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
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.
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 — step by step
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.
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
Accounts let you separate spending across cards, wallets, and cash — so you can see exactly where money is moving.
Go to Settings → Accounts → Add Account. Enter a name (e.g. "Dialog Finance Debit"), choose an icon, and optionally enter the last 4 digits of the card.
If you enter a card's last 4 digits, every auto-imported SMS that mentions that card number is automatically filed under the matching account — no manual tagging needed.
Tap the account selector at the top of the dashboard to see spending for just one card or all accounts combined.
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.
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.
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.