Backups & Data Exports

Zerosum has two separate recovery and portability tools: automatic budget backups and GDPR data exports.

Overview

• Budget backups: server-side snapshots of budgets you own. Use them to restore a budget without uploading any files.
• Data exports: a portable JSON archive of your account and owned budgets, for your records or account portability.

ℹ️ Important: Restores are server-side only. Zerosum does not restore a budget from an uploaded file; restore actions use a server-side backup ID, so backup files cannot recreate trial access or bypass account boundaries.

Automatic budget backups

Automatic backups are created for budgets you own and stored in a private server bucket. Zerosum keeps the latest 7 automatic backups per budget.

1. Open Manage Budgets. Open the budget menu (your budget name at the top of the sidebar), then choose Manage Budgets. Owned budgets include rename, members, duplicate, delete, and backup actions.
2. Choose a budget. Select an owned budget to view its details and automatic backups. Shared budgets owned by someone else can only be opened or left.
3. Review backups. Backups appear in the details panel on desktop and in a drawer on mobile.

Restoring a backup

Restoring a backup creates a new budget from that snapshot. It does not overwrite your current budget, so you can review the restored copy before deciding what to keep.

1. Open Manage Budgets.
2. Select an owned budget to open its backup details.
3. Choose a backup and select Restore.
4. Confirm the restore name. Zerosum creates a separate restored budget.

💡 Tip: Because the restore is a new budget, you can compare it with your current budget and delete the restored copy later if you do not need it.

Backup downloads

Backup downloads are available for owned budgets. They are useful for personal records or support, but they are not import files.

• Download links are short-lived signed links and require owner authorization before they are generated.
• Downloading a backup does not expose any restore endpoint; restores still happen only from server-side backups.

GDPR data exports

A GDPR data export is a full account-level archive generated in the background. It includes your profile data, account metadata, activity, and full data for budgets you own. Shared budgets owned by another user are represented as membership metadata.

1. Request the export. Open Settings, go to the Data tab, then select Request Export.
2. Wait for the email. Zerosum queues the export and emails you when the file is ready.
3. Download while available. The Data tab shows recent exports; ready exports can be downloaded while they are still available.

• Email notification: you receive a private download link once generation finishes.
• Latest three: Zerosum keeps the latest three export records per user.
• Private links: export files are private and served through signed download URLs.

ℹ️ Important: Export files are available for 7 days from request time. Email download links expire after 24 hours, but you can return to the Data tab in Settings to generate a fresh signed link while the export is still available.

Security boundaries

• Automatic backup restores require ownership of the original budget.
• Shared budget members cannot download or restore someone else's backups.
• Budget backups exclude live bank-sync credentials and provider secrets.
• GDPR exports exclude security tokens, password hashes, and provider credentials.
• All backup and export files stay in private server storage.

Where to next

• Multiple budgets
• Settings