ClearCheckbook has been growing and is quickly reaching the limits of our current server setup. To address this, we're doubling the memory for our database and increasing the number of CPUs that serve the site.

With the increased traffic we've been seeing, the site has had started exhausting its current resources. This expresses itself by the site running extremely slow or showing a timeout warning. We're doubling the amount of memory given to our database and are dialing in the increased number of CPUs required to help serve the site as quickly as possible.

There might be some more slowdowns in the site loading times while the database rebuilds its cache.

We look forward to ClearCheckbook's continued growth and all of the new features that ClearCheckbook V5 will bring.

We've added an extra layer of protection to your login with 2-Step Verification

2-Step Verification, or Multi-factor authentication (MFA), is a widely used method for securing your data online. The ClearCheckbook MFA is opt-in, meaning you can enable this if you'd like to add an extra level of security to your login.

Our MFA relies on you scanning a QR code through a security / authenticator app on your phone. Once done, the app will have an entry for ClearCheckbook and a 6 digit code that changes every 30 seconds. When you sign into ClearCheckbook, you'll provide your username and password and then you'll be asked to provide the 6 digit code before you're signed into your account.



You can enable MFA by signing into your account and then click on Settings at the top right side of the page. Next, click on the 2-Step Verification link. Scan the QR code on this page with the MFA app of your choice and then enter the 6 digit code provided by the app to verify setup and enable MFA.

There are many widely used authenticator apps available that you can use with our MFA setup. Some of the most popular are: Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy and LastPass Auth. Using our MFA will require you to have your mobile phone with you each time you manually sign into the site. Note: you won't be prompted to enter the 6 digit code if you have cookies enabled and remain signed into your account. The only time you'll be prompted for your MFA is each time you actually log in.

If you'd like to read more about what MFA is and why it's useful, check out these resources:

• https://authy.com/what-is-2fa/
• https://www.cnet.com/news/two-factor-authentication-what-you-need-to-know-faq/

We've added a new reconciliation tool if Jiving isn't for you.

While we still stand behind ClearCheckbook's established reconciliation tool, Jiving, we've had many users want a more traditional way to reconcile their bank statements by zeroing out to their ending balance by selecting the transactions that appear on their statement.

The tool we built to handle this is called Zero-Out Reconciliation and can be found by clicking on the " Reconcile" link in the Account Options box at the top right side of the Transaction Register. We moved a few links around and now have the Reconcile link next to the Credit Card payment tool, Search and Export links in the Tools line.



To quickly summarize how the Zero-Out Reconciliation tool works: you'll select an account, statement end date and the ending balance for the statement. Once done, the site will find all unjived transactions for that account. You'll select the transactions from the statement and at the end the difference between the ending balance and the selected amount should be zero.

Once you've zeroed out the statement, clicking the Reconcile button will jive all the transactions and save the statement details (with an optional memo) to your reconciliation history.

We wrote an extensive step-by-step guide that walks you through how to use the Zero-Out Reconciliation tool as well as provides some common issues and fixes for if your statement doesn't zero-out. This walkthrough can be found here: Zero-Out Reconciliation help (note: you must be logged in and have an active ClearCheckbook Premium membership to see this page / use the new tool)

Zero-Out Reconciliation Sample: The arrows point out a successfully zeroed out statement.

We're currently testing a new version of the ClearCheckbook iOS app that includes the Bill Tracker and Report tools plus many other fixes. If you're interested in helping us beta test the new version of the app please use the Contact Us form at the bottom right side of the page and send us an email containing the email address associated with your iTunes account.

The new version is simply an update to the existing version and will not remove any of your existing transactions or data.

Thanks!

Amazon, who hosts our javascript assets, is currently experiencing errors for the US-East-1 region of their network which is preventing some of our javascript files from loading. Due to this, it's preventing the Add Transaction functions from working as well. You can follow along with the status here as well: https://status.aws.amazon.com/.

We're working on temporarily moving all assets back to our own servers until this gets resolved.