iOS Financial Tracker
I came up with this Financial Tracker as I got tired of manually logging my daily expenses into a sheet. I thought that the best quality of life improvement would be to be able to run a logging script using the iPhone Shortcuts app. The input will be the Action button in iPhone 15 & above. This project is not documented in full; the full capability consists of it exporting each sheet at the end of each month to an annual expense tracker.
Table of Contents
iOS Shortcuts
Using the shortcuts app and a little bit of research, I came up with a script that runs when activated with the action button.
〔0〕 Text
Sharukh Khan
〔1〕 Choose from Menu
• MenuPrompt: Expense or Income:\u{space}
• MenuItems: [Expense,
Income]
〔2〕 Menu Item Expense
〔3〕 Text »
expense
〔4〕 Set Variable expenditure to 〔3 Text〕
〔5〕 Choose from Menu
• MenuPrompt: Category:\u{space}
• MenuItems: [Transportation,
Food,
Entertainment,
Bills,
Gifts,
Personal,
Health,
Travel,
Miscellaneous\u{space}]
〔6〕 Menu Item Transportation
〔7〕 Text »
Transportation
〔8〕 Set Variable category to 〔7 Text〕
〔9〕 Menu Item Food
〔10〕 Text »
Food
〔11〕 Set Variable category to 〔10 Text〕
〔12〕 Menu Item Entertainment
〔13〕 Text »
Entertainment
〔14〕 Set Variable category to 〔13 Text〕
〔15〕 Menu Item Bills
〔16〕 Text »
Bills
〔17〕 Set Variable category to 〔16 Text〕
〔18〕 Menu Item Gifts
〔19〕 Text »
Gifts
〔20〕 Set Variable category to 〔19 Text〕
〔21〕 Menu Item Personal
〔22〕 Text »
Personal
〔23〕 Set Variable category to 〔22 Text〕
〔24〕 Menu Item Health
〔25〕 Text »
Health
〔26〕 Set Variable category to 〔25 Text〕
〔27〕 Menu Item Travel
〔28〕 Text »
Travel
〔29〕 Set Variable category to 〔28 Text〕
〔30〕 Menu Item Miscellaneous\u{space}
〔31〕 Text »
Other
〔32〕 Set Variable category to 〔31 Text〕
〔33〕 End Menu
〔34〕 Menu Item Income ▵2
〔35〕 Text »
income
〔36〕 Set Variable expenditure to 〔35 Text〕
〔37〕 Choose from Menu
• MenuPrompt: Select:\u{space}
• MenuItems: [Savings,
Salary,
PayNow / Bank Transfer,
Deposit,
Bonus,
Other]
〔38〕 Menu Item Savings
〔39〕 Text »
Savings
〔40〕 Set Variable category to 〔39 Text〕
〔41〕 Menu Item Salary
〔42〕 Text »
Salary
〔43〕 Set Variable category to 〔42 Text〕
〔44〕 Menu Item PayNow / Bank Transfer
〔45〕 Text »
PayNow
〔46〕 Set Variable category to 〔45 Text〕
〔47〕 Menu Item Deposit
〔48〕 Text »
〔49〕 Set Variable category to 〔48 Text〕
〔50〕 Menu Item Bonus
〔51〕 Text »
Bonus
〔52〕 Set Variable category to 〔51 Text〕
〔53〕 Menu Item Other
〔54〕 Text »
Other
〔55〕 Set Variable category to 〔54 Text〕
〔56〕 End Menu
〔57〕 End Menu ▵34
〔58〕 Ask for Number Input »
• AskActionAllowsNegativeNumbers: false
• AskActionPrompt: Amount?
〔59〕 Set Variable amount to 〔58 Ask for Input〕
〔60〕 If 〔expenditure〕 is income
〔61〕 If Any are true 〔category〕 is Savings 〔category〕 is Salary 〔category〕 is Bonus
〔62〕 Text »
Bank%20Transfer
〔63〕 Set Variable account to 〔62 Text〕
〔64〕 End If
〔65〕 If 〔category〕 is PayNow
〔66〕 Text »
PayNow
〔67〕 Set Variable account to 〔66 Text〕
〔68〕 End If
〔69〕 If 〔category〕 is Deposit
〔70〕 Text »
Cash
〔71〕 Set Variable account to 〔70 Text〕
〔72〕 End If
〔73〕 If 〔category〕 is Other
〔74〕 Choose from Menu
• MenuPrompt: Mode:\u{space}
• MenuItems: [PayNow,
Bank Transfer,
Cash]
〔75〕 Menu Item PayNow
〔76〕 Text »
PayNow
〔77〕 Set Variable account to 〔76 Text〕
〔78〕 Menu Item Bank Transfer
〔79〕 Text »
Bank Transfer
〔80〕 Set Variable account to 〔79 Text〕
〔81〕 Menu Item Cash
〔82〕 Text »
Cash
〔83〕 Set Variable account to 〔82 Text〕
〔84〕 End Menu
〔85〕 End If ▵73
〔86〕 Otherwise ▵60
〔87〕 Choose from Menu
• MenuPrompt: Payment Mode:\u{space}
• MenuItems: [NetsQR,
PayNow,
Visa,
Cash]
〔88〕 Menu Item NetsQR
〔89〕 Text »
NetsQR
〔90〕 Set Variable account to 〔89 Text〕
〔91〕 Menu Item PayNow
〔92〕 Text »
PayNow
〔93〕 Set Variable account to 〔92 Text〕
〔94〕 Menu Item Visa
〔95〕 Text »
Visa
〔96〕 Set Variable account to 〔95 Text〕
〔97〕 Menu Item Cash
〔98〕 Text »
Cash
〔99〕 Set Variable account to 〔98 Text〕
〔100〕 End Menu
〔101〕 End If ▵86
〔102〕 Ask for Text Input »
• AskActionPrompt: Description:\u{space}
• AskActionDefaultAnswer:
〔103〕 Get Text from 〔102 Ask for Input〕 »
〔104〕 URL Encode 〔103 Text〕 »
〔105〕 Set Variable detail to 〔104 URL Encoded Text〕
〔106〕 Text »
REDACTED ON PURPOSE
〔107〕 Set Variable webappid to 〔106 Text〕
〔108〕 Text »
https://script.google.com/macros/s/〔webappid〕/exec?amount=〔amount as Text〕&expenditure=〔expenditure〕&account=〔account as Text〕&category=〔category as Text〕&detail=〔detail〕
〔109〕 Get URLs from 〔108 Text〕 »
〔110〕 Get Contents of URL 〔109 URLs〕 »
• Advanced: true
• HTTPHeaders: {}
• ShowHeaders: true
• HTTPMethod: GET
〔111〕 Show Result
〔110 Contents of URL〕
〔112〕 Vibrate Device
• VibrateHapticType: Up Direction
Google Sheets
Next, we write an Apps Script that will handle the data passed to the API.
var spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.openById("REDACTED ON PURPOSE");
function doGet(e) {
try {
var amount = e.parameters.amount[0];
var mode = e.parameters.expenditure[0].toLowerCase();
var account = e.parameters.account[0];
var category = e.parameters.category[0];
var detail = e.parameters.detail[0];
var now = new Date();
var date = Utilities.formatDate(now, "GMT+8", "dd/MM/yyyy");
var sheetName = "Transactions";
var sheet = spreadsheet.getSheetByName(sheetName);
if (!sheet) {
throw new Error("Sheet not found");
}
var startRow = 5;
var rowToWrite;
function findFirstEmptyRow(sheet, startRow, column) {
var lastRow = sheet.getLastRow();
if (lastRow < startRow) {
return startRow;
}
var numRows = lastRow - startRow + 1;
var values = sheet.getRange(startRow, column, numRows, 1).getValues();
for (var i = 0; i < values.length; i++) {
if (!values[i][0]) { // empty cell found
return startRow + i;
}
}
return lastRow + 1;
}
if (mode === "expense") {
rowToWrite = findFirstEmptyRow(sheet, startRow, 2); // Column B = 2
sheet.getRange(rowToWrite, 2, 1, 5).setValues([[date, amount, detail, category, account]]);
return ContentService.createTextOutput("Success! Expense row added.");
} else if (mode === "income") {
rowToWrite = findFirstEmptyRow(sheet, startRow, 8); // Column H = 8
sheet.getRange(rowToWrite, 8, 1, 5).setValues([[date, amount, detail, category, account]]);
return ContentService.createTextOutput("Success! Income row added.");
} else {
return ContentService.createTextOutput("Mode not handled: " + mode);
}
} catch (error) {
Logger.log(error);
return ContentService.createTextOutput("Error: " + error.message);
}
}
Examples
We can see that the sheet gets populated accordingly. With automation, this sheet gets exported monthly to an annual expenses tracker for tracking on a bigger scale pulling from multiple sources (not just iOS Shortcuts).