u/RankAShinobi

In the past I’ve tried so many expense tracking apps to try and keep a budget and track my spending but I always get too lazy to log my expenses which means they never end up working for me.

I’m also a pretty skeptical person when it comes to apps and privacy so I don’t want to link my bank account to any. This pushed me into creating my own app to tackle these issues…

An app that automatically tracks your expenses without the need to link your bank accounts. A bonus being it having real time notifications and alerts to let you know when you’re about to or have gone over your budget.

This resulted in the creation of WalletPal. It uses the "Transactions" apple shortcut automation to automatically log Apple Pay transactions. The app also automatically populates the category of the transaction.

The app also now includes budgets, bills/subscriptions tracking, custom dashboard insights, recurring payment timelines, CSV import/export, and a refreshed dashboard style design.

I’ve been using it myself personally for a while now and honestly it’s been the one expense tracker I’ve been able to stick to and actually helps me.
Would love for anyone else to try it out and provide any feedback. Would be great if it could benefit other people.

Appstore link: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/smart-budget-walletpal/id6475526197

An easy shortcut automation that has been helping me track my expenses. It allows you to log any transaction made through tap to pay.

You can add it to a spreadsheet or an expense tracking app that supports it. My app of choice is one called WalletPal but there’s many others that support this.

For this tutorial I’ll be showing how to set up the automation using WalletPal - link to app

But these steps will work with any app that supports the shortcut

Steps to setup automation:

1. open the shortcuts app and go to the automations tap

https://preview.redd.it/6bdg7002v41h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c0eeb62d72f7dc3b8983427eb514483c3c2a9ca

2. tap on “new automation” or the “+” button in the top right corner

https://preview.redd.it/59pmjuz2v41h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=874c323b2b755df917d75f49c7959cb96b80c6c8

3. Scroll down until you see “transaction” and tap to select that option

https://preview.redd.it/xrcs6y04v41h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=3addcbc89da672cf62ccb5d5ccdf8efa0c19b42c

4. ensure everything is ticked and scroll to the bottom and select “run immediately” then select the “next” button in the top right hand corner

https://preview.redd.it/r4hv3e35v41h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=984a103c967ebdb711609fe2d7bf4efabec075e6

5. tap “New blank automation” and select “Add action”

https://preview.redd.it/ts5a91c7v41h1.png?width=547&format=png&auto=webp&s=f4fff98c4c1fbb7bcaf0751b8e4e1d804e15d5ab

6. Search for “WalletPal” (or the supported app of your choice) and tap “Add new transaction”

https://preview.redd.it/ugow0dj8v41h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=70efb39d802619ff051583c840d586239151c625

7. Toggle the arrow next to “Add new transaction” and click on the text field for “Transaction name”

- on the keyboard select the “select variable” button

- Tap on the “Shortcut input” button and then select the name variable

https://preview.redd.it/tutorial-automatically-track-apple-pay-transactions-ios-17-v0-i0x3wryyiefc1.gif?width=222&auto=webp&s=94b271a81f2a9b3123e4a65ee5ca630a308fd42e

8. repeat these steps for the “transaction amount” and “card name” text fields and choose the appropriate variables

https://preview.redd.it/pw5yc0n9v41h1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=805495f2dd6a848a531515fc9091eaba2b6e2a50

9. Tap “done” and that’s it! Your automation is set up and all tap to pay transactions will be automatically logged in the app.