Getting started
What Thrift is, what happens on first launch, and how to log your first transaction — the whole loop in about two minutes.
Thrift is a private money tracker. There are no accounts to create and no bank to connect — you write down what you spend, and Thrift turns it into budgets, reflections, and a picture of your net worth over time. Everything lives on your phone, encrypted.
This guide covers the first two minutes: what you’ll see when you open the app, how the screens are organised, and how to record your first transaction.
First launch
The first time you open Thrift, it sets itself up with sensible defaults so you can start logging immediately:
- A Cash account is created for you. You can rename it, or add real accounts (checking, savings, a card) from Wealth › Accounts whenever you like.
- A starter set of spending categories is seeded — groceries, coffee, rent, and so on. Edit, add, or remove them as you go; nothing is fixed.
- Your ledger is encrypted on device from the very first entry, with the key held in your phone’s secure hardware.
There is no sign-up, no email, and no onboarding survey. The app is ready.
Private by default. Your transactions never leave the phone. A few optional features can reach the network — exchange rates, broker import, and an opt-in AI parsing mode — and you control each one. See Privacy & security for the full picture.
The screens
Thrift uses two levels of navigation. The bar along the bottom switches between the five main areas; some areas have a row of tabs across the top for their sub-views.
| Tab | What lives there |
|---|---|
| Home | Your running transaction list and quick add |
| Budget | Monthly budgets and recurring bills |
| Insights | The month and year, told back to you |
| Wealth | Accounts, goals, investments, net worth |
| More | Settings, data tools, and support |
Most actions surface where you need them rather than hiding in Settings — “Rebuild Balances” lives on Accounts, merchant rules surface from a transaction, and so on. When in doubt, look in context first.
Log your first transaction
From Home, tap the add button. You can enter a transaction three ways:
- Type it. Pick an amount, a category, and an account. That’s the whole requirement — everything else is optional.
- Say it. Tap the microphone and speak a sentence like “twelve dollars on lunch at Subway.” Thrift reads the amount, merchant, and category out of it, on the phone.
- Scan it. Point the camera at a receipt and Thrift reads the total and merchant for you.
Voice and receipt capture are covered in detail in Voice & receipt capture. Tap a transaction any time to edit it directly — there’s no separate detail screen to dig through.
Where to go next
- Voice & receipt capture — log without typing.
- Budgets & rollover — set a plan that rewards a quiet month.
Once you have a few days of entries, open Insights to see the first summary take shape.