Money Diary is an offline-first personal expense and income tracker for iPhone and iPad. It uses templates to make daily logging quicker while keeping your records stored on your device by default.
Money Diary starts with sample categories, daily templates, a monthly template, and themes. You can use them immediately or customize them under Settings.
The main areas of the app are:
On the Today screen, tap the + beside a template category to record a transaction in that category. You can also use the floating + button to choose any expense or income category.
Enter an amount with the calculator keypad, then choose the currency, theme, date, and optional note. Tap Done to save and close. When entering from a template row, you can use Record to save and remain on the entry screen for another transaction.
To edit or delete a transaction, tap it from Today or History.
Daily templates place your commonly used categories on the Today screen. For example, you might use separate templates for workdays, weekends, or travel days.
Go to Settings > Template to create or edit a daily template. Add categories, arrange their order, and optionally pin a sub-category to a row.
You can attach a weekly or monthly recurring rule to a daily template. You can also use Calendar Assignment to assign a template to a specific date or a batch of dates. A one-time calendar assignment takes priority over a recurring rule for that date.
Swipe left on the Today screen to open the monthly view. It shows monthly recurring entries and the expense and income rows from your active monthly template.
Go to Settings > Template, switch to monthly templates, and choose which monthly template is active. Only one monthly template can be active at a time.
Go to Settings > Category to create, rename, reorder, or delete expense and income categories and their sub-categories.
Renaming a category updates its current use in templates, but historical transactions keep the category name that was recorded at the time. Deleting a category removes it from templates; it does not erase historical transactions.
Go to Settings > Theme to create labels such as Everyday, Travel, or a personal project. Themes can be used to filter transactions and analysis across different categories.
Go to Settings > Recurring Schedule to create an expense or income that repeats weekly, monthly, or yearly. Choose its amount, currency, category, theme, first date, and optional end date.
Money Diary checks recurring schedules when the app launches or returns to the foreground. If a due date was missed while the app was closed, the transaction is added the next time the schedule is checked. Review automatically recorded transactions periodically to make sure they still match the real payment or income.
Use History to browse transactions by month. Tap the search button to search across saved transactions using a date range, category, sub-category, note, theme, currency, or amount range. Filters can narrow the monthly history view.
Use Analysis to review income, expenses, net balance, trends, category breakdowns, and day-template comparisons. Converted totals use your selected main currency and the exchange rates available to the app.
Each transaction keeps the currency in which you entered it. Go to Settings > Main Currency to select the currency used for combined totals and charts.
Go to Settings > Exchange Rate to view rates and use the currency converter. Money Diary includes bundled exchange rates for offline use and refreshes them when an internet connection is available. Exchange rates and converted totals are estimates and may be delayed, incomplete, rounded, or inaccurate.
iCloud Sync is an optional Money Diary Pro feature. It uses your Apple ID and private iCloud database to sync app data across your devices.
Go to Settings > iCloud Sync and turn on sync. When prompted:
The app must restart when the sync setting changes. Keep Money Diary open while an important sync, restore, import, or deletion is in progress. Devices may need time to receive changes.
Before enabling sync on another device, confirm which copy of your records you want to keep. Avoid editing the same record on multiple devices at the same time when possible.
Money Diary automatically keeps recent local backups on your device. These backups are not synced to iCloud. Restoring from an automatic backup is a Pro feature.
Go to Settings > Backup & Restore to use the Pro data tools:
Store exported backup files somewhere secure. They may contain personal financial information.
When importing a JSON backup:
CSV imports are merge-only and add transactions rather than restoring every app setting and structure.
Individual transactions and other items can be deleted from their corresponding screens.
For a larger reset, go to Settings > Backup & Restore. Delete All Data removes Money Diary records from this device and is available only while iCloud Sync is turned off. A local safety backup is created before the deletion.
To remove Money Diary data from iCloud without deleting the records on the current device, first turn off sync and then use Delete iCloud Data under Settings > iCloud Sync. This action cannot be undone.
Deleting the app removes its local app data from that device. It does not necessarily remove exported files or data already stored in iCloud.
If you previously purchased Money Diary Pro using the same Apple ID, open any Pro feature to display the Money Diary Pro screen, then tap Restore Purchases.
Purchases and refunds are handled by Apple. Money Diary Pro is a one-time, non-consumable purchase and does not automatically renew.
For help, bug reports, or suggestions, visit Money Diary Support or email support@shuyizhao.com.
Please do not email transaction details, financial records, or backup files.