How to use Spendiqo
Everything from adding your first expense to setting up fully automatic bank SMS import — step by step.
Getting started
After downloading Spendiqo from the App Store, you land on the dashboard. No account, no sign-up — your data lives on your device and in your own iCloud.
Go to Settings → Currency and pick your home currency. This is what the dashboard totals use. You can still log expenses in any currency — Spendiqo converts them automatically.
Go to Settings → Monthly Budget. Enter a limit and Spendiqo will nudge you when you're getting close. Leave it blank to skip budgeting for now.
Tap the + button on the dashboard, enter an amount, pick a category, and tap Save. That's all it takes.
You can add any number of accounts (e.g. "Dialog Finance Card", "Cash", "Savings") later from Settings → Accounts. Each expense can then be tagged to an account for a cleaner picture.
Adding expenses & installments
Spendiqo gives you four ways to log a transaction — pick whichever fits the moment.
The fastest path. Enter the amount, pick a category and date, add a note if you want, and save. Works offline, no internet needed.
Set up a Shortcuts automation once and every bank message becomes an expense automatically — no tapping required. See Section 3 for setup.
Copy any bank SMS or payment message, then run Add from Clipboard via Siri, Shortcuts, or the app. Spendiqo parses it and fills in the details.
Migrating from another app? Go to Settings → Backup & Restore → Import CSV. Most expense tracker exports work out of the box.
Installment plans
Bought something expensive on a payment plan? Spendiqo can split a single purchase into equal monthly entries automatically so your spending shows correctly each month.
Tap + and fill in the full purchase amount, category, and title as normal.
Scroll to the INSTALLMENTS card at the bottom and toggle Split into installments on. The per-month amount updates live as you adjust the number of months.
Use the stepper to set how many months to spread the cost over (2–60). Each entry is titled automatically — e.g. "Laptop (1/12)", "Laptop (2/12)" — so you always know which instalment you're looking at.
Spendiqo creates all the monthly entries at once, each on the correct future date. They appear in your transaction list on their respective months.
The start date is the date you set on the expense form — so if you set it to the 1st of this month, installments 2, 3, 4… fall on the 1st of each following month.
Auto-import bank SMS
This is Spendiqo's most powerful feature. Once set up, every debit or credit message from your bank is parsed and logged — amount, merchant, card, date — without you touching the app.
It runs through iOS Shortcuts automations, which trigger on SMS delivery. Spendiqo itself never reads your messages — the Shortcut passes the text in for a split second, then discards it.
Requirements
Setup on iOS 27 and later
iOS 27 saves automations as shortcuts: the message trigger goes at the top of the Spendiqo shortcut itself. The in-app guide (Settings → Auto-import Bank SMS) walks you through it.
In the in-app guide tap Add iOS Shortcut to install Spendiqo - Add From Messages.
Open the shortcut and tap Edit. From the actions list choose Automation → When I receive a message. Tap where → Add Filter → Message contains and enter a word your bank always sends (e.g. debited), or just a to catch every message.
Under the trigger, keep Automation on and turn off Confirm Before Run, then tap Done. Leave the Add expense from → Shortcut Input action as it is.
Seeing a "Running Spendiqo…" banner for every message? That comes from Shortcuts, not Spendiqo: turn off Banners in Settings → Notifications → Shortcuts.
Setup on iOS 26
Find it on your home screen or search for "Shortcuts" in Spotlight. It's pre-installed on every iPhone.
Tap the Automation tab at the bottom, then the + in the top-right corner.
Scroll down and tap Message. Set the sender filter to your bank's number or name (e.g. Dialog, Sampath, BOC) so only bank SMS trigger it — not every text you receive.
This is the key step. Without it, iOS shows a confirmation dialog every time a bank message arrives. Toggle it off so the automation runs silently in the background.
Tap Add Action, search for Spendiqo, and choose Add Expense from Text. In the action, tap "Message" and select Shortcut Input → Message Content from the variable picker.
Tap Done. Send yourself a test bank-style SMS (e.g. "LKR 500 debited from your card ending #1234") or wait for your next real bank message. Check Activity in Spendiqo to confirm it was logged.
Multiple banks? Create one automation per bank sender so the filter stays tight. Copy an existing automation with the ⋯ menu and just change the sender — the Spendiqo action stays identical.
Duplicate expenses? Banks often send multiple messages for one payment (authorization, OTP, merchant confirmation). Spendiqo automatically deduplicates: if the same amount was already logged within 20 minutes, the later message is silently skipped.
Enable Auto-import Alerts in Settings → Notifications to get a quiet notification each time a transaction is auto-logged — useful to confirm the first few imports are working correctly.
Custom SMS templates
Spendiqo ships with templates for dozens of Sri Lankan, Indian, and international banks. If your bank's message format isn't recognised yet, you can add your own template in under a minute.
A template is a pattern string where special tokens stand in for the variable parts of the message — the amount, merchant name, card number, and so on.
✦ Open Template Builder →Available tokens
{amount}Transaction amount{currency}Currency code (LKR, USD…){merchant}Merchant or payee name{card}Card last 4 digits{date}Transaction date/time{type}Debit / credit word{*}Skip any text hereExample — Dialog Finance debit card
Bank SMS received:
How to add a template
Go to Settings → Message Templates. You'll see the built-in templates listed. Tap + Add Template to create your own.
Give it a name like "My Bank — debit". Copy a real SMS from that bank and replace the variable parts with tokens. Use {*} to skip any part you don't need to capture.
Paste a sample message into the Test Message field. Spendiqo shows you exactly what it would extract — amount, merchant, card, and date. Adjust the pattern until the preview looks right.
Toggle the template on and tap Save. It immediately takes priority over the built-in heuristics for any message that matches the pattern.
{merchant} is a non-greedy capture — it stops at the first anchor text after it. If the merchant appears at the end of the pattern, add a literal word right after it (e.g. {merchant} of {*}) so it doesn't shrink to a single character.
Categories & budgets
Spendiqo auto-categorises every expense based on the merchant name and SMS wording. You can review, rename, or override any category at any time.
Built-in expense categories
You can also create custom categories from Settings → Categories → Add Category. Give it a name, an icon, and a colour — it'll appear everywhere alongside the built-in ones.
Teaching Spendiqo your categories
Every time you re-categorise an expense, Spendiqo learns — the same merchant will be filed in the right category automatically next time. You can also set explicit merchant rules from Settings → Category Rules.
Monthly budget
Go to Settings → Monthly Budget. Set a total spend limit. Spendiqo tracks your running total and shows a progress bar on the dashboard.
Spendiqo sends a notification at 80% and again at 100% of your budget. Enable this from Settings → Notifications → Budget Alerts.
Accounts & cards
Accounts let you separate spending across cards, wallets, and cash — so you can see exactly where money is moving. Spendiqo supports six account types.
Account types
Credit Card accounts are treated as liabilities — the balance you owe is shown as debt in Net Worth, not as an asset. Debit Card and all other types are treated as assets.
Go to Settings → Accounts → Add Account. Enter a name, choose the type, pick a currency, and optionally enter the last 4 digits of the card for auto-import matching.
Enter the balance as it stands when you start tracking. For a Credit Card, enter how much you currently owe (e.g. 88,000) — Spendiqo stores it correctly as a liability. Leave it at 0 if you're starting fresh.
Enter the card's last 4 digits and every auto-imported SMS mentioning that card number files under this account automatically — no manual tagging needed.
Credit card billing cycle
For Credit Card accounts you can set a billing cycle so Spendiqo shows your next payment due date directly on the account detail screen.
When editing a Credit Card account, scroll to the Billing cycle section and pick the day of the month your billing cycle starts (e.g. Day 1).
Pick the day of the month the payment is due (e.g. Day 15). Spendiqo calculates the next due date and shows it on the account screen with a countdown — turning red when 3 or fewer days remain.
Exclude from totals
Sometimes you have an account you don't want included in the home-screen balance or Net Worth — a joint account, a foreign savings account already counted elsewhere, or a closed account you're keeping for history.
Edit any account and toggle Exclude from totals on. The account's balance disappears from the dashboard total and Net Worth. Transactions are still tracked normally — they just don't roll up into the summary figures.
Transfers
Moving money between your own accounts — from a bank account to a credit card, or between two bank accounts — should not count as spending. Spendiqo handles this with transfers: both legs are excluded from cash flow and budget calculations, so your spending totals stay accurate.
On the add expense screen, tap the Transfer segment at the top (next to Expense and Income). The form switches to transfer mode.
Pick the source account under From and the destination under To. Enter the amount being moved.
If your bank charges a fee for the transfer, enter it in the Transfer fee field. Unlike the transfer itself, the fee is counted as a regular expense — it shows up in your spending and cash flow, deducted from the source account.
Spendiqo creates a debit on the source account and a matching credit on the destination account, both tagged as transfers so they cancel out in spending summaries. The fee, if any, is saved as a separate expense entry.
Paying a credit card bill? Use a transfer from your bank account to the credit card. The bank account balance decreases and the credit card debt decreases by the same amount — Net Worth stays flat, as it should.
Investments
The Investments section lets you track your portfolio — stocks, funds, crypto, fixed deposits — in any currency, with live conversion to your home currency.
Go to Investments in the tab bar and tap + Add. Enter the name, quantity, purchase price, and currency. Spendiqo stores it and converts the value automatically.
Tap any holding to edit the current price. The gain/loss and portfolio total update instantly.
You can mix currencies freely — USD stocks alongside LKR fixed deposits. Everything rolls up into your home currency on the summary screen using current exchange rates.
Net Worth
Net Worth gives you a single number that tells you where you actually stand financially — everything you own minus everything you owe.
Assets = your investment portfolio + all non-card account balances (excluding any accounts marked "Exclude from totals").
Liabilities = all manual debts you've added (loans, leases) + the outstanding balance of every Credit Card account.
How credit cards factor in
When you add a Credit Card account, its balance is counted as debt — not as an asset. The amount you owe (opening balance + any charges minus any payments logged) appears under Liabilities in Net Worth.
Opening balance matters. Set the opening balance to what you owed on the day you started tracking in Spendiqo. If your logged transactions cover your full card history, set it to 0. Double-counting the same period in both the opening balance and transactions is the most common source of a wrong debt figure.
Adding manual debts
Tap the Net Worth card on the dashboard or navigate to the Investments tab → Net Worth.
Tap the + in the top-right. Enter a name (e.g. "Car Loan"), the outstanding balance, currency, and optional monthly payment. The debt appears immediately under Liabilities.
If you have multiple debts, tap Payoff Strategy to see the recommended order — either avalanche (highest-interest first, saves the most money) or snowball (smallest balance first, fastest wins).
Bill reminders & recurring
Spendiqo can remind you before a bill is due and automatically create the expense entry on the due date — so you never forget a payment and your history stays complete without manual entry.
Setting up a bill reminder
Go to the More tab and tap Bill Reminders, or tap the bell icon on the dashboard.
Tap + Add Reminder. Enter the bill name (e.g. "Netflix"), the amount, the first due date, and how often it repeats — weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
Pick how many days before the due date you want to be notified — 1 day, 3 days, or a week ahead. Spendiqo schedules the notification automatically.
When a bill is paid, tap it and select Mark Paid. Spendiqo logs the expense in your transaction history and schedules the next occurrence automatically.
Recurring expenses
For expenses you log manually on a schedule (salary, rent, subscriptions), you can mark any expense as Recurring when adding it. Recurring entries appear in the Planned Expenses view so you can see upcoming payments for the month ahead.
Bill reminders vs recurring: Use bill reminders when you want a notification before the payment is due. Use the recurring flag on a manually-logged expense when you want to record it in your history each time you pay it.
iCloud sync & backup
Your data syncs across all your Apple devices — iPhone, iPad, and Mac — through your personal iCloud. Nothing goes to Spendiqo's servers.
Go to Settings → iCloud Sync and toggle it on. Make sure iCloud Drive is enabled on your device (iPhone Settings → [your name] → iCloud → iCloud Drive) and that both devices are signed into the same Apple ID.
The first sync after enabling can take a minute or two depending on how much data you have and your connection speed. Pull down to refresh the dashboard to trigger a sync check.
Manual backup & export
Go to Settings → Backup & Restore → Export CSV. This gives you a plain spreadsheet of all your expenses — useful for personal archiving or moving to another tool.
Go to Settings → Backup & Restore → Create Backup. This saves a complete snapshot (expenses, settings, templates, accounts) as a file you can store in Files, AirDrop, or email to yourself.
On a new device, go to Settings → Backup & Restore → Restore and pick your backup file. All your data comes back exactly as it was.
Restore replaces your current data. If you already have expenses on the target device that you want to keep, export them first before restoring.
Spendiqo Pro
The core app is free forever. Spendiqo Pro unlocks the features that save you the most time.
What's included in Pro
Subscribe
Tap any locked feature — or go to Settings → Spendiqo Pro. You'll see the monthly and yearly plans.
The yearly plan saves around 40% compared to paying monthly. Payment goes through your Apple Account — Spendiqo never sees your card details.
On a new iPhone, tap Restore Purchase on the paywall screen. As long as you're signed into the same Apple ID, Pro unlocks immediately at no extra charge.
Subscriptions are managed entirely through Apple. To cancel, go to iPhone Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions, find Spendiqo, and cancel there.
Tips & shortcuts
In the transaction list, long-press any row to get a context menu with quick edit, delete, and category options.
Swipe left on any expense row in the list to reveal a quick delete button.
Double or triple-tap the back of your iPhone to open the Add Expense sheet instantly — without unlocking the screen or opening the app. Set it up once: iOS Settings → Accessibility → Touch → Back Tap, choose Double Tap or Triple Tap, then pick Spendiqo — Log Expense from the Shortcuts list. From then on a double-tap is all it takes.
Say "Add 850 for coffee in Spendiqo" and Spendiqo will log the expense hands-free. Works with AirPods and CarPlay too.
Long-press your home screen, tap + in the top-left, and search for Spendiqo. You'll find widgets for today's spend, remaining budget, and monthly summary — at a glance without opening the app.
If a particular SMS format keeps getting misidentified, go to Settings → Spam Filter and add a word or phrase from that message. Spendiqo will skip any SMS containing it — regardless of the amount inside.
Go to Activity (clock icon on the dashboard) to see a full log of every auto-import attempt — what was parsed, what was skipped, and why. Useful for debugging a template or automation.
Download Spendiqo — free
Available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Your data stays on your device and in your own iCloud — always.
Download on the App StoreQuestions? Email no.reply.tank@gmail.com — we usually reply within a day or two.