Log at the moment of spending
Enter it as you pay, before you have put your phone away. Three seconds now beats trying to remember it tonight.
Guide · Everyday use
Log spending and track recurring bills.
Almost everything Simply Finance can tell you rests on one small habit: logging what you spend as you spend it, in about three seconds. Get that habit and the recurring bills tracked, and the forward-looking numbers take care of themselves. Here is how to make logging effortless and keep your subscriptions on a leash.
Logging a transaction
This is the one move the whole app is built around, and it is short: tap to add a transaction, type the amount, pick a category, and save. That is it — about three seconds, most of it spent tapping in a number. There is no merchant lookup to wait on and no field you are required to fill.
Because nothing is pulled from a bank feed, there is nothing to reconcile afterward. What you enter is the record — no pending charge that changes tomorrow, no duplicate to merge, no guess about which category an import belongs to. You logged it, so you know it is right.
Making it a habit
The trick is not discipline, it is timing. Log in the small moment you already have — while the card is still in your hand — and it never becomes a chore you have to catch up on.
Check the home screen daily
Glance at your runway once a day. Seeing the number respond to what you logged is what makes the habit stick.
Catch up guilt-free
Miss a few? Add them whenever you remember. There is no feed to fall out of sync with and no penalty for a gap.
Tracking recurring bills
Some spending does not need logging every time because it repeats on a schedule: rent, utilities, streaming, memberships, that app you subscribed to once. Add these as recurring bills and Simply Finance keeps them on a list and reminds you before each one is due.
When a bill comes around you confirm it with a tap if it landed, or skip it if it did not — so the record stays honest without guessing on your behalf. Recurring bills also feed into your forward-looking numbers, which is what makes those projections worth trusting.
There is a quieter benefit, too. Writing your subscriptions down in one place is the fastest way to find the one you meant to cancel months ago and have been paying for ever since.
See where it leads
Recurring bills shape your Financial Runway and Future Sight — the guide covers what drives each number.
Why manual entry is the point
It is fair to ask why an app in 2026 would have you type spending in by hand. The short answer is that automatic feeds trade one small cost for several larger ones. Feeds break and go silent for days. They double-post the same charge. They guess a category and guess it wrong, and you end up cleaning up an import instead of understanding your money.
Manual entry has none of that. There is no broken connection to troubleshoot, no duplicate to reconcile, and no miscategorized import to fix. But the real reason is simpler: you notice your spending because you are the one entering it. The three seconds is not overhead — it is the moment of awareness, and that awareness is most of what changes how you spend.
FAQ
Isn't manual entry tedious?
Logging a transaction takes about three seconds — an amount, a category, a save. And the small friction is the point: entering it yourself is the moment you actually notice what you are spending, which is most of what makes tracking work.
What if I forget a day?
Nothing breaks. Add the transactions whenever you remember — there is no bank feed to fall out of sync with and no penalty for a gap. Catching up is just a few quick entries.
Can I import a CSV?
Yes. Simply Finance supports text and CSV import if you want to bring over balances and history for a head start, even though it is built primarily for fresh, deliberate tracking.
Do bills get logged automatically?
No — you confirm or skip each recurring bill with a tap. The app reminds you before one is due and you decide whether it landed, so the record stays accurate instead of assuming a charge happened.