Getting Started
Create your free account and have a personalized budget ready in minutes. ExpenseBuddy works two ways: enter transactions manually for hands-on control, or link your bank accounts and let AI handle the categorization automatically.
Creating Your Account
Sign Up
Visit expensebuddy.io and click Get Started Free. Enter your name, email address, phone number, and choose a password (minimum 8 characters). Real-time validation confirms your password matches as you type.
Verify Your Email
Check your inbox for a verification email from ExpenseBuddy. Click the verification link to activate your account. If you don’t see the email, check your spam or junk folder.
Sign In
Return to expensebuddy.io and click Sign In. Enter the email and password you registered with. You’ll land on your Accounts dashboard, ready to go.
When you create your account, ExpenseBuddy sets up a default budget based on average American household spending for a family of four with two earners (approximately $75,000 annual household income). This includes 20 expense categories and 4 income categories — all fully customizable. A “Main Spending Account” is also created for you automatically.
Managing Accounts
Your Accounts page is the home base of ExpenseBuddy. Here you can see all your financial accounts at a glance, including current balances and account types.
ExpenseBuddy supports two types of accounts:
| Account Type | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Asset | Accounts you own — money coming in | Checking, savings, cash |
| Liability | Accounts you owe — money going out | Credit cards, loans, mortgages |
Each account can be customized with a name, description, color, institution name, and last four digits of the account number. You can also mark whether an account should be included in your budget calculations and set any account as your default.
When you move money between your own accounts (for example, checking to savings), use the Transfer feature rather than recording separate income and expense transactions. Transfers create a paired debit and credit record — one in each account — keeping your net worth accurate without inflating your spending or income totals. Transfers are automatically excluded from Profit & Loss reports. When importing from Plaid, transfers are detected automatically and handled the same way.
Recording Transactions
The Transactions page is where you view, search, and manage all of your financial activity. Transactions can be added manually or imported automatically from linked bank accounts.
When adding a transaction manually, you’ll enter the date, amount, category, description, and optionally a note. Negative amounts represent refunds and returns and are tracked with a special purple indicator so your budget stays accurate even when money flows back to you.
The Transactions page includes powerful filtering and search capabilities:
| Feature | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Date Presets | Quickly filter by This Month, Last Month, Last Quarter, Year to Date, Last Year, or All Time |
| Custom Date Range | Pick any start and end date for a custom view |
| Account Filter | View transactions for a specific account or all accounts at once |
| Category Filter | Narrow down to a specific expense or income category |
| Search | Search by description or notes to find specific transactions |
| Pagination | Navigate through large transaction lists with page controls |
A calculator modal is available on the Transactions page to help you total up receipts or split amounts before entering them.
Categories & Budgets
Categories organize every transaction into meaningful groups and tie directly into your budget. ExpenseBuddy uses a unified category system with two types: Income and Expense.
Default Categories
New accounts come pre-loaded with 20 expense categories (Housing, Groceries, Utilities, Transportation, and more) and 4 income categories (Payroll, Side Income, Investment Income, Other Income). Each expense category has a suggested monthly budget amount based on average household spending.
Customizing Categories
From the Categories page, you can:
Edit Budget Amounts
Adjust the monthly budget for any category to match your actual spending and goals.
Add New Categories
Create custom categories for anything not covered by the defaults. Choose a type (Income or Expense), set a budget, pick a color, and add optional notes.
Rename or Deactivate
Rename categories to fit your terminology, or deactivate ones you don’t use. Deactivated categories are hidden but their historical data remains intact.
Assign Colors
Each category can have a color for visual identification in reports and charts.
The default budget is a starting point. Your household’s income, expenses, and priorities are unique. Take a few minutes to adjust category amounts to reflect your real situation — whether you’re single, married, or have a different household size.
Bank Sync (Plaid Integration)
Connect your bank accounts through Plaid and let ExpenseBuddy import your transactions automatically. Plaid supports over 12,000 financial institutions across the United States. Bank Sync is a Pro feature.
Linking Your Bank
Navigate to Linked Banks
From the sidebar, click Linked Banks under the Bank Sync section.
Connect a Bank
Click Link a Bank Account. A secure Plaid window will open where you search for your bank and log in with your bank credentials. ExpenseBuddy never sees your bank password — Plaid handles all authentication directly.
Select Accounts
Choose which accounts to link (checking, savings, credit cards). Plaid will begin syncing your recent transactions.
Map to ExpenseBuddy Accounts
Each linked Plaid account must be mapped to a corresponding ExpenseBuddy account. You can map to an existing account or create a new one. This ensures imported transactions land in the correct account for accurate reporting.
The Linked Banks page displays each connected institution, the number of accounts linked, account balances (available, current, and credit limit where applicable), and any pending transactions waiting for import.
Plaid provides three types of balance data: Available (funds you can spend right now), Current (total balance including pending transactions), and Limit (credit limit for credit cards). These are displayed on the Linked Banks page and updated each time you sync.
AI-Powered Categorization
When transactions are imported from Plaid, ExpenseBuddy uses Claude AI (by Anthropic) to automatically suggest a category for each transaction based on the merchant name, transaction description, and your existing categories. This means your groceries, gas, subscriptions, and restaurant visits get categorized intelligently with zero manual effort.
Only transaction descriptions (merchant names) are sent to the AI — no personal information such as your name, email, or account numbers is ever included in AI requests.
Importing Transactions
Imported transactions land on the Import page with a “pending” status. From there you can:
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Review | See the AI’s suggested category and adjust if needed before importing |
| Import | Accept the categorization and add the transaction to your records |
| Bulk Import | Import multiple transactions at once with their AI-suggested categories |
| Dismiss | Skip a transaction you don’t want to import |
Transfer Detection
When Plaid detects a transaction as a transfer between your own accounts (such as moving money from checking to savings), ExpenseBuddy handles it specially. Instead of recording a single expense or income transaction, the system creates a proper paired transfer — a debit from one account and a credit to another — matching the same transfer architecture used for manual transfers. This keeps your Profit & Loss reports accurate by excluding internal transfers from income and expense totals.
On the Import page, transfers show dedicated account selection dropdowns so you can confirm which accounts were involved before importing.
ExpenseBuddy includes built-in duplicate detection to prevent the same transaction from being imported twice. Each Plaid transaction carries a unique ID that is tracked in the database. If a transaction with a matching ID already exists, it will be flagged automatically.
Balance Reconciliation
Over time, your calculated balance (starting balance plus the sum of all transactions) may drift from the balance your bank reports through Plaid. This can happen due to pending transactions, bank fees, interest, or transactions that haven’t been imported yet. The Linked Banks page shows both your calculated and Plaid-reported balances so you can identify discrepancies and reconcile when needed.
Unlinking a Bank
You can unlink a bank at any time from the Linked Banks page. Unlinking revokes the Plaid connection and stops future transaction syncing, but does not delete any transactions you’ve already imported — those remain in your transaction history. To delete imported transactions, you would need to remove them manually or contact support.
Reports & Analytics
ExpenseBuddy provides three powerful reports that give you a complete picture of your financial health. All reports support the same date presets and custom date ranges for consistent analysis.
Budget Report
The Budget report compares your actual spending against your budgeted amounts for each category. For every expense category, you’ll see a visual progress bar showing how much of your budget has been used, along with the dollar amounts spent and remaining.
Categories are color-coded to quickly show where you stand: green means you’re under budget, and red means you’ve exceeded your budgeted amount. Click any category to drill down into the individual transactions that make up that total.
Profit & Loss
The Profit & Loss report provides a clear view of your income versus expenses over any time period. The report breaks down:
| Section | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Total Income | All positive transactions (paychecks, side income, refunds, etc.) |
| Total Expenses | All negative transactions, broken down by category |
| Net Income | Income minus expenses — your bottom line for the period |
Transfer transactions are automatically excluded from the P&L report to avoid inflating your numbers. You can filter by specific accounts or view all accounts combined, and choose from the same date presets available throughout the app.
Net Worth Tracker
The Net Worth report calculates your total assets minus total liabilities across all active accounts. It provides a real-time snapshot of your overall financial position with a visual chart showing how your net worth changes over time.
Each account’s current balance is displayed along with its type (asset or liability), giving you full visibility into what contributes to your net worth.
All reports share the same date presets: This Month, Last Month, Last Quarter, Year to Date, Last Year, and All Time. Your selected preset persists as you navigate between reports so you can compare data across different views for the same time period.
My Account
Manage your personal information and security settings from the My Account page, accessible from the sidebar.
Profile Settings
Update your first name, last name, and phone number at any time. Changes take effect immediately.
Changing Your Email
For security, changing your email requires a verification step. When you request an email change, ExpenseBuddy sends a verification link to your new email address. The change only takes effect after you click the verification link, ensuring you have access to the new email address.
Changing Your Password
To change your password, enter your current password for verification, then enter and confirm your new password (minimum 8 characters). If you’ve forgotten your password, use the Forgot Password link on the sign-in screen to receive a reset email.
Free vs. Pro
ExpenseBuddy offers a free tier for basic manual expense tracking and a Pro tier that unlocks the full platform including automatic bank sync and AI-powered categorization.
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Manual transactions | ✔ | ✔ |
| Categories & budgets | ✔ | ✔ |
| Budget report | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dark mode | ✔ | ✔ |
| Unlimited accounts | — | ✔ |
| Bank sync (Plaid) | — | ✔ |
| AI categorization | — | ✔ |
| Transaction import | — | ✔ |
| Profit & Loss report | — | ✔ |
| Net Worth tracking | — | ✔ |
Pro features are marked with a PRO badge in the sidebar. Clicking a locked feature shows an upgrade prompt with pricing details. Pro subscriptions start at $8.33/month (billed annually) or $14.99/month billed monthly.
Visit Upgrade to Pro in the sidebar to view pricing and subscribe. You can cancel anytime and your data remains accessible.
Dark Mode
ExpenseBuddy includes a full dark mode theme that’s easy on the eyes during nighttime use or in low-light environments.
Toggle dark mode on or off using the Dark Mode switch at the bottom of the sidebar. Your preference is saved in your browser and applied automatically on future visits. The theme switches instantly with no page reload required.
Mobile Access
ExpenseBuddy is designed mobile-first. The entire interface adapts to phones and tablets, so you can check budgets, approve imported transactions, and add expenses on the go.
On mobile devices, the sidebar navigation collapses into a hamburger menu that slides out when tapped. Transaction tables transform into card layouts for easy reading on smaller screens, and all modals and forms are optimized for touch interaction.
Add expensebuddy.io to your home screen for an app-like experience. On iOS, tap the Share button and select “Add to Home Screen.” On Android, tap the browser menu and select “Add to Home Screen.”
Security
Your financial data is protected with industry-standard security practices.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Password Encryption | All passwords are hashed with bcrypt before storage. We never store plain-text passwords. |
| Bank Credentials | Handled entirely by Plaid. ExpenseBuddy never sees, stores, or transmits your bank login information. |
| 256-bit Encryption | All data is encrypted in transit using TLS/SSL (bank-grade encryption). |
| Email Verification | Required for account activation and email address changes to prevent unauthorized access. |
| Session Management | Secure session handling with automatic timeout for inactive sessions. |
| Security Testing | Independent penetration testing conducted by NightVision.net. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to common questions about using ExpenseBuddy.
Is ExpenseBuddy free?
Yes. Creating an account and using all core features — manual transaction entry, categories, budgets, and reports — is completely free.
How do I reset my password?
Click the Forgot password? link on the sign-in screen. Enter your email address and you’ll receive a password reset link via email.
Is my bank data safe?
Absolutely. Plaid handles all bank authentication directly. ExpenseBuddy never receives or stores your bank username or password. Plaid is trusted by thousands of financial apps and uses 256-bit encryption.
Can I use ExpenseBuddy without linking a bank?
Yes. Bank linking is entirely optional. You can use ExpenseBuddy as a fully manual expense tracker, entering all transactions yourself. Many users prefer this hands-on approach.
What happens if I unlink my bank?
Unlinking removes the Plaid connection and stops future transaction syncing. All previously imported transactions remain in your account and are not affected.
How does AI categorization work?
When transactions are imported from Plaid, they’re analyzed by Claude AI (by Anthropic) which reads the merchant name and transaction details, then suggests the most appropriate category from your existing category list. You can accept, change, or dismiss the suggestion before importing. Only merchant names are sent to the AI — no personal information is included.
How are transfers handled?
Both manual and Plaid-imported transfers create paired debit/credit records across two accounts. This keeps your account balances accurate and ensures transfers are excluded from your Profit & Loss reports. When Plaid detects a transfer, the Import page shows dedicated account selectors so you can confirm which accounts were involved.
Is ExpenseBuddy a financial advisor?
No. ExpenseBuddy is a personal finance tracking tool only. Nothing in the app — including reports, budgets, net worth figures, or AI suggestions — constitutes financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Always consult qualified professionals for financial decisions.
What’s the difference between Free and Pro?
The free tier includes manual transaction entry, categories, budgets, and the Budget report. Pro unlocks bank sync via Plaid, AI-powered categorization, unlimited accounts, Profit & Loss reports, and Net Worth tracking. See the Free vs. Pro section for full details.
Can I export my data?
Reports can be viewed for any date range. For export needs, please contact support at support@expensebuddy.io.
Contact & Support
We’re here to help. Reach out any time with questions, feedback, or issues.
| Channel | Details |
|---|---|
| support@expensebuddy.io | |
| Phone | (805) 414-0684 |
| Website | expensebuddy.io |
ExpenseBuddy.io is operated by Global Transaction Systems, LLC.