Automatic expense tracking on Android.
Pay with any card — the expense records itself.

How automatic tracking works on Android

After a card payment your phone already shows a notification — «4,50 € with Visa ••1234» from Google Wallet, «Paid €12.90 at Amazon» from your bank. HonestExpenses reads only those, from the apps you tick, and records the expense. Setup takes a minute:

1. Open the HonestExpenses app on Android, go to Settings → Google Wallet & banks and tap Turn on.
2. Read the short note on what is read and kept, then allow Notification access for HonestExpenses on the system screen that opens.
3. Under Apps to read, tick Google Wallet and your bank apps. Your bank isn't listed? Tap + Add an app and pick it — it can be any app on your phone that notifies you about spending, not only a bank.
4. Pay for something small. Within seconds the expense is in Transactions, and Settings shows «Last payment … → category».

The app knows the notifications of Google Wallet, Revolut, N26, Wise, ING, bunq, DKB, Sparkasse, monobank, PrivatBank and A-Bank. Any other app you add — another bank, a payment app, a shop's app — is read with general rules: an amount plus «at / bei / в …» or the shop in the title.

Android vs iPhone: all payments, any bank

On the iPhone, Apple Pay tracking runs when you hold your phone or watch to a terminal in a shop — online purchases don't trigger it. On Android the source is the notification itself, so whatever your bank tells you about is covered:

• In shops — tap to pay with Google Wallet, or pay with the physical card of a bank you ticked.
• Online, not only in shops — an online card payment your bank app notifies you about is recorded the same way, so purchases on websites and in apps land in your expenses without typing them in.
• Any bank, any app — from the list or added by you, up to 20 extra apps: if an app on your phone notifies you about spending, it can be read.
• One payment, one expense. Google Wallet and your bank often both notify about the same purchase. The same amount from two ticked apps within three minutes is recorded once, with the more specific shop name.

Categories that learn from you

You don't sort payments by hand. On the first payment, HonestExpenses goes through your own expenses with notes from the past year and remembers which category each place belongs to — free. Then each payment takes its category in this order:

1. A place it knows — its category straight away. «REWE Markt GmbH», «REWE 0815» and «Rewe» count as one place.
2. A new place — AI picks one of your own expense categories. It sees only the shop's name, the amount and your category names; that is one AI action.
3. AI not sure — the expense waits in «Other», and you're asked once (in Telegram or in the app) where it belongs.
4. You move an expense yourself — the place is remembered with your choice. Yours always beats the AI's, and AI never moves an expense you've changed.

The longer you use it, the more places it knows — and a known place needs no AI at all.

What isn't recorded — and what you're asked

• Not purchases: refunds, declined payments, incoming money and top-ups, transfers between your own accounts, cash withdrawals, one-time codes and reminders. They are dropped on the phone, before anything is sent.
• Not sure it's a purchase — a direct debit or a bill in wording the app doesn't know: you're asked once, «Record as an expense?», and the answer is remembered for that recipient.
• Another currency is never recorded as if it were yours: you say how much it was, or save your own rate once.
• No network? Payments wait on the phone, sealed, and are sent when you're back online — with the time you actually paid.
• Cash still needs another way: say it, snap the receipt or type it — see tracking cash.

Privacy: what the app reads and what it keeps

• Only the apps you tick. Notifications of every other app are ignored and never leave the phone.
• Only payments. Everything else from those apps is filtered out on the phone first.
• Only three things are kept: the amount, the shop's name (as the expense's note) and the card's name. The notification's text is read and then dropped.
• No bank login, no card numbers — the no bank connection rule holds here too.
• Turn it off any time in Settings → Google Wallet & banks, or withdraw Notification access in Android's settings. Expenses already recorded stay.

Wrong amount from your bank's format? «Report a wrong amount» sends one sample of that notification with every digit except the amount masked — only when you tap «Send».

Who gets it and what it costs

Automatic tracking from Google Wallet and banks is part of Lifetime and the AI plan, and of the free trial of every new account.

• A new account: 7 days of Pro with 20 AI actions, no card needed.
• Lifetime: one payment of 19 $, with 50 AI actions for new places, voice and receipts.
• The AI plan: 5,99 $ a month or 47,88 $ a year.

Places it already knows cost nothing. When AI actions run out, payments are still recorded — new places land in «Other» until you move them, and that move teaches it for next time.

Questions

Read next

• Log expenses by voice. One sentence, several transactions.
• Track Apple Pay purchases automatically. Pay in a shop — the expense records itself.
• An expense tracker in Telegram. With a full app behind it.
• An expense tracker without a bank link. You log it — in seconds.
• How to track your expenses. And still be doing it in three months.
• Money you share. One ledger, the same numbers for everyone.