How to use Spendly: every feature, step by step

Find your way around

Five tabs at the bottom, everything else one tap from your picture.

• The bottom bar has five tabs: Home, Txns (your transactions), Auto (automatic tracking), Invest and Discover.
• Tap your picture at the top for “Ask Spendly (AI)”, “Money tools” (Safe to Spend, Bills, Budgets, Money ahead, Savings, Recurring, Reports, Loans & EMI, Money with people) and “Help & guide”.
• The 🔍 beside it searches your payees, accounts, bills and people — and every screen in the app, so typing “budget” or “dark mode” takes you there.

Add your accounts

Your bank accounts, cash, wallets and credit cards, with today’s balance.

• On Home, tap “+ Add account” and pick Bank, Wallet, Cash or Card.
• Enter today’s balance. Spendly can’t fetch past transactions, so today’s balance already counts everything before it.
• For a bank account or card, add the last 4 digits — your bank’s alerts are matched to the account by them.
• For a credit card, add the credit limit, the statement day and the due day, so the bill is set aside before it is due.

Add a payment yourself

Anything you paid or received, in a few seconds.

• Tap “Add Expense” or “Add Income” on Home, or Expense, Income, Cash or Transfer on the Txns tab.
• Enter the amount, who you paid (or who paid you), the account and a category.
• A transfer between your own accounts is not counted as spending or income.
• Paid in cash? Add a Cash account once; then “Cash” lets you add cash from an ATM and log what you spend from it.

Track payments automatically (Premium)

Your bank’s own alerts become transactions on their own.

• Open the Auto tab and tap “Connect Gmail”. Access is read-only, and only bank emails are read.
• In the Android app, turn on bank alerts on this phone — “From notifications” is recommended and needs no SMS permission.
• New payments appear under “To review”: tap “Confirm”, or “Edit” to fix the payee or category. Only confirmed payments change a balance.
• Tracking starts from the moment you connect; when you first connect, Spendly offers once to bring in the last 6 months.

Automatic tracking is part of Spendly Premium. Reading bank SMS and notifications needs the Android app.

Know what’s safe to spend

Your balance minus everything already promised — per day until payday.

• Safe to Spend is your balance minus money you reserved, money kept for goals, and bills due in the next 30 days. A card bill counts; card balance is never counted as your money.
• See it on Home, or open “Safe to Spend” from your money tools to see how it is worked out.
• Tap “+ Reserve” to set money aside for something coming up. Your bank balance doesn’t move — only Safe to Spend does.
• Set up your salary (below) and the daily figure counts to your next payday instead of the end of the month.

Set up your salary

Your pay day, so every number counts to the next one.

• Go to Profile → “Salary” → “Set up your salary”, choose the account, the monthly amount and the day it usually arrives (31 means the last day of the month).
• On pay day, tap “I’ve received my salary” on Home — or turn on “Add it on pay day” to have it added for you.
• “History” on the salary card shows every month’s salary.

Bills and reminders

Rent, phone, insurance — never a missed due date.

• Open “Bills” and tap “+ Add”: the name, how much (or that it varies), the due day and how often.
• When it is paid, tap “Mark paid” and pick the account it was paid from.
• Choose how you are reminded in Profile → “Notifications”: in the app, by email or on your phone, topic by topic.

Email alerts for bills, budgets and card dues come with the yearly Premium plan; reminders in the app are free.

Set budgets

A monthly limit overall, and for the categories you watch.

• Open “Budgets” and tap “Set a monthly spending target” for one overall limit.
• Under “By category”, tap “+ Add”, pick a category and a monthly limit.
• Each bar shows whether you are on track for the day of the month. Budgets reset on the 1st.

Save for goals

A trip, a phone, an emergency fund — with what to save each month.

• On the Discover tab, under “Your goals”, tap “+ New goal”: a name, the target and, if you like, a date.
• Spendly shows what it needs each month. Tap “+ Add money” to put money towards it.
• Choose “Keep in bank” and the money stays in your account but stops counting as safe to spend; you can also move it to a saving account or link an investment.
• Reached it? Tap “Use it” when you spend it.

Loans, EMIs and credit cards

What you still owe, the next EMI, and your card bill.

• Open “Loans & EMI” and add a loan: the lender, amount, interest rate, tenure and first EMI date.
• Each month, tap “Record this EMI as paid”; “Pay extra” records a part-prepayment.
• A credit card shows its outstanding, available credit, the due date and minimum due, and each past statement. Tap “Pay bill” when you pay it.
• Money lent to or borrowed from people lives in “Money with people”, not here.

Track your investments

Mutual funds, stocks, crypto, gold and FDs in one place.

• On the Invest tab, tap “Invest +” to add a mutual fund, stock, crypto, gold or a fixed deposit.
• Or tap “📥 Import” and bring in a CAS statement (every fund and SIP), an NSDL/CDSL statement, a Groww or Zerodha holdings file, or a Binance export.
• Files are read on your phone and never uploaded; a PDF password is used once and forgotten.
• Values update with live prices, and your real return is shown as XIRR.

Split bills and trips

Who owes whom — and a one-tap UPI reminder.

• Open “Money with people” and tap “＋ Add” → “Split a bill”, or “New group” for a trip or a flat.
• Or open a payment you made and tap “✂ Split this bill with friends” — only your share then counts as your spending.
• Split equally, by exact amounts, by ratio or by percentage.
• Tap someone who owes you, then “Remind”: a WhatsApp message goes with a link that opens their UPI app with the amount filled in. They don’t need Spendly.

Reports, forecasts and export

Where the money went, where it is heading, and a file to keep.

• “Reports” shows spending, income and savings for this month, last month, a quarter, a year or any dates; tap a category to see every payment in it.
• “Money ahead” estimates your balance at the end of this month and the next few.
• On the Txns tab, “Export” downloads any period as PDF, Excel or CSV.
• Transfers and loan movements are never counted as income or spending.

Ask Spendly (AI)

Questions about your own money, answered from your data.

• Tap your picture → “Ask Spendly (AI)” and ask, for example “How much did I spend on food this month?” or “Can I afford ₹20,000?”.
• Quick questions — your balance, a month’s spending, EMIs, the card bill — never count against your daily answers.

5 AI answers a day on the free plan; 20 on monthly Premium and 30 on yearly.

Shopping list

A list the family can add to, matched to what you paid.

• Open the shopping list from Home and add items — or paste a message with the list in it.
• At the shop, tap “I’m at the shop” and tick what you pick up.
• Tap “Done shopping” and pick the payment it was, or the cash you paid.
• “Let family add” shares only the list — never your money or accounts.

Make it yours, keep it private

Dark mode, hidden balances, your password and your data.

• Profile → “Appearance” for Light, Dark or matching your phone.
• The eye on Home hides your balances when someone is looking.
• Profile → “Security” to change your password or sign out everywhere.
• “Privacy & security” explains exactly what Spendly reads and keeps.