Mero Paisa user guide

Mero Paisa is a personal finance app for Android. It keeps track of your cash, bank accounts and wallets, what you earn and spend, what you save, and who owes whom. Your entries are kept on your phone. Only Ask Arthiq sends them anywhere, and only when you ask it a question.

Getting started

The first time you open the app, the Welcome screen offers three ways in:

• Set up a new account to start fresh.
• Restore Backup to bring back everything from a backup file. This is the recommended way back after a reinstall.
• Import Excel Export to bring back your transactions and money sources from an Excel export.

Setting up a new account takes four short steps:

1. Account Configuration: choose Personal or Group, and your currency.
2. Build Your Money Sources: add where your money sits (Cash, Bank, Wallet or Other) with its opening balance. You need at least one.
3. Debts You Already Have: money you lent or borrowed before using the app. Your balances are not changed. Skip it if you have none.
4. Spending Limits & Targets: an optional weekly and monthly spending limit, a yearly savings target, and what you have already saved.

Tap Save & Launch and you are on the Dashboard.

Finding your way around

• The bar at the bottom has Dashboard, Transactions, the + button, Debts and Insights.
• Tap the app logo at the top left to open Settings. You can also swipe in from the left edge.
• The language button at the top switches between English and Nepali. In Nepali, dates are shown in Bikram Sambat.
• The bell at the top opens Notifications, where entries read from your messages wait for review.
• On the Dashboard, the eye on the balance card hides or shows every amount. While amounts are hidden, tap one to see it for a moment.

The Dashboard

The Dashboard shows your Spendable balance, Income this month and Spent this month, and the buttons Add Income, Add Expense, Save and Transfer. Below them are cards for recent transactions, budgets, debts, money goals and money sources. You can change the order of these cards in Settings › General › Dashboard order.

Adding entries

There are three ways to record money coming in or going out:

• Tap + for Quick Add, the fastest way to record a cash expense.
• Press and hold + for the full form.
• Tap Add Income, Add Expense, Save or Transfer on the Dashboard to open the full form in that mode.

The full form

At the top of the form, pick what kind of entry it is: Income, Expense, Saving, Transfer, Lend or Borrow. Then fill in:

• The Amount.
• A Category. Tap More… to see every category.
• The money source the money was paid from or received into.
• The Date.
• Notes, if you want to remember what it was for.

For a Saving you can also choose which goal it is Saving towards. In Group mode you can Assign Member to say who it was for. Then tap Save.

The Paste SMS button fills the form from a bank message you have copied, once SMS reading is set up for that money source.

After you record income, the app may suggest putting some of it towards a debt or a saving. It is only a suggestion.

Editing and deleting

Open Transactions, find the entry, then tap the pencil to edit it or the bin to delete it. Before deleting, the app shows exactly what will happen to your balances. Deleting cannot be undone.

Lend and borrow entries are not edited here. Manage them from the Debts tab instead.

Finding an entry

In Transactions, search by notes or category. Tap the filter button to filter by Transaction Type, Time Period (This Week, This Month, This Year) and Money Source, and by Member in Group mode. Clear All Filters resets them.

Quick Add

Quick Add is for a cash expense when you are in a hurry.

1. Tap +.
2. Type the amount.
3. Tap Add.

That is all. One line under the amount shows the category, money source and date it will use. Tap that line to change any of them before you add it. After adding, Undo appears for a moment in case you made a mistake. You can also fill in the other details later from Transactions.

Quick Add records expenses only. For income, savings and transfers, use the Dashboard buttons, or hold + for the full form.

To choose which money source Quick Add uses, go to Settings › General › Quick Add account. Automatic lets the app pick for you.

Money sources

A money source is anywhere you keep money: cash in your pocket, a bank account, a mobile wallet. Each has its own balance, and the Dashboard adds them all up.

• Add one in Settings › Money Sources › Add Source: give it a name, a type (Cash, Bank, Wallet or Other), an opening balance and, if you like, a note.
• Edit one by tapping it in Settings › Money Sources. You can change its name, type, colour and notes.
• Delete one from the same screen with Delete this source. Its entries are kept in your history but show their source as Unknown. Your last money source cannot be deleted.

Spendable and actually there

Tap a money source on the Dashboard's Money Sources card to see it in detail:

• Spendable is what you can spend from it.
• Actually there is what is really in the account.

The two differ when you have savings set aside for goals in that source. A Saving takes money out of what you can spend without taking it out of the account. The same screen lists the goals held there and the recent entries.

Spending more than is spendable

If an expense takes more than a source can spend, the app asks which goals should give the difference back. If no goal can cover it, the shortfall shows under Owed to yourself in the Debts tab, and clears when you save it back.

Transfers

A transfer moves money between two of your own money sources, for example from your bank to your wallet, or from cash into your bank. It is not income and not spending, so your totals stay the same.

1. Tap Transfer on the Dashboard, or hold + and choose Transfer.
2. Choose Transfer From and Transfer To. They must be different.
3. Enter the amount and tap Save.

When automatic entries are on, the app can spot that a message from one bank and a message from another are the two sides of the same transfer, and record it once instead of twice.

Automatic entries

Mero Paisa can read your banks' transaction SMS and your wallet apps' payment notifications, and offer each one as an entry for you to approve. Nothing is saved until you approve it, and everything is read on your phone.

Setting it up

1. Go to Settings › Money Sources › Automatic entries.
2. Turn on Read transaction SMS, Read payment notifications, or both.
3. Link each bank or wallet to the sender or app that tells you about it.
4. Choose how far back to offer past messages, or only new ones from now on.

Only the senders and apps you link are read. Cash is never read. You can turn either one off at any time.

Reviewing entries

When entries are waiting, the bell at the top shows them. Tap Review now to open Review transactions:

• Swipe right to add an entry.
• Swipe left to ignore it.
• Tap a card to see all of its details, and tap any field to change it, such as the amount, type or category.
• Tap the type to make it a transfer, saving, lend or borrow, or tap Repayment if it pays off a debt you already have.
• Tap Not a transaction for messages that are never transactions, so they are not offered again.

The app learns from your answers, so messages worded the same way are read correctly next time. Use Scan again to check for new messages.

Budgets

You can set a weekly and a monthly spending limit.

• Set them in Settings › General › Budgets & savings target, or tap Set a limit on the Dashboard's Budgets card.
• The Dashboard shows how much of each limit you have spent and how much is left.
• Going over shows a warning. It never stops you from recording an expense.
• Unspent budget does not roll over to the next week or month.

Leave a limit empty if you do not want one.

Money goals

A money goal names what you are saving for, such as a bike or a trip.

Creating a goal

1. Tap the Money Goals card on the Dashboard to open Savings Goals.
2. Tap New goal.
3. Enter what you are saving for, the target amount and, if you like, a target date and which source holds the money.

Saving towards a goal

Record a Saving and choose the goal under Saving towards. Each goal shows how much is saved, how much is left, and everything that went into it.

Other things you can do

• Move to another goal shifts saved money from one goal to another held in the same source. No balance changes.
• Map your savings links older Savings that have no goal yet. The Dashboard shows a button for it when there are any.
• Add savings from before the app records money you had already put aside before you started.
• Deleting a goal keeps every Saving that named it. No balance moves.

Yearly savings target

The yearly savings target is the total you want to save this year.

• Set it in Settings › General › Budgets & savings target, or tap Set a target on the Dashboard.
• Already Saved So Far is for money you saved this year before you started using the app.
• Every Saving you record counts towards this year's target.
• The Dashboard shows the Yearly Savings Goal and how much of it is done.

Debts

The Debts tab keeps track of money you lend and borrow, separately from your spending. Lending money is not spending it, and borrowing is not income.

Recording a debt

• Tap I lent money or I borrowed money. Enter the person, the amount and the money source. A due date is optional.
• Lending takes the amount out of the source you pick. Borrowing adds it to the source.
• You can also hold + and choose Lend or Borrow.
• Add old debt is for money lent or borrowed before you started using the app. Your balances stay as they are.

Repayments

The Debts tab shows To receive and To pay, person by person. Tap a person to see their debts and history. Tap Receive or Pay on a debt to record a repayment. You can repay a bit at a time. A debt that is fully repaid moves to Settled.

Tidying up

• If one person is written two ways, use Merge with another person. Only the name changes, no money moves.
• Deleting a debt also deletes its entries, and every balance goes back to where it was before the debt was recorded.

Owed to yourself shows money you spent past every goal held in a source. Nobody is chasing you for it, and it clears when you save it back with Put it back.

Insights

The Insights tab shows one month at a time. Use the arrows to move between months.

• Spent: the month's spending, compared with the month before.
• Where it went: spending broken down by category.
• Income Breakdown by Category: where the month's income came from.
• Money Sources Weight: how your balance is spread across your money sources.

Ask Arthiq

Arthiq is the assistant inside Mero Paisa. Ask it about your own money, or about how to use the app, in plain words, in English or Nepali.

What you can ask

• "Where is my money going this month?"
• "How was last month compared with the one before?"
• "What can I do to reach my savings target?"
• "How do I set a monthly budget?"

Answers come from your own entries, with ideas under What you could do. Arthiq does not answer general questions, and it is not a licensed financial adviser.

Using it

1. Tap the Ask Arthiq button that floats over the screen. You can drag it out of the way.
2. Type your question and tap Ask.

You can copy an answer, have it read aloud, start a New chat, or go back to Previous chats.

What it needs

• A free Mero Paisa account. Sign in or create one from the top of Settings.
• An internet connection. Everything else in the app works offline.
• Your permission. The first time, the app explains that your entries, including their notes, are sent to the Mero Paisa server to answer. Nothing is sent unless you ask a question.

You get a set number of messages each month, and the Ask Arthiq screen shows how many are left. They renew at the start of each month. Pro gives you more.

Backup and export

Your data lives only on your phone, so keep a backup somewhere safe. Both options are in Settings › Data.

• Back up all data saves everything to a file, including your settings. Settings shows when you last backed up.
• Export to Excel saves a spreadsheet you can open anywhere. It leaves out times of day and your app settings.

Each one can be shared or saved to your device.

Restoring

A backup is restored from the Welcome screen, which you see after reinstalling the app or after clearing all data. Choose Restore Backup to bring everything back exactly. Import Excel Export brings back your transactions and money sources, but not times of day or your currency setting.

App lock

The app lock asks for your fingerprint or your phone's PIN each time you open Mero Paisa.

• Turn it on in Settings › Privacy › App lock.
• To turn it off, you confirm it is you first.

Account modes and Pro

Change the mode in Settings › General › Account mode.

• Personal: for your own money. Free.
• Group: shared costs for trips and shared homes. Add the people you share with in Settings › Group Members, record who each expense was for, and filter your history by member.
• Business: your business's sales, costs and payments, with the same tools and a look of its own so you always know which mode you are in.

Group and Business need a Mero Paisa account and are part of Pro. Pro also gives you more Ask Arthiq messages each month.

To get Pro, tap Request Pro. It opens an email to us. The price is shared once you request Pro, and we switch Pro on for your account.

Settings

Tap the app logo at the top left to open Settings.

• Account: sign in, create an account, add your name, or sign out. A new account needs its email verified before you can sign in.
• General: Account mode, Currency, Quick Add account, Dashboard order, and Budgets & savings target.
• Money Sources: Automatic entries, your money sources, and Add Source.
• Group Members: shown in Group mode.
• Reminders: an Evening reminder every day at 10 pm to record the day, and a Weekly summary on Sundays at 8 am to check your money sources.
• Privacy: App lock.
• Data: Export to Excel and Back up all data.
• About: see the introduction again, check for updates, or reset and clear all app data.

Reset & clear all app data deletes everything on this phone. Make a backup first.