Frequently asked questions

No. Tap Continue offline on the first screen and you can start logging straight away. Everything is stored on your device and the app works with no connection at all.

An account is free, and it is what adds backup and sync, so nothing is lost if you change phone. You can create one later and your existing data comes with you.

Two things do need one: shared groups, because other people have to be able to see them, and using your data on a second device.

On the first screen, the Create your free account tab is open. Enter your email and a password (at least 8 characters), then tap Create free account — or tap Continue with Google / Continue with Apple. Check your inbox for a confirmation link, then sign in.

Open the app, choose Sign in, and enter the same email and password (or Continue with Google/Apple). Your transactions, budgets, and goals sync down automatically once you're signed in.

Tap Add on the bottom bar. Speak it, scan a receipt, or just type it ("coffee 80") — and Enter details manually is there if you would rather fill the form in yourself. SpendSmart AI fills in the amount, category, and date — review and save.

Three, all from the same box on the Add screen. Type it in plain language ("zomato 485") and tap Add →; tap the microphone in that box to speak it; tap the camera to scan a receipt (Pro). Typed, spoken and scanned entries all show a review card before saving. Prefer to fill in the fields yourself? Tap Enter details manually underneath.

On the Add screen, tap Enter details manually below the input box. Enter the Amount, pick the Currency and Category, set the Date and Payment method, add a Description (and optional Merchant/Note), then tap Add expense. Manual entries don't use AI and have no monthly limit — transactions are unlimited on every plan.

On the Add screen, type naturally into the box — e.g. "zomato 485", "coffee 80", "ola 220" — then tap Add →. Review the parsed card (edit anything that's off) and tap ✓ Save. Free accounts include 10 smart entries per month — after that, typing still works in a basic mode.

On the Add screen, tap the microphone inside the input box, say the expense (e.g. "coffee eighty"), then tap again to stop. Review the card and tap ✓ Save. Voice works in the app and in Chrome or Edge on the web. Free accounts include 5 voice entries per month.

Receipt scanning is a Pro feature. On the Add screen, tap the camera inside the input box, then Take photo or Choose from gallery. SpendSmart AI reads the merchant, date, and amount, and you review the card before saving. For best results use a clear, well-lit photo.

Tap the transaction anywhere it appears (Home → Recent, or the Transactions list). On its detail screen, tap Edit to change any field and Save changes, or Delete to remove it.

Tap the search icon at the top of the Home screen (or the search bar on the Transactions screen) and search by description, merchant, category, amount, or date. Results filter as you type.

Yes. On iPhone, open Settings → Siri & Shortcuts in the app for a short guide: you'll create a Shortcut that dictates your expense and opens SpendSmart AI, so you can say "Hey Siri, Add to SpendSmart" and speak it (e.g. "coffee 80"). On Android, touch and hold the SpendSmart AI app icon on your home screen and tap "Speak an expense" to jump straight to voice entry. Either way you review the parsed card before it's saved — nothing is logged automatically.

Yes, and you do not need a group for it. On the expense, open Split with others and add the people who were on the bill along with what each of them owed. The app keeps your share separate from the total, so your own spending figures stay accurate while the record still shows what the bill actually came to.

Search finds a split by either figure, the full amount or your share. If you split with the same people regularly, a group is the better fit: it keeps a running balance and works out who pays whom.

A template is a spend you repeat, saved so that logging it takes one tap. Create one in Settings → Templates: give it a label and a category, and either fix the amount or leave it blank to be asked each time.

Your templates then appear as chips on the Add screen. Tapping one opens the composer already filled in, so all you do is check it and save. Templates work for income as well as expenses, and they are free on both plans.

Yes. On the entry form, switch Expense to Income and pick an income category. Income categories are kept separate from spending ones, so a salary can never land in a spending report by accident.

Reports show Spent, Income and Net side by side. Income is deliberately left out of budget calculations, because a budget is a limit on what goes out.

Open the Reports tab and choose the Budget view. Set an overall Monthly budget, or under Category limits tap a category, Set an amount, then Save. Free accounts can keep up to 3 budgets; Pro is unlimited.

In Reports → Budget, tap the budget row, then Edit. Change the amount and Save, or tap Remove to delete it.

When you turn on Roll over unused budget for a budget, any amount you didn't spend carries into the next month's limit (it never carries a negative). Use it for categories where leftover should accumulate.

Use the ‹ and › arrows at the top of Reports → Budget to move between months. Budgets are planned ahead, so you can move forward as well as back. On the free plan you can look back 12 months; Pro unlocks your full history.

In Reports → Budget, scroll to Savings goals and tap + Add a goal. Enter a name, a target amount, how much you have already saved, and an optional target date, then tap Add goal. Goals are free for everyone.

Tap the goal, choose Edit, update the Saved amount, and Save. When you reach the target, the goal shows a reached 🎉 badge.

Once you set an overall Monthly budget, Home shows what you can spend per day for the rest of the month. It takes your budget, subtracts what you've already spent, and then sets aside any recurring expenses still due this month — so the figure is what's left after your bills, not before them. If those commitments already use up what's left, it tells you that instead of showing a number that would only mislead you.

Open Settings → Recurring and tap + Add recurring. Set the amount, the category, whether it is money going out or coming in, the Frequency (daily, weekly, monthly or yearly) and the date it next falls due. It logs itself on every due date, so rent, a subscription or a salary only has to be entered once.

The free plan includes 3 recurring rules, counting bills and income together. Pro removes the limit.

On the Recurring screen, tap the Active/Paused pill on a row to pause or resume it. A paused rule stops logging but keeps everything it has already logged. To remove it, open the row and tap Delete this recurring entry.

This works the same way for income rules as it does for bills.

On phones, SpendSmart AI reminds you on the day a recurring expense is due — at 9 AM by default — and logs the expense automatically on its due date. You can change that time, or turn the reminder off, in Settings → Reminders. Reminders are a phone feature; the web app shows alerts in the in-app bell instead.

Yes. When you create the rule, choose Income instead of Expense. It logs itself on its due date exactly as a bill does, so a salary, a retainer or rent you receive only has to be entered once.

Income rules share one allowance with bills: the free plan includes 3 recurring rules in total, and Pro removes the limit. Only outgoing rules are held back against Safe to spend, because money you have not been paid yet cannot be spent.

Open the Reports tab. It has three views. Month shows your Spent / Income / Net totals, a category breakdown donut, a daily-spending grid and a 6-month trend; tap any category to see the transactions behind the number. Year shows the same picture across the year. Budget holds your monthly budgets and savings goals. Use the ‹ › arrows to change the period.

It's the insight card on the Home screen, below your month summary. Pro accounts get an AI-written narrative of the month's spending, while free accounts get a quick automatic insight. Home shows one card in that spot at a time, so an urgent alert or a month-end warning can take its place. It's built from a privacy-safe summary of your activity — never your raw account or bank data.

From the Reports tab or Settings → Export, tap Export CSV to download all your transactions as a spreadsheet (free), or Export PDF report for a formatted summary of the current month (Pro).

Go to Settings → Import from statement and choose your file. An OFX, QFX or CSV file is read right there on your device and shown for review. A PDF is sent for AI parsing instead, and free accounts get 1 of those per month. Either way, uncheck anything you don't want and fix any category before you tap Import selected.

Rows that look like ones you already have are flagged Possible duplicate and left unchecked, so they won't be added unless you tick them. Low-confidence rows are flagged Check this so you can review the category first.

Never, and most files are not sent anywhere in the first place: an OFX, QFX or CSV statement is read entirely on your device. A PDF does have to be sent for AI parsing, and it is not stored — only the transactions you choose are saved. Files up to 10 MB, and the first 500 rows are imported.

OFX, QFX and CSV files are read entirely on your device: nothing is uploaded, and no plan limits how many you import. If your bank offers OFX or QFX, that is the one to export. A PDF has to be sent for AI parsing, which uses one of the free plan's monthly imports (Pro is unlimited). When a CSV's columns can't be worked out on their own, you'll be asked to confirm which column is which before anything is read.

Your home currency is set from your Country when you start. To change it, go to Settings → Currency and pick from the full list (search by name or code).

If you have no data yet, it just switches. If you already have transactions, you'll confirm a conversion rate, and your amounts are re-expressed at that rate — each transaction keeps its original foreign amount, so nothing is lost.

While adding (in the review card or the Manual form), tap the Currency field and choose the currency. If it differs from your home currency, enter the amount your bank charged in your home currency — SpendSmart AI estimates it from today's rate, and you can edit it to match your statement.

When you log an expense in a currency that is not your home currency, the app converts it and stores both figures, with the rate fixed at the moment you saved it. A rate that moves later never rewrites something you have already recorded.

Settings → Saved exchange rates lists the rates you have saved for a currency pair. They are used to fill in new foreign entries, so you can keep the rate your card actually charged you rather than a market one. Removing a saved rate affects only future entries.

Free covers everyday tracking: unlimited transactions, 10 smart (typed) entries a month, 5 voice entries a month, 3 budgets, 3 recurring bills or income rules, 3 shared groups, your last 12 months of history, and CSV export. Statement files in OFX, QFX or CSV are read on your device, so nothing limits how many you import; a PDF needs AI parsing, and Free includes 1 of those a month.

Pro removes every one of those limits and adds receipt scanning, AI monthly insights, PDF reports, full history and priority support.

Open Settings → Subscription and tap Upgrade (or upgrade from any prompt), then choose Monthly or Yearly. On the web you'll check out securely in your browser, and in the mobile app you'll pay through the App Store or Google Play.

Pricing is localized to your region, so you pay a fair local price rather than a flat US rate. The upgrade screen (and your app store) shows your exact price, and the yearly plan costs less per month than monthly.

If you subscribed in the mobile app, cancel from your App Store or Google Play subscriptions. If you subscribed on the web, open Settings → Subscription → Manage to reach the billing portal. You keep Pro until the current period ends.

In the mobile app, open the upgrade screen and tap Restore purchases to re-check your App Store / Google Play history. If you're signed in on a new device, make sure you've signed into the same account you subscribed with.

Go to Settings → Subscription → Manage. On the web this opens the billing portal (update card, view invoices, cancel), while in the mobile app it opens your store's subscription management.

Refunds are handled by wherever you paid: the App Store or Google Play for in-app purchases, or the web billing provider for web subscriptions. Follow that platform's refund process, or contact us and we'll help point you the right way.

Your records live on your device first, so the app is fast and works offline. When you are signed in, your data also syncs automatically and securely to your account, so it is backed up and available on your other devices. SpendSmart AI never asks for your bank login: you add expenses by typing, speaking, or snapping a receipt.

Shared groups are the one exception. A group belongs to everyone in it, so it lives on the server rather than only on your device. Your phone keeps a readable copy, so balances and expenses are there with no connection, but adding or changing something in a group needs you to be online. Nothing outside a group is ever visible to another member.

Yes. Once you're signed in, changes sync to your account in the background. If you're offline, your changes are saved on the device and sync the moment you're back online. Signing out stops syncing on that device (your cloud copy is kept).

No — never. SpendSmart AI doesn't connect to your bank or ask for bank credentials. You add spending by typing, voice, or a receipt photo, and the AI fills in the details.

Export from Settings → Export (CSV anytime, PDF for Pro). To remove everything, use Settings → Delete all local data (clears this device and your cloud data, keeps your login) or Delete my account (permanently deletes your account and all data everywhere).

Delete all local data wipes your transactions, budgets, and goals (and your cloud copy when you're signed in) but keeps your account so you can start fresh. Delete my account permanently removes your account and all of your data everywhere — it can't be undone.

Go to Settings → Profile → Display name, type a new name, and tap Save. It's used for the greeting on your Home screen.

Go to Settings → Country. Your country sets your currency, payment methods, and date formatting — it's display-only and never converts your saved amounts.

Go to Settings → Appearance → Theme and choose Dark, Light, or System. System follows your phone's own light/dark setting and changes with it.

Go to Settings → Security → Set a PIN and enter a 4-digit PIN twice. You can later Change PIN or Turn off the lock, and on phones you can unlock with biometrics. Note: the lock is a local deterrent — it doesn't encrypt your data.

Go to Settings → Account → Sign out, then confirm. Signing out removes your transactions, budgets and goals from this device — they stay in your account and come back when you sign in again, on any device. If you are offline with changes that have not synced yet, the app warns you before you continue.

On the Sign in screen tap Forgot password?, enter your email, and we'll send a reset link. Open it to set a new password and you'll be signed in.

Go to Settings → Account and tap Create free account (or continue with Google/Apple). Your existing data stays attached to the same identity, so nothing is lost when you link an account.

On phones, open Settings → Reminders. There is a master switch plus one for each reminder: a midday check-in if you haven't logged anything yet, a streak reminder in the evening once a streak is worth protecting, and a recurring due reminder on the day a recurring expense falls due. Each has its own editable time. Budget alerts appear inside the app rather than as a notification. Reminders are scheduled entirely on your device — nothing is sent to a server, and they work offline. The section is phone-only; on the web, alerts appear in the in-app bell.

The app is in English for now — more languages are coming.

Yes. Open Settings → Categories, tap New category, then name it, pick an icon, and choose whether it is for spending or for income. It appears everywhere the built-in categories do, including budgets, reports and the suggestions the AI makes.

You can rename or delete your own categories at any time. Deleting one asks what should happen to the transactions already filed under it, so nothing disappears without you deciding where it goes.

Open Settings → What's new. It shows the notes for the version you are running, with earlier updates listed underneath, and a dot appears on the row when there is something you have not read yet.

A note only appears once your app has actually received the update it describes, so you will never read about something you cannot find yet.

Open Settings → Progress → Achievements. You will see everything there is to earn: logging streaks, months finished at or under your budget, the first time you use each way of adding an expense, bills and income you set to repeat, splitting a bill or adding a group expense, and milestones for how many entries you have logged.

Badges you have not earned yet are shown too, dimmed, with how close you are. Achievements are free for everyone, they are worked out from your own records rather than stored, and once earned they are never taken away.

Voice needs on-device speech: in the app, turn on Siri & Dictation in your device settings and allow microphone access. On the web, use Chrome or Edge (Firefox and iPhone Safari don't support it). Then tap the mic, speak, and tap again to stop.

Use a clear, well-lit, flat photo with the whole receipt in frame, and try again. Receipt scanning is a Pro feature — if you're on Free, you'll be prompted to upgrade.

Make sure you're signed in with the same account on both devices and connected to the internet — sync runs automatically and resumes when you're back online. The dot at the top of the Home screen shows sync status.

Double-check your email and password, or use Forgot password? to reset. If you just signed up, confirm your email first using the link we sent. For Google/Apple sign-in, retry and make sure you pick the account you registered with.

Use the month arrows at the top of Home, Budget or Reports to move between months, or find it in the Transactions list or Search. On the free plan, history older than 12 months is hidden until you upgrade. If you deleted it, it's removed permanently.

Open Settings → Help. Send feedback opens a short rating-and-comment form, and Contact support opens your email app with your app version already filled in so we can help faster. The same section has FAQ & Help and Tips & tricks, which jumps straight to the getting-started answers.

Everyone in that group. A group expense is a shared record: every member can see it, and any member can edit or delete it, including people you added by name who have not made an account yet, once they claim their place.

Anything outside a group stays private. Your own transactions, budgets, goals and settings are never shown to other members, and creating a group does not expose any of them.

The link runs one way. Your share of a group expense is copied into your own list so your budgets and reports are right, but nothing in your own list is ever copied into a group.

Deleting your account does not remove a group's history. Your name stays on the entries you were part of so the other members' balances stay correct, and your account is detached from them.

Yes. Add them by name and they are on the bill straight away. They do not need an account, and you do not need their email or phone number.

If you want them to see the group later, open People, tap Invite, and share the link however you like. It opens a page showing what they owe and lets them claim their place. You can revoke a link at any time and it stops working immediately.

You can create three groups on the free plan, with unlimited people and unlimited expenses inside each one. Pro removes the limit.

Being invited to someone else's group never counts against your three, however many you join.

Open the group and look at Settle up. It shows the fewest payments that clear everyone, rather than making each person pay each other person separately.

Pay outside the app, however you normally would, then record it. If you were the one paying, tap I paid; that is a claim, and it does not change any balance until the person you paid confirms it. If you were the one paid, tap Mark paid and it counts straight away.

The app never handles money and never asks for payment details.

You can look at them. Your phone keeps a copy of the last update, so balances and expenses are readable with no connection.

Adding, editing or settling anything needs you to be online. A group is shared with other people, and a change made on a phone that cannot reach them would overwrite whatever they did in the meantime.

The rest of the app is fully offline, as it always has been. This applies to groups only.

A group uses one currency, and the first expense you add decides it. It is not taken from your home currency, because the person creating the group is often not the one who pays first.

After that, expenses in a different currency are not included in the group's balances. If you need to track a trip in two currencies, use two groups.

Your own home currency is unaffected. Where a group's currency differs from yours, your share is shown with an approximate conversion beside it.

Your share of anything already on the bills stays exactly as it is, so nobody else's balance changes. Your name stays on those entries too, otherwise the remaining members would be looking at a column of blanks.

What goes is your access. You will not see the group any more, and your account is no longer linked to it.

If you created the group, it passes to the person who joined earliest and still has an account. If you were the last member with an account, the group closes.

Because somebody added a bill you were on, and your part of it belongs in your own records.

When an expense is added to a group, each member's share is written into their own list as an ordinary entry. It is your share that is stored, never the whole bill, so your budgets, reports and monthly totals are right without you copying anything across by hand. It carries the date the money was actually spent, so a bill added a week late still lands in the week it happened.

Tap it and it will tell you which group it came from and who added it. Nothing you enter yourself is ever sent to a group.

You can change how it is filed, not what it says.

The amount, the date and the description belong to the group, so they stay in step with the bill. If one of them is wrong, it needs fixing in the group; open the entry and you will find a link straight there, and a way to ask whoever added it.

Its category is yours. If the person who paid filed a team dinner under Entertainment and you track it as Food, change it here and it stays changed, even when they edit the bill again later. That matters because the category is what decides which of your budgets it counts against. Its payment method is yours in the same way.

Deleting is refused for the same reason: the bill still exists and you are still on it.

The entry tells you. A bill that has been changed since you last looked shows who changed it, and the note clears the moment you open it. There is nothing to dismiss.

Open it and you will find the full history: who changed what, when, and what the value was before, including how the split moved and what your own share went from and to. That record is permanent.

If the bill is dated in an earlier month, the notification says so. Changing a bill from three months ago moves that month's totals, and nothing on the screen you are looking at would otherwise change at all.

Yes. When you add a group expense, choose to split by items instead of evenly, then put each line of the bill against the people who had it. Tax, tip and service are shared out in proportion to what each person's items came to, rather than equally, so nobody pays tax on a meal they did not eat.

Anything nobody is assigned to falls to whoever paid, and the screen says so. The parts always add up to the bill exactly; if the lines do not match the total, the app says what is missing instead of quietly rounding it away.

You can type the lines in on any plan. Scanning the receipt so they fill themselves in is a Pro feature.

It is settled up, so it has been folded out of the way. A group is hidden once everybody is square and it has been quiet for two weeks; the list shows a button naming how many are hidden, and tapping it brings them back for as long as you are on the screen.

Nothing is deleted and nothing is archived. Adding an expense or recording a payment brings a group back on its own.

A group you owe money in, or that owes you, is never hidden however long it has been quiet.