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Expense Tracker 💳

Never lose track of your business expenses again! The Expense Tracker automatically finds your recurring costs and shows them in a simple calendar view, so you always know what’s being charged and when.

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What is the Expense Tracker?

Think of it as your automatic expense diary. Once you connect your bank account, PayRequest looks at your transactions and finds things you pay for regularly - like software subscriptions, hosting, and services. No more spreadsheets or manual tracking needed!

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Why You’ll Love It

🤖 Finds Expenses Automatically

Connect your bank and let PayRequest discover your recurring costs for you.

📊 See Where Money Goes

Visual breakdown shows exactly what you’re spending on each category.

⚠️ Spot Price Increases

Get alerted when a service raises their price so you can decide what to do.

🏷️ Organize by Category

Tag expenses like “Marketing” or “Software” to understand your spending better.

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Getting Started

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Opening Your Expense Calendar

  1. Click Expenses in your dashboard menu
  2. You’ll see a monthly calendar with all your expenses
What’s on the screen:
  • 💰 Summary cards at the top show your current balance and monthly costs
  • 📅 Calendar view displays all expenses organized by date
  • 🎨 Colored cards show different expense types at a glance
You need a bank connection (Ponto) for automatic expense detection. Set this up in Settings → Integrations first.

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Understanding the Colors

The calendar uses colors to help you see what’s happening:
  • 🟢 Green cards: Recurring expenses that were paid this month
  • 🔵 Blue cards: One-time purchases
  • 🟠 Orange cards: Expenses that haven’t been paid yet
  • 🟣 Purple cards: Multiple expense types on the same day
Click any colored card to see more details about that expense.

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Finding Your Recurring Expenses

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Let PayRequest Do the Work

Instead of entering each expense manually, let PayRequest find them for you:
  1. Click the “Detect Recurring Expenses” button
  2. Wait a few seconds while PayRequest scans your bank transactions
  3. A summary shows what was found
You’ll see:
  • How many recurring expenses were found
  • How many new ones were added
  • How many existing ones were updated
PayRequest looks at your last 6 months of bank transactions to find patterns. It can even spot when you have multiple subscription tiers for the same service!

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What Gets Detected?

PayRequest automatically finds:
  • 📱 Software subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify, etc.)
  • 🖥️ Hosting and servers
  • 📧 Email and marketing services
  • 💳 Payment processing fees
  • 🔧 Business tools and licenses
  • 📊 Analytics and monitoring services
Run detection once a month to catch new subscriptions and keep your expense list up to date.

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Adding Expenses Manually

If something isn’t detected automatically, you can add it yourself:
1

Click 'Add Expense'

Find the button at the top of your expense calendar
2

Fill in the Details

  • Name: What’s the expense? (e.g., “Spotify Premium”)
  • Amount: How much does it cost?
  • Next Due Date: When’s the next payment?
  • Frequency: Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly?
3

Save

Click “Add Expense” and it appears on your calendar

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Organizing with Tags

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Why Use Tags?

Tags help you group expenses by category so you can see:
  • How much you spend on marketing vs hosting
  • Which categories are growing over time
  • Where you might be able to cut costs
Popular categories:
  • 🖥️ Hosting
  • 🛠️ Software & Tools
  • 📧 Marketing & Ads
  • 💳 Payment Processing
  • 📊 Analytics
  • 🔒 Security

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Tagging an Expense

1

Open the Expense

Click on any expense in your calendar
2

Click the Tag Icon

Look for the 🏷️ icon next to the expense name
3

Choose or Create Tags

  • Select from existing tags
  • Or click “Create New Tag” to add a new category
4

Save

Your tags will appear as colored labels on the expense
Create your main expense categories first (Hosting, Marketing, Tools), then tag expenses as you review them.

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Viewing Your Spending Breakdown

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See Where Your Money Goes

Click the ”💰 Spending” button to open your spending analysis. What you’ll see:
  • Total monthly expenses in one number
  • Breakdown by category with percentages
  • Visual bars showing spending distribution
  • Expense counts for each category
Example: 
Your Monthly Spending

Total: €1,247.50

🖥️ Hosting          €450 (36%) ████████░░ 6 expenses
🛠️ Tools            €320 (26%) ██████░░░░ 5 expenses
📧 Marketing        €180 (14%) ████░░░░░░ 3 expenses
📊 Analytics        €120 (10%) ███░░░░░░░ 2 expenses
This updates automatically as you add or edit expenses, so you always have an accurate picture of your spending.

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Using Spending Insights

Weekly check-in:
  • Are you staying within budget?
  • Any unexpected charges?
  • New services you forgot about?
Monthly review:
  • Which categories are growing?
  • Where can you optimize costs?
  • Any subscriptions you don’t use anymore?

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Price Increase Alerts

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Automatic Monitoring

PayRequest watches your expenses and alerts you when a service increases their price by more than 5%.

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Where You’ll See Alerts

1. On the expense itself: When you click an expense that increased in price, you’ll see:
⚠️ Price Increase Detected (+46%)This expense increased from €17 (Aug 1) to €25 (Oct 1) over 2 months.
2. In the expense list:
  • Orange badge shows the percentage: “+46%”
  • Trending arrow icon appears next to the name
3. Summary alert: At the top of your expense manager:
⚠️ 2 expenses with price increases detected

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What to Do About It

When you spot a price increase:
  1. Check your email for announcements from the service
  2. Review if you still need it - maybe downgrade to a cheaper plan?
  3. Look at alternatives - are competitors cheaper now?
  4. Negotiate - contact them and ask about discounts
  5. Update your budget to reflect the new cost
Some services like cloud hosting charge based on usage. If you see an “increase”, check if you’re just using more resources rather than the price actually going up.

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Managing Your Expenses

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Editing an Expense

  1. Click on the expense in your calendar OR open “Manage Expenses”
  2. Click the ✏️ (pencil) icon
  3. Update any information (name, amount, date, frequency)
  4. Save your changes

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Deleting an Expense

If you cancel a subscription or want to remove something:
  1. Open the expense
  2. Click the 🗑️ (trash) icon
  3. Confirm you want to delete it
The expense disappears from your calendar but doesn’t affect your bank transactions.

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Viewing All Expenses

Click “Manage Expenses” to see a complete list of everything you’re tracking:
  • All expense names and amounts
  • Next payment dates
  • Categories (tags)
  • Whether they were auto-detected or manually added
This is great for getting an overview or quickly editing multiple expenses.

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Filtering Your View

Use the filter buttons to focus on specific expense types:
  • All: Shows everything
  • 🔁 Recurring: Only subscription-type expenses (your true monthly burn rate)
  • One-time: Only single purchases
Filter to “Recurring” to see your actual monthly costs without one-off purchases cluttering the view.

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Common Questions

If automatic detection missed it:
  • It might be too new (needs at least 2 payments to detect a pattern)
  • The merchant name varies too much between charges
  • It’s a one-time purchase, not recurring
Solution: Just add it manually! Click “Add Expense” and enter the details.
This usually happens when:
  • The bank transaction description is different from your expense name
  • The amount changed and is outside the matching range
  • Your bank sync is delayed
Solution: Edit the expense name to match what shows on your bank statement exactly.
Why this happens:
  • PayRequest found different subscription tiers (like Basic and Pro plans)
  • You added it manually and then detection also found it
  • The service charges on multiple dates
Solution: Go to “Manage Expenses” and delete the duplicate entry.
PayRequest looks at your bank transactions and finds patterns - things you pay regularly with similar names and amounts. It can even recognize when “DigitalOcean” and “DIGITAL OCEAN INC” are the same service.
Yes! While the automatic detection focuses on recurring costs, you can manually add any expense you want to track. One-time purchases from your bank also show up in blue on the calendar.

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Tips for Success

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1. Check Your Expenses Weekly

Make it a Monday morning habit:
  • Scan the calendar for any surprises
  • Review what’s coming up this week
  • Spot any price increases early

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2. Tag Everything

Spend 10 minutes tagging your expenses:
  • Makes spending analysis actually useful
  • Helps at tax time
  • Shows where your money really goes

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3. Run Detection Monthly

First of every month:
  • Click “Detect Recurring Expenses”
  • Review what was found
  • Add any missing ones manually

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4. Review Quarterly

Every 3 months, audit your expenses:
  • Cancel services you don’t use
  • Look for cheaper alternatives
  • Update any changed amounts

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5. Use It for Budgeting

Set spending targets per category:
  • “We should keep hosting under €500”
  • “Marketing budget is €300/month”
  • Check your spending analysis to stay on track

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Next Steps

🔗 Connect Your Bank

Set up Ponto to enable automatic expense detection.

🏷️ Set Up Tags

Learn how tags work for organizing all your data.

📊 Dashboard Overview

See your complete business overview with revenue and expenses.

💳 Payment Processing

Understand how your income and expenses connect.
Keep your finger on the pulse of your business expenses. Know what you’re paying for, and make smarter decisions about where your money goes! 💳✨
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