Guides
Plain-English explainers.
Useful regardless of whether you use CentProof. We write these to be the page we wish we'd read first when researching this problem — not as marketing dressed up as content.
Getting better answers from Ask CentProof
6 min readThree new opt-in upgrades to the local AI search — smart merchant matching, conversational follow-ups, and one-question comparisons — plus the pop-up that shows the exact transactions behind any answer, each linked to its source PDF page.
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Tracking 1099 business expenses on your Mac, without the cloud
9 min readThe 30-minute setup, the 15-minute monthly workflow, and the 1-hour tax-time workflow for solo workers who want Schedule C-ready books without giving an app their bank password or paying per-seat SaaS pricing.
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PDF statement formats by bank — why every one looks different
9 min readA field guide to how seven major US banks lay out their monthly PDFs. The historical reasons each one diverged, what's the same underneath, and the parsing quirks each one ships with.
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How to reconcile a bank statement (without spreadsheets)
8 min readWhat reconciliation actually means, the only formula you need to remember, and three different ways to do it depending on how much typing you want to do.
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Five questions to ask before you give an app your bank password
7 min readA plain-English checklist for evaluating any personal-finance app that wants to log into your bank. Useful even if you decide to keep using what you have.
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What's actually in a bank PDF statement
8 min readInside the document every bank sends you each month: structure, reconciliation math, and why this format is the basis for CentProof.
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