Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms Northmark uses. Words with a dotted underline around the site link here — the one you followed arrives highlighted.
- Encrypted at rest
- Protected where it's stored, not just while it travels. Everything you do in Northmark already travels over an encrypted connection — that's the padlock in your browser. Encryption at rest goes further: the most sensitive pieces, like the digital keys that let Northmark talk to your bank, are also scrambled where they sit on our servers — so even someone who got hold of the stored files couldn't read them.
- Immutable record
- A record that only ever grows — nothing in it gets scribbled out. When you edit or delete something in Northmark, the old information isn't erased; the change itself is written down and kept. That's why a deleted account can be brought back, and why every total can be traced to the exact transactions behind it. You can change your data freely — what's permanent is the trail of what changed.
- Net worth
- Everything you own minus everything you owe. Northmark adds up your account balances — debts like credit cards and loans count against you — plus the current value of any property you've added, to give one number for where you stand today.
- Pending
- Money that's spoken for but hasn't moved yet — a check you've written that hasn't been cashed, a card payment that hasn't gone through. Northmark keeps pending items separate from your balances and history; when the money actually moves, you confirm the item and it becomes part of the record. Nothing pending is ever quietly mixed into what really happened.
- Plaid
- The service Northmark uses to connect to banks — the same one behind many well-known finance apps. When you link an account, you sign in on your bank's own page through Plaid; Northmark receives your balances and transactions, and never sees or stores your bank username or password. Plaid is its own company — you can learn more at plaid.com.
- Planned
- Money you expect to move in the future — rent on the first, a paycheck every other Friday. Plans power your budgets and projections, but a plan is never counted as money that has moved: it stays a plan until the matching real transaction arrives.
- Projection
- Where your balances are headed if your plans happen as expected. Northmark starts from today's actual balances and plays your planned income and bills forward — so you can see next month before it arrives, and spot an account that's going to run low while there's still time to act.
- Reconciling
- In most budgeting tools, the recurring chore of making the app's balance agree with your bank's — hunting for missed transactions, or typing in a made-up “adjustment.” Northmark never asks you to do this: connected accounts show your bank's own balance directly, and every total is added up from the transactions themselves, so there's no separate number to keep in line.