Turn this on and your password stops being enough on its own: signing in also takes a 6-digit code from an app on your phone. Setup takes a couple of minutes. Here’s how to switch it on, when you’ll be asked for a code, and what to do if you lose the phone.
Open Preferences under Settings and find the Two-step verification panel. Press Enroll authenticator, then give it a name you’ll recognize later, like iPhone or Work phone. We show a QR code: open your authenticator app and scan it. If scanning isn’t an option, copy the setup key underneath and type it in instead.
Your app starts showing a 6-digit code that changes every 30 seconds. Enter the one it’s showing right now to confirm, and two-step is on. Any authenticator app works (Google Authenticator and 1Password are two common ones), and you can add a second one from the same panel if you keep a backup phone.
As soon as two-step is on, ExpenseGhost gives you 10 recovery codes and won’t let you move on until you’ve saved them. Each one works once, in place of the code from your app. Copy them, download them, or print them.
That screen is the only time you’ll see them. We keep a scrambled copy so we can check a code when you use one, which means we can’t read them back to you afterward. The panel shows how many you have left, and you can make a fresh set of 10 there whenever you want. New codes cancel the old set immediately.
Save them somewhere other than that phone. If your codes only live on the phone running your authenticator, losing the phone loses both at once.
Every time you sign in. After that, ExpenseGhost asks again only before a short list of actions: linking a bank or card and disconnecting one (both covered in bank connections help), managing card payments on your invoices, sending 1099-NEC forms to the IRS, making a new set of recovery codes, turning two-step off, and closing your account.
Everyday work is never interrupted for a code: reviewing transactions, uploading receipts, sending an invoice, and closing a month all run as usual.
Without two-step, the actions in that same list ask for your password instead. Enter it once and they stay unlocked for 10 minutes, then the next one asks again. Anyone else who has that password can sign in too, so you can turn two-step on whenever you like.
At sign-in, enter one of your recovery codes where the 6-digit code goes. That signs you in and uses that one code up. Then open Preferences under Settings, remove the old authenticator (a recovery code works there too), and enroll the one on your new phone. Nothing else about your account moves: your books, receipts, and bank connections stay exactly as they were.
A recovery code stands in for your app at sign-in, when removing an authenticator, and when closing your account. The other checks listed above need a live code from the app, so those stay out of reach until the new phone is enrolled.
Nothing in the app can let you back in, and the in-app support page is behind sign-in too. Email support@expenseghost.app instead. We check that it’s really you before taking the old authenticator off the account, and once it’s off you can sign in and enroll a new one.