Automatic expense tracker: log Apple Pay payments with iPhone Shortcuts
Typing in every expense is where most expense trackers fall by the wayside. A coffee, the weekly shop, a tank of fuel: each takes a few seconds, but you have to remember every time. Since iOS 27, your iPhone can do much of that work for you. Each time you pay with Apple Pay, an automation in the Shortcuts app opens your expense tracker with the amount, the merchant and the date already filled in. All you do is confirm.
This guide explains how automatic expense tracking with Apple Pay works, which payments it picks up and which it doesn't, and how to set it up in abacova in three steps.
What "automatic" can mean for an expense tracker
There are two ways to get expenses in without typing them one by one, and they work well together:
- Importing your bank's file. Once a week or once a month you download your statement and import it. It catches everything that went through the account, but it arrives late: by the time you review it, you no longer remember what that 23.40 charge was.
- Recording the expense as you pay. Your phone knows you have just paid, how much and where. If your app opens at that moment with the expense ready, logging it takes one tap, and you do it while you still know what you bought.
Automatic capture with Apple Pay is the second kind. Importing your bank's file is still useful for everything that doesn't go through your phone.
How it works with Apple Pay and Shortcuts
Shortcuts is Apple's app for automating tasks on the iPhone. In iOS 27, automations live inside shortcuts: a shortcut can carry a trigger that starts it on its own.
One of those triggers comes from the Wallet app: "When I tap a Wallet pass or payment card". When you pay with a card stored in Wallet, iOS hands the shortcut the amount, the merchant and the card you used. The abacova shortcut takes those details and opens the app with a new expense already filled in.
What happens next:
- The first time you pay with a card, abacova asks which account it pays from and remembers it for the next payments.
- You check the expense, pick a category if you like, and save it. It is created as a pending transaction.
- If you close without saving, the payment isn't lost: it waits in a Payments to confirm list, behind a bell on Transactions, for you to confirm or discard later. It keeps the day you paid.
What is recorded and what isn't
| How you pay | Recorded automatically? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Card with Apple Pay in a shop | Yes | Confirm the expense |
| Cash | No | Double tap the back of your iPhone |
| The physical card | No | Double tap, or import your statement |
| Online purchases | No | Import your statement |
| Bank transfers and payment apps | No | Import your statement |
Apple Pay inside apps and on websites may or may not fire the automation: we don't promise it does.
Setting it up in abacova: three steps
You do this once, on the iPhone with the abacova app installed:
- Open More → Automatic expense capture and tap "Add the abacova shortcut", then "Add Shortcut" in Shortcuts. The automation comes with it.
- In Shortcuts, open Automation and switch on "When I tap a Wallet pass or payment card". It arrives switched off, so don't skip this step.
- Pay for something with Apple Pay: abacova opens with the expense filled in.
If your iPhone runs a version older than iOS 27, the app tells you and asks you to update in Settings → General → Software Update.
Cash and everything else: Back Tap
For whatever doesn't go through Apple Pay, the iPhone has another trick. With the "New expense in abacova" shortcut, a double tap on the back of the phone opens a blank new expense, with no hunting for the app or tapping through menus.
- On the same abacova screen, tap "Add the new expense shortcut".
- In the iPhone's Settings: Accessibility → Touch → Back Tap → Double Tap.
- Select the "New expense in abacova" shortcut.
It works while the iPhone is unlocked.
Limits worth knowing
- It needs iOS 27 or later, and it has been tested on iOS 27.
- If you pay from the lock screen, iOS asks you to unlock before abacova opens.
- If abacova's Face ID lock is on, Face ID is asked for first.
- Saving a transaction needs a connection. Until then, the payment waits in Payments to confirm (up to 50).
- It isn't available on Android yet. It is coming soon.
Privacy
No bank is connected and you share no password. The shortcut runs on your iPhone, and nothing about a payment leaves the phone until you save it. abacova has no ads and no trackers, and it doesn't sell data.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to type anything for each payment? No. The amount, the merchant and the date arrive filled in. You confirm, and choose a category if you want to.
What if I don't want to keep a payment? Discard it in Payments to confirm and no transaction is created.
Do I have to give it my bank password? No. Everything comes from your own iPhone, at the moment you pay.
How much does it cost? The payments you save are ordinary transactions. The free plan needs no card and includes two accounts and 200 transactions a month. The pricing page shows what each plan includes.
Does it replace importing my statement? Not entirely. It records what you pay with Apple Pay, which for many people is a good part of everyday spending. Your statement fills in the rest of the month. If you are still choosing a tool, these seven questions for choosing an expense tracker app will help, and splitting fixed and variable expenses shows you where to look first.
Start today
Install abacova on your iPhone, open More → Automatic expense capture, and let your next coffee log itself.