Pennie turns everyday finance notifications into a local-first financial timeline. It extracts amounts and context so you can review and confirm, or intentionally configure auto-save. Optional account, Drive backup and AI features have separate data flows and choices. This detailed guide walks through the app's features and how to use them. See the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Available only on Android
Start with onboarding, then use the links below to jump across the full Pennie experience: tabs overview, Dashboard, Transactions, Add Transaction, Categories/Budget, EMI Planner, Reports, Settings, and the notification/SMS review flows.
Core features work without internet. Permissions are explained in plain language so the user stays in control.
Amounts are auto-parsed from finance messages: review the staged transaction, tweak category if needed, and save — no manual amount entry for every payment.
The Dashboard prioritises trend and composition: expense breakdown + last 6 months net trend.
01 Get started
On first launch, Pennie guides users through consent + defaults so the app feels local immediately: privacy/terms → currency → permissions (Android).
The first screen introduces local-first tracking and optional connected features. Review the notices before tapping Continue. The screen includes links to:
Continue records your general acknowledgement. Signing in afterward does not turn on cloud AI or require the same current policy acknowledgement again. Enable cloud AI has its own explicit agreement in AI Intelligence.
Pennie detects defaults from the device locale and preselects:
This is designed to remove setup friction — most users can simply tap “Apply and continue”.
On Android, Pennie asks for two related permissions, with clear rationale:
Key feature: once notification access is enabled, Pennie can automatically parse finance messages to extract the amount and context, then pre-fill a “review” item. The user typically just confirms (or edits category/type) instead of typing amounts manually.
Users can finish setup or choose “Maybe later” — the app remains usable either way.
Google sign-in is optional for local tracking. Use the sign-in step during onboarding or open your profile later to connect a Pennie account for account-based features, referrals and AI allowance.
Accepting the current Privacy Policy during onboarding is remembered when you sign in afterward. The optional cloud AI agreement is still requested when you enable AI. Local tracking can work without cloud AI, but ad-gated actions may need internet access to unlock.
02 Your everyday tabs
Pennie is organised around five primary tabs. The app uses a Shell TabBar with these destinations.
The Dashboard is the “money home” screen: it summarises the current month, surfaces automation (reminders/subscriptions), and provides quick charts for clarity.
The top header anchors users with a friendly greeting and the current month (e.g., “Jan 2026”). This keeps the rest of the metrics easy to interpret.
Pennie computes month totals from the transaction list and shows them as:
Insight: interest-accrual transactions are excluded from these top-level totals so the “true” budget/expense picture stays clean.
When an update is available, the dashboard surfaces a small banner. Tapping it takes the user to the marketplace/web listing to update.
Track interest-bearing balances with two primary views:
Each chip can expand into a detailed list with category-level rows and progress indicators.
The reminders section is designed to keep financial habits consistent. The dashboard shows:
Insight: reminders are sorted to show what needs attention first (overdue, then soonest).
Subscriptions highlight recurring costs. The dashboard shows:
The expense breakdown chart answers: “Where did my money go this month?”
This chart shows net movement over time (budget − expense) so users can see momentum, seasonality, and whether spending is drifting upward.
Insight: points are colorized by sign (positive vs negative) so dips are visually obvious.
The bottom of the dashboard provides shortcuts to core next steps:
The Transactions tab is Pennie’s primary “timeline” view. It’s optimised for fast review (search + filters), safe edits (bottom sheet actions), and bulk cleanup (multi-select + undo).
The first row provides a search bar and a dedicated Refresh button. Search is debounced so typing doesn’t reload on every keystroke.
Insight: Refresh also scrolls the list back to the top so the user immediately sees the newest items for that month.
Pennie keeps the timeline strictly scoped to a single month (no infinite cross-month feed). Users can switch months with a chip-style month/year selector.
The Date chip enables a day filter inside the selected month. When a day is active, the chip shows the chosen date plus a small “✕” clear button.
Under the date controls, Pennie exposes quick filters as horizontally scrollable chips:
Insight: Selecting a chip updates the active filter state and reloads the month list from page 1 (paging resets).
When search or filters are active, Pennie shows a compact summary card with totals for the full matching set (not just the visible page). This helps users understand “how much” without scrolling the entire month.
Note: Day totals shown in headers focus on net payments (budget minus expense). Savings/debt adjustments are surfaced in the summary totals.
The transaction list is grouped by day. Each day starts with a header (Today/Yesterday or date) and a daily total computed as:
Daily Total = (sum of allocation payments) − (sum of expense payments)
Insight: interest accrual entries are ignored for daily totals so the “what I paid/received” number stays trustworthy.
Each transaction row is designed to scan quickly:
Gestures: long-press starts multi-select, single-tap toggles selection (when multi-select is active), and double-tap jumps to edit.
Tapping the “⋮” menu opens a bottom sheet with the two most common actions:
editId set
For cleanup tasks (e.g., deleting multiple staged notifications), Pennie supports multi-select with a dedicated top bar:
After deletions (single or bulk), Pennie shows a snackbar for a few seconds with an UNDO action. Undo restores the deleted batch, making cleanup safer.
The floating Add button stays available while browsing. It intelligently hides on scroll-down (to reduce visual noise) and reappears when the user scrolls up.
Add Transaction is where Pennie converts a “money event” into a structured entry. It supports normal allocation/expense entries, Savings and Debt balance updates, Transfers, optional reminders, and lightweight enrichment via sub-category + notes. Eligible manual-save and reminder actions use their own rewarded unlocks unless ad-free access applies.
Users typically open this page from:
The page provides two consistent actions:
UX detail: Pennie shows Save/Cancel both in the top toolbar and again at the bottom so users don’t need to scroll back up after filling fields.
At the top of the form, a horizontal chip row selects the entry type:
Validation: choose valid categories for the selected transaction type. If a rewarded unlock is required, complete it before saving; cancelling leaves the draft unsaved.
The category field is the core classifier. It shows:
When the type is Transfer, the same UI expands to a two-part selection:
Rule: Transfer destinations are constrained (Savings or Debt categories), and “From” and “To” cannot be the same category.
When the selected category doesn’t match the current transaction type, Pennie surfaces a contextual info message to prevent wrong classification (for example, choosing an Allocation category while Expense is selected).
The amount field is numeric with a visible currency symbol. Pennie displays a limit hint (for example “Up to 100,000”) and validates:
When the type is Savings, Pennie adds a “Savings balance” toggle:
When the type is Debt, Pennie adds a “Debt balance” toggle:
The date field controls which month/day the transaction appears under in the Transactions timeline and in month totals. It defaults to “today” but can be backdated for missed entries.
Sub-category is a lightweight enrichment field (e.g., store name, restaurant name, route). When tapped, Pennie opens an overlay dropdown with:
The note field is free-text and supports multi-line input. It’s useful for reminders context (e.g., “rent for Jan”, “split with friend”, “paid via UPI”).
When applicable, Pennie shows an “Essential / Non-essential” toggle. This classification is used for reporting and analysis, and can be constrained by the selected category (some categories may force a specific mode).
Pennie can mark a transaction as a Subscription. This helps the Dashboard subscription panel understand recurring commitments and keep them visible.
Enable Smart reminders for EMI-style follow-ups. Recurring reminders use a separate rewarded unlock for eligible free users; regular Premium skips the ad. The reminder card includes:
Validation: if the configuration is invalid, Pennie shows a warning message inside the card (for example, missing subject text).
Near the bottom, Pennie shows a colored summary card that mirrors what will be saved: category, amount, type, and date. This acts like a final confirmation before the user taps Save.
This tab is the control center for how Pennie interprets money. Budgets (expense planning), Savings goals, and Debt tracking are all configured here, and the rest of the app (Transactions, Dashboard, Reports) reads these settings.
Categories is intentionally split into two layers:
Workflow: You always start by selecting a category. That activates the editor, scrolls the page to the top, and focuses the most relevant field.
Pennie includes default categories out of the box. You can edit limited fields on them (for example, budgeting), but name and icon are fixed.
Creating and editing custom categories can be unlocked with a rewarded ad for the displayed period. Regular Premium skips this ad. Once access is available, use the editor described below to create or change a category.
When editing a custom category, Pennie enforces simple, “safe” naming rules (so category labels remain clean everywhere):
Custom categories can also pick an emoji/icon via the icon picker.
Every category has a “purpose” that changes how Pennie treats totals and planning:
Important: Switching the purpose resets or hides fields that don’t apply (for example, Expense budgets are cleared when switching to Savings/Debt).
For Expense categories, Pennie supports an optional default monthly budget. This is used to plan spending against the allocation you’ve actually recorded for the current month.
While editing an expense budget, a status banner explains the situation in real time:
Insight: The banner evaluates the total budget across all categories, not only the one you’re editing, so you always know whether your overall plan is feasible.
When a category is set to Savings, the editor switches into a “plan” configuration. These fields drive balance tracking and Dashboard visuals.
If you choose Interest deposit for a Savings category, Pennie exposes a loan/savings-style interest configuration so growth can be tracked more accurately over time.
Key fields:
Convenience: When interest is enabled and the monthly target is empty, Pennie may suggest a monthly target (based on principal + rate) to help you plan contributions.
Debt categories model “relationship direction” explicitly so the UI can label targets correctly and interpret payments consistently:
Core fields for Debt categories:
When interest tracking is enabled for a Debt category, Pennie treats it like a loan plan:
Design detail: in interest mode, Pennie locks the debt direction to “You owe” to keep the math and labels consistent.
If a custom category already has transactions, Pennie encourages disabling it instead of deleting. Disabled categories:
The EMI planner is now opened from Settings rather than Categories. Estimate loan payments and explore payoff strategies before setting up debt automation. Eligible free users can unlock the planner with a rewarded ad; the same active unlock covers calculations, download and sharing.
Read the full EMI Planner walkthrough →
Pennie’s EMI Planner helps users model three goal types: Loan payoff, Recurring deposit (save monthly toward a goal), and Fixed deposit (park a lump sum and see maturity). The planner is interactive: you adjust fields, tap Calculate, and compare outcomes before you commit to a budget or a debt plan.
Most users will use the EMI Planner after they’ve set up categories (especially a Debt category). It’s a “what-if” tool that helps answer questions like:
This segmented control changes the meaning of the entire form. It is the first decision because it changes both the input labels and the interpretation of results.
Planning tip: For “goal to buy something”, Recurring deposit is the simplest way to translate your goal into a monthly habit (what you need to put away each month).
When Goal type is Loan, Pennie lets you choose the calculation basis:
Planning tip: Use EMI mode if your monthly cashflow is fixed. Use Tenure mode if you have a hard deadline (e.g., close before child’s school fee cycle starts).
The top grid is always the “core math” of your plan:
Validation detail: In EMI mode for loans, Pennie requires EMI to exceed the upcoming interest amount; otherwise, the balance would never reduce.
This toggle decides how Pennie models interest:
Planning tip: Choose the interest type that matches your lender/product sheet. Many loans behave like compounding on reducing balance; some “flat rate” products behave closer to simple interest.
The planner can simulate how often interest accrues:
These are important because they change the effective growth/interest pattern even at the same annual rate.
When you pick quarterly or yearly cycles, Pennie can align those cycles with a specific fiscal year start month (useful for India-style FY planning or when products accrue quarterly from a fixed FY boundary).
Planning tip: If you budget around yearly bonuses/appraisals, fiscal alignment makes the timeline “feel” like your real life.
This is the calendar anchor for the entire schedule. Pennie uses this to label each month/year in the payoff table and charts.
Planning tip: Set this to your next EMI date month so the timeline matches your actual lender schedule.
These fields help users simulate “closing early” strategies. They appear only when:
Planning tip: If you get an annual bonus, set “Prepayments per year” to 1 and use Manual mode to model a single annual lumpsum.
After you enter inputs, use:
pennie_emi_schedule_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.csv ).If inputs are missing or inconsistent, Pennie shows an inline banner instead of producing a misleading schedule.
Once calculated, Pennie shows a payment summary with:
For loans, Pennie also compares your “base plan” (no step-ups, no prepayments) against the plan with acceleration tweaks, and shows:
This chart answers “how much is principal vs interest?” For deposit goals, the labels adapt (principal becomes contribution/corpus).
The “Loan payoff trajectory / Goal trajectory” view is designed for quick comparisons across years:
This table is the “audit view” for planning. It shows, year by year:
Tap “+” on a year to expand and inspect month-level figures.
If your goal is a purchase (phone, bike, emergency fund), Pennie’s deposit modes help translate that goal into a timeline:
Next step: Once you pick a monthly contribution that works, you can mirror it in the Categories tab by creating a Savings category with a matching monthly target.
Reports is Pennie’s analytics workspace. It runs entirely on-device: Pennie queries your local SQLite database, applies the time range + essential filters, and then renders charts (donuts, trend lines, breakdown pies) for fast scanning.
The Reports header uses a segmented selector. Each segment changes the section content below, but they share the same idea: pick a time range and focus the data.
The time frame changes the active date range used for every chart. Pennie supports:
This filter narrows the dataset before charts are computed:
Important: Essential filtering impacts totals, category charts, and trend charts together (it is not “cosmetic”).
Summary focuses on “how this period went” and “where money went”. Internally, Pennie computes an overall period summary and (when you apply an essential filter) a filtered summary for the same range.
Budget converts category definitions into “usage rows” for the selected period. Each row typically shows:
Pennie builds budget usage for Expense, Savings, and Debt categories, and sorts rows so categories with meaningful budgets appear first.
Trends is designed for pattern-finding. Pennie provides two key filter controls:
Note: The “Daily trend” chart shows only for Weekly/Monthly ranges; longer ranges focus on monthly aggregation.
Pennie includes an access-gate flow for Reports. Eligible free users can complete a rewarded ad for the period shown in the app; regular Premium bypasses this gate. See Download local Excel reports for the separate workbook export flow.
The workbook is generated locally, without sending your history to an AI model. New AI-generated monthly reports are retired; supported legacy report read/delete options remain.
The detailed Reports-tab guide explains the interactive charts and summaries. Free Reports can also show dynamic recommendations for other Prayo apps, rotating when several are available. Regular paid Premium hides those recommendations; AI-only and referral rewards do not.
03 Capture and AI
This page lets the user choose which installed apps Pennie is allowed to read notifications from. This is essential to reduce noise and keep finance parsing focused (banks, SMS apps, UPI, wallets).
At the top, Pennie explains what the feature does and then provides a search box:
Each row includes:
After changing toggles, tap “Save Preferences” to persist the selection. Pennie shows a success dialog and refreshes the status message.
Notifications Review is where Pennie turns raw notification text into staged “candidate transactions”. Review each item, correct fields (type/category/amount), then save it individually. Uncertain finance candidates require confirmation; irrelevant messages can be ignored.
The header is optimised for a quick daily routine:
The current scan unlock dialog says Review notifications, not Unlock backup. Older screenshots below illustrate the fields; the current queue uses individual actions.
Each notification is shown with its original text (for auditability) and then an editable form:
When Transaction type is set to Transfer, Pennie requires:
Validation: source and destination cannot be the same category.
Tapping Sub-category opens a dedicated overlay. This prevents the main list from scrolling while you type. Pennie shows suggested sub-categories and applies your selection back to the staged item.
When you tap “Add Selected”, Pennie disables interactions briefly, commits the selected staged items as real transactions, and then shows a success message with the number added.
Paste SMS is a lightweight helper for devices/flows where automatic notification capture is unavailable. You paste the raw message text, Pennie extracts the amount (if present), and then opens the Add Transaction page with prefilled fields.
The page has a single job:
Open Settings > AI Intelligence to manage optional AI assistance. The on-device ledger remains the source of truth. Your saved examples come first; cloud AI can help when local evidence cannot identify the details.
The free allowance is per account, shared across devices. Unused calls carry forward for life: no expiry, monthly reset or refill. Check the allowance card before requesting more assistance.
AI Premium supplies a separate monthly allowance for notification and bill assistance. The app shows your current limit, remaining calls and applicable renewal information. Prices and limits shown in the app are authoritative.
Enable cloud AI, then explicitly turn on Save automatically under AI features. It requires AI Premium; regular Premium does not include it.
Set the minimum confidence threshold. Higher thresholds accept fewer suggestions. Only eligible suggestions above the threshold are saved automatically; uncertain ones still need attention. Confidence is an estimate, not a guarantee—review your ledger regularly.
In AI Intelligence, tap Scan bill to take a photo or select a supported receipt/PDF. There is no separate Scan Bill toggle.
Pennie reads image or PDF text locally. Permitted AI assistance can structure a draft even when local recognition is incomplete. Check the merchant, date, currency, total and every item; correct OCR mistakes.
Resolve mismatched totals before saving one expense or separate item expenses. After editing, optional AI category suggestions must not replace your amounts. Always check the final entries.
Cloud AI receives bounded, redacted receipt text rather than the original image. Merchant and non-phone payment context can remain. Redaction is not anonymisation; read the main Privacy Policy before enabling AI.
AI assistance needs cloud AI permission and available allowance. If free calls are exhausted, the app offers AI Premium. A rewarded scan unlock, where required, is separate from AI allowance and does not buy more calls.
04 Settings & connected features
Settings is where Pennie stores device-level preferences and “permission-driven” features. It also hosts the entry points for finance-notification tracking (review flow, cleanup, and app selection).
Settings shows the regular Premium upgrade entry and a compact referral status. Tap Upgrade to Pro to compare Monthly, Annual and Lifetime plans. Use the referral info button to see full reward rules and expiry. AI Premium is a separate plan opened from AI Intelligence; there is no free Premium trial.
Continue to the current plan guide and referral instructions for the full details.
Preferences focuses on local formatting and UI choices:
Preferences also includes Bank message languages, so users can tell Pennie which languages their bank SMS and transaction alerts use before notification parsing starts.
When enabled, Pennie requires biometric/device authentication whenever the app opens or resumes. Disabling it triggers an authentication check before the toggle is turned off.
This section controls all local reminders:
Pennie can create an encrypted local backup or use separately connected Google Drive, and restore on an eligible empty installation. These controls require regular Premium. Continue to the step-by-step backup guide. The local file actions are:
This card is the control center for automatic finance-notification capture. It includes:
Open Settings > Data Transfer. Backup features require regular Premium, not AI Premium. Connecting Drive grants a separate permission for Pennie's private app-data area; it does not give access to your ordinary Drive files.
Use Export Data to create an encrypted backup file you control. Keep it safely outside the phone. Use Import Data on an eligible empty installation to restore it; Google Drive is not required.
Review Drive storage and dated snapshots before cleanup. Age-based cleanup keeps recovery safeguards; deleting all Pennie backups is irreversible and removes your Drive recovery copies, not the device's ledger. Export a safe copy before destructive changes.
Use the regular Premium page for the ad-free app experience and regular paid features, including backup. Review the price first and the included features below it. This plan does not include paid AI allowance or automatic saving.
Open the AI plan from AI Intelligence, even before using all free calls. It provides a monthly AI allowance and optional automatic saving. It does not remove ads or unlock regular Premium backup privileges.
Use either plan independently or both together. Current prices, billing terms, availability and exact allowances are shown in the app; purchases use Google Play.
Where an ad unlock is offered, the dialog names the action you selected. Choose Watch ad and complete the reward to unlock that feature for the displayed period, or choose View Premium plans. Not now, an unfinished ad or an unavailable ad leaves it locked. A reward does not grant a paid plan or more AI calls.
Rewards stack from the later of now or the current expiry. Settings shows the time remaining; tap its info button for full rules and the exact expiry. A code can be redeemed once per account.
Referral rewards are not a paid Premium plan. They do not grant backup privileges or AI Premium. First-party app recommendations in free Reports can still appear.
Participation uses a secure, random guest identity for this installation, whether or not you are signed into Pennie. There is no extra guest-versus-account choice. Reinstalling can lose access to guest activity; this is not a promise of one vote per person.
Pennie's ledger and monthly Excel exports are local. Optional account services, Google Drive backup, advertising, community feedback and cloud AI are separate connected features. The updated app no longer generates new AI monthly reports.
Enable cloud AI in AI Intelligence controls optional AI. Turning it on shows a dialog linking to this Privacy Policy's AI section; check the agreement box to enable it, or cancel to leave it off. You stay on AI Intelligence. Turning it off stops future AI requests. General policy review does not change that setting or replace Android, Drive or ad choices.
Read the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, version 2026-09-25, effective 25 September 2026. These English legal notices are not automatically translated. Existing walkthroughs retain their translations; newly added or corrected feature details stay in reviewed English until translations are updated.