Spending Insights App for iPhone, Where It Changed | Cash Book
Quick answer
Insights in Cash Book is one screen per month, reached from the pie button at the top of Home. It opens with a hero and three stat tiles, each carrying the change versus last month. Under that, “where it changed” lists the tags that moved the most, then six months of income against expense bars, then a short written summary. Two more tabs, Expenses and Income, break the month into a donut by category with a legend, plus stacked bars for the year. Tap a slice to see the transactions behind it.
Most finance dashboards answer questions nobody asked. Insights answers three: how much, compared with what, and where it changed.
The month in three tiles
Tap the pie button at the top right of Home. Insights opens on the current month with a hero number and three stat tiles under it, each showing its figure and the change versus last month, up or down.
That comparison is the whole point. A number on its own is trivia. A number next to last month is a verdict.
A switcher at the top steps back through earlier months, which is how you find out whether that expensive March was a one-off or the new normal.
Where it changed
Below the tiles, Cash Book lists the tags that moved the most since the month before. Eating out up. Groceries down. Transport flat. The list is sorted by the size of the change rather than the size of the total, so a small tag that quietly doubled still surfaces instead of being buried under rent.
This is the section that makes a budget useful. A budget tells you a bar is full; "where it changed" tells you which habit filled it. Between them, that is usually enough to decide what next month looks like.
Six months of income against expense
Further down, six bars of income stand next to six bars of expense. It is the simplest possible picture of whether you are ahead, and it needs no explaining. A short written summary closes the screen, a few plain sentences about the month, so the numbers arrive with a reading attached rather than sitting there daring you to interpret them.
Expenses and Income tabs
Two more tabs sit beside Insights. Expenses shows the month as a donut by category with a legend, and stacked bars for the year so the shape of your spending is visible at a glance. Tap a slice and its transactions appear underneath, filtered to that month. Income does the same for what came in, using your income tags.
The donut reads by category and the list reads by tag, so the tags and categories you set up decide how legible any of this is. Twenty ungrouped tags make a donut nobody can read.
None of it needs a connection. Insights are computed on your iPhone from your log, which is also the catch: they are only as honest as the log is. A month you half-remembered on a Sunday night produces a chart of what you half-remembered. Logging with your voice in the moment is what makes the difference.
Insights are also the quietest cure for impulse spending we know of. Seeing the same tag climb three months running does more than any rule you set for yourself. Read how to stop impulse buying for the habits that go with the chart.
Frequently asked questions
What do the three tiles show?
The month's headline numbers, each with the change versus the month before, so you know not just what you spent but whether it is more or less than usual.
What is “where it changed”?
A list of the tags whose totals moved the most compared with last month, up or down. It is the fastest way to find the one thing that made this month different.
Can I see the transactions behind a chart?
Yes. In the Expenses and Income tabs, tap a slice of the donut and the transactions for that category appear underneath, filtered to the month you are looking at.
How far back does it go?
As far as your log. The month switcher at the top steps back through every month you have data for, and the stacked bars show the whole year at once.
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