1) Welcome + privacy policy + terms of use
The very first screen introduces the offline-first promise and asks the user to continue. The screen includes links to:
- Privacy policy (opens in the browser)
- Terms of use (opens in the browser)
Pennie — a privacy-first personal finance tracker
Pennie turns everyday finance notifications into a clean financial timeline, while keeping your data offline and on-device. A key differentiator is automatic parsing: Pennie extracts the amount and context from finance messages so you don’t have to manually type amounts — you review and confirm. This page documents the real app flow and the Dashboard experience.
Offline-first
Android (MAUI)
SQLite + EF Core
Notifications parsing
Charts + insights
Available only on Android
Quick navigation
Start with onboarding, then use the links below to jump across the full Pennie experience: tabs overview, Dashboard, Transactions, Add Transaction, Categories/Budget, EMI Planner, Reports, Settings, and the notification/SMS review flows.
What Pennie optimises for
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Privacy by design
Core features work without internet. Permissions are explained in plain language so the user stays in control.
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Fast daily workflows
Amounts are auto-parsed from finance messages: review the staged transaction, tweak category if needed, and save — no manual amount entry for every payment.
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Actionable insights
The Dashboard prioritises trend and composition: expense breakdown + last 6 months net trend.
Pennie tabs
Pennie is organised around five primary tabs. The app uses a Shell TabBar with these destinations.
Tab
Dashboard
Month snapshot, charts, reminders, subscriptions, balances.
Tab
Transactions
Full transaction timeline with add/edit flows.
Tab
Categories / Budget
Category organisation, limits, and (budget-like) controls.
Tab
Reports
Deeper analytics, charts, and summaries.
Tab
Settings
Currency, permissions, premium, and app preferences.
Onboarding flow (first launch)
On first launch, Pennie guides users through consent + defaults so the app feels local immediately: privacy/terms → currency → permissions (Android).
2) Automatic currency selection (based on locale)
Pennie detects defaults from the device locale and preselects:
- Main currency
- Currency formatting style (examples shown)
- Financial year start month (used for summaries)
This is designed to remove setup friction — most users can simply tap “Apply and continue”.
3) Permissions (Android) — notifications + notification access
On Android, Pennie asks for two related permissions, with clear rationale:
- Allow notifications: so Pennie can send local reminders (no internet required).
- Allow notification access: so Pennie can read finance notifications on-device and stage transactions for approval.
Key feature: once notification access is enabled, Pennie can automatically parse finance messages to extract the amount and context, then pre-fill a “review” item. The user typically just confirms (or edits category/type) instead of typing amounts manually.
Users can finish setup or choose “Maybe later” — the app remains usable either way.
Dashboard page (detailed)
The Dashboard is the “money home” screen: it summarises the current month, surfaces automation (reminders/subscriptions), and provides quick charts for clarity.
Header + month context
The top header anchors users with a friendly greeting and the current month (e.g., “Jan 2026”). This keeps the rest of the metrics easy to interpret.
Budget, expense, net balance (this month)
Pennie computes month totals from the transaction list and shows them as:
- Total Budget
- Total Expense
- Net Balance (budget − expense), color-coded green/red
Insight: interest-accrual transactions are excluded from these top-level totals so the “true” budget/expense picture stays clean.
App update banner
When an update is available, the dashboard surfaces a small banner. Tapping it takes the user to the marketplace/web listing to update.
Interest balances (Premium)
Premium users can track interest-bearing balances with two primary views:
- Savings: balances and optional goal progress
- Debt: outstanding vs receivable, with payoff context
Each chip can expand into a detailed list with category-level rows and progress indicators.
Transaction reminders (automation)
The reminders section is designed to keep financial habits consistent. The dashboard shows:
- A headline that changes based on urgency (overdue / due soon / count)
- Preview cards for upcoming reminders
- Quick actions: “More reminders” and “Add reminder”
Insight: reminders are sorted to show what needs attention first (overdue, then soonest).
Active subscriptions
Subscriptions highlight recurring costs. The dashboard shows:
- Count of active subscriptions
- Total amount (helps users understand fixed monthly commitments)
- Preview cards + a full overlay for the entire list
Expense breakdown pie (this month)
The expense breakdown chart answers: “Where did my money go this month?”
- Groups expense transactions by category
- Shows top categories and merges the rest into “Other” (when needed)
- Includes a readable legend with percent + amount
Net trend (last 6 months)
This chart shows net movement over time (budget − expense) so users can see momentum, seasonality, and whether spending is drifting upward.
Insight: points are colorized by sign (positive vs negative) so dips are visually obvious.
Quick actions
The bottom of the dashboard provides shortcuts to core next steps:
- View Expenses: jump into expense-focused listing
- View Reports: jump into reporting/analytics
Transactions page (detailed)
The Transactions tab is Pennie’s primary “timeline” view. It’s optimised for fast review (search + filters), safe edits (bottom sheet actions), and bulk cleanup (multi-select + undo).
Top toolbar: search + explicit refresh
The first row provides a search bar and a dedicated Refresh button. Search is debounced so typing doesn’t reload on every keystroke.
Insight: Refresh also scrolls the list back to the top so the user immediately sees the newest items for that month.
Month picker + optional day filter
Pennie keeps the timeline strictly scoped to a single month (no infinite cross-month feed). Users can switch months with a chip-style month/year selector.
The Date chip enables a day filter inside the selected month. When a day is active, the chip shows the chosen date plus a small “✕” clear button.
Flow filters: All / Allocation / Expense / Savings / Debt
Under the date controls, Pennie exposes quick filters as horizontally scrollable chips:
- All: default view
- Allocation (income) and Expense: classic cashflow filters
- Savings and Debt: separate flow types for transfers/adjustments that don’t fit a pure “budget vs expense” split
Insight: Selecting a chip updates the active filter state and reloads the month list from page 1 (paging resets).
Search results summary (allocation/expense/savings/debt)
When search or filters are active, Pennie shows a compact summary card with totals for the full matching set (not just the visible page). This helps users understand “how much” without scrolling the entire month.
Note: Day totals shown in headers focus on net payments (budget minus expense). Savings/debt adjustments are surfaced in the summary totals.
List structure: date headers + daily net total
The transaction list is grouped by day. Each day starts with a header (Today/Yesterday or date) and a daily total computed as:
Daily Total = (sum of allocation payments) − (sum of expense payments)
Insight: interest accrual entries are ignored for daily totals so the “what I paid/received” number stays trustworthy.
Transaction row design: category-first + amount + time
Each transaction row is designed to scan quickly:
- Category icon (colored avatar) and category name
- Secondary text (derived details) and optional note (hidden when not applicable)
- Amount color-coded by sign/flow, plus a compact time label
Gestures: long-press starts multi-select, single-tap toggles selection (when multi-select is active), and double-tap jumps to edit.
Per-transaction actions: bottom sheet (Edit / Delete)
Tapping the “⋮” menu opens a bottom sheet with the two most common actions:
- Edit: navigates to the add/edit form with
editIdset - Delete: asks for confirmation, then deletes and offers Undo
Multi-select + bulk actions (Cancel / Delete / More)
For cleanup tasks (e.g., deleting multiple staged notifications), Pennie supports multi-select with a dedicated top bar:
- Selection circles appear in rows and animate on selection
- A badge on the Add button mirrors the selected count
- Bulk actions include Delete and an overflow menu for Select all, Invert, Clear
Delete safety: snackbar + Undo
After deletions (single or bulk), Pennie shows a snackbar for a few seconds with an UNDO action. Undo restores the deleted batch, making cleanup safer.
Primary action: floating “Add” button
The floating Add button stays available while browsing. It intelligently hides on scroll-down (to reduce visual noise) and reappears when the user scrolls up.
Add Transaction page (very detailed)
Add Transaction is where Pennie converts a “money event” into a structured entry. It supports normal allocation/expense entries, Savings and Debt balance updates (Premium), Transfers (Premium), optional reminders (Premium), and lightweight enrichment via sub-category + notes.
Entry points: manual, dashboard shortcut, and auto-parsed review
Users typically open this page from:
- Transactions: the floating Add button.
- Dashboard: the “Add transaction” CTA under month totals.
- Notifications review: when Pennie auto-parses a finance message, it stages a review item and can route into this form with prefilled values.
Top actions: Save + Cancel (toolbar and bottom buttons)
The page provides two consistent actions:
- Save: validates the form and writes the transaction (or updates an existing one).
- Cancel: exits without saving.
UX detail: Pennie shows Save/Cancel both in the top toolbar and again at the bottom so users don’t need to scroll back up after filling fields.
Transaction type chips: Expense / Allocation / Savings / Debt / Transfer
At the top of the form, a horizontal chip row selects the entry type:
- Allocation: use this to record what you earned/received for the month — this becomes the month’s “budget pool” that Pennie summarises at the top.
- Expense: use this to record spending made from that monthly budget, so Pennie can show remaining balance and category breakdowns.
- Savings: updates a savings goal/balance (Premium).
- Debt: updates a debt balance (Premium).
- Transfer: move money between balance categories (Premium) — for example Savings → Savings, Savings → Debt, or Debt → Debt (you pick a “From” and a “To”).
Validation: Pennie blocks saving for Premium-only types when Premium is not active.
Category selection (and “From/To” when Transfer)
The category field is the core classifier. It shows:
- Category icon + color
- Category name
- Helper text (e.g., “Allocation category”, “Expense category”)
When the type is Transfer, the same UI expands to a two-part selection:
- From: the source category
- To: the destination category
Rule: Transfer destinations are constrained (Savings or Debt categories), and “From” and “To” cannot be the same category.
Category/type mismatch guidance (info banner)
When the selected category doesn’t match the current transaction type, Pennie surfaces a contextual info message to prevent wrong classification (for example, choosing an Allocation category while Expense is selected).
Amount entry: currency symbol, limits, and error states
The amount field is numeric with a visible currency symbol. Pennie displays a limit hint (for example “Up to 100,000”) and validates:
- Amount must be a valid number.
- Amount cannot be zero.
- Amount must be within the configured limits for that type.
Savings balance mode (Credit vs Debit)
When the type is Savings, Pennie adds a “Savings balance” toggle:
- Credit: increases the savings goal/balance.
- Debit: withdraws from savings without marking it as “spending”.
Debt balance mode (Loan vs Repayment)
When the type is Debt, Pennie adds a “Debt balance” toggle:
- Loan: grows the debt balance (you owe more, or someone owes you more).
- Repayment: reduces the debt balance.
Date picker (when the transaction happened)
The date field controls which month/day the transaction appears under in the Transactions timeline and in month totals. It defaults to “today” but can be backdated for missed entries.
Sub-category / Icon picker (searchable dropdown overlay)
Sub-category is a lightweight enrichment field (e.g., store name, restaurant name, route). When tapped, Pennie opens an overlay dropdown with:
- A search box
- Suggestion list with icons
- Fallback empty state (“Start typing to see suggestions”)
Note field (optional)
The note field is free-text and supports multi-line input. It’s useful for reminders context (e.g., “rent for Jan”, “split with friend”, “paid via UPI”).
Spending Type toggle (Essential / Non-essential)
When applicable, Pennie shows an “Essential / Non-essential” toggle. This classification is used for reporting and analysis, and can be constrained by the selected category (some categories may force a specific mode).
Subscription flag
Pennie can mark a transaction as a Subscription. This helps the Dashboard subscription panel understand recurring commitments and keep them visible.
Smart reminders (Premium): subject, frequency, start date, time
Premium users can enable Smart reminders for EMI-style follow-ups. The reminder card includes:
- Toggle: enable/disable reminders for this transaction.
- Subject: editable, with a “Same as Note” checkbox.
- Frequency: horizontally scrollable options (Daily/Weekly/Monthly/etc.).
- Starts on and Reminder time: when the reminder begins and at what time.
Validation: if the configuration is invalid, Pennie shows a warning message inside the card (for example, missing subject text).
“You’re adding” summary card
Near the bottom, Pennie shows a colored summary card that mirrors what will be saved: category, amount, type, and date. This acts like a final confirmation before the user taps Save.
Categories / Budget tab (very detailed)
This tab is the control center for how Pennie interprets money. Budgets (expense planning), Savings goals, and Debt tracking are all configured here, and the rest of the app (Transactions, Dashboard, Reports) reads these settings.
How the page is structured
Categories is intentionally split into two layers:
- Editor (top card): select a category to edit its budget/plan; built-in categories have some fields locked.
- Lists (below): your custom categories, default categories, and disabled categories.
Workflow: You always start by selecting a category. That activates the editor, scrolls the page to the top, and focuses the most relevant field.
Default vs custom categories (and Premium gating)
Pennie includes default categories out of the box. You can edit limited fields on them (for example, budgeting), but name and icon are fixed.
Creating and managing your own categories is a Premium feature. The “Add New Categories” section shows a “Get Premium” CTA until Premium is active.
Editing basics: name rules + icon picker
When editing a custom category, Pennie enforces simple, “safe” naming rules (so category labels remain clean everywhere):
- Only letters, numbers, underscores, and spaces
- Max 20 characters
- Cannot start with a space or number
Custom categories can also pick an emoji/icon via the icon picker.
Category purpose: Expense vs Savings vs Debt
Every category has a “purpose” that changes how Pennie treats totals and planning:
- Expense: used for day-to-day spending; supports monthly budgets.
- Savings: used for tracking a balance and progress (goal contribution or interest growth).
- Debt: used for tracking amounts you owe or amounts owed to you (repayment/collection plans, optional loan tracking).
Important: Switching the purpose resets or hides fields that don’t apply (for example, Expense budgets are cleared when switching to Savings/Debt).
Expense budgeting (per category): budget amount + “remaining allocation” status
For Expense categories, Pennie supports an optional default monthly budget. This is used to plan spending against the allocation you’ve actually recorded for the current month.
While editing an expense budget, a status banner explains the situation in real time:
- Allocation missing: budgets are locked until at least one allocation transaction exists this month.
- Money left to allocate: total budgets are under recorded allocation.
- Over budget: total budgets exceed recorded allocation.
- Exact match: budgets equal recorded allocation.
Insight: The banner evaluates the total budget across all categories, not only the one you’re editing, so you always know whether your overall plan is feasible.
Savings category settings (per category): what each field means
When a category is set to Savings, the editor switches into a “plan” configuration. These fields drive balance tracking and Dashboard visuals.
- Carry forward balance: keeps the savings balance continuous across months (recommended for savings/debt categories).
- Plan mode: choose between Monthly deposit and Interest deposit.
- Opening balance: optional starting amount (useful if you start tracking mid-way).
- Goal contribution (monthly): optional monthly target used to track whether you’re “on pace”.
- Goal amount: optional total target; Pennie can show progress toward this overall goal.
- Exclude from dashboard totals: prevents this category from being included in the Dashboard’s aggregated Savings/Debt totals.
Savings (Interest deposit mode): interest schedule fields explained
If you choose Interest deposit for a Savings category, Pennie exposes a loan/savings-style interest configuration so growth can be tracked more accurately over time.
Key fields:
- Accrual cadence: how often interest is computed and “earned” (daily = every day, monthly = every month, quarterly = every 3 months, yearly = once per year). The annual rate is converted into the chosen cadence.
- Interest type: simple vs compound.
- Cumulative cadence (compound/deposits): when accrued interest is credited back into the corpus/principal (monthly/quarterly/yearly). This affects the next period’s interest calculation.
- Principal amount: baseline amount the interest is calculated on.
- Interest rate (%): annual rate.
- Tenure: months or years (Pennie stores tenure internally in months).
- Tracking start date: helps compute “term complete” progress.
Convenience: When interest is enabled and the monthly target is empty, Pennie may suggest a monthly target (based on principal + rate) to help you plan contributions.
Debt category settings (per category): what each field means
Debt categories model “relationship direction” explicitly so the UI can label targets correctly and interpret payments consistently:
- You owe (IOwe): this is your liability; payments reduce what you owe.
- Owe you (OwedToMe): this is money receivable; collections reduce what others owe you.
Core fields for Debt categories:
- Carry forward balance: keeps debt outstanding continuous across months.
- Plan mode: monthly plan vs interest/loan tracking.
- Opening balance: starting outstanding amount.
- Monthly target: label changes based on direction (repayment target vs collection target).
- Credit card: available when “You owe” is selected; groups the debt under Credit card views.
- Exclude from dashboard totals: remove this debt category from aggregated Dashboard totals.
Debt (Interest deposit mode): loan tracking + required monthly target
When interest tracking is enabled for a Debt category, Pennie treats it like a loan plan:
- Interest settings (principal/rate/cadence/tenure/start date) become mandatory and are validated.
- A positive monthly repayment target becomes required so Pennie can compare actual repayments against the plan.
Design detail: in interest mode, Pennie locks the debt direction to “You owe” to keep the math and labels consistent.
Disabling categories (instead of deleting)
If a custom category already has transactions, Pennie encourages disabling it instead of deleting. Disabled categories:
- stay hidden from new transactions, reports, and the dashboard
- can be re-enabled later
Planning tools: EMI calculator (Premium)
The Categories tab also hosts a small “Planning Tools” section. Premium users can open the EMI planner to estimate loan payments and explore payoff strategies before setting up debt automation.
Read the full EMI Planner walkthrough →
EMI Planner (field-by-field)
Pennie’s EMI Planner helps users model three goal types: Loan payoff, Recurring deposit (save monthly toward a goal), and Fixed deposit (park a lump sum and see maturity). The planner is interactive: you adjust fields, tap Calculate, and compare outcomes before you commit to a budget or a debt plan.
Where this fits in the Pennie workflow
Most users will use the EMI Planner after they’ve set up categories (especially a Debt category). It’s a “what-if” tool that helps answer questions like:
- Loan payoff: “If I pay ₹X per month, when will I close this loan? How much interest will I pay?”
- Acceleration: “If I increase my EMI each year and add one extra payment, how much time/interest do I save?”
- Goal to buy something: “If I invest ₹X monthly (RD) or ₹X once (FD), what value will it reach and when?”
Goal type (Loan / Recurring deposit / Fixed deposit)
This segmented control changes the meaning of the entire form. It is the first decision because it changes both the input labels and the interpretation of results.
- Loan: you’re paying down an outstanding balance. “Interest payable” and “Loan payoff” insights are shown.
- Recurring deposit: you contribute each month and interest grows a corpus toward your goal.
- Fixed deposit: you deposit once and model maturity / monthly payout style outcomes based on tenure.
Planning tip: For “goal to buy something”, Recurring deposit is the simplest way to translate your goal into a monthly habit (what you need to put away each month).
Plan by (Tenure vs EMI) — Loan mode only
When Goal type is Loan, Pennie lets you choose the calculation basis:
- Tenure: you enter “how long”, and Pennie computes the EMI needed.
- EMI: you enter “how much per month”, and Pennie derives the tenure required.
Planning tip: Use EMI mode if your monthly cashflow is fixed. Use Tenure mode if you have a hard deadline (e.g., close before child’s school fee cycle starts).
Primary inputs (amounts + interest rate)
The top grid is always the “core math” of your plan:
- Loan amount (Loan) / Monthly contribution (RD) / Deposit amount (FD)
- Interest rate (%): annual rate, used with the interest-type rules below
- Tenure: shown when you’re planning by tenure (or always for Fixed deposit)
- Target EMI amount: shown when you’re planning by EMI (Loan/RD)
Validation detail: In EMI mode for loans, Pennie requires EMI to exceed the upcoming interest amount; otherwise, the balance would never reduce.
Interest type: Compound vs Simple
This toggle decides how Pennie models interest:
- Compound: interest accrues on the changing balance/corpus. Loan balances reduce; deposit corpus grows.
- Simple (original principal): interest is charged on the original principal (no compounding).
Planning tip: Choose the interest type that matches your lender/product sheet. Many loans behave like compounding on reducing balance; some “flat rate” products behave closer to simple interest.
Accrual cadence (and cumulative cadence for deposits)
The planner can simulate how often interest accrues:
- Accrual cadence: how often interest is computed and “earned” (monthly = every month, quarterly = every 3 months, yearly = once per year). The annual rate is converted into the chosen cadence.
- Cumulative cadence (Deposits + compound): when accrued interest is credited back to the corpus/deposit (monthly/quarterly/yearly)
These are important because they change the effective growth/interest pattern even at the same annual rate.
Align with financial year (quarterly/yearly cycles)
When you pick quarterly or yearly cycles, Pennie can align those cycles with a specific fiscal year start month (useful for India-style FY planning or when products accrue quarterly from a fixed FY boundary).
- Align with financial year: enables fiscal alignment
- Financial year starts: month picker (only when alignment is enabled)
Planning tip: If you budget around yearly bonuses/appraisals, fiscal alignment makes the timeline “feel” like your real life.
Schedule starts (Month + Year)
This is the calendar anchor for the entire schedule. Pennie uses this to label each month/year in the payoff table and charts.
Planning tip: Set this to your next EMI date month so the timeline matches your actual lender schedule.
Acceleration tweaks (Loan + Compound only)
These fields help users simulate “closing early” strategies. They appear only when:
- Goal type is Loan, and
- Interest type is Compound
- EMI step-up each year (%): increases EMI annually from the same start month next year (useful when income grows).
- Prepayments per year: number of extra payments in a year (0–12). Pennie schedules them at the end of each cycle.
- Prepayment mode:
- Manual: you enter a fixed prepayment amount.
- Current EMI: each prepayment equals the EMI in effect for that year (after step-ups).
- Prepayment amount: shown only in Manual mode.
Planning tip: If you get an annual bonus, set “Prepayments per year” to 1 and use Manual mode to model a single annual lumpsum.
Calculate, Download, Share
After you enter inputs, use:
- Calculate: generates schedule + charts.
- Download: exports the full schedule as a CSV (named like
pennie_emi_schedule_).YYYYMMDD_ HHMMSS.csv - Share: shares the generated CSV via Android share sheet.
Errors and warnings
If inputs are missing or inconsistent, Pennie shows an inline banner instead of producing a misleading schedule.
- Error (red): blocks calculation (e.g., missing start month/year, invalid amounts).
- Warning (yellow): calculation ran, but something needs attention.
Results: Payment summary + “interest/time saved” comparison
Once calculated, Pennie shows a payment summary with:
- Monthly payment (Loan EMI / Monthly deposit / Monthly payout) when applicable
- Total interest (payable for loans, earned for deposits)
- Total payment / maturity value
For loans, Pennie also compares your “base plan” (no step-ups, no prepayments) against the plan with acceleration tweaks, and shows:
- Interest saved (or “interest increases” if changes backfire)
- Time saved (or “extends by…”)
Results: Break-up of total payment (pie)
This chart answers “how much is principal vs interest?” For deposit goals, the labels adapt (principal becomes contribution/corpus).
Results: Yearly trajectory chart (principal/interest + balance trend)
The “Loan payoff trajectory / Goal trajectory” view is designed for quick comparisons across years:
- Stacked bars show yearly principal/contribution and interest.
- A line shows remaining balance (loan) or progress/corpus trend (deposits).
- Tapping on bars can reveal a marker with year-level totals (Android).
Results: Yearly breakdown table (with monthly drill-down)
This table is the “audit view” for planning. It shows, year by year:
- Principal / Contribution and Interest
- Total payment
- Balance (loan) or Principal + Interest (deposits)
- Progress (loan paid-to-date or goal progress)
Tap “+” on a year to expand and inspect month-level figures.
Using the EMI Planner for a “goal to buy something”
If your goal is a purchase (phone, bike, emergency fund), Pennie’s deposit modes help translate that goal into a timeline:
- Recurring deposit: set monthly contribution and tenure to see maturity value. This is best when you want a disciplined monthly plan.
- Fixed deposit: set a lump sum and tenure to see maturity value. This is best when you already have capital and want predictable growth.
Next step: Once you pick a monthly contribution that works, you can mirror it in the Categories tab by creating a Savings category with a matching monthly target.
Reports tab (Summary / Budget / Trends)
Reports is Pennie’s analytics workspace. It runs entirely on-device: Pennie queries your local SQLite database, applies the time range + essential filters, and then renders charts (donuts, trend lines, breakdown pies) for fast scanning.
Reports navigation: Summary / Budget / Trends
The Reports header uses a segmented selector. Each segment changes the section content below, but they share the same idea: pick a time range and focus the data.
- Summary: period totals + expense composition + top categories.
- Budget: category-level “budget usage” rows for Expense, Savings, and Debt.
- Trends: daily/monthly trends + breakdown charts, with category-type and search filters.
Time frame picker (Weekly / Monthly / Annually / Custom)
The time frame changes the active date range used for every chart. Pennie supports:
- Weekly: current week range.
- Monthly: a selected month (month/year picker).
- Annually: current calendar year.
- Custom: choose start date and end date (inclusive; end is treated as end-date + 1 day internally).
Essential filter (Both / Essential / Non-Essential)
This filter narrows the dataset before charts are computed:
- Both: includes all expenses.
- Essential: includes only transactions marked essential.
- Non-Essential: includes only transactions marked non-essential.
Important: Essential filtering impacts totals, category charts, and trend charts together (it is not “cosmetic”).
Summary section
Summary focuses on “how this period went” and “where money went”. Internally, Pennie computes an overall period summary and (when you apply an essential filter) a filtered summary for the same range.
- Period totals: income/expense/net for the selected range.
- Transaction Type: Different categories are grouped by transaction type.
Budget section (Expense / Savings / Debt usage)
Budget converts category definitions into “usage rows” for the selected period. Each row typically shows:
- Budget (target/limit)
- Spent / Used in this time range
- Percent used (when a budget is set)
Pennie builds budget usage for Expense, Savings, and Debt categories, and sorts rows so categories with meaningful budgets appear first.
Trends section (filters + charts)
Trends is designed for pattern-finding. Pennie provides two key filter controls:
- Category type: Expense / Savings / Debt
- Search: narrows trend entries by matching category names or sub-category text
Note: The “Daily trend” chart shows only for Weekly/Monthly ranges; longer ranges focus on monthly aggregation.
Locked access (rewarded unlock)
Pennie includes an access-gate flow for Reports. When enabled, non-premium users can unlock Reports for a short session by watching a rewarded ad. Premium users bypass this gate.
Settings tab (Preferences, Security, Notifications, Data Transfer)
Settings is where Pennie stores device-level preferences and “permission-driven” features. It also hosts the entry points for finance-notification tracking (review flow, cleanup, and app selection).
Premium / trial banner
The top banner is shown when a trial is available, active, or ended. It explains what Premium unlocks and provides a single CTA (start trial / upgrade).
Preferences
Preferences focuses on local formatting and UI choices:
- Base currency: opens a currency selector popup and stores the base code (used across charts and formatting).
- Currency format: a picker of a few sample formats (e.g., -1,234,567.89) based on cultures that match the currency.
- Financial year starts: month picker (used by fiscal-aligned flows and reporting summaries).
- Theme: Light / Dark / System.
Security: Device Authentication
When enabled, Pennie requires biometric/device authentication whenever the app opens or resumes. Disabling it triggers an authentication check before the toggle is turned off.
Notifications: enable, remind-as, daily reminder
This section controls all local reminders:
- Enable Notifications: turns reminder delivery on/off and also starts/stops background scheduling (Android).
- Remind as: choose Notification (banner) or Alarm (high-priority alert).
- Daily reminder: time picker + toggle to schedule a daily reminder.
Data Transfer (Export / Import)
Pennie can create a full offline backup and restore it on a fresh install. These controls are premium-gated:
- Export Data: exports a full backup file.
- Import Data: available only when the device has no transactions yet (prevents accidental overwrite).
Track Finance Notifications (SMS/notification staging)
This card is the control center for automatic finance-notification capture. It includes:
- Review & Approve: opens the Notifications Review page (requires Android notification access).
- Cleanup: runs maintenance cleanup for staged items.
- Manage Notification Access: opens Android’s notification access settings (Android only).
- Notification Apps: choose which apps Pennie is allowed to read notifications from (Android only).
- Paste SMS: manual fallback to parse pasted bank/SMS text into the Add Transaction flow.
Notifications Review (Review & Approve)
Notifications Review is where Pennie turns raw notification text into staged “candidate transactions”. You review each item, correct fields (type/category/amount), and then add the selected ones into the real Transactions database.
Header: Add Selected, day picker, Scan
The header is optimised for a quick daily routine:
- Add Selected (N): commits only the checked items.
- Date picker: constrained to the last 7 days (including today).
- Scan: fetches notifications for the selected day and stages them for review.
Each staged item: message text + editable transaction fields
Each notification is shown with its original text (for auditability) and then an editable form:
- Transaction type: tap to choose Expense / Income / Savings / Debt / Transfer.
- Direction toggle: shown for transaction types that can be either incoming or outgoing.
- Mark as essential: optional toggle (drives Reports “Essential” filters later).
- Amount: editable numeric field (Pennie attempts to prefill from the notification).
- Category (and To for transfers): opens a category picker filtered by type.
- Sub-category: a free-text detail with suggestion support.
Transfers: Source category + destination category
When Transaction type is set to Transfer, Pennie requires:
- From category: Savings-only source.
- To category: Savings or Debt destination.
Validation: source and destination cannot be the same category.
Sub-category overlay (search + suggestions)
Tapping Sub-category opens a dedicated overlay. This prevents the main list from scrolling while you type. Pennie shows suggested sub-categories and applies your selection back to the staged item.
Adding selected items
When you tap “Add Selected”, Pennie disables interactions briefly, commits the selected staged items as real transactions, and then shows a success message with the number added.
Notification Apps (application selection)
This page lets the user choose which installed apps Pennie is allowed to read notifications from. This is essential to reduce noise and keep finance parsing focused (banks, SMS apps, UPI, wallets).
Header explanation + search
At the top, Pennie explains what the feature does and then provides a search box:
- Search apps… filters by app name or package name.
- A clear “✕” button appears when there is text.
- An app count badge shows the number of apps in the current list.
Apps list (icon, name, SMS badge, enable switch)
Each row includes:
- App icon (loaded progressively)
- App name
- SMS badge for apps detected as SMS apps
- Enable toggle to allow/disallow Pennie to read notifications from that app
Save Preferences
After changing toggles, tap “Save Preferences” to persist the selection. Pennie shows a success dialog and refreshes the status message.
Paste SMS (manual fallback)
Paste SMS is a lightweight helper for devices/flows where automatic notification capture is unavailable. You paste the raw message text, Pennie extracts the amount (if present), and then opens the Add Transaction page with prefilled fields.
Paste → Parse and Add
The page has a single job:
- Paste the raw SMS/notification text.
- Tap Parse and Add.
- Pennie navigates to Add Transaction with query fields: note, and optionally amount and type (income/expense).
