One month of data tells you what happened. Several months tell you where things are heading. Spendly’s reports do both.
The three reports
Spending by category. Where the money went, over any date range, broken down by category and filterable by account or currency. This is the one you’ll open most.
Budget history. Your actual spending against the limits you set, month after month. This is what tells you whether a budget you keep missing needs more discipline or a more realistic number.
Net worth over time. Assets minus liabilities, tracked month over month. More detail on the net worth tracker.
Alongside these, the dashboard gives you the at-a-glance version: current net worth, this month’s income against expenses, your largest categories, and which budgets are on track.
Category detail
You assign each transaction a category as you record it, so reports show exactly where the money went — no reconciling a machine’s guesses afterwards. That makes it easy to see:
- Your biggest categories, and whether they match what you’d say your priorities are
- Categories growing month over month, while the growth is still small
- The gap between intention and behaviour — the category you’d have sworn was under control
Trends, not just totals
A single month is noise. Someone had a birthday, the car needed tyres, you were away for a week. The value is in the sequence.
- Seasonal patterns — December spending, summer income dips, the January insurance cluster
- Expenses that are quietly growing before they become a problem
- Whether a change you made actually worked — did cancelling those subscriptions show up three months later, or did the money just go somewhere else?
- Your savings rate as a percentage of income, which is the single most honest number about whether things are improving
That last one matters more than the absolute figures. Someone saving 15% of a modest income is doing better than someone saving 3% of a large one, and only the percentage tells you that.
Across currencies
If you spend in more than one currency, reports handle it both ways: view spending in each original currency, or see everything converted into your base currency at daily rates. Neither view is more “correct” — the original tells you what you actually spent in a place, the converted one tells you what it cost you.
More on how conversion works in multi-currency support.
Reports and budgets together
Reports and budget planning feed each other. Reports show actual spending next to your limits, which is what tells you a limit is wrong.
If you’ve spent £400 on groceries for five months against a £300 budget, the budget is fiction. Either change the number or change the behaviour, but a limit you’ve missed five times in a row isn’t doing anything except making you feel bad.
Turning a report into a decision
A report you look at and close hasn’t done anything. The useful pattern:
- Spending trend you want to address → set a budget for that category
- Recurring charges adding up → the subscription tracker has a dedicated view
- Consistently under budget somewhere → move it to a savings goal or sinking fund rather than letting it drift
- Want to know what’s coming rather than what’s gone → the cash flow forecast
For practical strategies on building a consistent tracking habit, read how to track expenses effectively, or use your reports to find forgotten subscriptions.