Typing every transaction by hand is the fastest way to stop keeping track at all. Instead, give beanies your statement: a PDF from your bank, a photo or screenshot of your recent transactions, a CSV export, or text copied from your banking app. beanies reads it, lines it up against what you have already entered, and shows you everything before a single transaction is added.
Nothing is saved until you confirm the list. The statement itself is not kept, by the AI service or by beanies.
Importing a statement
Open Budgets and tap Import a statement, or tap the + button anywhere, attach the statement (or paste its text) and tap Send: beanies recognizes a statement and reads it page by page
Paste the text, take a photo, or choose the file
beanies tells you how many pages it will read and what it sends. Tap Read my statement (with the privacy check switched off in Settings, this step appears only the first time)
Check the account at the top. beanies picks it from the statement when it can; change it if it is wrong
Go through the list, change anything you need to, and tap Add at the bottom
What the list shows
- A plain line is new. It is ticked, so it will be added. Untick it to leave it out, or tap its name to change the date, amount, category or account.
- A card with two sides looks like something you already entered: the statement on the left, your entry on the right. Merge keeps your entry (its name, its link to a recurring payment or an activity) and updates it with the amount and date from the statement. Keep both adds the statement line as well. Skip leaves it out. A card with a dashed border says Possibly already in beanies: the amount is close to something you have (often a charge entered twice, or one added by an earlier import), but not close enough to be sure. Both are kept unless you choose Merge or Skip, and Merge all never touches these cards.
- A dashed line was added by an earlier import, so it is unticked. Overlapping imports (last week's screenshot and this week's) never add the same line twice.
- Tick all, Untick all and Merge all (and friends) work on the whole list, and the tick beside each day works on that day. You can still change any line afterwards.
A recurring payment you set up for the 1st often leaves your account mid-month, and not always for the exact amount. beanies still offers to merge it, as long as it lands in the same month. One charged in a different month from when it was due shows as a new line instead, so check it before you add it.
Long statements, and what each read costs
beanies reads a statement one page at a time, and each page is one magic bean. Pages that are only terms, adverts or a payment slip are left out, and the list says so, with a Read it anyway button in case beanies got one wrong. If a page could not be read, the list tells you that too, so you know which lines to look for.
After you import
Every added or merged transaction is marked reconciled: it matches your bank. Its details show what it said on your statement, so you can recognise it next month. A reconciled transaction that belongs to a recurring payment no longer changes when you edit that recurring payment, because it now records what the bank actually took.
Only family members who can see the finances can import a statement.