Expense Tracker Keypad, Three Taps per Entry | Cash Book
Quick answer
The keypad is the black plus button in the middle of Cash Book's bottom bar. It opens onto a big number and a row of tag chips in the footer. Type the amount, tap a tag, tap Done: that is a typical entry in three taps. Note, date and account are one tap each if you want them, and a pill switches between Expense, Income and Transfer. It writes straight to your iPhone, so it works offline, which makes it the fallback for the moments voice and camera cannot reach the AI model.
Voice and camera are the fast paths. But sometimes you are on a quiet train, or the coffee was cash and there is nothing to photograph. That is what the keypad is for, and we built it to take three taps.
Amount, tag, done
Tap the black plus in the middle of the bottom bar. The sheet opens straight onto a large number field with a keypad under it, so the very first thing you do is type. Your tags sit beneath as chips in the footer, each with its emoji squircle. Tap one. Tap Done. It is in today's list on Home and the day total has already moved.
Nothing else is required. Date is today, account is whichever one is selected in the Home title, note is empty. Three taps is a count, not a slogan, because the sheet asks for nothing it can guess.
The fields you need, when you need them
Each optional field is one tap away rather than a form you scroll. None of them are required. A note takes a merchant or a reason, the date control moves an entry back to yesterday or to last Friday when you are catching up, and the account picker shifts a purchase from your cash to your card.
And the pill at the top is what turns this into the one sheet for everything. Income uses the income tags you set up, so a salary or a repayment arrives with the right emoji. Transfer moves an amount between two of your accounts and stays out of spending totals, which is exactly right when you top up a card from savings.
Offline, always
The keypad writes to the log on your iPhone. No connection needed, ever. Voice logging and receipt scanning do need one, because they hand the audio or the photo out to an AI model and wait for an answer. No signal, no problem: the plus button is exactly as fast as it always was.
Learn this sheet once and you can fix anything in the app. It is also what opens when you edit a transaction, whatever logged it: the mic, the camera, an Apple Pay tap or the keypad itself.
Where the keypad earns its place
We will say the quiet part: the keypad is not the fastest way to use Cash Book, and for a normal purchase we would rather you held the mic. Entering a whole restaurant bill line by line, or a week of catching up on a Sunday evening, is the camera's job or the mic's.
Cash is different. Cash is the spending that disappears from every tracker, because nothing reminds you it left: no receipt worth keeping, no card notification, no trace at all by Tuesday. The keypad is the honest answer. Log the market stall or the tip while you are still standing there. Read how to track cash spending for a routine that keeps it from piling up.
Frequently asked questions
How fast is a typical entry?
Three taps. Type the amount on the big keypad, tap the tag chip, tap Done. The date defaults to today and the account to the one you have selected on Home, so most entries never need the extra fields.
Can I log income and transfers here too?
Yes. A pill at the top of the sheet switches between Expense, Income and Transfer. Income uses your income tags, and Transfer moves money between two of your accounts without counting as spending.
Does the keypad work offline?
Fully. It writes straight to the log on your iPhone. Only voice logging and receipt scanning need a connection, because they use an AI model.
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