How to use

A short guide to get started with Expenses Manager — track spending through messages, with no password.

1. 1Sign in

   • For convenience, and so you never have to keep passwords, there are two ways to sign in: Magic Link and “Continue with Google”. Each user picks whichever suits them.
   • Magic Link: enter your email and press “Connect me”; you get a link by email — open it on the same device. It is handy for anyone without a Google account, or who wants to use a different email to sign up or sign in.
   • Continue with Google: press the button, pick your Google account and you are taken straight into the app. It comes first on the sign-in page because it is the fastest — no email to wait for.
   • If the email link cannot be sent at that moment, the app tells you and suggests signing in with “Continue with Google” or trying again later.
   • Tip: always use the same email address (or the same Google account) to reach the same cabinet.

2. 2Start-of-month balance

   • In the “Start-of-month balance” field, enter the money you have at the start of the month.
   • You can edit the balance at any time (✏️ on mobile, “Edit” on the web) — maybe you typed a wrong amount, or found some money in your jacket pocket.
   • At the start of a new month, if you haven’t entered the balance or any income yet, the app offers: “Carry over «Money I still have» from last month as the «Start-of-month balance»?” — Yes / No (asked once per month).

3. 3Required budget

   • Next to “Start-of-month balance” is the “Required budget” field. Its amount is built automatically from the amounts you enter in the “Budget” field of each category, plus the monthly targets of “Savings” and “Vacation fund” — everything you plan to spend and set aside this month.
   • Open a category (e.g. Groceries), enter an amount in “Budget” and press “Save”. The budget can be edited at any time (“Edit”) — for example, when you want to reduce or increase the money set aside for a particular category this month. “Required budget” updates by itself.
   • In every category, next to “Budget”, there are three more fields: “Spent”, “Remaining” and “per day”.
   • “Spent” shows how much you have spent in this category so far. Everything adds up automatically as you enter your expenses manually.
   • “Remaining” shows how much money is still available for this category: what you planned to spend (the budget) minus what you have spent so far.
   • “per day” shows the most you can spend per day so you don’t exceed the planned budget. It is calculated from the money left for this category and the number of days left until the end of the month.

4. 4How to write amounts

   • Write the number as digits one after another, without spaces: 1500, not “1 500”.
   • A dot or comma goes only before the decimals (at most 2): 12.50 or 12,50. Don’t use a dot for thousands (“1.500” is not accepted).
   • If a number breaks the rule, an explanation appears under the field and “Send” stays disabled — nothing is recorded wrongly.
   • Put the amount at the start of the message (e.g. “245 milk”); the app takes the first number. “2x50” means 2 pieces at 50 each.

5. 5Income

   • Open “Income” from the list. Pick the source (Salary, Bonus), type the amount and press “Send”.
   • The sources (Salary, Bonus, From savings, Credit…) are buttons, like the Groceries subcategories — on the web and on mobile. The round green “+” at the end of the row (above the Send button) adds a new income source (e.g. Freelance, Gift) and selects it. The sources you added have an “×” on their button and can be deleted (with confirmation); income already recorded with them stays. The built-in sources (Salary, Bonus, Credit…) cannot be deleted.
   • Pick the “Debt repaid to me” source when someone pays back money you lent them — it is added to income.
   • When you take a credit (from a bank or a lender) or a loan (from a person), pick the “Credit” or “Loan” source. Fields appear: “From whom”, “Taken on” (today unless you change it), “Due date”, “Total to pay back” and “Annual interest %”.
   • The app does NOT calculate interest: your bank already did. Under “Total to pay back” write the amount from the contract (empty = the amount taken). “Annual interest %” is informative only, as a reminder.
   • After “Send” the amount is added to “Income this month”, the message stays in the conversation and the data is saved in the “Credits and loans — history” table.
   • Open the table with the “📋 Credit / Loan history” button in the “Income this month” box (path: Home / Income / Credits and loans — history). It shows the type, from whom, when you took it, the amount, the annual %, what to pay back, what you paid, what is left and the due date; past due dates are red (“overdue”).
   • Instalments: every month press “💸 Paid an instalment” and enter the amount paid (from your bank’s schedule). With “Record the payment in Credit repayment” ticked (default) it also appears as an expense in “Credit repayment”. “Left” drops; at 0 the row is struck through automatically.
   • When you pay back everything left, press “✓ Paid back”: the app suggests the remaining amount and asks to confirm; the row is struck through and stays as a record. “↩ Undo” restores it (the closing payment is removed). ▾ next to “Paid” lists the payments. 🗑 only removes rows entered by mistake.

6. 6Money I lent

   • When you lend money to someone, open the “Money I lent” category. Fill in “To whom”, “Lent on”, “Due date”, “Total to get back” (empty = the amount) and, if you like, “Annual interest %” (informative only), type the amount and press “Send”.
   • The amount counts in “Already spent” (the money left your pocket), not in income. The data is saved in the “📋 Money I lent — history” tab (path: Home / Money I lent / Money I lent — history).
   • When you get part of it back, press “💰 Got part back”; when you get it all, “✓ Got it back” (with confirmation) — the row is struck through and stays as a record. With “Record in Income” ticked (default) the money also appears in “Income” with the “Debt repaid to me” source.
   • For safety, “✓ Paid back”, “✓ Got it back” and “↩ Undo” ask for confirmation — if you tapped by accident, choose “No”.
   • At the top you see “Debts to pay” and “Debts to collect” (web: in the header, at the end of the figures line, after “Short by” / “Left over”; mobile: the “Debts” card in the summary). The figures come from the two histories, carry over from month to month and drop when you mark “Paid back” / “Got it back”. Tap a figure to open its history.

7. 7Income after adding

   • The “Income after adding” field shows the money you have available: “Start-of-month balance” plus any income you recorded in the “Income” category.

8. 8Left to spend

   • The “Left to spend” field shows how much money is left in total to spend until the end of the month.
   • It is calculated as: “Income after adding” minus “Already spent”. “Already spent” covers all expenses in all categories and the money put into “Savings” and “Vacation fund” this month — it is still yours, but it has left the money you have on hand.
   • Next to the amount you see “Left to spend from the required budget” — what your budget still expects this month (each category’s unused budget plus the part of the savings targets not yet set aside).
   • On the other side: “Left over” shows the money that remains once everything planned is paid. If “Short by” appears (in red), that much is missing until the end of the month — you know exactly how much to borrow or take out of savings.

9. 9Savings and Vacation fund

   • In “Savings” and “Vacation fund”, enter under “Initial balance” the money you had already put aside before you started using the app and press “Save”. It is added to “Saved so far”; you can change it any time with “Edit”.
   • “How much to save this month” is the monthly target (it is part of “Required budget”). “Add to savings” moves money from your hands into the fund — it shows up in the month’s “Already spent”. The initial balance is not counted in “Already spent”, because it does not come from this month’s money.
   • On mobile, "How much to save this month" and "Amount" share one row, with the "Add to savings" button under them, full width.

10. 10Add an expense

    • In the open category pick a subcategory (optional), type the amount and a note (e.g. “245 milk”) and press “Send”.
    • Groceries subcategories: Linella, Cip, Local, Nordica, Lactis, Salamer, Floreni, Filletti, Butcher, Kiosk, Family, Metro, Kaufland, Market. Automobile: Car wash, Fuel, Tyres, Repairs, Technical inspection, Car insurance (RCA), Road Fund tax, Green Card, Vignettes. The amount counts in the category whichever subcategory you pick.
    • Studies: Udemy, Tekwill, W3Schools.
    • The round "+" at the end of the subcategory row (above the Send button) adds a subcategory of your own, in any category (e.g. "Bazaar" in Groceries) — it stays from month to month and you can pick it at once. Delete the ones you added with the "×" on their button (with confirmation) or in "Profile" → "My categories" → "My subcategories" (on the web: the 👤 account menu); the built-in subcategories of the app (Linella, Cip…) have no "×" and cannot be deleted; expenses already recorded with them stay and still count in the totals.
    • Income sources: Salary, Bonus, From savings, Credit, Loan, Debt repaid to me, From vacation (plus the ones you add with “+”).
    • “Spent”, “Remaining” and “per day” update automatically.
    • Tap ✏️ on a bubble to edit it (amount, note) or delete it.

11. 11Category analysis

    • In every category, under the budgets, there is the “📊 Category analysis” button (in Income — next to “Credits and loans”). It opens a window with a ring: each subcategory’s share of the category’s spending — the app’s and the ones you added.
    • At the top pick the month: the current one or any earlier month (e.g. September). You see the total, the number of entries and the list: subcategory, amount and share.
    • Messages written without choosing a subcategory are processed too: if the note contains a subcategory name (e.g. “LINELLA 95”), the message is counted under Linella; otherwise it goes to “No subcategory”, and below you see each of them with its date, note and amount.
    • In Income the ring shows each income source’s share. Close the window with “×” (on the web also with Esc).

12. 12Meters (in Utilities)

    • In Utilities, tap "Meter readings".
    • Set "Meter start" and "Price", then for each reading enter the Date and "Current reading" and press Enter.
    • Consumption and cost are computed automatically; "Consumption analysis" shows the consumption per month and, as in the dashboards, a ring with the total cost in the middle and the list of meters (cost and share).
    • If you used nothing in a month, enter the same value as the previous reading: a consumption of 0 is saved. A value lower than the previous one is not saved (consumption cannot be negative) — a red message appears.
    • Made a mistake in a reading? Tap ✏️ next to its date: you can change the date, the value and the price (Save / Cancel) or delete it (with confirmation). The readings after it are recalculated by themselves (previous, consumption, cost). A change that would make a consumption negative is not saved — a red message appears.

13. 13Daily electricity and gas use

    • Utilities has two new tabs: “⚡ Daily electricity use” and “🔥 Daily gas use” — for winter, when you want to follow the use every day. This data is kept apart from “Meter readings”, so the monthly readings stay uncluttered.
    • Set “Meter start” and “Price”, then every day enter the Date, the “Outside temperature (°C)” and the “Current reading” and press Save. The temperature is optional; type it with a comma or a dot (e.g. 2.5), and the “±” button makes it negative (e.g. −7.5).
    • The table has an “Outside temperature” column between Date and “Previous reading”. As for the meters, ✏️ next to the date corrects or deletes a reading, and the readings after it are recalculated.
    • “📊 Electricity / Gas use analysis” shows for the chosen month (or “All months”): total use, total cost, the average per day and the average temperature; the “Daily use and outside temperature” chart (bars = use, line = temperature); the “Cost by temperature range” ring (what the frost cost you: below −10 °C, −10 to −5 °C, etc.), as in the dashboards; the “Use against the outside temperature” chart (each dot is a day) and, for “All months”, the use by month.

14. 14Price monitor

    • The price monitor helps you see where you shop best. You find it under "Statistics" (on mobile) or in the category list (on the web) — "Price monitor".
    • It is easiest to enter the data at home, from the receipt. For each product write its name, the amount from the receipt under "Paid", the store and the date, then press "Add product".
    • Pick the store from a list — the same as the Groceries subcategories (Linella, Cip, Local, Nordica … Metro, Kaufland, Market and the ones you added). If it is missing, choose "➕ Other store…" and type its name: it is also added to Groceries.
    • If you bought it by weight, enter how much under "Weight (kg)" — decimals with a comma or a dot are fine (e.g. 1.5). For liquids enter litres. The app works out the "Price per 1 kg / 1 L".
    • If you bought it by the piece, enter the number of pieces under "Quantity (pcs)" — whole numbers only. The app works out the "Price per pc". You can fill in both: water 7.5 l × 1 pc gives the price per litre and per bottle.
    • You can build reports per product: type the product name in the filter, choose the store (or "All stores") and the period ("From" – "To") to see just what you need.
    • With "Export Excel" you get a spreadsheet with all the data, so you can look at a product’s prices across different stores "from above" and understand where prices suit you best.
    • Everything works from the data you enter manually. We recommend entering the prices of the products you buy most often on a regular basis — the more observations you have, the more useful the comparison.

15. 15Month archive

    • The month archive (web: at the bottom of the list on the left; mobile: "Statistics" → "Month archive") lists the months that have data. Pick a month to see "Income after adding", "Already spent", "Money I still have" and how much went to each category.
    • Tap a category in the list (the row has a "›") to open it: you see that month's budget, spent, remaining and number of entries, the total for each subcategory (e.g. Linella, Kaufland) and every expense, by day, with its time, subcategory and note.
    • The same for "Savings" and "Vacation fund": every amount put aside that month.
    • The archive is view only — nothing is changed from it. The "← Back · month" button takes you back to the month list.

16. 16On the web: the money formula

    • At the top, the header shows the month’s sum: Start-of-month balance + Income − Already spent = Money I still have. Under it: Required budget, Income after adding, Left to spend from the required budget and Left over (or Short by), then the debts — each in its own frame, all on one line (on a narrower screen the text gets smaller; the names stay in full). Hover a figure to see how it is calculated.
    • Click "Income" in the formula to open your income; "Edit" changes the start-of-month balance.
    • After you send an expense, the figures that changed glow briefly and "Saved. Left in {category}: …" appears under the field. If the amount you type goes over the category budget, a warning appears before you send.
    • Subcategories are buttons on the web too — one click. The / key puts the cursor straight into the message field.
    • Each category’s budget bar is green, turns amber above 80% of the budget and red once the budget is exceeded.

17. 17The app on mobile (Mobile UI)

    • The app is optimized for phone and tablet: navigate from the bottom bar — Home, Statistics, Profile.
    • On "Home" you see the summary: the dark green "Money I still have" card (with "Left to spend from the required budget" and "Left over"), then, swiping left, Debts, Start-of-month balance, Required budget and Income after adding. The dots under the cards show where you are; tap a dot to jump to that card.
    • Inside a category, subcategories appear as quick buttons — tap one before sending the amount.
    • "+ Add expense" opens a quick sheet: pick the category (the recently used ones come first), then, if you like, the subcategory, and type the amount (e.g. "245 milk"). If the amount goes over the category budget, the app tells you before you save.
    • The "+ Add category" button under the category list adds a new category. Categories you created can be deleted from "Profile" → "My categories" (on the web: the 👤 account menu).
    • "Statistics" shows at the top where the money went this month (the total and every category you spent in, largest first; scroll down to see them all), then the price monitor, the log, dashboards and archive. At the top of "Profile" is the account card with the "Feedback" button on its right; below it, one block that scrolls as a whole: language and currency, First steps, My categories, How to use, Terms and conditions, Privacy policy, Usage statistics, Download my data, Delete data, Delete account; at the bottom — Sign out.
    • "Monthly dashboard" (phone: "Statistics" → "Monthly dashboard"; web: in the list on the left) shows a coloured ring with the total spent in the middle and the list of categories (colour, amount and share of each), largest first — under the ring on a phone, to its right on the web. The "Annual dashboard" shows the whole year’s spending by category the same way, then the total per month.
    • For the best experience with our app on a mobile device, we recommend installing it on your device’s home screen (iOS: Safari → Share → "Add to Home Screen"; Android: menu → "Install app"). It then opens full-screen, like a regular app.

18. 18Deleting your data and account

    • Reset data (partial): in "Profile" (mobile) or the account menu (web), press "Reset data" to delete all your expenses, price monitoring and meters. A warning with "Yes"/"No" appears; your account and first name stay, and the app returns to the home page.
    • Delete account: press "Delete account" to permanently delete your account and absolutely all your data from the server, leaving no trace. The app can only be used again after a new registration.

19. 19Your data — GDPR and Law No. 195/2024

    • The app complies with Law No. 195/2024 on the protection of personal data of the Republic of Moldova (in force since 23 August 2026) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, 2016/679). Full details in the “Privacy policy”.
    • Download my data: in “Profile” (mobile) or the account menu (web) press “JSON” (all data, complete) or “Excel” (easy to read, one sheet each for expenses, months, income, savings, credits, prices, meters, feedback and statistics). The file downloads straight to your device.
    • Usage statistics: the switch in the same place. On — the app notes when you use it, on which device and from which country (no IP address, city or region), so we can improve it. Off — nothing more is noted and what was collected about you is deleted at once. Your financial data never goes into the statistics.
    • Correction and deletion: you correct any entry yourself; “Reset data” and “Delete account” delete from the server (see the section above).
    • For any question or request about your data write to privacy@purcelalex.com — the reply is free of charge. We reply as soon as possible, on a FIFO basis (in the order the messages arrive), no later than 30 days after receiving the message. You can also complain to the National Center for Personal Data Protection of Moldova (datepersonale.md).
    • The app is meant for people aged at least 16. By signing in you accept the Terms and conditions and the Privacy policy (the links are on the sign-in page).

20. 20Security

    • Only you can see your data: the database rules let nobody else read or change it. The admin only sees the feedback messages you send and, if you keep them on, the usage statistics (never your financial data).
    • The connection to the app is always encrypted (HTTPS). The app cannot be hidden inside other websites and loads no foreign scripts — only its own and those of Google sign-in.
    • There is no password to steal: you sign in with a Magic Link or with Google. Important tip: turn on two-step verification (2FA) for your email and your Google account — whoever gets into your email could also get into the app. Never forward the sign-in link email to anyone.
    • Feedback screenshots are saved as images inside the message (not as links to other websites).
    • The app is checked regularly: the libraries it uses have no known vulnerabilities, the app code is private, and the server access key only works from the app’s own website.

21. 21Language, currency and sync

    • Change the language (RO / EN / RU) and currency from "Profile".
    • “Synced” means your data is saved to your account.
    • Dates are written the Moldovan way: day.month.year (e.g. 06.05.2026), whatever your browser language. Tap a date field to open the calendar.

22. 22Plans and prices

    • On the landing page, under "Try it for free", there are three plans: Free, Plus and Pro.
    • During the testing period (beta) every plan costs 0.00 MDL and your account has every feature.
    • We will let you know well in advance before subscriptions start. Every new account will get 14 days of Pro for free, and people testing the app now will get the "Founder" offer.
    • If a subscription ends, your data is not deleted. Exporting your data (JSON, the "Download my data" button) stays free on every plan.