How Budwisea works

1. Get started

The first launch shows a short onboarding. Nothing is sent anywhere — every screen writes to your device only.

2. The idea behind Budwisea

Budwisea isn't an expense tracker — it's a zero-based planner. Every month you decide up front where your income goes. Three categories cover everything:

The chip at the top of the Month tab tells you exactly what to do:

3. The Month tab

The Month tab is where you plan. It always shows one specific month.

Header

At the top you see the greeting, and below it a month bar with ‹ and › to jump between months. Tap the month name to open the month picker — a year-based grid where you can pick any month or jump to Current month.

Balance card

The big number at the top is your current balance for this month (income − expenses − saving). Below it, a hint tells you what to do next.

Three sections

Below the balance you see three collapsible sections: Income, Expenses, Saving & Transfers. Each section shows:

• The section total on the right
• Your entries for the month
• A ＋ Add income / expense / transfer row at the bottom
• A small i button next to the title with a short explanation of what belongs there

Row anatomy

Each entry row shows the label with an emoji, the amount, and small markers:

Reorder entries

Once a section has more than one entry, a small ⇅ button appears next to the section title. Tap it to open the reorder sheet, then drag entries by the ☰ handle into the order you want. The new order applies to the whole series if the entry is recurring, so future months follow suit. The same reorder pattern is available for your labels under More → Manage labels.

Donut chart

Once you have entries, a Where does your money go? donut appears at the bottom, breaking down your expenses and saving by label. Everything after the top 7 slices is bundled as Other. If part of your income isn't planned yet, an additional Not planned yet slice appears in a neutral, dashed colour — a visual reminder that there's still money without a job.

4. Adding & editing entries

Tap any ＋ Add … row in a section (or an existing entry to edit it). A sheet slides up from the bottom.

Fields in the entry sheet

Saving & Transfers specifics

In the Saving section the sheet gets two extras:

• Transfer target — pick an account or goal. Chips let you choose directly, or tap ＋ New to create one on the spot.
• Deposit ＋ / Withdrawal − — a segmented switch. Deposits move money into the account; withdrawals take it out.

Saving, deleting, editing

Every sheet has Cancel · Delete (only when editing) · Save in the bottom bar. Toast confirmations appear at the bottom of the screen.

5. Recurring entries

Fixed costs like rent, subscriptions or a monthly salary shouldn't need re-entry. Tick Recurring (automatically every month) in the entry sheet and the entry becomes a monthly template.

Recurring entries show a small ↻ marker in the row. When you edit or delete one, the app asks whether you want to change:

• Only this month — the entry is suppressed in this month only; other months keep it.
• Whole series (from here) — the entry is removed from this month and every future month.

6. Accounts & goals

An account is a bucket that simply collects a balance. A goal is an account with a target amount — you see progress and a forecast.

Creating one

Two ways:

• From the entry sheet: tap ＋ New in the Account / goal chips.
• From More → Manage accounts & goals → ＋ New.

Suggestions

When you create a new account or goal you'll see a Suggestions row above the emoji picker with common presets — filtered by the type you picked:

Tap a chip to fill in the name and emoji in one go. Suggestions also appear directly in the empty state of Manage accounts & goals — a single tap adds the preset as a real entry.

Fields

How the balance moves

Balances change whenever an entry is linked to an account/goal:

• An Income entry linked to an account credits it.
• An Expense entry linked to an account debits it.
• A Saving deposit credits it; a Saving withdrawal debits it.
• The opening amount is a one-time credit that always shows first in the transaction list.

Opening an account

Tap an account or goal anywhere it appears (Overview tab, entry sheet, manage list) to open its detail sheet. You see the current balance, total paid in, total withdrawn, and a chronological transaction list — tap any transaction to jump to it in its month.

7. The Overview tab

The Overview tab is your bird's-eye view across all months. It rebuilds itself each time you visit — no configuration needed.

Wealth card

The big number at the top is the total balance across all accounts and goals (opening balances + all linked transactions). Below it, a forecast projects your wealth 12 months out based on your average saving rate.

• If you save regularly: "At your saving rate of X/month you'll have about Y in 12 months."
• If your accounts are shrinking: a warning appears instead.
• A 🔥 N months in a row streak badge shows if you've filled out entries every month.
• A Next milestone bar tracks progress toward the next round wealth number (1k, 5k, 10k, 25k…).

Compared to last month

A small card with three rows — Income, Expenses, Saving — each showing the change vs. the previous month with a coloured ▲ / ▼ arrow.

Warning bar

Above the dashboard, a single-line status of your most recent filled month: green (all planned), blue (still to plan), red (over budget).

Dashboard by label

A bar chart broken down by label. Two segmented switches control it:

• Income · Expenses · Saving — which category to show.
• Last month · Ø per month — one specific month, or the average across all recorded months.

Goals & Accounts

All your goals with progress bars and status pills (on track, +X/mo needed, reached 🎉, ~N mo left). Below, a plain list of accounts with running balances.

Stats & Months

Two small tiles: Ø saving rate / month and Months recorded. Then a Months list of every month you've touched — tap one to jump straight to it.

Insights

Small dismissable hint cards appear at the top when there's something worth surfacing — e.g. "You saved X this month", "Your wealth grew by X since last month", "Only X to Holiday — almost there!". Once dismissed they don't come back.

Year in review

In January (or when you open the Overview tab and there's a completed previous year to look at), a Year in review card appears with totals for the past year — saved, spent, months tracked, goals reached, biggest category.

8. The More tab

The More tab is where everything else lives — profile, appearance, data, backup.

Profile group

Preferences group

Language is picked automatically from your device (German, English, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish). Standard labels like Rent or Salary follow the language switch; any label you renamed yourself stays as you wrote it.

Data group

Backup group

Danger zone

At the bottom you'll find Contact & support — the email address to reach us — and the app version.

9. FAQ

Where is my data stored?

Only on your device. Budwisea has no server, no cloud, no account. The only way data leaves your device is if you export a backup and put it somewhere yourself.

How do I move to a new phone?

On the old device: More → Export backup, save the JSON somewhere you can reach (iCloud Drive, email, AirDrop). On the new device: install Budwisea, complete onboarding, then More → Import backup and pick the file.

Does it sync across devices?

No automatic sync. Each device is independent. Export/import is the manual way — it also serves as your backup.

What happens to a recurring entry if I skip a month?

Recurring entries auto-fill each month you open. If you delete one for a single month, only that month is suppressed — the series continues. If you delete "whole series (from here)", the current and all future months lose it, but past months keep it.

Opening balance vs. income — what's the difference?

Opening balance on an account is what's already there when you create the account. It never counts as income for any month — it just seeds the account's wealth. Income is money that arrives during a specific month and belongs to that month's budget.

What does the ✓ paid toggle do?

Only for Expenses. Tapping it marks the row as paid (row greys out). It's purely a visual reminder — the amount still counts toward your budget either way. Handy for tracking which bills you've actually settled during the month.

I want to change languages / currency without losing my data.

Both are safe. Currency only changes the displayed symbol (numbers stay the same). Language changes the app UI and only re-labels the built-in default labels (like Salary, Rent) — any label you renamed yourself is left untouched.

Face ID won't unlock the app.

The app uses the OS biometric prompt directly, so it succeeds only if Face ID is enabled at the device level too. Fallbacks: enter your device passcode from the Face ID prompt, or use the manual Unlock button on the lock screen.

I reset my Face ID / got a new device without it — I'm locked out.

The lock screen detects when biometrics is no longer set up on the device. Instead of leaving you stranded, it switches to a Biometrics no longer available screen with a single Remove lock button. Tap it to disable the lock and get straight in — your data is fine. You can re-enable Face ID any time under More → Require Face ID once biometrics is set up again.

Still stuck?