Questrade's Balance Sheet shows your net worth inside the Questrade app. Your Questrade accounts load on their own, and your other banks join through a sign-in handled by Flinks or Wealthica. It's free for Questrade clients, and it shows Questrade every account you link to it. Its privacy policy lists your net worth among what it collects and lets it use your information to market its products.* Balance Sheet also stops updating whenever one of those bank sign-ins breaks. NBU builds the same picture from the statements you download yourself, once a month.
What does Questrade's Balance Sheet track?
Assets, debts and net worth in one view, in the mobile app only. Your Questrade accounts are added automatically. You can connect chequing, savings, investment, credit card, mortgage and loan accounts from other Canadian institutions, and Questrade even adds an estimated home value through Zolo, which is a nice touch. Questrade says it's free and available to existing clients, and that you can't add an account by uploading a document or filling in a form.*
Is Questrade's Balance Sheet safe?
It's read-only, and that's the part Questrade stresses. When you connect another bank, a window from Flinks or Wealthica opens and you sign in to that bank there. Questrade says those services "use read-only access, so they can read account information to build your Balance Sheet but cannot move your money."*
Read-only isn't the same as keeping your login to yourself, though. For each outside bank, you sign in inside that Flinks or Wealthica window, and the service then reads the bank for Questrade. Some Canadian banks' own agreements say the loss is yours if you share your banking password, which I went through in budgeting in Canada without giving an app your bank password.
Why is Questrade's Balance Sheet not updating?
Usually because a bank connection needs you again. Questrade's guide says connections "can break when you change your bank password, when your bank requires you to sign in again, or when your bank requires two-factor authentication," and the fix is to tap Reconnect on that account. It also says some smaller institutions, like local credit unions, may not be available at all.*
Every app in Canada that reads your other banks has the same problem. With no open banking in force yet, it gets in by signing in as you, so every password change or new security step breaks the link.
Why I keep my bank logins to myself
I churn brokers as well as cards. Some years I find transfer offers worth 1% or 2% of what you move in, and lately 3% offers have started to show up. I only take the ones that lock the money in for 12 months. Some brokers want two years or more, and I pass on those. So I usually have accounts open at several brokers and banks at once. Linking all of them to an app would mean handing over a pile of passwords, then doing it again every time I open a new account. I don't give any app my banking login, a broker's included. I download statements, and NBU does the tracking. The longer story is in why I built my own YNAB alternative.
There's also what Questrade learns. Its privacy policy lists your assets, liabilities and net worth among the information it collects, including data from aggregators you direct it to, and says it may use your information to tell you about products and promotions and to decide which ones you qualify for. In October 2026, it was offering a cash bonus of up to $1,000 for funding accounts with new money.* A Balance Sheet that shows Questrade where the rest of your money sits is useful to Questrade too. You can withdraw consent to cross-promotion between its affiliates and unsubscribe from its promotional emails. NBU doesn't put you in that position: there's no NBU account to pull your money into, no referral fee on any card it shows you, and no sale of your data.
Is NBU a good alternative to Questrade's Balance Sheet?
Yes, if you want your net worth and your spending without linking your banks. Each month, every bank's statement goes in as a CSV or PDF, and Valerie categorizes what's in it. When you close the month, you confirm each account's balance, and when a PDF statement prints one, NBU shows it so you can accept it in one click. Your net worth then comes from figures you checked, not from a live link. There's nothing to reconnect, because nothing logs in anywhere.
You also get what a balance sheet can't show you: where the money went. NBU sorts every transaction into categories, a budget is optional on each one, and it tracks each credit card's welcome offer from the same statements. When it suggests a card, it only counts a bonus your normal spending can reach. The monthly ritual is free, one card's welcome offer included, and Plus covers every card for $6 a month, or $60 a year if you switch at checkout. Prices are in Canadian dollars on the pricing page.
What NBU doesn't do yet
NBU doesn't estimate your home's value. Questrade fills it in through Zolo. In NBU, you type the value in yourself and update it when you like.
NBU also doesn't refresh balances during the month. They update when you import that month's statements. We're looking at sync as an option, and if it ever comes, it will go through Canada's regulated open banking and never ask for your banking password.
Using Questrade and NBU together
Keep Questrade for investing, which is how I use it. Add your Questrade accounts to NBU's net worth next to your banks and cards, and update their balances when you close each month. Your investments then sit in the same picture as your spending, and no app holds your other banks' logins.
* Everything about Balance Sheet, including what it connects, Flinks and Wealthica, read-only access, Zolo, why connections break and the price, was read on Questrade's guide, Connecting your accounts to Balance Sheet in the Questrade app. Its information practices were read in its privacy policy, and the cash bonus in its October offer terms. All read on 2026-10-19. These pages change, so check them before you decide.