Where Did My Salary Go? FAQ

A1: A tool that shows where one month's take-home pay went. You type what came in and what you spent, or open your bank statement, and it draws your pay flowing into every category, shows the money nobody can account for, runs checks for fees, card interest, rarely used subscriptions, daily spends and costs that crept up, and turns a plan of cuts into next month's budget.

A2: Nothing. It is free, with no registration and no limit. Like every page on ZeroDataUpload, it is supported by advertising.

A3: No. Open the page in any modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera) on a computer, tablet or phone. Your months are kept in that browser, so there is nothing to sign in to.

A4: No. A statement you open or paste is read by this browser on your device and never sent to a server; the same goes for every amount you type. The page itself loads the site's ads and analytics, as every page on the site does; the Privacy Policy explains those, and your figures are never part of them.

A5: No. The checks compare your month with common rules of thumb so you can see where to look first. They are not advice for your situation, and the growth figures in the plan are estimates, not promises. For decisions about loans, investments or insurance, speak to a registered adviser.

A6: Your take-home pay: what reached your bank account after tax, PF and other deductions. Payslip Studio, elsewhere on this site, works out take-home pay from a salary structure if you need it.

A7: As you would say them: 8400, 8,400 or 8.4k; 1.2L or 1.2 lakh; 450 + 1200 + 300 to add several bills; 150 x 22 for 22 days of 150. A currency sign or code in front, such as Rs or a rupee sign, is ignored.

A8: They turn a regular amount into its monthly share: a week counts 52 / 12 times, a day 365 / 12 (about 30.4) times, a workday 261 / 12 (about 21.75) times, a quarter a third and a year a twelfth. So 150 a day for coffee counts as 4,563 a month, and an 18,000 yearly premium as 1,500.

A9: Yes. The list button beside a category turns it into items, such as every subscription or every loan, and the category adds them up. Each item has its own amount and how often; the more button marks it one-off or rarely used, moves it to another category or deletes it.

A10: One-off is a payment that will not repeat, such as a laptop or a repair: it counts this month but is left out when the month is compared with your usual month. Rarely used marks a subscription or membership you hardly use, and the checks list it as a leak.

A11: Money from this month you have not spent or saved. Leave it empty if you do not know. With it filled in, the money not accounted for shrinks to what really slipped away.

A12: Yes. Copy last month brings over the amounts of the latest earlier month, without its one-off items and what was left in the account, so you only change what was different.

A13: CSV, TSV and Excel (.xlsx) files from a bank's website or app, card statements, a web page saved as a file, and rows copied from your bank's web page and pasted. Old Excel files (.xls) and PDF statements cannot be read: save the file as .xlsx or CSV, or download the CSV most banks offer beside the PDF.

A14: From the heading row: the transaction date, the description (narration, particulars, remarks), and either separate withdrawal and deposit columns or one amount column with Dr and Cr or a type column. Lines before the heading, such as the account number, and a summary after the rows are skipped. If a column is wrong, change it under Columns and dates.

A15: Indian (1,23,456.78), international (123,456.78) and European (123.456,78) numbers, amounts in brackets, a minus sign or Dr for money out, and dates such as 05/11/2026, 05-Nov-26, 2026-11-05, Nov 5, 2026 or an Excel date. Day first is assumed unless a date such as 13/05 shows the month comes first.

A16: Yes. On a card statement purchases are usually positive and payments or refunds are marked Cr: the tool reads purchases as spending and keeps lines marked Cr as money in. Card bill payments seen in your bank statement are left out, because the purchases are on the card statement.

A17: By the shop's or app's name in each description, from a list of common Indian and international merchants: food apps to eating out, Zepto and BigBasket to groceries, electricity boards to bills, fuel and FASTag to getting around, SIPs to investments, ATM withdrawals to cash. Card bill payments and transfers between your own accounts are left out so nothing is counted twice.

A18: Yes. Every line has a menu; pick another category or leave it out. With "Remember the categories I change" ticked, your choice is used next time; Settings lists every choice you made and lets you change or forget it.

A19: Choose the month if the file covers several. Replace the categories it fills (the default) puts the imported payments in place of what those categories had; Add to what is already there keeps both. Salary found in the statement becomes your take-home pay.

A20: Files up to 15 MB and 20,000 rows are read, which is years of a busy account. An Excel file that would unpack to more than 64 MB is refused, because no statement is that big.

A21: Your pay on the left flowing into the five groups (essentials, lifestyle, loans and EMIs, fees and interest, saved and invested) and from them into each category, with what is left in the account and what is not accounted for. Point at or focus a stream to see its share of pay and what it cost in hours of work.

A22: Your pay minus everything you listed as spent, saved or still in the account. It is usually small payments nobody writes down. If more went out than came in, the report says so and the difference came from savings or credit.

A23: Money not accounted for (above 3% of pay, needs work above 8%); your saving rate against the target of your split; wants and needs above the split; housing above 30% and 40% of pay; EMIs above 30% and 40%; pay later and small loans above 5%; fees and card interest; items you marked rarely used; subscriptions above 3%; daily spends above 2%; eating out above 8% of pay or above your groceries; lifestyle categories well above their usual share; cash above 5%; categories up on your last three months; one-off spends; money sitting idle; how many months your emergency savings last; and a missing insurance premium.

A24: They are rules of thumb, such as 25% of take-home pay for rent or 5% for eating out, so the checks have something to compare with. Change any of them under Settings, Categories.

A25: A guide for take-home pay: about half for needs (rent, food at home, bills, loan payments), 30% for wants and 20% saved or invested. Settings also offers 60/20/20, 70/20/10 and your own split.

A26: Your take-home salary divided by the hours you work in a month: hours a week times 52, divided by 12. At 40 hours a week that is about 173 hours a month. Change the hours under Settings.

A27: Each category has a slider for how much less to spend. The panel shows what you would keep each month and in a year, your saving rate now and with the plan, and what the money would grow to if invested every month at the return you choose.

A28: Act on the checks fills the sliders with the cuts the checks suggest. Find me looks for an amount you type: fees and card interest first, then lifestyle categories a little at a time, and essentials such as groceries or transport by at most 15%; it never touches rent, loans, health, insurance, education or family support.

A29: As a monthly investment at the end of each month, growing at the yearly return you choose divided into twelve monthly steps. It is an estimate: real returns go up and down.

A30: It puts a budget on every spending category from the next month: what you spent this month, less the cuts. This month then shows a bar for each budget, and the checks say which categories went over.

A31: A column for each month split into the groups, with your pay as a line; a table of every month with what came in, what was spent and kept, and what was not accounted for; your usual month (the average of the last six); and which categories changed between any two months.

A32: Yes. Settings offers 19 currencies; changing it changes the symbol and number style only, and amounts are not converted. Rupees are grouped 1,00,000 unless you choose 100,000.

A33: In this browser's storage on this device, so they are there next time. Nothing is kept on a server. Clearing the browser's data, or a private window, removes them, so export a backup now and then.

A34: Settings, Your data, Export backup saves a file with every month, category, budget and setting. On the other device, choose Restore a backup; the file replaces everything there after you confirm.

A35: Yes. Download CSV on the report saves the open month with every category and item; All months as CSV saves every month's totals. Both open in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice.

A36: Settings, Your data, Delete everything removes every month, category, budget and setting this tool keeps in this browser, after you confirm. The rest of the site is not touched, and nothing is left behind.

A37: It blurs every amount on the page, in the flow and in its pop-ups, for when someone can see your screen. Press it again or press H to show them. Settings can blur them every time the page opens.