What Bureaucat is for
If you live in Spain and your Spanish isn't up to a letter from Hacienda, you already know the problem: official bodies write to you in formal Spanish, often to an electronic inbox you've never opened, and the clock is running whether you've read it or not. Ten days after a notification lands in your official inbox it counts as delivered, even if you never saw it.
Bureaucat is a Windows app that sits on your own computer and does four things:
- Checks your official inboxes (tax office, Social Security, the general government mailbox DEHú, your children's school) using your own digital certificate, and lists what's there with a countdown.
- Explains each letter in plain English: who sent it, what they want, by when, and what happens if you ignore it.
- Keeps every deadline in one calendar: quarterly VAT, income tax, Social Security, IBI, the annual accounts if you have a company, plus anything a letter asks for.
- Helps you reply: drafts in correct administrative Spanish with an English translation beside them, sent from your own email only after you press Send.
It is built for three kinds of people: individuals and families; the self-employed (autónomos); and owners of a small company (SL). The set-up wizard asks which you are and hides what doesn't apply.
What you need
| Windows 10 or 11 | 64-bit. A Mac version is planned; see limits. |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Edge | Already on every Windows PC. Bureaucat opens the official portals in Edge, in a window you can watch, exactly as you would yourself. |
| A digital certificate | The certificado digital de persona física from the FNMT, exported as a .p12 or .pfx file. This is what lets Bureaucat open your official inboxes. Optional to start: everything except inbox checking works without it. See how to get one below. |
| Your email login | Optional. Lets Bureaucat search the mailbox where your bank and gestor write to you, and send replies you've approved. Gmail works with an "app password" (switch on 2-step verification, then Security → App passwords); iCloud with an app-specific password from appleid.apple.com. Outlook.com / Hotmail don't work in this version: Microsoft only allows sign-in through its own login page now, which is coming in the next build. |
| An Anthropic API key | Optional. Powers the "Explain this" and "Draft a reply" buttons. Pay-as-you-go from console.anthropic.com; explaining a typical letter costs a few cents. Without it the app still checks inboxes, tracks deadlines and files documents. |
Getting a digital certificate (free, about a week)
- Go to
sede.fnmt.gob.es→ Certificados → Persona Física → Obtener Certificado Software and request it with your NIE. You'll receive a request code by email. - Prove your identity once: in person at a tax office, Social Security office or many town halls (book a cita previa), or by video identification from the same site.
- Download the certificate into the same browser you requested it from, within the time allowed.
- Export it from the browser (Settings → Certificates → Export) as a
.p12/.pfxfile with a password and keep that file somewhere safe. That file and password are what you give Bureaucat.
If you already use Cl@ve (PIN or permanent) you can keep using it for the sites yourself, but Bureaucat needs the certificate file to check your inboxes for you. Cl@ve on its own isn't enough.
Install on Windows
Download Bureaucat 0.4.0 for Windows
- Run the downloaded
Bureaucat-Setup-0.4.0.exe. If an older Bureaucat is installed, just run the new installer over it; your data is kept. - Windows will show a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen. Click More info, then Run anyway. Early-access builds aren't yet code-signed, which is all that warning means; the download is served only from this site.
- Choose where to install (the default is fine) and finish. A Bureaucat shortcut appears on your desktop and in the Start menu.
Only download Bureaucat from
bureaucat.olivetree.es. If you got the installer from anywhere else, delete it.First run: the set-up wizard
The first time Bureaucat opens it walks you through seven short steps. Only the second is required; everything else can be skipped and finished later from Settings, where there's also a "Run set-up wizard again" button.
- Welcome: what the app does and the three promises (local only, read-only, never sends without you).
- About you: individual/family, self-employed or company; your name, NIE or CIF, region and town; the other people in your household (or the company's administrators). This decides which deadlines appear in your calendar.
- Certificate: choose your
.p12/.pfxfile and type its password. The file stays where it is; the password is encrypted by Windows for your user account only. - Mailbox: your email address and password (or app password). Bureaucat tests the login immediately and tells you how many folders it can see.
- Your gestor: name and email of whoever does your taxes, if anyone. One click then finds all their emails.
- AI help: paste your Anthropic key if you want plain-English explanations and drafts.
- Done: a summary and the two things to do first.
A tour of the app
| Dashboard | What's overdue, what's due in the next 60 days, new notifications, open cases, and anything about your staff that an inspector would pick up on. |
|---|---|
| Notifications | Your official inboxes in one list. Sync logs into the tax office and DEHú with your certificate and pulls anything new. Each unopened item shows a countdown to the day it counts as delivered (10 calendar days; after that every reply period is running whether you read it or not). Explain turns it into plain English. Scan a letter: choose a PDF or a photo of a paper letter; Bureaucat reads it, tells you who sent it, what they want, the amount and the deadline, files the original in Documents and adds the deadline to the list. Needs the AI key. |
| Tax & SS calendar | Every recurring obligation for your situation, dated for the current year, with filed / paid / not-applicable ticks. Dates are already moved for weekends and for national and regional holidays (your region comes from the wizard). Where your own date differs — your town's IBI window, say — type it in and the app uses yours. Switch off anything your gestor handles or that doesn't apply. |
| People & RETA | Your household: each person with their TIE/NIE, passport, padrón, certificate and driving-licence dates. Anything expiring in the next 90 days shows on the Dashboard, and within 30 days in the daily alert. Load each person's own digital certificate here and Bureaucat checks their official inboxes too. Then, for employers, each worker's contract, hours and Social Security dates. |
| Documents & Drive | Your filing cabinet: letters, contracts, invoices, receipts, filed in categories on your own disk. Optionally linked to a Google Drive folder you choose. |
| Reports | Import bank statements — PDF extracts, CSV exports, or Norma 43 files (the format every Spanish bank can export from online banking) — and see where the money goes, by month and category. Press Always… next to any movement to teach it a rule ("anything containing MERCADONA is Supermarket"); your rules apply to every import from then on. With a key, asks the AI for concrete suggestions to balance the books. |
| Personal finances | Assets, debts, recurring costs, savings goals and a net-worth history. Nothing leaves your PC. |
| Private banking | Reads your bank's notification emails (returned debits, arrears, security and KYC requests) and turns them into a to-do list. |
| IBI, local taxes & embargo | Property tax, rubbish and vehicle tax by property, what's paid, what's expected, and any town-hall debt or embargo with its paper trail. |
| School | Circulars and messages from your children's school portal, in English, with the attachments. |
| Outbox (send) | Every email the app helps you write waits here. You read it, you can translate it, and it only leaves when you click Send and confirm. A copy of exactly what was sent is kept. |
| Gestor emails | Search the mailboxes you've added for anything from your gestor, the bank or an official body, and file attachments straight into Documents. |
| Cases & inspections | A file for any procedure with a deadline: a requerimiento asking for documents, an appeal against a fine, an embargo, a TIE renewal, or a labour/tax inspection. Each kind starts with its own checklist; then a document list, deadlines, a case log, AI explanations of what each item means, drafts in Spanish, and a dossier builder. Nothing is filed by the app: it prepares the folder and tells you where to take it. |
| Settings | Licence and updates, certificate (with its expiry date), AI key, Google Drive, mailboxes, background checks, advisers, backup export/import (optionally password-protected), your profile, and the set-up wizard. |
Background checks and the tray icon
Bureaucat keeps running next to the clock when you close its window. Every few hours (6 by default, Settings → Background checks) it lists your official inboxes with your certificate and, when something needs attention, shows one Windows notification a day: a new letter, a deemed-delivery countdown about to run out, a tax date or deadline within 3 days, or a document expiring within 30 days. Click the notification to open the list. Right-click the tray icon for Check inboxes now or Quit. If you'd rather it stopped when the window closes, untick "Keep running in the tray".
What it never does
- It never files, signs or submits anything to any public body. When something has to be filed it prepares the folder and tells you exactly where and how; a person does the filing.
- It never sends an email on its own. Every message waits in the Outbox for your click and a confirmation.
- It never uploads your data. There is no Bureaucat account and no Bureaucat server. The only things that leave your PC are the logins you set up yourself (your mailbox, the official portals with your certificate, Google Drive if you connect it) and, if you add a key, the text of a notice you ask the AI to explain.
- It is not legal or tax advice. It tells you what a letter says and when it's due; what to do about it is between you and, where it matters, a professional.
Where your data lives
- Settings and records:
%APPDATA%\Bureaucat\(type that into the File Explorer address bar). The records file is encrypted with a key that only your Windows user account on this PC can unlock; passwords, the AI key and the certificate password are protected the same way. Copied to another PC, those files are unreadable. - Documents and downloaded letters:
Documents\Bureaucat Archive\. - Your certificate file: wherever you saved it. Bureaucat only remembers the path.
Back-up: Settings → Backup → Export backup writes one readable file with everything you've entered (no passwords); keep it somewhere safe, and copy the Bureaucat Archive folder too. Move to a new PC: install Bureaucat, Import backup, copy the Archive folder across, then re-enter the passwords and the certificate. Uninstall: Windows Settings → Apps → Bureaucat; your folders are left for you to delete or keep.
Trial, licence and updates
- The first 14 days are free, with everything switched on. The remaining days show at the bottom of the sidebar.
- After that, Bureaucat asks for a licence key (Settings → Licence). Email us for one; it's a short code tied to your email address that works offline, no account needed. Your data is never locked away: the export button works even when the trial has ended.
- Updates download quietly in the background and ask before installing on restart. Settings → Licence → Check for updates checks on demand.
Early-access limits
This is version 0.1, built so that a handful of people can try it and tell us what's confusing. Be aware:
- Windows only, English only, and the installer isn't code-signed yet (hence the SmartScreen screen).
- Outlook.com, Hotmail and Live mailboxes need the "Sign in with Microsoft" button, which appears once our Microsoft app registration is approved; until then they can't be added. Gmail and iCloud work with app passwords.
- Early-access licences are issued by hand, by email, within a day.
- Official portals change their pages without notice. If "Check now" stops working, tell us and we'll fix it; nothing of yours is lost in the meantime.
- The School section is ready for circulars and messages, but no regional school portal is connected in this build yet (the Balearic Islands' GestIB is first in line).
Getting help
Email o@olivetree.es with what you were doing and what you saw. A screenshot helps; please don't send your certificate, passwords or the contents of a letter unless we ask.