Frequently asked questions

Last updated: September 26, 2026

What is ZBee?

ZBee™ is a Mac app that answers one question: how much can I safely spend in retirement? It models your accounts, taxes, Social Security, and longevity to estimate a sustainable spending level. It is a measurement and planning tool, not financial advice — see the Disclaimer.

Who makes ZBee — and why should I trust it with my money?

ZBee is built by one independent developer and sold by ZBee LLC, with a real person answering support@zbee.app. You don't have to take our word for anything: the math is published step by step in the methodology, the app is notarized by Apple, and your holdings are never stored on ZBee's servers — there's no server of customer financial data to breach (see Privacy). You get 30 days with the whole app before you pay anything, and Pro carries a 30-day money-back guarantee. Who builds ZBee — and why — is answered plainly on the About page.

Is ZBee free?

For 30 days, entirely — every feature, on your own money, with no account and no card. The quickest start is to connect a brokerage read-only, or drop in a screenshot or statement of your holdings; you can also add them by hand. From those, ZBee gives you your safe yearly spend, with the tax worked out year by year, a thousand simulated markets and a replay against every real market since 1928. All of that is worked out on your Mac.

After 30 days your plan becomes read-only. Everything you entered stays and stays visible, and you can still export it as a PDF or CSV — nothing is ever deleted. What stops is changing it: edits, recalculating your safe spend and brokerage sync need ZBee Pro.

ZBee Pro is what keeps the plan current after the window: editing, recalculating your safe spend and brokerage sync switch back on, so the number keeps tracking the portfolio you have now rather than the one you had when the 30 days ended. It's the same app you evaluated — nothing added, nothing withheld; what you subscribe for is that it keeps updating.

How much does Pro cost?

$132/year. It renews annually and you can cancel any time; your Pro access runs until the end of the period you've paid for.

Can I try ZBee Pro before committing?

That is exactly what the first 30 days are. There is nothing to unlock and nothing held back: connect a brokerage, import a statement, see this year's spending rails and your floor coverage, export the report — all of it, on your own money, without an account or a card.

If you subscribe and change your mind, the 30-day money-back guarantee still applies on top: email us within 30 days of paying for a full refund, no form and no reason needed. Cancelling deletes nothing — your plan stays on your Mac, readable and exportable.

What do I need to run ZBee?

A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later), running macOS 11 or later. Intel Macs are not supported: the app is a native Apple silicon build, so it will download but won't open on an Intel Mac.

Not sure which you have? Choose Apple menu › About This Mac. A Chip line (Apple M1, M2, M3 or later) means ZBee runs. An Intel Processor line means it won't.

Is there an iPhone, iPad, or Windows version?

ZBee for Mac (Apple silicon) is where you connect your accounts: it reads what you actually hold and works through state income tax, Medicare surcharges, and required withdrawals, year by year. A free ZBee app for iPhone and iPad is on the App Store: a quick, private estimate of your safe yearly spend after federal tax, running entirely on your phone — no account, and nothing passing through our servers. There's no Windows version today; Why only Mac? explains the focus.

Which of my accounts can ZBee connect to?

Brokerage and retirement accounts, through a specialist financial-data provider (SnapTrade), read-only; your holdings flow between your Mac and SnapTrade rather than through ZBee's servers. Coverage is broad but not universal; a few firms, mainly the big wirehouses and some workplace plan providers, can't be reached by any provider. Those positions still get in easily — take a screenshot of the holdings page, or print it to a PDF, and drop it on ZBee's import window (with your permission it's read by Claude, Anthropic's AI, and checked on your Mac; ZBee keeps no copy), open a CSV export, or enter them by hand — and the engine treats them identically, so an account that won't connect is no barrier to a complete plan.

Banks aren't connectable, and that's a deliberate choice rather than a missing feature: bank-aggregation services all work by routing your account data through their servers and ours, which ZBee's live connections are built never to do. It's a fair trade — a bank balance is a single slow-moving number you already know, so entering it takes seconds, while a brokerage account's positions, prices, and maturities genuinely earn a live connection.

Do I have to connect my brokerage?

No. Connecting is the convenient path — positions read in and kept current without re-typing — but it's never required. If you'd rather not link your accounts, take a screenshot of any holdings page — your brokerage's website, a workplace 401(k) portal, anything you can see on your screen — or print the page to a PDF when the list is too long for one screen, and drop it on ZBee's import window. With your permission it's read by Claude, Anthropic's AI, and checked on your Mac, no copy is kept, and ZBee shows exactly what it found for you to check before anything imports — bond ladders, funds, and fractional shares included. You can also open a CSV export or enter positions by hand; however they arrive, the engine treats them identically.

How do I install it?

Download the disk image (the Download button on the homepage), open it, and drag ZBee to your Applications folder. Then open ZBee from Applications rather than from the disk image's window, so it can keep itself up to date. ZBee is notarized by Apple, so it opens normally with no security workarounds: the first time, macOS asks whether you're sure you want to open an app downloaded from the internet, and you click Open.

Why did macOS say "Background Items Added"?

Versions of ZBee released in September and early October 2026 added a once-a-day background check. Current versions don't run in the background at all, and updating ZBee removes it.

How do I activate Pro after I pay?

When you subscribe, checkout opens in your browser. After payment, return to ZBee — it usually activates within a few seconds, and your plan carries straight on from where it is: everything you entered stays, with editing, recalculation and brokerage sync available (or back, if your 30 days had run out). If it doesn't activate, leave it open a moment while it finishes.

I paid, but ZBee hasn't switched to Pro.

It usually activates on its own within a minute. Leave ZBee open (it keeps checking) or quit and reopen it — once your payment clears, Pro turns on automatically. Your plan sits safely on your Mac in the meantime, exactly as you left it — nothing is ever deleted. If it still hasn't activated after a few minutes, email support@zbee.app from the address you paid with and we'll sort it out.

Is there a licence key or activation code to keep?

No — there's nothing to copy, store, or lose. ZBee activates itself right after you purchase, and your billing email is the only thing you ever need to prove the subscription is yours. If ZBee asks you to confirm it, we send a 6-digit code to that address.

Can I use ZBee on more than one Mac?

One Mac at a time, and you can move it whenever you like. Install ZBee on the other Mac, choose Restore purchase, and confirm your billing email with the 6-digit code we send. ZBee Pro moves to that Mac, and the Mac that had it becomes read-only (its plan stays there) until you move it back. The same steps cover replacing a Mac or reinstalling macOS.

How do I cancel?

Any time, any of three ways: in ZBee, open File → Subscription… → Manage billing… to reach the billing portal and cancel there; on the web at billing.stripe.com, signing in with your billing email (no Mac needed); or email support@zbee.app and we'll cancel it for you. Your Pro access continues until the end of the period you've already paid for.

Can I get a refund?

Yes — ZBee Pro comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If it's not right for you, email support@zbee.app within 30 days of a charge and we'll refund it in full and cancel your subscription. After 30 days, you can still cancel any time to stop future charges (you keep Pro through the end of the period you've paid for). ZBee also gives you 30 full days with everything before you pay, so you can judge the whole product first.

What information leaves my Mac?

ZBee stores your financial data on your Mac and never on its servers. When you connect a brokerage, your holdings flow between your Mac and your brokerage through SnapTrade, the read-only financial-data provider ZBee uses, which handles what it reads under its own privacy terms. A screenshot you choose to have read passes through our server and Cloudflare to Claude, Anthropic's AI, and ZBee keeps no copy. If you add your own free Tiingo key, your Mac asks Tiingo directly for the closing prices of the tickers you entered; our server never sees the key, the tickers or the prices. The app also sends our server a few signals that carry no financial data: a launch count and, during the 30-day evaluation, a few yes/no milestones tied to a scrambled ID for your Mac. The built-in Privacy & Data screen shows exactly what's stored and what leaves; the Privacy Policy has the full detail.

Does ZBee see my brokerage password or my holdings?

No. Connecting a brokerage goes through a specialist financial-data provider (SnapTrade), so ZBee never receives your login, and the connection is read-only. Your holdings are never stored on ZBee's servers. For most brokerages you sign in on the brokerage's own page, so SnapTrade never sees your password either. A few, Vanguard and Webull among them, have no such sign-in: SnapTrade's window asks for the password itself. ZBee doesn't support those, but it can't hide them from that window, so if you sign in to one your password does reach SnapTrade. ZBee then deletes the connection straight away. Add those accounts by import or by hand instead.

How do I delete my data?

Open Privacy & Data → Delete account & data. That erases ZBee's data on your Mac and, for Pro users, disconnects your brokerage, cancels your subscription, and deletes your records from our server.

Is ZBee financial advice?

No. ZBee shows estimates based on the information you provide and general assumptions; it is not investment, tax, or financial advice. Verify anything important with a licensed professional — see the Disclaimer.

Does ZBee plan for a surviving spouse?

Yes. ZBee models survivorship — the single-filer tax brackets and the lost Social Security benefit that make a surviving spouse's years the tightest — and turns longevity into a planning horizon you can reason about, instead of a number you pull from the air.

I'm retiring before I claim Social Security. Will the gap years read as trouble?

No — ZBee counts the income you haven't claimed yet. Retire at 63 and claim at 70, and those seven years draw hard on savings; a tool that measures spending against your portfolio alone reads that as danger and trims, as though the lean stretch were permanent and the benefit were never coming. ZBee measures against what the whole plan can pay out: your benefit is part of the plan from the first year, a bridge reads as a bridge, and your spending steps up when the income actually starts.

This also makes the opening number one you can hold: it's measured against the plan, not against a portfolio that is supposed to shrink — so it isn't quietly walked back as the years pass.

Does ZBee do Roth conversions, tax-loss harvesting, or other tax strategies?

It models a Roth-conversion plan you enter, and it won't recommend one. Enter a plan (a fixed amount converted from tax-deferred to Roth each year over an age range) and ZBee shows what it does to your safe yearly spend, your lifetime tax and what you leave behind; the year-by-year table also shows how much more income fits in each year's tax bracket. What ZBee won't do is tell you whether to convert, or how much. That's deliberate: ZBee measures what your situation supports and doesn't recommend restructuring it. Choosing a conversion amount, asset-location moves and tax-loss harvesting are strategies that depend on facts ZBee doesn't hold (your estate goals, future tax law, risk tolerance) and are the kind of advice a CPA or CFP is licensed to give. For decisions you control (when to retire, when to claim Social Security, how much to leave behind), the Trade-offs screen measures how each choice moves your safe yearly spend, without telling you which to pick. See the methodology for how conversions are taxed.

How do I get help?

ZBee has a built-in help assistant — the ZBee Bot. Click Ask ZBee at the foot of the sidebar and ask how anything in the app works in plain language; it answers from ZBee's help and points you to the right topic. It's free for everyone, only the question you type is sent (never your holdings, balances, or numbers), and it helps you use the app — it doesn't give financial advice. For anything it can't answer, email support@zbee.app.