Budget Flow

Budget Flow is an offline-first budgeting app built entirely for the Apple ecosystem: Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch. The app was created by Fabian Hasse, a software developer with over 10 years of experience who built Budget Flow as a side project and now maintains it alone. With 350,000 downloads and a 4.8 out of 5 rating based on 3,500 reviews, it has become a popular choice for people in the Apple ecosystem who want to budget without logging into their banks. No login is required. You set up your budget book, add transactions, and your data stays on your device or optionally syncs through your personal iCloud account.

How you enter and organize transactions

Budget Flow guides you through setup step by step on first launch, walking you through creating your first budget book and adding recurring transactions. From there, you enter transactions manually, or you use the integrated receipt scanner. The scanner automatically detects the amount, date, and merchant name from a photo of your receipt, even when working completely offline. This eliminates typing amounts and dates for most purchases, though you still assign the category and account yourself.

You can create custom accounts and organize categories into groups to match how you think about money. The app supports manual entry, receipt scanning, recurring transactions (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom intervals), and transaction reminders for upcoming bills or planned spending. You can attach photos and your current location to transactions for context later. A built-in calculator is included if you need to add multiple amounts to one transaction, and Budget Flow converts over 150 currencies automatically based on current exchange rates, converting them to your main currency if desired.

Transactions support a high level of detail. You can mark transactions as paid, pending, or reconciled. The app handles recurring bills and reminders so you do not forget payments coming up. For people who share finances, Budget Flow supports multiple budget books: one for household budgeting, one for vacation planning, one for a shared project. You can invite others to collaborate on specific books through message or email.

The budget and reporting experience

Budgets in Budget Flow are per-category with custom repetition intervals: weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. As you add transactions to each category, the app shows how much you have left in your budget for that period. The dashboard is highly customizable, showing the cards you want to see: accounts, budgets, cash flow, or net worth. You choose which appear and in what order. The app displays multiple chart types: account balances, overall balance, income and expenses over time, and cash-flow trends. You can sort and filter these views across any time period you choose, with drill-down into categories and accounts.

Budget Flow provides calendar and cash-flow reporting, showing your spending month by month or as a running timeline. For people managing credit cards alongside checking accounts, this view makes it easy to see when bills hit and when income arrives. The app handles complex scenarios like credit card statement cycles, multiple currencies in different accounts, and transfers between your own accounts. The dashboard reflects all of this in one view.

A feature called travel mode hides chosen labels and categories while you are away, keeping your sensitive spending categories out of sight until you switch travel mode off. This is useful if you are traveling with someone who occasionally borrows your phone.

Apple ecosystem integration and devices

Budget Flow was developed natively for Apple, which means it takes full advantage of Apple's features on each device. On iPhone, you get home-screen widgets and lock-screen widgets to check your balance or see upcoming transactions without opening the app. On iPad, the app supports Split View, Slide Over, and Stage Manager for working with other apps side by side. On Mac, you get keyboard shortcuts for power users and the full app experience in a window. On Apple Watch, you can see complications (small widgets on your watch face) showing balance or upcoming transactions at a glance.

All your data syncs automatically through iCloud, so your latest transactions on your iPhone appear on your Mac and iPad in real time. If you switch devices, your budget books and transaction history come with you. The app works offline on any device. You can enter transactions on a plane, and they sync back to iCloud when you land.

Privacy and security

Your financial data is stored on your device only, or optionally in your personal iCloud account. Budget Flow does not operate its own servers to sync your data. The app is encrypted on-device, with PIN, Face ID, or Touch ID available to lock it on startup. You are always in control: you can adjust what permissions the app has to your location, contacts, or photos, and you can reset the app to delete everything at any time. The developer, Hasse, emphasizes that your finances are private, and the app is built that way from the ground up.

The app supports dynamic text sizes and high-contrast controls for accessibility, so it works for people who need larger text or higher contrast on screen.

What Budget Flow costs

Budget Flow is available to download from the App Store. The site does not publish a price, a paid tier, premium features, or a subscription anywhere on its pages, and it makes no mention of in-app purchases or ads either.

Who this suits and who it does not

Budget Flow is built for people in the Apple ecosystem who value offline-first budgeting and privacy. It shines for anyone who wants receipt scanning without bank connectivity, multi-currency support for people who travel or have international accounts, or collaborative budgeting for households and small teams. The app is mature on iPhone and iPad, with watch and Mac support for power users. At 350,000 downloads with strong ratings, it is well-established.

It is not for Android users. The app is Apple-only. It is not for people who want to sync directly to their banks or credit cards, since Budget Flow handles no bank connections. It is not for people who need a web app, since there is no desktop web version apart from the Mac app. If you are uncomfortable with iCloud, you can keep your data on-device only, but there is no way to sync to Dropbox, Google Drive, or another cloud service. The app is new enough that some edge cases might remain, though the developer continues to maintain and update it actively.