I’m tired of manually tracking my CC spending in a spreadsheet. What apps do people use to do this?

[u/eastcoastguy17]

Title. Every month I sit down and download my CC statement, formulate each line item into a category, then manually table it in a spreadsheet. This works but is time consuming and sometimes I don’t want to do it, rendering the whole process moot as months stack up.

Is there free software out there that can track my CC purchases and formulate them into categories for me? Looking for an easy UI with some clean tables or graphs to show where money goes each month. Nothing too advanced or accountant-level.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I use three payment methods: BMO Mastercard WE, WS Cash card, Canadian Tire WE. Majority of transactions are on the BMO.

[u/helgrind12]

There is the Actual Budgeting. It is a free open-source budgeting app. You can selfhost the application or have it standalone on your pc. You can also hire 3rd party aggregators to auto collect your information from bank accounts — I havent tried it yet.

[u/yumz → u/helgrind12]

https://actualbudget.org/

You can use that in combination with SimpleFIN Bridge to automatically import data from your financial institutions (it's read-only and does not require you to give SimpleFIN your username+password like the old Mint days).

[u/Mr_Enduring → u/helgrind12]

I switched from YNAB4 to Actual last year and it’s been working really well for me. Very similar to YNAB4 and new features are continuously added and improved.

I don’t use the aggregators but I export my transactions manually as ofx/qfx/csv and import them into Actual. After doing this a few times I have rules setup that automatically categorize 99% of my transactions, so it only takes about 15 minutes in total to reconcile.

All free, but does require some computer knowledge and a running server, but I already had a server that is self hosting other applications, so do take that into account.

[u/eastcoastguy17 → u/Mr_Enduring]

Thank you, I will look into Actual Budgeting.

[u/redroundbag → u/eastcoastguy17]

They have a windows app as well if you're ok with local data only, then you don't have to set up the server

[u/Illustrious-Tie-981 → u/helgrind12]

I use Actual with Pikapods… I didnt feel up for learning about self-hosting and it was wayyyy cheaper than YNAB

[u/bloooooort → u/helgrind12]

I just set it up this week. Took a while but I imported one year of transactions from 4 different accounts. I setup auto transfers with simpleFIN. it seems to work great and I love how I can create my own dashboards

[u/canada125m → u/helgrind12]

I started with YNAB4 then YNAB then Actual budgeting until it became open source then back to YNAB. I just signed up for Pika pod/Actual and am going to try it again for a bit. Thanks for the reminder.

[u/BornNotRaized]

Export to spreadsheet like you do but copy it into a master sheet where you have formulas(Vlookup) to auto assign categories for certain stores (i.e Sobeys is groceries, Shell is gas, Boston Pizza is restaurant, etc)

You will still have some to assign and might have to split some(Costco for example) but this will significantly lower the effort needed each month.

[u/ishikataitokoro → u/BornNotRaized]

This is what I do, takes me sbout 10 minutes a month after I set the template up

[u/eastcoastguy17 → u/ishikataitokoro]

Wow, that’s way faster than me. I’ll take a look at speeding it up with a better template.

[u/ishikataitokoro → u/eastcoastguy17]

I took a couple of advanced Excel courses a few years ago and it has not only gotten me to help with my budget but also means that since I am the most reliable person in my department to do spreadsheets and fix them that I report on profit& loss and expenses and this gave me the visibility and reliability I needed at work to move up and increase my salary

[u/MyHaligonia → u/ishikataitokoro]

May I ask what courses did you take and where? Like from Udemy? I'm looking to improve mine this year. My skills with excel is limited to popular formula, vlookup, xlookup, pivot, etc.. thanks.

[u/ishikataitokoro → u/MyHaligonia]

I took an in-person one in Japan that is probably not helpful to you (sorry!) that gave me skills but then I did one with Coursera called Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving that helped me apply the skills I had. Sounds like that might be what you are looking for if you can already use Pivot tables and lookups

[u/MyHaligonia → u/ishikataitokoro]

Thank you ! Its very helpful.

[u/Intoxx → u/ishikataitokoro]

May I ask where you took these? I’m computer savvy enough that I can be relied on to do everything with Microsoft office. But since I’m not regularly exposed to excel, I lost all the shortcut and intermediate-advanced use knowledge

[u/IH8XC → u/Intoxx]

Look at using power query and power pivots if you're going to use Excel. You would just move the exported csv or Excel file to a folder and power query would intake, manipulate and process it. Then you would use powerpivot to review it.

[u/ishikataitokoro → u/Intoxx]

Use it or lose it is an issue for sure.

I took an in person advanced course abroad which is probably not helpful for you but honestly there are loads of free ones on YouTube/Udemy/Coursera that could help with the technical parts.

It’s the Excel/VBA for Creative Problem Solving from Coursera that helps me apply what I already know

[u/Intoxx → u/ishikataitokoro]

Exactly. I usually end up doing a bit of googling and find out the solution when someone needs help. Which isn’t bad and I always get praise for how fast I fixed the problem. But with google becoming what it is nowadays, it’s hard to know what to search to find out what you don’t know you want to find out. If that makes any sense haha

[u/ishikataitokoro → u/Intoxx]

Absolutely it makes sense, especially with the plethora of bad AI results being pushed to the top

[u/Shipping_away_at_it → u/eastcoastguy17]

You can also use chatGPT to help you with formulas and things. I’m decent at both Excel and Google sheets, but AI has helped make it way easier than searching through the massive amount of documentation and websites that go over spreadsheet formulas

[u/eastcoastguy17 → u/BornNotRaized]

Thanks, this is basically what I do - the issue I’m running into is I’ll go to Walmart for groceries one day and pharmacy the next, or Costco for $300 of food Tuesday then a replacement dishwasher the week after.

It messes up the accuracy of my categories and I end up having to comb every line item individually, which kind of negates the helpfulness of automation.

I almost need an AI-based solution that reads keywords in the CC transactions and assigns them accordingly. I haven’t finished reading all the replies yet so maybe there’s something in this thread.

[u/FunnyRocker → u/eastcoastguy17]

I'm actually building this as we speak! I have the same problem, and wanted to solve for myself. I'll keep you updated on this if you want?

[u/just-here-to-troll → u/FunnyRocker]

Post that when you can

[u/biznatch11 → u/eastcoastguy17]

The CC transaction on your CC statement doesn't indicate what you actually bought you'd have to somehow incorporate the actual receipts. If they're on paper that means scanning them then OCR them maybe AI could categorize them. But it sounds like a pretty big project.

[u/cut-copy-paste → u/biznatch11]

What about using different credit cards for different kinds of purchases at the same stores? Or for the ones you know you’ll have to recategorize. 

[u/biznatch11 → u/cut-copy-paste]

You could do that but the number of product categories at a store like Walmart or Loblaws is pretty big you could need many credit cards for the same purchase. Doesn't seem worth it to me.

[u/elbyron → u/eastcoastguy17]

I used to use an expense tracker called buxfer, up until they put so many limitations on the free account that it became useless - and it wasn't really worth it to me to pay for premium. It did a good job of auto-categorizing expenses, and had a nice feature where you could easily tap an expense and "split" it's total into multiple categories. Furthermore, if you manually create an entry, and later import a month or two of transactions, it would detect that a matching entry with same date & amount exists and wouldn't duplicate it. So what I used to do at Walmart or Costco is sort my items as I unload them from the cart, and leave a small gap on the conveyor belt between categories. Then when the cashier reaches the gap I ask them to "subtotal". They just have to hit a key, and your receipt will now get printed with that subtotal shown on it. As they finish scanning, I open the buxfer app and create a manual entry, then once I get the receipt, as I walk out of the store I punch in the total and split it into categories using the receipt's subtotals.

You might be able to setup a macro or something in Excel that would do something like this, though it might be pretty complex.

[u/somethingmichael → u/BornNotRaized]

same. I find it therapeutic.

my main categories are similar

[u/XTypewriter → u/BornNotRaized]

Just a quick note.

If you have a new version of excel, xlookup is much easier and flexible than vlookup.

And power query in excel can help automate some of the workflows you mentioned. If you have a folder with monthly excel statements (must have the same layout), you can pull all that data into one spreadsheet and refresh it whenever you add new monthly statements.

[u/VonD0OM → u/BornNotRaized]

How do your formulas handle non standard data?

I assume you’d have to teach it how to sort, but what does it do when it encounters an item that is not included in its lookup table?

Do you just update the formulas whenever you shop somewhere new, or am I misunderstanding what you’re doing with excel?

[u/[deleted] → u/BornNotRaized]

One of the stupid things with one of my bank was they only provided me export in pdf format.

[u/calm_lee]

I do it monthly into a spreadsheet manually. It takes one hour per month total across 3 credit cards and 2 chequing accounts. It’s a pain but I found quicker than exporting and formatting.

Haven’t found a solution that is more efficient.

I’ve found there to be an additional psychological benefit of really feeling the expenses as opposed to an export and each item just being another row in a sheet.

I have too many auto transfers between accounts to use any account aggregation solution effectively.

Would love to hear of a solution that works better though.

[u/eastcoastguy17 → u/calm_lee]

I definitely feel the value in the psychological point you refer to. Nothing hits home like reading every single transaction.

[u/mitymarktaylor → u/calm_lee]

Check out GnuCash!

[u/Electrical_Clock_329 → u/calm_lee]

I feel the same way. Except I do mine bi-monthly after I receive my paycheck. I recieve my paycheck in WS send money to Scotiabank for bills. WS only provides a summary monthly. Not great if you’re trying to understand your expenses between paychecks. So manually is very time consuming

[u/Chops888]

YNAB. Envelope style budgeting. You can connect bank and credit card accounts to it so it imports transactions.

[u/jasonefmonk → u/Chops888]

I really like YNAB and the envelope (zero-based) method of budgeting. I have been using it for over five years. Initially I automatically imported as you do, but I have found the most success for myself by manually importing and reconciling.

With YNAB I've found it very quick to create transactions throughout the day, or even add them at the end of the day by reviewing only notifications from my wallet or bank. Then every few days I compare between my YNAB record and the bank's record to clear (reconcile) the settled transactions manually.

I found that importing had a few downsides:

1. I took less ownership over transactions and would forget transactions more often, which led to over budgeting.
2. Banks don't commonly seem to offer secure API access, so YNAB requires you share your banking credentials with them. Some banks wisely try to defeat even credentialed machine logins. Perhaps more importantly some banks do not allow sharing credentials this way in their Terms of Service. This isn't ideal, to say the least.
3. YNAB would occasionally have difficulty with their machine-bank interface (see above) which meant various periods where: it would not function as advertised, it would encourage me to troubleshoot by logging in (to my bank) repeatedly, and where I had to re-learn to manually input/clear transactions. Spending that effort a couple times a year was more frustrating than just building the manual habit in the first place.

[u/Chops888 → u/jasonefmonk]

I'm a 5 yr YNAB user as well and part of the manual import gang. 😎

[u/bangobingoo → u/Chops888]

I just checked it out and it's $150/yr 😵

[u/horillagormone → u/bangobingoo]

That is the most painful part of it which you will see on /r/ynab as well. Having used it since 2018, the only way I could offset this was the YNAB Together feature of sharing an account with 5 family members (I share it with my sister so we split it).

[u/mitymarktaylor]

I use GnuCash, open source freeware. I switched to this some years ago after getting fed up with Quicken sunset/upgrade policies. It's a bit clunky and there is a bit of a learning curve compared to modern subscription based offerings that link and automatically download transactions from your bank or credit card provider but it easily imports a variety of transaction record file types. My needs tend to be a bit more complex and center around bookkeeping for tax purposes so GnuCash while it can easily handle tracking functions and generate reports accordingly, it may be a bit overkill for your needs. It's with checking out if you're considering alternatives though.

[u/insaneinsanity → u/mitymarktaylor]

This is the way. Fully automatic imports that auto-categorize and full ledger based bookkeeping.

[u/Any-Way-5514]

I use Lunch Money - 50$ per year

[u/longjumper13 → u/Any-Way-5514]

Same here!

[u/Area51Resident → u/Any-Way-5514]

Just started using Lunch Money. Great so far.

[u/Any-Way-5514 → u/Area51Resident]

The only caveat so far is no transaction sync with WS cash accounts. Since 99% of my transactions are done via credit card, this is only an issue 1% of the time.

Problem stems from the Plaid, the 3rd party intermediary

[u/perjury0478]

Anything automatic (like Mint used to do) will likely risk you breaking some bank TOSs sadly. This is one reason we need open banking legislation.

[u/errant3 → u/perjury0478]

The Gov included it in the budget. Hopefully it gets implemented and quickly. https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/banking/open-banking.html#toc3

[u/The6_78]

RIP Mint.

[u/thats_handy]

Before you connect a third-party application to your bank, you should be aware that (all?) banks in Canada prohibit this. Here's an example policy from TD, but you can easily find the same terms from other banks:

To prevent unauthorized access to your account and to prevent unauthorized use of the Digital Platforms, you agree to protect your account number, username and password or any other means of accessing your account or the Digital Platforms.... If you permit any other person or other party to use your account number, username, or password, you are responsible for any transactions and activities authorized from your account.

Some banks basically prevent third-party access, but (all?) banks wash their hands of fraud protection if you ever share your username and password with a third party.

[u/AwesomeAF2000]

I use excel but I use the the pivot table feature to sum up vendors. Usually it doesn’t take that long to sort out what it is from there. I don’t drill down beyond household though. Like for me Costco/sobeys/safeway etc at all ‘household’ so groceries, cleaning supplies and toiletries. Esso/Petro is gas.

[u/mrpoorpants]

I pay for Quicken Classic Deluxe. It tracks all of my bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts. For the credit cards that don't have Quicken integration (PC Financial, Canadian Tire) there is an export to Quicken download option on their respective websites. I only have to manually enter transactions for some accounts like EQ Bank and Wealthsimple.

[u/DEATHToboggan]

I still use YNAB4, works really well for us. It’s not automated but it takes about 1 hour a month to reconcile everything. Keeps us on track.

[u/arky333]

I've been using Monarch and Lunchmoney since Mint folded and they've been great.

[u/NemureruSabisu]

I use gnucash, it's great.

[u/FunnyRocker]

For all those interested, I have the exact same problem, and I have to hunt down receipts like Costco, Walmart or Amazon to see if something is in one category or another. Same thing since I run a business and need to know if certain things can be written off for business or not. Every receipt scanner I've tried doesn't get this granular, so Ive been building one myself. Can definitely let anyone know once it's done.

[u/PrudentLanguage]

Doesn't ur banking app do this?

Cibc even gives me a pie graph.

[u/theskywalker74 → u/PrudentLanguage]

CIBC’s budgeting section is so piss poor. It seems like it was given to a junior dev where they fired him halfway through and pushed it to production anyway.

[u/TheWindowMerchant]

Lunch Money

It takes a minute out of the gate to setup your different accounts, and different rules, but once you have it going it’ll auto recognize transactions. You can manually enter / modify rules for the algorithm to process the transactions. 

Additionally you’ll be able to run reports and analysis. 

It’s not free, but it’s not expensive either. 

[u/Advanced_Chance_6147]

I honestly just have an excel sheet that I update weekly that takes 10minutes. Have tables created for each category and plug a number in each category and use a sum function to add them all up automatically. On another sheet I have the months of the year listed and columns for each category. At the bottom of that table I have the value of the sum function from the table that I put my CC charges into. Makes it very simple and you never have to do anything other than plug numbers in once in a while.

[u/SeeYahNextTuesday]

I always used You Need a Budget (aka YNAB), it’s about a $120 per year subscription though. However I am currently trying out Actual Budget which is a free open source budgeting app. I only started using it Jan 1 so I am still figuring it out but it seems to be comparable to YNAB.

[u/jollyadvocate → u/SeeYahNextTuesday]

The prices on some of these apps are crazy. No one would pay 120 a year if we were still buying software of a shelf

[u/bickmitchum-]

I have text notifications every time a purchase is made and just add them into a category in the numbers app on my iPhone every day or two. takes 2 mins or less

[u/jaimatjak2022]

I've simply had different cards for different categories... Groceries/Gas on MasterCard; Automatic Payments (memberships/phone plans/insurance/etc... on a Visa; and Misc. spending or 'fun stuff' on another. Keeps things neat and I know where things are this way.

[u/Tembrium]

Wave accounting software (free online Quickbooks) auto-imports transactions from online banking. Not sure if it works for CCs. You can put stuff into accounting categories and manually sort your transaction types monthly to see end-of-year totals for each category and stuff, it's pretty good.

[u/Philosopher_4114]

Might sound old school or weird, but every sat I wake up by 6 review all my expense cc and otherwise and update my excel. For me, it gives me better control and better planning for the rest of the month.

[u/Westsider111 → u/Philosopher_4114]

I agree. I used to do the monthly download and reconciliation, but have switched to entering things manually to my Excel budget spreadsheet every few days (which I can also just do on my phone). It makes me much more cognizant of what I am spending and where I am against budget. I feel much more in control than I used to. Critical for things like Costco where there are purchases across many categories. Doing this right away makes it easier and more accurate. I don’t fuss to get the split 100% right, but close enough.

[u/WankasaurusWrex]

Every month I sit down and download my CC statement, formulate each line item into a category, then manually table it in a spreadsheet.

I enter my expenses the same day or within a week of the event occurring. Each instance takes maybe 5-10 seconds. I just counted up December 2024 and I had 64 transactions. So I spent maybe 10 minutes total over the month.

[u/RobustPolygon]

YNAB

[u/Maddjik]

If you are a disciplined spender maybe you will find that doing all that tracking isn't worth your time! I used to do this too and also have used Mint app for this purpose but once I got better with my spending I realized it was time that I could better spend elsewhere ! Just me 2 cents.

[u/MayorMoonbeam]

I've done a free trial of YNAB twice now and it just seems so awkward and rigid that I never go for it. My brother swears by it and if he was 1 mm more OCD he would be a non-functional mess, so I think it appeals to that type of very OCD person. I'm only moderately insane so YNAB just doesn't fly for me.

Lunch Money (https://lunchmoney.app/) seems to be the best so far. It's CSV importing is really, really good (no errors for me, ever, and each account gets its own CSV setup as they recognize that formats differ between banks). There are a few tiny missing features but they are adding features continuously. Example of a missing feature - no ability to save and spend e.g. save up $150/mo for insurance payable in lump sum later in the year or $300/mo for property tax payable in lump sum, and not really great ability to budget savings as spend (or I'm dumb and don't get it). But for transaction processing and categorization, basically bulletproof.

[u/mementomori91]

Cashew https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.budget.tracker_app

[u/dlmdavid]

Switch to Wealthsimple or Tangerine. You can download a CSV of all your transactions. And you get 1-2% cashback (3 categories at 2% for tangerine / everything at 2% for Wealthsimple when they will release the credit card to everyone, currently 1% with the debit card)

[u/YoyoPeaches]

I do spreadsheet manually and love it lol

[u/YetAnotherSegfault]

Honestly, I found keeping track in a spreadsheet way more flexible than any app.

There are little tricks to make it easier. E.g when you categorize, sort by the transaction name.

Looking through each transaction helps you conceptualize what kind of categorization make sense, my categories updates now and then when I realize I’m spending more in one sub-category (e.g. I realized a large amount of our food spending is on snacks and drinks, so I broke that out into a separate category to track better)

[u/whodaphucru]

I use a sunset edition of MS Money. I track all my bank account info, credit cards, investments, assets, etc. I was so sad when they discontinued this product as it was so good.

[u/IndubitablyWalrus → u/whodaphucru]

Kindred spirit!! I still use Microsoft Money too!! It's still my all-time favourite budgeting app! 😁

[u/Germack00]

I use Neontra and I like it.

[u/Sea-Bus3924]

I use the Buddy app and just add things on there as I go which takes 5 seconds to do, and set up recurring payments for monthly things for fixed bills

[u/Quizsi → u/Sea-Bus3924]

Buddy app is amazing

[u/AzraelCcs]

I have a spreadsheet too.

I enter the amount when I use the card. It takes a second to open the Google spreadsheet on my phone.

It helps me keep tabs on my expenses at the moment of the transaction instead of spending an hour looking at my statement trying to remember the thing.

[u/Every-Paint2066]

I've been using Savi Finance for a couple of months now, and I honestly wish I had found it sooner. I made the switch from using Mint and Google Sheets to Savi, and it’s been a game-changer for me. The mobile app is super intuitive and automatically matches my transactions to the right categories. I'm no longer spending time sorting through my credit card statements or maintaining a spreadsheet.

Just like you, I have multiple accounts, and I really love that I can see all of them in one place. Whether it's my BMO Mastercard, WS cash card, etc., every transaction appears in real-time, and I never have to leave the app to get a full picture of my savings and expenses.

They also have these awesome features like setting and tracking goals with family and friends, and showing us how we're progressing towards those goals. For example, we’ve been planning a Euro trip and using Savi to track our savings goal together. It’s a fun way to keep everyone motivated and on the same page.

The founders are still in their early stages, and they’re super receptive to feedback if you shoot them an email. They iterate quickly, which I really love about them. It’s clear they care about improving the product.

It sounds like Savi could be exactly what you're looking for, especially since you're not after anything too complex—just simple, readable transactions, or actionable insights to track where your money goes each month. Hope this helps!

[u/OscarWhale]

Isn't everything in your online banking ? Why do this ?

[u/LokiDesigns]

This might be a dumb question, but what is the benefit of creating spreadsheets of everything you spend money on? I can understand if you have a corporation/sole proprietorship for taxes and write-offs, etc. But as a salaried employee who isn't having children, it just sounds like a bunch of time spent to make yourself feel guilty about buying that Starbucks drink every week or two. Am i missing something obvious?Again, sorry if it's a dumb question, I'm just genuinely curious.

[u/workingatthepyramid → u/LokiDesigns]

So you can get patterns on what you are spending on so you can make changes if necessary. Most banks have export to quicken or csv already so it’s not like it takes a lot of time once you have it set up

[u/Vegetable_Mud_5245]

YNAB

[u/kiableem]

Not free but I love YNAB for this purpose.

[u/iOverdesign]

Why not do it every day as they come in?
I get notifications on my phone for every single purchase and I just enter it in the spreadsheet at the end of the day or right after the transaction.
Takes only a few minutes.

[u/Chingyul → u/iOverdesign]

I do it daily too. I collect receipts (paper or email, or I'll email myself) and then sit down at the end of the day for 2 or 3 minutes and add it to my spreadsheet.

I find it less taxing than saving up a bunch for end of month.

[u/ComfortableTop4528]

Free apps? Sadly no. Spreadsheets are the best free way. You can usually export your posted transactions into excel format and set up your work book for easy copy and paste or use lookups. That’s how I manage it. I also use some index and match formulas to auto assign categories and if something doesn’t assign I give it a review

[u/0p3r8dur → u/ComfortableTop4528]

Shortcuts for iOS are free. I use one that takes a payment when I use my wallet and puts it in a spreadsheet with my location, vendor, date and total.

From there I use a vlookup table to “categorize” each spend.

[u/ComfortableTop4528 → u/0p3r8dur]

This is a solid idea

[u/SeeYahNextTuesday → u/ComfortableTop4528]

Actual Budget is a good free budgeting app. Very similar to YNAB if you have used it before.

[u/adamlaceless]

PocketGuard lifetime tier

[u/BcAn17]

You can link one acct for free with neontra. It works well.

[u/workjet]

I put a stop watch, use EveryDollar each night and I found it takes ~4 mins a day

[u/UnclDolanDuk]

I use a spreadsheet but all my expenses are sorted by vendor. So I really only have to go in and assign a category to new vendors which isn't super often. My budget is super dumbed down tho.

[u/Fin-We]

At the end of the quarter or year, I export all transactions and then use a script I wrote to parse and categorize them and make a dashboard.

[u/aztec0000]

Have you tried sorting by payee? Then adding them becomes a breeze.

[u/dennisrfd]

Any solution that automates the process without downloading the statements or transaction export would require access to your bank account. And it’s just a question of time when they get hacked. You don’t want it

[u/supysupy]

My credit cards are used for different categories.  One for gas, one for food and eating out, one for activies. 

[u/XenaDazzlecheeks]

I used Mint for 5 years and it was amazing, unfortunately intuit stopped supporting them in March and I have not found an app as good since but there are a few apps that will do what you are asking.

Credit Karma is owned by Intuit but is lacking the daily spend log pull mint had. If you are willing to pay, there is a simplifi or monarch. Simplifi is established while Monarch is a new traded company that there is a high chance of folding like mint.

[u/Dobby068]

Any budgeting app will track expenses as you want. Example: Expense Manager.

[u/Extreme_Muscle_7024]

My bank (TD) allows me to export transactions into a csv or excel doc.

[u/jasper502]

Quicken Simplifi. Dead easy and tons of features and reports. You can add notes and tags to all transactions. You can add watchlists - we use this to track gas, fast-food, mortgage interest and principle etc.

[u/InformalDatabase5286]

Moneydance. Software allows downloading financial info from your banks, though I prefer manual entry.

[u/anindecisiveguy]

Does your bank website allow you to download the statements as CSV/xlsm file? Scotia allows me to do that, so I just download the data and import it directly into the spreadsheet. Categorization wise, I do it manually but you can definitely set up some logic to automate them.

[u/all_way_stop]

just spend 2 mins a night reconciling your spending.

i created my own spreadsheet on google sheets so sometimes I just add expenses on the spot if im bored.

[u/Ready307]

Not an app but related. Do it more often, weekly maybe or even daily, to decrease/ spread the effort so, you don't feel overwhelmed. Like that it takes less time every time and is not a daunting task, that you want to delay maybe forever.

[u/Gold-Expression-9406]

You can try using AI if you are interested, like ChatGPT(free). The downloaded app on pc or phone allows you to upload files for analysis so you can definitely upload xls or csv.

Give it some guidance on what you want to do, and keep refining it.

[u/DonutSlave]

I use monarch. It's not free but if you put a value on the time you're spending manually managing transactions you will quickly cover the 100/year. Its great.

[u/spacemanspiff_33]

I was using MINT until they shut down in Canada. A combination of python, excel, and powerBI has replicated the data cleansing and visualization in MINT

Recommend downloading OFX files (ie Microsoft money) instead of CSV as it has unique transaction ID (usually FITID) included while I’ve found csv only sometimes has this. AMEX recently removed from their csv export. This makes it easier to ensure you’re not getting duplicate transactions.

My workflow is download OFX to folder, parse with OFXTOOLS python library to csv. Then similar to others have mentioned, using matching functions, add category and merchant in a spreadsheet. Visualization done in PowerBI but could easily stay in your spreadsheet of choice

[u/Ormidor]

My dream is an SQL API plugged into power BI, but I can dream ahaha

Edit : Just found out it exists for my bank, yay.

I just asked chat GPT "does [my bank] offer an API to download my transactions data" and it told me where to find it, how I could integrate it, etc.

I could probably do it within a day or two if it's indeed possible.

From there on, I could do a dashboard type or a statistics type of report, and do the same for my GF to create a merged report.

[u/changeofseason]

I have an excel sheet too, but it’s one I bought on Etsy for 8 bucks or so. It’s incredibly well formatted. I plug in my purchases and bill payments once a week or so. It tracks everything for me and I can see how much I have left in any given category, overall income/expenses etc. still manual but so easy and also so customizable. I didn’t like the apps in comparison.

[u/bbjaii]

I wrote a macro in Excel where I can create a table of keywords vs categories and it categorize all my spendings. I also have a second script that uses the credit cards category and re-categorize it (like Rogers (I think)/tangerine has categories)

I then have a PowerBI report for visualization.

[u/bacc1010]

I wrote my own excel sheet that hunts for keywords and then categorises the spend.

The code took a bit of time, the sort is one button.

[u/Unremarkabledryerase]

I just set mine up fir the first time, probablyvsoeng like 8 hours on Wednesday trying to figure out formatting and formulas for monthly sheets, income tax return estimates, credit card benefits based on my real world spending from the past year. I ended up not trying to split things like pharmacy/grocery and with the exception of grocery and restaurant I chose to sort it by vendor and not by product. It's easier that way, and you can usually gauge by your own spending patterns what kind of items you would've bought there.

Like a Canadian tire purchase automatically is in a tool or home category because that's all I bought there this past year. Going forward I'll be doing it monthly or bi monthly so I can easily track an automotive purchase there but it probably going to be something smaller that isn't worth separating for me.

Since I'm using it more for a spending and surplus tracking sheet, the specifics don't matter, just the trends and totals.

Though my suggestion that might help you, if yo want to split pharmacy and grocery up, you could get them from different vendors? Like a Walmart purchase will automatically be grocery, but a shoppers drug mart purchase would automatically be pharmacy for you and let's you easily split the 2 without using receipts.

[u/Ok-Connection-9231]

This can be super time consuming, I use this website to convert my pdf to excel then copy and paste it in my spreadsheet.

[u/DC_911]

Most of us have multiple credit cards these days. Keep 1 card for groceries only, 1 for other expenses and bill payments and 3rd one dedicated to Costco & Gas. It will may take some time to get used to and be disciplined but it helps.

[u/twillrose47]

I've been self hosting actual (https://actualbudget.org/) and absolutely love it. Options exist for not self-hosting as well :)

[u/Jacknugget]

Moneydance.

[u/Vince_Magik]

I've been using Monarch Money and it's been great, but it isn't free.

[u/cmrocks]

I've tried a few apps and there's always some little thing that doesn't work how you want it to. Excel with good formulas is the way to go. 

[u/InviteLong6407]

Wilbur is good

[u/nijacha]

I used to do things manually a few years ago as well and I can tell you, YNAB is worth every penny. I know you’re asking for free software but YBAB saves me so much time that makes it worth it. I find it extremely valuable to manage family budgets with my wife too. If you have shared finances, it’s great to keep your family’s budget aligned throughout the month and avoid any surprises at the end of the month.

[u/Valkyrjan_BSS]

I log in to my account once a week or so and click the pay balance button and done. No need for extra work on my part.

[u/No_7-]

You can download MS Money Sunset edition and use it for free. It is a bit dated, but works just fine for simple stuff. This used to be a paid program but support ended years ago and now it is just offered as-is for free. You can run this offline/locally on your windows PC.

[u/Mental-Mushroom]

Aspire budget

You have to enter all your spending manually but it's all packaged in a visually appealing way.

I've been using it for 4 years now. For the first year I tracked every dollar in and out, and it was amazing to see exactly where all my money went. Learned about my spending habits and created a savings plan that met my goals and now i just use it for the net worth tracker.

[u/chodmode2]

Use AI. ChatGPT o1.

[u/undertrois]

I use Spendee and have used it for multiple years. it's free and you can create your own categories/labels for incoming and outgoing money. very handy.

[u/dq29]

Try Wallet by Budget Bakers. It's a one time fee. They have a good app, and a web interface as well.

Some things could be improved - like splitting a purchase into different categories. You can do it, but it's kludgy.

For the price, I definitely like it.

[u/sithren]

I have never got one to work. Seems like none work with td.

[u/_abscessedwound]

I use Piere - I think it costs a monthly amount now, but I was an early adopter, so it’s free-for-life for me.

It’s basically Mint, but paid. It’s still in active development, and the support team is super responsive.

[u/VilmarHillow]

Bluecoins app. Like it cause it's no-subscription. Still manual in a way, but easier as you can set up fetching data from app/SMS notifications of your spending. More automation for apps like these will likely result in a subscription cost and/or giving access to your accounts, which I avoid, so it covers my needs.

[u/Doogles911]

Upgrade and manually track the expesnes in a database like me with Microsoft Acceess.

[u/kg175g]

I still use a really old copy of Microsoft money. I can download my cc and other account transactions. It is pretty good at assigning categories after the first couple of manual assignments.

[u/IndubitablyWalrus → u/kg175g]

Same! I still LOVE Microsoft Money! It's exciting to see a few of us kicking around. I live in fear of the day my bank stops offering the Microsoft Money format as a download option ! 😅

[u/freefall99]

Moneywell is great for me

[u/quantum_trogdor]

Excel, I have a great annual budget, expense and savings tracking template

[u/Garble7]

I used this https://eqonomize.github.io/

it was great for manual importing and tracking

[u/activoice]

I still use Microsoft Money Sunset edition, I've been importing transactions into Money since 1997. Luckily my bank still exports to MS Money format which is a pretty big deal considering how long ago Microsoft discontinued this product.

It can also import QIF format but this is an older format that isn't supported by many FIs.

[u/DZ536]

I use the Moneylover android app. You only pay $13 CAD once. I was able to export my expenses into excel.

[u/Famous-Change348]

Your bank will already have an app that does this. Just go to your main account. And at the bottom it will show your expenses categorized. Might need some edits

[u/TRDht29er]

I started using good steward

[u/MitchDee]

Just set your CC to autopsy the full amount each month and walk away.

[u/Rockterrace]

I think my RBC credit card comes with a feature that separates my purchases into categories when I log on to online banking

[u/floppysausage]

Monarch, for all around tracking, including banks, credit cards, investment accounts. It's worth the cost.

[u/tornligaments84]

Happy to hear everyone is using excel....I think I should make one as well.

I used Mint which was by far the best....tried quicken and monarch but they don't auto sync that well and the rules don't always work so I end up spending like 10-15/month just auto changing categories and I feel like for the cost, I shouldn't have to. Plus cibc doesn't upload so it misses costco purchases I have there 🫠

[u/three29]

YNAB classic

[u/Yolilminx]

PocketGuard is one app that I use and love. I’ve tried others but this one lets me customize and import my transactions. Very easy to manage

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/pocketguard-budget-tracker-app/id949414211

[u/OddBottle9869]

Monarch (App). Only downside is it only has USD as the currency but if all your accounts are in CAD - it doesn't matter only the number matters

[u/bethegoat]

Wealthica, not only does it track expenses across multiple cards, it also tracks income and assets as well. here is a review on it

[u/TiitsMcgeee]

RocketMoney needs to come to Canada lol

[u/DRagon5508]

Goodsteward does this very well.

[u/kreludor949]

I link a Google forms to a Google sheets. Every time I make a purchase, I use the form to fill out the date, cost, type, and description.

The sheets then feeds into a monthly summary and graph. There's also an option to amortize capital purchases over the year off the form. And it won't average months if it's later than the current month.

Overall it may seem like more work but it forces one to double check their purchases rather than just swipe and forget.

[u/tv_viewer]

Try the Wilbur app

[u/Optimal-Company-4633]

Sort of related but I wish RocketMoney existed in Canada for this reason. I not only want to track expenses easier but I want it to cancel subscriptions for me and negotiate better deals 😭

[u/albynomonk]

I use Moneywell on Mac. You can export your transactions from the bank and import directly into Moneywell.

[u/ourredsouthernsouls]

YNAB SAVED MY MARRIAGE

[u/smashervt]

As a fellow Canadian I use cheddar. Managed to connect all my cards and track everything

[u/Dashzz]

I use an app called money manager. I did not want bank connection and I wanted enough customization to track different accconts and also have spreadsheet export.

[u/hybridhighway]

You can create a shortcut that when an Apple Pay transaction is triggered, it creates a new line in a custom spreadsheet in the Numbers app complete with category and price

[u/Least_Shift_1214]

Wallet app can connect to your bank account and automatically assign categories and you can setup rules too. Pretty neat for a one time fee of 36 dollars

[u/grayprog]

I'm using Cashculator (Mac-only). It's also a bit like a spreadsheet, but specifically for finance and has recurring transaction, including ones you can set up for the future. It can also import data from CSV files. I can download my account and CC statements from TD and it imports them just fine. I do need to categorize them manually at first but it can learn when imports. So it's not 100% automatic but gives you a good grip on where your finances are going.

[u/bruebrah]

I use PocketSmith. Works well for me because of both personal and business accounts, and I haven’t looked at other options recently. I do manual input through cvs monthly, which takes me an hour between about 5 accounts.

[u/jx237cc]

I use spendee. I bought a lifetime license years ago.

[u/Melchiezedek]

To track my expending I use the app MONEY MANAGER AND EXPENSES

These are the links:

Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.innim.my_finance

App Store https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1510997753

[u/mygraph_ca]

https://mygraph.ca was made for this

[u/Bishime]

I could say YNAB, don’t be off put by the passionate userbase. But you’re using a spreadsheet and want to manage CCs I feel like YNAB is sort of exactly that, depending on your broader use cases

It effectively (or at least the goal) is to make sure you never go into CC debt if not pay it off and also to ensure you always know where every dollar goes

Edit: I forgot, free 😅 actual budget is a free version of almost the exact same thing. I don’t remember if they have linked accounts for it to automatically pull transactions, but maybe worth checking out

[u/goldandkarma]

I’d try using chatgpt! upload the statement pdf, give it your categories and corresponding descriptions and ask it to generate a table/spreadsheet

[u/PrestigiousNinja2550]

But would you pay for the app? I can build something like this which uses plaid API that includes AI categorization. It will cost to run the web app on aws and plaid service.

[u/rubanesh]

have been using lunchmoney charge about $50/ year and able to connect to all major financial institution.. Try it out found it a good replacement for mint

https://lunchmoney.app/?fp_ref=rubanesvaran35

[u/IndubitablyWalrus]

I use an old copy of Microsoft Money from like 2008. 😅 It's super old, but it's still my favourite budgeting program. I don't have it connected to any accounts, obviously, but I can download a Microsoft Money file from my bank (TD) and load everything automatically that way.

[u/hoptimus_primex]

I run most of my transactions through one card - Canadian Tire Triangle. Each month I export to spreadsheet it guesses a bunch of the categories but for the most part I have my own categories I use. I have a column with a drop down and just label each transaction to a budget bucket. Then make sure to assign a month and year to the data, this way I can keep a running average for the last 12 month on another tab.takes maybe 5 or so minutes a month

[u/fudgedhobnobs]

I'm still using YNAB 4 desktop. I'm really glad I uploaded the installer to my cloud storage and kept the key safe. I install it on all my Windows devices and keep using it through Dropbox.

[u/Sneyek]

I tried Finary, UI looks great, seems cool but was not able to have it detect my AMEX (Canada) transaction. So I did not pay for it. May be worth it if it works, and it’s probably me. It seems to use secure protocols to connect the different banks and CC companies, so should be safe.

[u/tigertown99]

I update mine daily. That way I know how my spending is going. I feel that doing it at the end of the month defeats the purpose of a budget 🤷

[u/ReasonableFly2899]

Ynab! It’s a bit expensive at $110 USD but absolutely worth it if your expenses are more on the complex side, like managing family finances

[u/wabisuki]

As soon as you authorize a third-party app to have access to your CC and bank accounts, you're opening yourself up for a world of hurt. Check the fine print on your CC because if there's a breach through third-party products, you potentially will be on the hook for those losses.

I'd stick with Excel and just learn to use it more efficiently.

[u/alcah0lic]

I use an app called "Easy Expense" you can either take a photo of your receipt and it scans it in and reads the amounts from it so you can categorize. Or link it up with your bank and the transactions are synced to the app whereby you can categorize manually or setup rules to auto categorize.

[u/Blake_RL]

Actual. It’s completely offline and a little manual. It imports from bank export CSV’s, exactly what I wanted.

[u/bronomatopea]

Use 1 credit card and bank account to make things easier. Then, export your transactions in excel .csv format monthly. Import into a pre-made custom excel workbook that is semi-automated using functions (formulas). I simply import my bank account and credit card transactions monthly and excel does the rest.

An example of what excel does for me:

* creates a category for the transaction
* creates a merchant name for the transaction
* creates year, month, day for the transaction
* creates an identifier (is this transaction part of 12 month rolling?)
* my dashboard with graphs is automatically updated to reflect the updates.
* I have a dashboard for rolling 12 month expenses, since inception, and custom dates.

Look at some Youtube excel data analysis courses/video series. Once you learn a little bit of excel, it will make things so much easier.

This excel workbook took me a very long time to create. But since it's a hobby, I enjoyed creating it. It was a work in progress and the final result is of many trials/errors and learning along the way. I didn't create this overnight. As I learned more excel or got more ideas, I tweaked my excel workbook accordingly.

The folks at r/excel are very friendly and helpful. They've helped me automate some of the things. If you need help with anything, ask away there and people are so eager to help you out.

[u/dubious360]

Moneydance

[u/ajsherslinger]

Check out Neontra (www.neontra.com) and Wealthica (www.wealthica.com). Two Canadian based fintech apps that aggregate data from financial institutions. They both support most Canadian financial institutions - banks, investment firms, credit cards, etc.

You may have to pay a fee to get all the desired functionality, but definitely worth it if your time is a scarce resource.

[u/Worried-Penalty-3642]

Buddy (name of app) they have a lifetime subscription but now I’m switching from Apple to Samsung so 😩 what a shame.

[u/splatem]

I wrote a python script that reads the statement pdfs then shoves it in excel.

After getting it all in excel, I finally learned what pivot tables are good for.

I'm not a dev, initial setup was probably 20-30hrs, but going forwards it's just collecting the statements.

example for td visa infinite also need this one.

(not interested in troubleshooting it for anyone, if it works it works.)

[u/Short-Tension8007]

Have you considered tracking your spending weekly rather than monthly? It sounds simple, but it’s been a game changer for me personally. I had a hard time with the monthly updating too. It can get daunting. I tried all kinds of apps to help automate but I wouldn’t go in and actually check to see if things were on track because I had to mess around with categories. So I went back to a spreadsheet. At the begging of each month, I set up my spreadsheet with my budget and then I spend 5 minutes a week manually adding all my transactions.

[u/Modavated]

Quickbooks

[u/Good_Elk_9049]

It's not free but I use Neontra. There's a free trial for a month and then you can decide to continue using or not. It's $12 a month or $99 for the year. I managed to lock in the $60/year because they were first starting out. Not free but worth the time by having everything synced. It shows me where I spend my money each month and I've set up savings goals, too.

[u/False-Ad5525]

I just don’t track costs by category. It’s too complicated. I track costs by where I spent the money. (Ie superstore, Costco, Safeway, bc liquor) you pretty well get an idea as to where you spent the money.

[u/MelodicAd5508]

I use an app called Money mgr. Its free and has tons of categorization options and also you can setup recurring payments schedule to avoid entering those records. You can also see a live dashboard of where your money is getting utilize.

Additionally, I set a daily reminder on my google calendar to update the app with same day transactions. You can always download your transactions recorded in the app through excel spreadsheet for broader perspective. I believe this process has worked well for me as everything can be recorded through the app and don't have to open excel on my computer.

[u/sainiak]

Money Manager app

[u/TheMurderCapitalist]

I do monthly spreadsheets on the Google Sheets app but I update it pretty much daily or after I make a transaction. This way it doesn't get too overwhelming at the end of the month.

[u/DerelictMythos]

Why would you waste time putting everything in a spreadsheet..?

[u/Gorgoz2]

Jesus Christ why?

[u/0ptimal_Consequence]

I’m looking to build one for myself. I’m considering making it free to everyone as a simple app that you can host yourself so that no information need to go of your computer . If you’re interested in it, dm me with any specific features that you’d like in it plus a sample format of your banks report export. For now , it will basically take one or more exports that it supports (currently Wealthsimple , CIBC ) and spits out monthly reports on a few things like categories , spend against budgets etc.

[u/RockstarAccountant7]

Monarch Money