AccountCache — Tutorials

1 First Launch & the Interface

What you'll learn: the three-column layout and how to navigate the app.

AccountCache opens in a three-column window:

Toolbar buttons

• + (New Account) — creates a blank account in the current category. Keyboard shortcut: ⌘N.
• Eye icon — toggles between showing active accounts only and showing all accounts including inactive and cancelled ones.
• Wallet icon — opens the Lost Wallet Report.

Menu bar

• File → New Account (⌘N) — same as the toolbar button.
• File → Import Passwords… (⌘⇧I) — opens the import wizard.
• Reports menu — access all four reports: Lost Wallet, Expiry Dashboard, Cost Summary, Account Health.

2 Categories

What you'll learn: the Basic and Pro category types, the built-in categories, and how to add your own.

Categories organise your accounts into groups. AccountCache has two types:

Basic categories

Basic categories use the standard account form only — name, login, password, URL, registration email, two-factor, security questions, expiry, billing, tags, and notes. Any category you create yourself is a Basic category.

AccountCache ships with several Basic categories pre-configured: Accounts (the general catch-all), Identity, WiFi, Social, Shopping, Streaming, Travel, Education, and Membership.

The standard form is more flexible than it looks — see Tutorial 5 for practical examples of what you can store with just these fields.

Pro categories

Pro categories add a specialist section below the standard form, with fields specific to that account type. AccountCache ships with ten Pro categories:

Adding a category

1. At the bottom of the category sidebar, click the + button.
2. Type a name and press ↩. AccountCache picks an icon automatically based on the name. The new category appears in the list immediately.
3. Drag any category row up or down in the sidebar to change its position.

Renaming or deleting a category

1. Right-click a category in the sidebar.
2. Choose Rename to edit its name, or Delete to remove it.
3. Deleting a category moves all its accounts to the first available category — no accounts are lost.

3 Creating Your First Account

What you'll learn: creating a new account and filling in the core fields.

1. Click + New Account in the toolbar (or press ⌘N). A new blank account is created and its detail panel opens on the right.
2. The Category dropdown opens automatically. Select the category this account belongs to — for example, "Email", "Financial", or one of your own categories. The form updates immediately to show any specialist fields for that category.
3. Focus moves automatically to the Account Name field. Type the name of the service (e.g., "Gmail", "Amazon", "Chase Bank"). The header at the top of the detail panel updates as you type.
4. Tab through the remaining fields or click each one to fill them in. All fields other than Account Name are optional.
5. There is no Save button. AccountCache saves your changes automatically when you select a different account or click away from the window.

4 The Account Detail Form

What you'll learn: every field in the standard account form and what it's for.

Identity section

Access section

Credentials section

Registration & 2FA section

Recovery section

Subscription section

Notes panel

The right side of the detail panel is a dedicated Notes area — free-form text for anything that doesn't fit elsewhere. It's always visible alongside the form, so you can take notes without scrolling.

Record info section

At the bottom of the form, AccountCache shows when the record was Created and last Modified, along with the name of the user who performed each action. These are set automatically and cannot be edited. When multiple people share a database, the user name tells you who last touched a record.

5 Basic Categories in Practice

What you'll learn: how to use the standard account form — and the Tags field — to store a surprising range of everyday records without needing Pro.

The standard form's Login, Password, and Expiry fields can represent far more than website credentials. With a few naming conventions and tags, Basic categories replace several types of information people usually scatter across notes apps, photo albums, and their own memory.

Identity documents

AccountCache ships with an Identity category for exactly this. Create one record per document. Put the document number in the Login field and the expiry date in the Expiry field. Use tags to distinguish whose document it is.

Once expiry dates are set, the Expiry Dashboard will warn you 60 and 30 days before a document lapses. Most people have never written their passport number anywhere they could find it at 11pm before a 6am flight — AccountCache is where it lives.

WiFi passwords

AccountCache ships with a WiFi category. Put the network name (SSID) in the Account Name field and the password in the Password field.

How many times have you been asked for the WiFi password and had to walk to the router? It's in AccountCache.

Using tags for grouping — not identity

Tags are best for ad-hoc grouping across categories — not for identifying whose account it is. For that, use user profiles (Tutorial 13). With profiles, each person owns their own records and can mark them private. Tags work across profiles for cross-cutting concerns like urgency or topic.

Search streaming to audit all streaming subscriptions before the next billing cycle. Search travel before a trip to pull up every account you'll need. Tags complement profiles — they don't replace them.

Other Basic categories that ship with AccountCache

6 Pro Specialist Fields

What you'll learn: the extra fields that appear when an account is in a Pro category.

When an account is in one of the ten Pro categories, a specialist section appears below the standard form with fields specific to that type. These sections are labelled in the form (e.g., "INSURANCE DETAILS", "WALLET").

Financial

Financial is the most structured Pro category. One record holds your complete relationship with a financial institution — the institution-level details, every login (one per cardholder), every product account (checking, savings, mortgage, RRSP…), and every physical or digital card. Card number, CVV, and expiry fields are masked by default. The Expiry Dashboard tracks card expiry dates automatically.

See also: the Lost Wallet Report (Tutorial 9) — it's driven by the Physical Wallet toggle on each card.

Email

Fields: IMAP Server, IMAP Port, IMAP Security (SSL / TLS / STARTTLS), SMTP Server, SMTP Port, SMTP Security. Fill these in with your email provider's server settings — they're what you'd enter into Apple Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird.

Domains

Fields: Registrar, Nameservers, Hosting Provider, Domain Expiry Date, DKIM Record, SPF Record, MX Records. Store the full DNS picture alongside your registrar login so everything needed to recover or move a domain is in one place. Domain Expiry feeds the Expiry Dashboard.

Software & Licences

Fields: Licence Key, Licence Expiry, Seat Count, Platform (macOS / Windows / cross-platform / web). The Licence Key is masked by default. Licence Expiry feeds the Expiry Dashboard.

Hosting & Servers

Fields: Server IP, SSH Port, Control Panel URL, Datacenter. For web hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers. Pair with the standard form's Login and Password fields for a complete server record.

AI & APIs

Fields: API Key, API Key Label (e.g., "Production"), Organisation ID, Base URL, API Version, Models, Usage Tier, Monthly Limit, Usage Dashboard URL, MCP Transport, MCP Server URL, Webhook URL, Webhook Secret. API Key and Webhook Secret are masked by default.

Medical Insurance

Fields: Plan Type (Medical / Dental / Vision / Prescription / Supplementary), Insurer Name, Member ID, Group Number, Payer ID, Plan Name, Deductible, Out-of-Pocket Max, Copay, Coverage Start Date, Renewal Date, Claims Phone, Insurer Website. Renewal Date feeds the Expiry Dashboard.

Crypto Wallet

Fields: Blockchain / Network, Wallet Software, Wallet Address (with copy button), Seed Phrase, Private Key, Notes. Seed Phrase is displayed with a red lock — the most prominent lock treatment in the app — to signal that it must never be shared. Both Seed Phrase and Private Key are hidden until explicitly unlocked.

Vehicle

Three sub-sections in one record:

• Vehicle: Make, Model, Year, VIN, Plate Number, Province / State, Registration Expiry.
• Auto Insurance: Provider, Policy Number, Expiry Date, Claims Phone, Roadside Assistance.
• Financing: Lender, Account Number, Monthly Payment, Payoff Date.

Registration Expiry and Insurance Expiry both feed the Expiry Dashboard separately.

Insurance

For home, auto, life, disability, tenant, umbrella, and travel policies. Fields: Policy Type, Provider Name, Policy Number, Agent Name, Agent Phone, Annual Premium, Renewal Date, Coverage Amount, Deductible, Claims Phone, Policy Document (file path or URL). Renewal Date feeds the Expiry Dashboard.

7 Searching Your Accounts

What you'll learn: finding accounts quickly with the search bar and the search results popover.

The search bar

1. The search bar is in the left sidebar, above the category list. Click it or press ⌘F to focus it.
2. Start typing. Results appear immediately in the centre panel — the account list switches to showing matching accounts across all categories.
3. Press Escape or clear the search field to return to category browsing.

Search options

While searching, a small options button (⚙) appears next to the search field. Click it to open the search options popover:

• Search Name Only (checked by default) — matches only the account name field. Uncheck to search all text fields including notes, login, URL, and tags.
• The popover can be resized horizontally by dragging the right edge, and the results list height can be adjusted by dragging the handle at the top.

Search results popover

When you have a category selected and type a search, a floating popover appears showing matching accounts from all categories. Click any result to jump directly to that account — AccountCache will switch the sidebar to that account's category and highlight it in the list simultaneously.

8 Account Status & the Physical Wallet

What you'll learn: marking accounts as inactive or cancelled, and tracking which cards are in your wallet.

Account status

Every account has a status. Use it to track the lifecycle of your accounts without deleting them:

The account list hides inactive and cancelled accounts by default. To show them, click the eye icon in the toolbar. The status badge appears next to the account name in the list for any non-Active account.

To change an account's status: open the account detail, find the Status field in the Identity section, and pick a value from the dropdown.

Physical wallet tracking

Wallet tracking lives on individual cards in the Financial category. Each card has a Physical Wallet toggle, a Wallet Tag, and checkboxes for Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.

1. Open a Financial account and scroll to the CARDS section.
2. Find the card you carry in your wallet and turn on Physical Wallet.
3. Optionally enter a Wallet Tag — a short label like "Main wallet" or "Travel wallet" to distinguish which physical wallet holds that card.
4. If the card is also in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, tick those checkboxes.

All cards with Physical Wallet enabled appear in the Lost Wallet Report. See Tutorial 9.

9 Reports

What you'll learn: the four built-in reports and when to use each one.

All reports are in the Reports menu in the menu bar. Each opens as a separate sheet.

Lost Wallet Report (⌘⇧W)

Shows every Financial card you've marked as "in physical wallet." Each entry displays the institution name, cardholder name, card type, network, last four digits, wallet tag, and the institution's emergency phone numbers — domestic and international. Use this if your wallet is stolen: open the report and you have every number you need to cancel and replace your cards, in one place, in under a minute.

The report includes the date and time it was generated. Use the Print / Save as PDF button in the report to save a copy for emergencies.

Expiry Dashboard (⌘⇧E)

Shows everything with a date that matters, sorted by urgency:

• Expired — the date has already passed.
• Critical — expires within 30 days.
• Soon — expires within 90 days.
• OK — more than 90 days from now.

The dashboard pulls from every date field across all Pro categories: subscription renewal dates, domain expiry, software licence expiry, card expiry, vehicle registration, vehicle insurance, medical insurance renewal, and insurance policy renewal. If there's a date attached to an account, it appears here.

Click any row in the Expiry Dashboard to jump directly to that account.

Cost Summary (⌘⇧K)

Shows the total cost of all your accounts that have a subscription cost entered. Displays a monthly total, an annual total, and a breakdown by account. Use this to audit subscriptions and find ones you've forgotten about.

Click any row to jump directly to that account to update or cancel it.

Account Health (⌘⇧H)

Analyses your accounts and flags potential issues:

• Weak password — short or simple passwords.
• No two-factor authentication — accounts without 2FA enabled.
• Password not recently changed — accounts where the password hasn't been updated in over a year.
• Inactive subscriptions — accounts marked as Inactive with a subscription cost.

Click any row in the Account Health report to jump directly to that account and make improvements.

10 Importing from Other Apps

What you'll learn: importing accounts from a password manager or spreadsheet.

Use File → Import Passwords… (⌘⇧I) to open the import wizard. AccountCache supports six file formats.

Supported formats

Import steps

1. Choose File → Import Passwords… (or press ⌘⇧I).
2. Click Choose File… and select your export file. AccountCache detects the format automatically.
3. If your file has column headers (most password manager exports do), AccountCache goes straight to the Preview step — you'll see a table showing the first few records that will be imported.
4. If your file has no column headers (common with Excel exports built manually), the Column Mapping screen appears first. A sample of your data is shown. Use the dropdown menus to assign each column to the right field (Account Name, Login, Password, URL, Notes). Account Name is required; the others are optional. When you're satisfied, click Preview Import.
5. In the Preview step, choose which category to import into using the Import into picker.
6. Decide whether to Skip duplicate accounts (recommended if you've already imported once — prevents the same account appearing twice).
7. Click Import N Accounts to complete the import.
8. The Done screen shows how many accounts were imported, how many were skipped as duplicates, and any errors.

11 Upgrade Plans

What you'll learn: what Basic includes, what Family and Home Office add, and how to purchase.

Basic — Free

The Basic tier is free with no time limit and no credit card required. It includes one user profile, unlimited basic accounts, all four reports, CSV import, encrypted backup and restore, and iCloud sync across all your Macs.

You can import your entire password manager export and use AccountCache as a full-featured account directory forever without paying. Basic is not a trial.

Family — $29.99

The Family plan adds up to 5 user profiles and unlocks all ten Pro specialist categories — Financial, Email, Domains, Software, Hosting, AI & APIs, Medical Insurance, Crypto Wallet, Vehicle, and Insurance. Each profile can have its own PIN; visibility controls let each person keep private records private.

1. Open Settings (⌘,) and go to the General tab.
2. Click Unlock Family — $29.99. The App Store processes a single one-time payment using your Apple ID.
3. After purchase, the status card shows a green confirmation. Profiles and Pro categories are available immediately.

Home Office — $49.99

Home Office raises the profile limit to 10 users and includes everything in Family. It is a standalone one-time purchase — Family is not required first.

1. Open Settings → General and click Unlock Home Office — $49.99.
2. The App Store processes the one-time payment. The profile limit increases to 10 immediately.

Restoring a purchase

1. Open Settings → General.
2. Click Restore Purchases. AccountCache queries the App Store and restores your entitlements on this Mac.

12 Settings Reference

A guide to every setting in AccountCache.

Open Settings with ⌘, or via the AccountCache menu. There are seven tabs.

General tab

• Plan status card — shows your current plan (Basic / Family / Home Office) and the Unlock and Restore Purchase buttons.
• Currency — the default currency for subscription costs shown in reports. Change this if you track costs in a currency other than USD.
• New Record Visibility — the default visibility applied when you create a new account (Open, Shared, or Private). You can override per record. Only meaningful when more than one user profile is active.
• Backup & Restore — export an encrypted backup of your entire database, or restore from a backup file. See Tutorial 14.

Security tab

• App Lock — requires Touch ID or your Mac login password to open AccountCache after the app has been in the background.
• Auto-Lock timeout — how long the app can be inactive before it locks automatically. Options range from 1 minute to 1 hour, or "require on every launch."

Users tab (admin only)

Visible only when you are logged in as an administrator. If this tab is missing, click the avatar icon in the toolbar to return to the profile picker and select your admin profile.

• User list — shows all profiles with their role (Admin / Member) and status (active / inactive). The count header shows how many profiles you're using against your plan limit.
• Add User — create a new profile. Disabled and replaced with an upgrade prompt when you've reached your plan's profile limit.
• Edit — change a user's display name, colour, or admin status.
• Deactivate — prevents the user from logging in. If they have private records, you choose to make them shared, transfer them to another user, or delete them. A profile must be deactivated before it can be deleted.
• Delete — permanently removes a deactivated profile. Only available after deactivation.

Sync tab

• Enable iCloud Sync — turns on CloudKit sync. Every change on this Mac is pushed to iCloud and pulled to your other Macs automatically.
• Sync status — shows whether the last sync succeeded, is in progress, or has an error (e.g., no iCloud account signed in).
• Shared Access (Family and Home Office) — lets you share your database with people on different Apple IDs. Click Create Share Link to generate an invitation. Send the link to the person; they open it and accept. The link and a Copy button remain visible so you can re-copy it at any time. If you are a participant (you accepted someone else's share), this section shows "Connected to [Name]'s shared database" and a Disconnect button. See Tutorial 13 for the full sharing workflow.

Appearance tab

• Theme — choose from several colour themes. Themes change the accent colour used throughout the interface.
• Font size — adjust the text size in the account list and detail form.

Accessibility tab

• Reduce motion — disables animations and transitions throughout the app.
• Larger tap targets — increases the size of interactive controls for easier clicking.

Intelligence tab

• Engine status — shows which AI engine is active: Apple Intelligence (on-device, macOS 26+) or OpenRouter (your own API key).
• OpenRouter API Key — enter your own OpenRouter key to enable AI features on macOS 25 and earlier, or when Apple Intelligence is off. Your key is stored only on this Mac.
• Model — optionally override the default model. Leave blank to use the recommended default.

13 User Profiles & Sharing

What you'll learn: setting up named user profiles, switching between them, setting PINs, controlling who can see which records, and sharing your database with people on different Apple IDs.

How profiles work

AccountCache uses a household profile model — like Mac login accounts or Netflix profiles. Each person has their own named profile and can mark records as private so only they (and admins) can see them.

All profiles share one database. Open and shared records are visible to everyone; private records are visible only to the owner and admins.

There are two ways to share your database, depending on whether everyone uses the same Apple ID:

First launch — creating the admin profile

On first launch, AccountCache creates an admin profile from your Mac username and logs in automatically. If you are the only user, nothing else is needed.

Adding profiles (Family or Home Office plan)

1. Log in as admin and open Settings → Users.
2. Click Add User.
3. Enter a display name (e.g., "Vicky") and choose a colour. Optionally toggle Administrator to give this profile full access.
4. Click Add User. The new profile appears in the list and on the user picker screen.

Switching profiles

1. Click the avatar icon in the top-right of the toolbar. This signs you out and returns to the profile picker.
2. The picker shows all active profiles as avatar circles. Click any one to switch to it.
3. If a profile has a PIN set, AccountCache prompts for it before switching.

Setting a PIN on a profile

1. Log in as the profile you want to protect.
2. Open Settings → Security and turn on Profile PIN.
3. Enter and confirm your PIN. The PIN is required whenever another user switches to this profile.

Record visibility

Every account record has a visibility setting in the detail panel:

New records default to the visibility set in Settings → General → New Record Visibility. Change it per record any time.

Deactivating and deleting a profile

Profiles must be deactivated before they can be deleted. This two-step process ensures any records owned by that profile are handled before the profile is removed permanently.

Step 1 — Deactivate

1. Log in as admin and open Settings → Users.
2. Hover over the profile and click Deactivate.
3. If the profile owns any private records, AccountCache asks what to do with them: make them shared, transfer to another profile, or delete them permanently.
4. The profile is marked inactive and disappears from the profile picker. Its open and shared records remain visible to everyone.

Step 2 — Delete

1. Once deactivated, hover over the profile again in Settings → Users.
2. Click Delete. The profile is permanently removed.

Cross-account sharing — different Apple IDs (Family and Home Office)

Cross-account sharing lets people on entirely different Apple IDs access your database. You generate a one-time share link; they accept it on their own Mac. Their records go into your database zone. If you share with Vicky and she creates an account, it lives in your iCloud zone — not hers.

Creating a share link (admin only)

1. Log in as admin and open Settings → Sync.
2. In the Shared Access section, click Create Share Link. AccountCache generates a CloudKit share invitation URL.
3. Click Copy Link and send it to the person you want to share with — via iMessage, email, AirDrop, or any other method.

Accepting a share link (participant)

1. Open the share link on your Mac. AccountCache opens and prompts you to accept the invitation.
2. Click Accept. AccountCache connects to the owner's database zone and begins syncing.
3. In Settings → Sync, you'll see "Connected to [Owner's] shared database" with the owner's name shown.
4. Open and shared records from the owner's database appear immediately in your account list.

What participants can and cannot do

Disconnecting from a shared database

1. Open Settings → Sync.
2. In the Shared Access section, click Disconnect from Shared Database.
3. AccountCache removes the connection and clears its local copy of the shared data. Your own local records (if any) remain.

14 Sync, Backup & New Mac Migration

What you'll learn: iCloud sync across your Macs, encrypted backup export, and how to move to a new Mac.

iCloud sync — free (same Apple ID)

AccountCache syncs your entire database — accounts, categories, user profiles, and specialist fields — across all your Macs using iCloud. All Macs share the same Apple ID.

1. On each Mac, open Settings → Sync.
2. Turn on Enable iCloud Sync. AccountCache creates a private zone in your iCloud account and begins pushing data immediately.
3. On additional Macs, turn sync on the same way. Data appears within seconds.

Encrypted backup — export

An encrypted backup is a portable, self-contained snapshot of your entire database, sealed with a password only you know. It has no expiry, needs no iCloud, and can be moved anywhere: USB drive, AirDrop, a folder on your desktop.

1. Open Settings → General → Export Backup…
2. Enter a backup password and confirm it. This password is separate from your profile PIN — write it down somewhere safe.
3. Click Choose Location…. Pick where to save the .accountcachebak file.
4. AccountCache creates a clean snapshot of the database and encrypts it. The process takes a few seconds.

Encrypted backup — restore

1. Open Settings → General → Restore from Backup…
2. Click Choose Backup File… and select your .accountcachebak file.
3. Enter the password you used when exporting.
4. Tick I understand this will replace all current data and click Restore.
5. AccountCache decrypts the file, validates it, and replaces the live database. You are returned to the profile picker.

Moving to a new Mac

You have two options — choose the one that fits your setup.

Option A — iCloud Sync (recommended if already using sync)

1. On the new Mac, install AccountCache from the App Store and sign in with the same Apple ID.
2. Open Settings → Sync and turn on Enable iCloud Sync.
3. AccountCache pulls your database from iCloud. All accounts, categories, and user profiles appear within a minute or two depending on database size.

Option B — Encrypted backup (no iCloud required)

1. On the old Mac, export an encrypted backup (see above) and copy the file to the new Mac — USB drive, AirDrop, or any method you prefer.
2. On the new Mac, install AccountCache from the App Store and open it.
3. Open Settings → General → Restore from Backup… and restore from the file you copied.
4. Your complete database — all accounts, profiles, and settings — is restored immediately.