want to be, turn on rollover for categories you save into over several months, and set up the goals you had in Monarch.

What It Costs

Monarch vs Waypoint Budget

Monarch Core, billed monthlyUS$14.99/mo
Monarch Core, billed yearlyUS$99.99/yr
Monarch Plus (yearly only)US$199/yr
Waypoint Budget Free (import included)$0
Waypoint Budget Plus (Bank sync, 1 bank)$7.99/mo or $79.99/yr
Waypoint Budget Pro (Bank sync, 5 banks)$12.99/mo or $129.99/yr

Waypoint Budget prices are in Canadian dollars in Canada and US dollars in the US. Monarch prices as listed on October 7, 2026, billed in US dollars everywhere.

Importing does not require upgrading. Bring your history over on the free plan, see how it feels, and add Bank sync only if you want it.

Bring your Monarch history with you

Export your transactions from Monarch, upload the CSV, and review your categories, accounts and budget before anything is saved.

Get Started Free

No credit card required. The Monarch import is on the free plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. In Monarch, go to Settings, then Data, then Download transactions to get a CSV of every transaction. Then create a Waypoint Budget account, pick "Switch from another app" on the first setup screen, choose "Import from Monarch" and select the file. You get a preview of your categories, accounts and suggested budget amounts before anything is saved. The import is included on the free plan.
No. Monarch's transactions export has no balances in it, so the import cannot know what each account holds today. Type each balance in on the preview (or later), or connect the bank with Bank sync on a paid plan and the bank's own balance takes over.
Your categories come over by name, placed into Monarch's standard groups (Food & Dining, Auto & Transport, Housing and so on), because the export does not say which group each category was in. Categories you made yourself arrive ungrouped, and you can pick a group on the preview. Monarch's budget amounts are not in the export either, so Waypoint Budget suggests a monthly amount for each category from your last 12 complete months of spending. You can change any of them before you import.
No. Importing from Monarch is part of the free plan, along with manual entry, budget categories, rollover categories and goals. Bank sync, which pulls in new transactions automatically, is on the paid Plus and Pro plans, and both come with a 7-day free trial.
After. Download your transactions first and keep the CSV somewhere safe, then cancel. Monarch's plan renews on its own anniversary date, so check when yours renews and leave yourself time to export, import and look around before then.
About ten minutes for most people. The export takes a minute, the upload takes seconds, and the rest is checking the preview: suggested budget amounts, category groups and account balances. A long history can take a few extra minutes to finish importing after you confirm.

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Disclaimer

This article is for informational and editorial purposes only and reflects the author's own testing and opinions. Waypoint Budget is our own product, and we describe every option as accurately as we can, including the cases where a competitor is the better fit. Waypoint Budget is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Monarch Money, or any other company named here. All trademarks, logos, and brand names are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification and editorial purposes only. Pricing, features, and availability change without notice, so verify current details with each provider before deciding. This is not financial advice.