Wally App Beginners Guide

wally app review and beginners guide

Have you been thinking about how best to save money and focus on growing a stable financial stand? Is saving a significant part of your goals this year, but you are unsure how to handle it? Well, if this is something you desire, then finding a budgeting app is essential.

One of the most useful apps to use is the Wally App.  But why would you choose Wally when there are many other apps to use for this same purpose?

To find out why Wally is the excellent choice for you, read on to discover details on how it works and how best you can use it to match your financial budgeting goals.

What is Wally, and What are People Saying About It?

how to use wally app

When choosing a budgeting app, you want to be sure that you are using a tool that helps you track your expenditure and one that can also help you avoid overspending, thus keeping you in check.

Wally is one such app. It has a simple user interface that allows anyone to use it whenever they need to. This is the app you need to track your daily expenses, including costs shared that you need to split with friends if you are together at a joint.

I would look at it as an expense manager, which is what makes it one of the easiest apps, to begin with. What’s more, there are specific things this app does, including:

Adding and arranging expenses based on the category

This means that you get to know what you have spent in each category. For instance, your weekly expenditure on food will be clearly shown on the app as a way to track it. The same can happen for pet food, clothing, appliances, and miscellaneous. This way, you get to know which category takes up most of your money and helps you better organize yourself.

It can also come in handy when creating groups to split bills

Most housemates and groups will enjoy using this part of the app because of its effectiveness. Are you thinking of bringing a few of your friends to stay together and share costs? Well, getting the Wally app will make your life easy because it will track all expenses and help you split equally among yourselves. In other words, there will be no form of unfairness or wrangles because one of the friends takes advantage of the rest.

Helps you split bills without creating a group

In case yours is a temporary agreement, or you are hanging out as friends over the weekend, using the Wally app helps you split your bill without necessarily having to create a group. Most people will love this for their events and temporary gatherings.

Tracking your monthly expenses

tracking your expenses with wally app

I love this aspect of Wally because it means I get to know where I went wrong with my expenses in the month.

This is the kind of app that helps you stay on top of things. It points out the glaring areas where you may have wasted your cash on, helping you manage your expectations for the future.

However, you also need to know what the use of a camera will require permissions.

In case you want to take a pic of a bill to attach the image as proof of your expenses, you will need to grant the app permission to do this.

The app is straightforward to use. It would be great to have a few other options, such as allowing users to create their unique categories. Nonetheless, it is a great budget app to start with.

Is it Worth It?

Having mentioned how good this app is, one may wonder how it actually works and if it is worth any salt? Wally is categorized as a personal finance app that is currently available for both iOS and Android.

Some people may consider its software moniker to be unusual, but it is still one of the smartest financial apps out there. The considerable number of users already using this app is proof of how effective it is.

Most reviewers and media love it only because it helps users stay on top of their finances without necessarily being expert accountants of financiers.

People who are always on the move will enjoy the fact that the app will sync all expenses and accounts and keep track of everything for easy management of your finances.

It is also quite popular, considering that it is available in about 70 countries and is compatible with over 15000 banks globally. As if that is not enough, it can handle more than 60 currencies, making it easy for users to use the app without converting their local currencies to match the app.

What About the Cost?

With all its capacity, one may quickly think that the app is costly to use when the truth is that it is not. Usually, it is available for free use, although there is an offer for sale for the expanded feature range.

This means that anyone scouting for the Wally gold can opt to join the optional subscription edition of the app, which offers more functionality than the free basic version available for free to all interested users.

Those going for the paid version should know that it is still affordable. They can opt for the monthly subscription of $1.99 or go for the gold annual trial option at $24.99 a year.

The subscription option offers so many other advanced tools that help users to manage their money better. For long term users who want a better deal, the app comes with a Gold Lifetime costs $39.99.

Prices are correct as by the time of publishing this post.

Alternatively, go for the free version of the app and buy in-app add-ons that will help you handle specific aspects of your finances when you need to. Some of these extra add-ons include the Custom budgets for $5.99 and Multiple Currencies for $7.99. The bottom line is that this app is available at the most affordable rate ever.

The Actual Working of the Wally App

It helps to understand that even if you opt for the free version of the app, it is still great for financial tracking. Even the app’s basic version comes with several options that include account management, individual and joint use, budget sharing, and automatic account syncs.

It also has loads of reminders, comment tools, note-taking, and lists that one can make for their purposes. Having these many features can be intimidating, especially since it comes across as a complicated app to use. On the contrary, it is quite easy and straightforward once you understand how to complete the process.

Setting It Up

To use this app, you must first set it up in the following simple and straightforward steps.

  1. Open the app store, go to the search button and type in Wally – Home Sensor Network.  Tap on the Get Button, install the app, then tap open to open it and continue with the setup process for iOS.
  2. For Android, first launch Play Store on your smartphone and search Wally on the search bar. Select it from the app list, and install it.
  3. Click Open to open it and proceed as follows in both Android and iOS devices.
  4. Open the app on your home screen, and tap continue
  5. Read the terms and conditions carefully, then Agree to continue using this app. This will let you explore the other features on the app with a lot of ease.

Using the App

You need to start by first setting up all your accounts. Fortunately, this is an easy and straightforward process. You have the option to choose from checking, cash, saving, credit card, prepaid, wallet, digital, and gift cards. It is also possible to input several types of loans.

Once it is done, you should proceed to input the available balance, basic card terms, the currency used, fees, and interests. In the case of credit cards, make sure to include outstanding balances, if any.  Note that each of these details should be put on each account added.

Inputting Expenses in the Wally App

When having both ongoing and outgoing funds, all you need to do is to tap on the + Symbol on the app. For purchases, select the expense and enter the location where the money was spent, the amount, the category, and the payment mode.

When doing this, you will discover that there are hashtag suggestions. These are used when there is a need to further categorize expenses and income.

If you are a fun-loving individual, the idea of including hashtags in the process will be exciting. It works very well for young people.

using wally app to plan expenses

Other Wally Budgeting App Functions

Besides the already mentioned function, Wally is great for other purposes. These include:

  • Reviewing of past and upcoming payments
  • Ability to view account balances that include liabilities and net assets
  • Setting daily or category-budget to help control your spending
  • Creating a family expense account
  • Tracking group expense to settle loans and split costs
  • Seeing where you spend your money
  • Attaching pictures of expense receipts  
  • Coming up with shopping lists
  • Following how and where your money is spent
  • Creating expenses and entering bills due dates
  • Creating shortcuts to the most used apps

Generally, this app is easy to use, especially if you are already familiar with iOS and Android since it is merely a continuation of the same. You can easily learn how to set up and manage budgets, get updates, scan, and upload bills, not forgetting to manage and update bills.

Using Wally can be complicated or easy, depending on the user. When entering an expense, Wally attempts to guess your map location and connect the expense to it.

It is also possible to scan receipts. You are supposed to add each monthly income source on the income tab and set your savings goal.

Pros and Cons

Even as you consider using the Wally app, it is vital to know some of the good and bad about it. Below are insightful details to help you decide.

For

  • It comes with interesting features with multiple uses
  • Users get multiple visuals for their finances
  • It is possible to choose between manual and linked accounts options

Against

  • The user experience can be very frustrating
  • Some of the subcategories do not make sense
  • Some of the features don’t work as expected

How to Set Password on Wally

Users’ security is assured when using the Wally App. This is one of the major concerns for most users before adopting tracking apps. Fortunately for Wally, users need to select Settings on the app. This is then followed by going to the Profile.

Once there, they will see their profile info, which is then followed by Change Password. Users need to follow the prompts and input the password they want.

How to Mark Paid on Wally App

Every time you spend money, you add the transaction by tapping the red ‘+’ button on the home screen. Besides adding the account and money spent as an expense, it is also possible to tag a friend especially if you met at a place where you spend the cash. 

You can also choose from a location-based list of merchants, and possibly assign a spending type which could be anything from personal, family, social, or work. In addition to that, there is a provision of taking a photo of the receipt where one gets to tap the camera icon located on their screen’s top. The image is then displayed at the top of the transaction record.

The most recent transactions get displayed on the home screen, together with the total expenditure for the particular day. Users can scroll through their total balance, as well as the current and upcoming monthly expenses, besides viewing their remaining budget at the top.

How do you Transfer Money Between Accounts on Wally App – Does it Link to accounts?

Wally does not link to your actual financial accounts. It is possible that what your app says and the actual money in your bank fail to match up, especially if you forget to put an expense.
How to Allow Locations on Wally App

Most of the activities on the app are intertwined. Note that you will always add the location when entering your expenses or mapping it to the location directly when marking your payments.

How to See Previous Months on Wally App

To check previous and current expenses, one needs to go to the budget review tab. This section captures the total income, all expenses, and any remaining budget in the individual account balances. It basically gives a clear big picture of the situation and can go back as far as a few days, weeks, months and a year.

How to Change Daily BudgetOnce you signup on to the app, the first thing that comes up once you open is the Expense Screen. It is at this point that you can change the option in “Settings. Always input your spending immediately or later in the day. In addition to the expense amount, it is also possible to input the type of expense, your location, and the specific dates. This makes it easy to track your daily expenses.

Verdict

Wally is a pretty good financial tracking app for beginners and anyone who wants to keep things under control when it comes to money expenditure. It comes with some fantastic features that allow users to enjoy their financial tracking journey. Generally, Wally can handle a lot of functions pretty comfortably.

However, despite all the great things one can say about it, it has a few downsides that tend to water down the good. Some of the features fail to work optimally, rendering them useless in the first place.

On the decision to use or not to use, it may be a question of personal preference. I would say try it as you try a few other apps in the same category and compare. If you like, then go with it.