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 with the change versus last month. Below 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 and stacked bars for the year. Tap a slice to see its transactions.
Most finance dashboards answer questions nobody asked. Cash Book's Insights answers three: how much, versus 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 underneath. Each tile shows the figure and its change versus last month, up or down. That comparison is the 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, so you can check whether an 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 compared with the month before. Eating out up, Groceries down, Transport flat. It is sorted by the size of the change, not by the size of the total, so a tag that quietly doubled shows up even when it is small.
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. Together they are 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 explanation. A short written summary closes the screen: a few plain sentences about the month, so the numbers come with a reading.
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 the transactions in that category appear beneath it, filtered to the month. Income does the same for what came in, using your income tags. Because the donut reads by category and the list reads by tag, the tags and categories you set up decide how legible this screen is.
None of this needs a connection. Insights are computed on your iPhone from the log, which is also why they are only as honest as the log. Logging with your voice in the moment is the difference between a chart that describes your month and one that describes what you remembered.
Insights are also the quietest cure for impulse spending: seeing the same tag climb three months in a row does more than any rule. 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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