Updates
Downslope is actively being improved based on user feedback. Here's what's new.
October 31, 2026 Current
Free tools: fillable worksheets, a bill calendar maker, and two app improvements
- A new Free tools page. Everything on it is free to download, print, and share, with no email and no account. Find it under More, or at downslopefinance.com/tools
- Bill Calendar Maker. Enter bills and due dates, then download one calendar file for Google, Apple, or Outlook Calendar, with a reminder before each bill. It runs entirely in the browser, and the page can be saved for offline use
- Fillable worksheets. Type into them on screen or print them: a Household Information Sheet (where everything is, without passwords or full account numbers), Check the Result (an autopay check-up, a card replacement checklist, a financial alert log, and upgrade decision cards), and a Monthly Money Review with a twelve-month tracker
- Budget can put your bills on your calendar. The recurring bills section has a new "Add bills to my calendar" button that downloads the same kind of calendar file, built on your device. Free for everyone
- Debt Payoff shows what it takes to beat a 0% deadline. Promo warnings now include the monthly payment that clears the balance before the promotion ends (Pro)
October 14, 2026
The Books page now points to matching app features
- Four Book One chapters are tagged. Pay frequency, sinking funds, budgeting with a partner, and the monthly review each link to how Downslope Budget handles the same method. Most chapters stay untagged on purpose, since every method in the books works on paper or in a spreadsheet
October 10, 2026
The Foundations textbooks are on sale as PDFs
- All three Foundations textbooks are available now. Budgeting & Cash Flow, Debt Payoff & Credit, and Net Worth & Wealth Building are $14.99 each as PDFs, or $34.99 for the 3-Book Bundle. Buy buttons are on the Books page. Print and Kindle editions are still coming to Amazon
- Downloads arrive right away. After checkout you land on a page with your download links, and the same links are emailed to you. Links last 72 hours, so save your PDFs once they arrive. If a link expires, email dan@downslopefinance.com and a fresh one will be sent
- The books and the Pro unlock are separate purchases. Buying a book doesn't include Pro, and Pro doesn't include the books
- The privacy policy now covers PDF purchases. It explains exactly how files are delivered and the small amount kept to do it: no email or name is stored, and the short delivery record is deleted after 30 days. See the Privacy page
- Pro purchases got a security tune-up. The server that issues Pro license keys now rejects purchase notifications that are forged, tampered with, or replayed later, and it only issues keys for actual Pro purchases. Nothing changes for anyone who already has a key
October 4, 2026
Foundations release formats confirmed, and the books page checked against the final manuscripts
- Release formats are set. The three Foundations textbooks will be sold as PDF editions here on downslopefinance.com, and as print and Kindle editions on Amazon. Etsy is no longer planned, so it's been removed from the Foundations page and the privacy policy
- The Foundations page now matches the final manuscripts. Every chapter title was checked against the finished books, and two audience descriptions were reworded to say exactly what the books say. Debt Payoff & Credit's chapter on cash flow and emergency reserves now links to how Budget connects with Debt Payoff
September 22, 2026
A Pro license key delivery bug, found and fixed
- Fixed a bug where a Pro license key could fail to arrive by email after purchase. The key itself was generated correctly the moment payment completed, but a failure on the delivery side wasn't being detected, so there was no way to tell it had happened. If this ever happens to you, reach out and a new key can be issued right away
- Delivery now has a safety net. Every key is safely recorded the instant it's created, independent of whether the email itself goes through, so any future delivery issue can be caught and fixed immediately instead of going unnoticed
September 17, 2026
A home for the Foundations textbooks, a privacy policy, and two new blog posts
- Foundations textbooks now have a landing page. The three "Downslope Finance Foundations" textbooks (Budgeting & Cash Flow, Debt Payoff & Credit, Net Worth & Wealth Building) had no presence on the site at all. /foundations now lists all three with real chapter tables of contents pulled from each manuscript, marked honestly as in production with no ISBN or store listing yet, and a Substack signup as the only call to action
- New blog post announcing the series: "I'm Writing Three Textbooks. Here's Why"
- Privacy Policy page added. The site called itself privacy-first everywhere but had no actual privacy policy and no footer or nav legal link. /privacy now covers what's actually true of this codebase: data lives in browser IndexedDB with no accounts or bank connections, and the optional AI features relay through a proxy worker to Anthropic's API
- New blog post on backups. Local-only privacy still needs a backup routine; explains why Budget's free device sync and Debt Payoff/Net Worth's Pro-gated CSV export aren't interchangeable, and what to do about each
- New blog post on gig-income taxes, filling a gap next to the Tax-Surprise Avoider Pro feature: why freelance and gig payments arrive with no tax withheld, and a percentage-based set-aside habit anyone can use with or without the tracker
August 30, 2026
Mobile nav collapsed into a hamburger menu, self-hosted fonts, and a broad SEO/performance/security sweep
- Mobile nav is now a hamburger menu. On narrow phones, the full nav used to wrap onto two lines and push each page's main call-to-action below the fold. It's now tucked behind a menu icon that only appears under 640px
- Fonts are self-hosted. Spline Sans and JetBrains Mono no longer load from Google's font CDN, removing a render-blocking third-party request on every page
- Real product screenshots added to /debt-payoff, the Mint-alternative page, and both debt-tracker tutorials, in place of a duplicated live-calculator embed and stock illustrations
- Mint-alternatives trimmed to a tight comparison table, cutting the overlap with the "Mint is gone, what now?" post it was competing with for the same searches
- Blog got real internal structure. All 19 posts now cross-link related posts by topic, the 8 posts with no headings at all got proper subheadings, and two posts (Snowball vs. Avalanche, Why Traditional Budgeting Fails) were expanded into fuller guides
- Structured data cleanup. Debt Payoff's product listing is now one consistent identity across every page instead of four disconnected ones, so search engines read it as a single real product
- Broader technical sweep: the remaining security headers, long-lived caching on images and fonts, a fresher sitemap, and load-priority hints on the homepage hero image
August 30, 2026
New Budget Pro feature: tax set-aside tracker for gig and freelance income
- Tax set-aside tracker. Logs your gig and freelance payments and estimates what you'll owe at a flat, editable rate, then warns you when there's an actual shortfall within 45 days of your next quarterly estimated-tax deadline, instead of finding out in April
- Links to your Goals automatically. Like the runway calculator, the set-aside amount can follow a real Goal's logged contributions instead of a separate manual number
August 21, 2026
Two new Budget Pro features: emergency fund runway and subscription watcher
- Emergency fund runway calculator. Shows how many months your savings would cover essential expenses (rent, debt, insurance, and other fixed bills) if income stopped today, with a warning once that cushion drops under 3 months
- Links to your Goals automatically. If you track an emergency fund as a Goal, you can link it from the calculator so the balance follows your logged contributions instead of a separate manual number
- Subscription renewal and price-hike watcher. Track your subscriptions (weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or yearly) and get flagged before a renewal hits, with a separate warning when the price has actually gone up since last charge
- Renewal-confirmation nudge. If a subscription's renewal date passes without you recording what it charged, it now flags that clearly instead of quietly moving on to the next one
- Fixed a bug in that same flow. Confirming a renewal's charge was setting the next renewal date to today, so the card got stuck reading "Renews today" instead of showing the real next date
August 12, 2026
A caching bug fixed, plus SEO, security, and Core Web Vitals cleanup
- Fixed a stale-caching bug on Blog and Updates. New posts and edits weren't showing up in a fresh browser tab until you did a hard refresh. The page-caching that keeps Downslope fast and installable was treating those two pages like ones that rarely change; they're now always fetched fresh, so new posts show up right away with nothing on your end to do
- More structured data, sitewide. Added JSON-LD to the Story, About, and Blog pages, plus every blog post, and filled in the last few sitemap gaps, the technical groundwork that helps search engines and AI tools understand and cite Downslope correctly
- Cleaned up on-page SEO issues found by a site crawl. A missing heading tag, a duplicate ID, and an old redirect that wasn't pointing where it should
- Fixed layout shift on images. Added missing width and height attributes to images across the site so pages don't jump around while they load (a Core Web Vitals fix)
- Added security headers. A Content-Security-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options header now protect every page against a class of injection attacks
- Downslope is SaaSHub Approved. Added the badge to the homepage footer
August 2, 2026
New blog post, structured data verification, and an AEO audit
- New blog post: "What Counts as an Asset?" Explores which personal possessions belong in a net worth calculation, beyond the usual investments and accounts, and how to estimate their value honestly
- Verified structured data. Confirmed the FAQ block (Pricing) and the Organization/Person block (homepage) are both valid JSON-LD and match the required schema.org fields; no bugs found
- Ran an AI-discoverability (AEO) audit. Site scored 72/100 on foundational checks. Missing structured data on most remaining pages is the top opportunity for improving how AI tools cite Downslope
August 1, 2026
Easier to find in search, a leftover privacy fix, and a mobile nav bug
- Easier to find in search. Added a sitemap, canonical links, and structured data describing each tool, the basics that help search engines index the site properly. Also cleaned up internal links sitewide so every page, the nav, footer, and sitemap all point to the same URL consistently
- Fixed a leftover privacy inconsistency. The Mint-alternative landing page was still showing older privacy wording from before the sitewide update; it now matches the rest of the site
- Fixed a mobile nav bug. The App/More dropdown menu could clip off the left edge of the screen or cover other nav links when opened on a narrow phone. Fixed across all 19 marketing pages
July 27, 2026
Minimum payments that shrink with your balance, plus a security patch
- Minimum payments now shrink as your balance drops. Credit card minimums used to stay fixed at whatever you entered, for the life of the debt, even though real minimums shrink as you pay the balance down. Turn on "Recalculate minimum" on any revolving debt and your payoff schedule now follows the same math real issuers use (Chase, Citi, Discover, Amex, Capital One): a percentage of your balance plus that month's interest, with a floor amount. Free for everyone, not a Pro feature
- Patched a security vulnerability in the underlying framework Budget and Net Worth are built on, along with a few smaller dependency fixes
- Fixed a clipped logo that was getting cut off on some pages
July 26, 2026
Privacy language cleanup, a nav bug fix, and a better first run for Net Worth
- Consistent privacy language everywhere. The privacy promise was worded differently across the site and each app. It's now one accurate line everywhere: no accounts, no bank connections, your data stays on your device, except for the optional AI features, which are clearly labeled every time you use them
- Fixed a nav bug across all three apps. Clicking a tool's own pill in its own header (e.g. "Budget" while already on Budget) did nothing, since it was linking to the page you were already on. Fixed in Debt Payoff, Budget, and Net Worth
- Net Worth's first run is better. Instead of a blank $0 dashboard, new users now see example numbers, a short walkthrough, and clear next steps
- Disclosed when AI features send data off-device. Budget's weekly AI check-in wasn't telling you it sends a summary of your numbers to Anthropic to generate the briefing. It does now, every time
- Hardened the Pro license system. Added rate limiting and fixed a bug that was blocking Pro unlocks on Net Worth specifically
July 21, 2026
One shared navigation across the site, plus a Budget rounding fix
- Shared navigation everywhere: every page now uses the same header, and you can always get back to any tool from anywhere. Blog and Updates moved into a "More" menu to keep things tidy
- Penny-rounding bug fixed in Budget: uneven expense splits (like $10 split three ways) could drop a penny instead of accounting for it exactly. Fixed, tested, and shipped
- Consistent cross-app links: Debt Payoff, Budget, and Net Worth now all link to each other the same way, no matter which one you start in
July 18, 2026
Debt Payoff rebrand, live Net Worth syncing
- Finance is now Debt Payoff. Renamed sitewide (homepage, nav, blog) to match Net Worth and Budget, and to say plainly what the tool does
- Net Worth stays in sync. Debts you edit in Debt Payoff now keep updating in Net Worth automatically, not just on your first import
- Edit assets in Net Worth. Fix an asset's name, value, or category in place, no more deleting and re-adding
- Tighter account-pairing security. Hardened how Debt Payoff, Budget, and Net Worth link devices together, closing a gap that could let a crafted link redirect synced data to the wrong place
July 12, 2026
Budget goals, smarter categories, and Pro across both apps
- Goals in Budget: set a savings target for 30 days, 6 months, a year, or 3 years out. Log contributions as you go and see whether your current pace gets you there on time, with a heads-up if you're falling behind
- Preset budget categories: Budget now offers ready-made categories organized around Needs, Wants, and Goals, so setting up your budget doesn't start from a blank page
- Debt payoff, front and center: Budget's layout now leads with your debt progress and goals, with day-to-day spending and category management right below
- Pro unlocks both apps: one Pro purchase now unlocks Pro features in Debt Payoff and Budget
- Money check-in moved up: the weekly AI money check-in is easier to find, right after your spending overview
- More reliable syncing: improved how Debt Payoff and Budget keep debt data in sync across devices
July 5, 2026
Mint importer, AI fix, blog, and Substack
- Mint CSV importer. Import your old Mint export file directly into Debt Payoff; reads your account list, you fill in current balances and rates, done in minutes
- AI game plan fixed. Resolved a CORS configuration issue that was preventing the AI briefing from reaching the server; working correctly now
- Extra payment slider. Slider now stretches to accommodate values sent from Budget; no longer gets stuck at the wrong position
- Budget sync callout. When Debt Payoff receives your available cash flow from Budget, it now shows a clear label explaining where the number came from
- Mint alternative landing page. Dedicated page at downslopefinance.com/mint-alternative for people looking for a Mint replacement
- Blog launched. Five articles live at downslopefinance.com/blog covering debt payoff, budgeting, and the Mint shutdown
- Downslope on Substack -- newsletter live at downslopefinance.substack.com
July 2026
Budget + Debt Payoff working together
- Downslope Budget. Companion app for paycheck forecasting, recurring bills, and spending tracking at budget.downslopefinance.com
- Two-way debt sync. Open Debt Payoff from Budget and your debts transfer instantly; log a payment in Debt Payoff and it appears in Budget automatically
- Log payment button. Record debt payments directly from the debt list in Budget, with a 5-second undo in case of mistakes
- Edit debts. Fix a debt name, rate, or type without deleting and re-entering
- Overage actions. When a spending category goes over, choose to increase its limit or cover it from another category with room
- Paycheck banner fix. "Before your next paycheck" now shows flexible spending remaining, not total committed spend
- Proactive copy. Rewrote all app copy to show you what is coming, not just what already happened
- Net worth tracker. New page to track assets vs. liabilities over time
June 2026
Launch
- Avalanche vs. Snowball. Side-by-side comparison showing total interest and payoff time for both strategies
- 0% Promo tracking. Tracks same-as-cash expiration dates with deferred interest warnings
- What-If scenarios. Model a raise, tax refund, or windfall and see how many months it saves
- Month-by-month schedule. Full amortization table for every debt
- Charts. Visual payoff progress and interest breakdown
- CSV import/export. Back up your data or move it between devices
- PWA support. Download and install Downslope on your phone, tablet, or desktop like a native app, no app store needed
- AI game plan. Get a personalized payoff strategy powered by Claude
- No account required. All data stays in your browser, never sent to a server
