Spend Score: one number for how healthy your spending is
The Spend Score turns a month of entries into a score out of 900, and tells you which part is pulling it down. It is worked out only from what you record in the app, so it reflects your money, not an average person's.
What goes into your Spend Score
- Spending against income30%
- How much of your income goes out. The less of it you spend, the more points you earn.
- Savings25%
- How regularly you keep part of your income, and whether you set money aside on purpose, such as an FD deposit or a transfer to savings.
- Stability20%
- How steady your spending is from month to month. Big swings cost points.
- Category balance15%
- How much goes on wants (dining out, holidays, gifts) compared with needs (rent, groceries, bills, health, fuel).
- Tracking habit10%
- How many days of the period you actually recorded entries. A score is only as good as the record behind it.
What you need, and how to use it
What it needs: Income and expense entries in a book. With little data a part gets half marks, not zero, and the app tells you what is missing.
- Add your income and your spending to a book, in the app or on the web.
- Open Insights, then Spend score, and pick the period you want to look at.
- Read the five parts and the short notes under each, then pick one to improve.
Questions people ask
What is a good Spend Score?
Higher is better, and the app labels your score and says what to work on. The most useful comparison is with your own earlier months, because the right level depends on your income and your commitments.
Are savings counted as spending?
No. An entry marked as savings, such as an FD deposit or a transfer to a savings account, is treated as a deliberate saving, not as money spent, so saving more never lowers your score.
How does it know what is a want and what is a need?
It reads the words in your category names. Dining out, holidays and gifts count as wants; groceries, rent, bills, health and fuel do not. Category names written in other scripts, such as Hindi or Tamil, are not recognised and count as needs, so name a few categories in English if this matters to you.
How is it different from the Savings Efficiency Score?
The Spend Score judges how you spend. The Savings Efficiency Score, which is out of 100, judges how well your income turns into savings and progress on your goals.
Is it financial advice?
No. It is an information score worked out from your own entries, meant to help you notice patterns. It does not replace advice from a qualified adviser.
Is it free?
Yes. Everything in the app is free to use at the moment: there is no paid plan to choose.
See your own numbers
Create an account, add a few entries and open Spend Score. It works from what you record.