Check it daily, briefly
A glance at the home screen once a day is enough. You are keeping in touch with the number, not staring at it.
Guide · The answers
Financial Runway and Future Sight.
These are the two forward-looking numbers most apps bury: how long your money would last at your current pace, and where your balance is heading. Simply Finance opens straight to them, because they are the numbers that actually answer the question you were worried about — and they are built entirely from your real income and spending, not a bank feed.
What Financial Runway means
Financial Runway is the single number Simply Finance was built around: how many months your money would last if you kept spending at your current pace and nothing changed. It takes what you have across your accounts and measures it against how fast you are actually spending, then answers in the unit that matters — time.
That framing is deliberate. A balance tells you what you have today; a runway tells you how long today lasts. It is the number that quietly lowers money anxiety, because once you can see it you stop guessing. Most apps can show you a balance and a pile of charts, but very few will just tell you how much runway you have.
How Future Sight projects your balance
Where runway answers “how long,” Future Sight answers “where.” It projects your balance forward from your real income and spending, so you can see the shape of the next stretch rather than only the number you are standing on today.
Because the projection is built from what you actually earn and spend — including the bills you know are coming — it reflects your life, not a generic average. If a big bill is due next week, you see the dip before it happens. If you are steadily ahead, you see the climb. It is a forecast made of your own data.
What drives the numbers
Both numbers are only as good as what feeds them, and three things do:
- Your accounts and balances — the money you have right now, across checking, savings, cards, and cash.
- The spending you log — the pace at which money is actually leaving, captured in about three seconds a time.
- Your recurring bills — rent, subscriptions, and utilities that you know are coming.
Recurring bills matter most for accuracy. The more complete your bills, the sharper your runway, because the app can account for money that has not left yet but certainly will. A runway that ignores next month’s rent is optimistic in a way that helps no one.
Get the inputs right
The logging and recurring bills guide covers how to log spending fast and set up bills so your forward-looking numbers hold up.
Reading your reports
Runway and Future Sight tell you where you are heading; reports tell you why. Simply Finance breaks your money down three ways: spending by category, income versus expenses, and your top transactions. Together they usually point at one or two categories doing most of the work — and once you can name them, you can do something about them.
Part of the unlock
Core tracking — accounts, budgets, logging, and your runway — is free. Detailed reports are part of the optional one-time $4.99 unlock, which also adds encrypted sync. There is no subscription.
Using the number without anxiety
The point of a runway is calm, not vigilance. A few small habits keep it that way:
React to the trend, not the day
Any single day can wobble — a big grocery run, a bill landing. What matters is the direction over a week or two.
Adjust when runway shrinks
If the trend is sliding, that is the signal to revisit a budget or two. The number tells you when to act, so you do not have to worry the rest of the time.
FAQ
How is runway calculated?
It is based on what you have across your accounts measured against your recent spending pace, then expressed as the number of months your money would last if that pace held. Recurring bills you have added are taken into account so the figure reflects money that is still to come, not just what has already left.
Does it need my bank?
No. There is no bank connection anywhere in Simply Finance — no Plaid, no login, no aggregator. The numbers are built from the balances you enter and the spending and bills you log yourself.
Are reports free?
Core tracking is free, including your runway and Future Sight. Detailed reports are part of the optional one-time $4.99 unlock, which also adds encrypted sync across your devices. There is no subscription and nothing renews.
Will it predict exactly what happens?
No — and it does not claim to. Future Sight is a projection built from your real data, not a guarantee. Life changes, and so will the number. Its job is to show you the likely shape of things so you can act early, not to promise a precise future.