Could I get some app recommendations?
I used to use spending tracker to keep a rough idea of where I was. It was all manual input so at times I wasn’t the best at updating it but generally I could sneak it in my work routine no problem (our process was generally 2-3 minutes of downtime inbetween…
I used to use spending tracker to keep a rough idea of where I was. It was all manual input so at times I wasn’t the best at updating it but generally I could sneak it in my work routine no problem (our process was generally 2-3 minutes of downtime inbetween a minute of active work). Well that changed and I can no longer keep up with it so I haven’t tracked where we are in months. Furthermore, as it was a transaction ledger type system I would generally categorize by retailer but that doesn’t track what was actually bought, (example if I got cleaning supplies, a Lego set, a pair of pants for my kid, and a gallon of milk it would all just be Target, household-$xx.xx). 95% or so of my spending is fine through my debit cards so I don’t mind linking them unless there’s downsides, the main con against this is the occasional time delay between when a transaction is made and when it hits the account. What I’m looking for will probably require multiple apps but im looking for tracker that’s not so time intensive but that I can program automatic transactions into. Also something I can scan a receipt into and organize it into categories so that I can see what I’m actually spending on not just where. Thank you for your time
Collected discussion
As far as I'm aware, no app will have access to actual itemized purchaae data
I understand, that’s why I was asking about uploading a receipt
I understand that, that’s why I was asking about uploading a receipt
That sounds like it checks off a lot of boxes. I haven’t seen the pricing yet but I would much rather pay a fee than a subscription
Monarch has worked for me as a transaction and account tracker. It can do a lot of stuff and I just confirmed it does have a split transaction option. This gives you the ability to split any transaction as many times as you want so you can categorize them as different things like half grocery and half gifts from one purchase. There is also a "Receipts" feature which lets you forward receipts and Monarch matches them to transactions, and "Retail Sync" which lets you sync Target and Amazon purchases to their transactions. I haven't tried any of these but they might do what you want. Monarch is a yearly paid app, but personally I am quite happy with the value. Mint was free and awesome, but Monarch is already better than Mint was back in the day.
Sounds like you want itemized breakdowns of the different items on your receipt. The reason this doesn’t exist is because that info doesn’t travel on the Visa or Mastercard network. The only info available is the merchant (you shopped at Target) and the amount (you spent $50). So your bank never sees the item info. You could try doing multiple transactions at checkout. Pay for all your clothes in one transaction, then all your groceries in another card swipe.
For the receipt-scan and auto-categorize combo without linking every account: Copilot Money (iOS, paid) does bank linking plus smart categorization well if you're fine connecting cards. If you want manual entry with receipt scanning specifically, look at expense trackers built for freelancers and small business (Expensify, Fyle) — a bit overkill in places, but the OCR is solid and free tiers exist. For the multi-app reality you're describing (scan, categorize, program recurring transactions), the setup a lot of people land on is bank-linked for the 95% that's automatic and manual/CSV import for the messy 5%, rather than hunting for one app that does everything. That single-app search is usually what burns the most time.
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