Lens Finance
These pages describe the Lens app on iPhone. Where something says to tap a button or open a screen, that means inside the app.
What is Lens?
Lens is a privacy-first personal finance app. Your financial data stays on your device. No account, no ads. The only time anything leaves your phone is when you choose to use the optional Pro AI features.
Track accounts, transactions, goals, recurring bills, and your net worth, all in one place.
Quick start
Lens has no login. There is no sign-up, no password, and no Lens user account to create. Where this help says "account" it means a bank account you track, like a current account, savings, or a credit card.
That is it. Lens does the rest. Anything still outstanding sits on the Finish setup card on Today.
What happens during onboarding?
Onboarding is twelve short screens, and from the second one onwards every screen that asks you for something has a Skip.
There is no email, no password, and no account to create. After onboarding, the Finish setup card on Today carries the remaining steps, with your first bank account and your income already ticked off.
No email, no cloud sync?
That is right. Lens is privacy-first. What you enter is stored on your phone, not on a Lens server, and you do not need an account or sign in. The only time data leaves your phone is if you use the optional Pro AI features.
If you want to move to a new phone, you can back up your data from Settings > Data & backup and restore it on your new device.
What are Starters?
Starters are guided tips that appear on your Today screen for the first two weeks after onboarding or after you update your declared income or monthly budget.
Each starter is a small lesson about using Lens effectively. You can swipe left to dismiss one, or let it stay and learn from it.
How long do Starters show?
Starters appear for up to 14 days from your onboarding date or the last time you edited your declared numbers.
If you edit your budget or income again, the 14-day window resets and any dismissed starters come back so you can review them with your new numbers.
Free
Free is not a trial. It is a real budgeting app you can keep using for as long as you like.
You get up to 3 goals, 3 accounts, and a budget on 5 categories. The whole Today tab is yours: left to spend today, the week chart, the watch this week card. So is the whole of This month in Reports: your verdict for the month, your bills, where your spending went, and a line each for goals and accounts. You also get an insight a day.
Recurring bills are unlimited, on every tier including this one. Add all of them. Your daily number is only as honest as the bills Lens knows about, so charging for that would just make your own numbers worse.
Importing a CSV is free too. Getting your existing data into Lens is never the paid part.
Pro
Pro takes the counts off: unlimited goals, unlimited accounts, a budget on as many categories as you like, and your own custom categories.
It also opens the parts that look backwards and further out. In Reports, This month stays free, and Pro adds Last month and Year to date in full: the income breakdown, your net worth split, what each goal took, the spend and net worth trends, the month ledger, and the rest of the month story. Plus the whole insights feed instead of one a day, your weekly briefing, CSV export, and the AI features, which are Ask AI and AI receipt scanning. Bank sync is in there too, on iPhone.
One thing that often surprises people: importing a CSV is free. Only exporting one is Pro.
Where we draw the line
The rule we hold ourselves to is that day to day still works on Free. Knowing what you can spend today, logging it, and seeing your bills is the job of the app, and that part is not for sale.
Pro is for depth: more history, more detail, more of the work done for you. If you find yourself wanting it, that should be because you want more out of Lens, not because something you were relying on stopped working.
What you get for seven days
The trial runs for seven days and gives you the whole of Pro, not a sample of it. Unlimited goals and accounts, custom categories, Last month and Year to date in Reports, the complete insights feed, your weekly briefing, CSV export and the AI features are all open. On iPhone, bank sync is open too.
The idea is that you see what Lens is like with a month of your real data in it, rather than deciding from a feature list.
Checking how long is left
Tap your initials at the top of Today to open Settings, then look at the Lens Pro row. During a trial it reads "Pro trial" with the days remaining next to it, so you always know where you are without hunting through the App Store or Google Play.
When it ends
Nothing you created during the trial is deleted. If you do not continue, Lens goes back to the free tier and anything past the free limits is locked rather than removed, with the oldest kept active. Subscribe later and it all comes back exactly as it was.
Managing or cancelling the subscription itself happens in your App Store or Google Play settings, the same as any other subscription.
This feature is on iPhone only.
Talking to Siri
You can log a spend and check your numbers without opening Lens. Say any of these and answer the follow-up:
When Siri asks how much, say the number plainly. "Five point five zero" and "four pounds fifty" both land reliably. These phrases also work from Spotlight, the search you pull down on your Home Screen, and your goals turn up there by name.
Widgets, the Lock Screen and Control Centre
Press and hold your Home Screen, tap the plus button and search for Lens. Four widgets show the day at a glance, listed in the gallery as Lens, Overview; Lens, Safe to spend; Lens, Safe today; and Lens, Net worth.
You can also put Quick log on your Lock Screen, so one tap opens the keypad: press and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customise, choose the widget area under the clock and add it from Lens. Lens controls are available in Control Centre too.
If you want the fastest possible logging, build a shortcut with the Lens "Log a spend" action and set it as your Back Tap, then a double tap on the back of the phone logs a spend from anywhere.
On a locked phone, and which devices
With your phone locked, Siri will confirm that a spend was logged without reading your balance out loud. If you want to hear what you have left even while locked, turn on "Show balances on the Lock Screen" in Settings, under Screen lock. Net worth always needs the phone unlocked.
All of this is iPhone only, since it is built on Apple's own Shortcuts and widget system, and all of it works on the free tier. There is a fuller walkthrough with the exact steps in Settings, under Widgets & Shortcuts.
How to add a bank account
Go to Accounts (from the More menu) and tap the + button. Enter a name (e.g. "NatWest Current"), the current balance, and pick an account type.
The starting balance should be what your real account shows right now. Lens tracks changes from this point forward.
Tips
Use clear names so you can tell accounts apart at a glance. If you have multiple accounts at the same bank, include the type (e.g. "Monzo Current", "Monzo Savings").
You can always edit the name or balance later.
How to edit
Tap an account to open it, then use the menu to edit its name, balance, or type.
If you change the starting balance, Lens recalculates everything from that new starting point.
Deleting an account
You can delete an account from the edit screen. This removes the account and unlinks any transactions tied to it. The transactions themselves are not deleted.
Available types
Current account, savings, cash, and pot are the four types Lens counts as spendable when it works out your runway.
Which type should I pick?
Pick the type that matches your real account. This affects how Lens groups things in your net worth breakdown. Current and savings accounts count as liquid assets. Credit cards, loans, and mortgages count as liabilities.
How it works
Lens supports multiple currencies. When you add an account, you can set its currency. Transactions in that account use the account's currency.
Your primary currency (set during onboarding) is used for totals and the Today screen.
Tips
Keep most accounts in your primary currency for the clearest picture. If you have foreign currency accounts, the balance displays in that currency on the account card.
Your primary currency lives in Settings. Tap your initials at the top of Today, then Currency.
Cash and holdings, side by side
Investment, ISA and pension accounts hold two things: cash and holdings. Cash is money sitting in the account waiting to be invested, and holdings are the funds or shares you own. Lens shows both together, so uninvested cash never disappears from your net worth.
Adding money and withdrawing
Use Add money and Withdraw on the account screen. Both are recorded as transfers between your accounts, so you can always trace where the money went. Withdrawals are capped at the cash in the account, and a transfer can never take an account below zero.
Pensions have no Withdraw, since that money stays locked until pension age, but cash can still sit in the pot, just like a real SIPP.
Buying and selling holdings
When you add a holding, turn on Paid from this account's cash to record the purchase, so the cost moves out of cash. Leave it off for shares you already owned.
To sell, open the holding and tap Sell in the top corner. Choose the units and price, and the money lands back in the account's cash, ready to withdraw. Selling everything removes the holding.
ISA and NISA allowances
When a contribution into an ISA or NISA would go past this year's allowance, Lens shows a gentle amber note. It never blocks the payment, since over-paying is allowed, but it carries a tax consequence worth knowing about.
Buying and selling inside the wrapper neither uses nor restores your allowance.
This feature is on iPhone only.
It goes through Apple Wallet
Lens does not connect to your bank. It reads what Apple already holds on your iPhone, which needs iOS 17.4 or later.
That means the bank has to be set up in the Apple Wallet app first, and only you can do that. Open Wallet, tap the + button, choose Add Card, then Connected Cards, and pick your bank. Once that is done, come back to Lens, open Settings, tap Bank Sync, then Connect Wallet. iOS will ask you to approve access, and nothing arrives until you say yes.
If your bank is not offered as a Connected Card, there is nothing Lens can add. That list is Apple's, not ours.
What comes in, and when
The first sync brings in about 12 months of history. After that Lens checks quietly when you open the app, at most once every few hours, and re-reads the last week or so, so a payment that was still pending last time gets picked up once it settles.
You can tap Sync now whenever you want it done immediately.
Only the accounts you connected in Wallet arrive this way. Everything else in Lens carries on exactly as before, added by hand or imported from a CSV, and the two sit alongside each other quite happily.
Choosing where each account lands
When you connect, Lens shows each account it found and asks what to do with it. Point it at an account you already keep in Lens, or let it start a new one. Worth getting right first time, since it decides where a year of history ends up.
After that, every linked account gets its own switch on the Bank Sync screen. Turn one off and Lens leaves that account alone without disconnecting any of the others.
Where your data goes, and two honest limits
Your data goes from your bank to Apple, and from Apple to Lens on your phone. That is the whole path. Nothing is sent to a server, we cannot see any of it, and there is no company sitting in the middle reading your transactions.
Two limits worth saying plainly. This works on iPhone only. And Connected Cards do not currently cover Japan, so if you bank in Japan, expect to keep adding transactions yourself or importing a CSV. Both work well and nothing else in Lens is affected.
What the ≈ symbol means
When you see a small "≈ £24.10" or "≈ ¥3,800" under an amount, that is Lens converting a foreign-currency figure into your base currency so you can compare it with everything else.
The ≈ is there on purpose. It is a converted estimate at a mid-market rate, not the rate your bank actually gave you. Your bank's own rate, plus any fee it charged, will be a little different. Use it to understand roughly what something cost you, not to reconcile to the penny.
Keeping rates current
Lens ships with a set of rates so it works offline from the first launch, and refreshes them when you ask it to. Until you refresh, converted figures are marked as indicative.
If you have been offline a while you may see the date the rates came from, or a note that a rate is unavailable for a particular currency. In that case a total that needs converting will tell you it is waiting rather than quietly showing you a wrong number. Refresh once you are back online and it fills in.
Setting your own rate
If you know the rate you actually got, you can pin it. When you add a transaction on an account held in another currency, a small row under the amount shows the rate being used. Tap it and you can type your own.
That rate is then used for this entry instead of the estimate, which is the honest way to record a holiday where your bank gave you a rate you can see on your statement. Clear the field to go back to the automatic one.
How to add
Tap the + button in the bottom bar and choose the transaction type. Fill in the amount, pick a category, and optionally add a note.
The date defaults to today but you can change it.
Transaction types
Transfers do not count as income or expense. They just move money around.
How to edit or delete
Tap any transaction in the Activity list to open it. You can change the amount, category, date, note, or account.
To delete, use the delete option in the menu. This updates your account balance and all related calculations immediately.
What are categories?
Categories help you see where your money goes. Every transaction gets one category (e.g. Food, Transport, Housing, Entertainment).
Lens uses categories to show spending breakdowns and to power budget tracking per category.
Custom categories
Go to Categories (from the More menu) to create, edit, or delete categories. You can set a monthly budget for each category to track how much you are spending in that area.
The default categories cover most common spending and they are free, with a budget on up to 5 of them. Making your own categories is part of Pro.
How to search
On the Activity screen, use the search bar to find transactions by name, amount, or note. You can also filter by category, type (income/expense/transfer), and date range.
Results update as you type.
How to import
Open Settings, then Privacy, then Data & backup, and tap "Import from CSV". Pick your file and Lens adds the transactions straight away.
The first row has to be a header with Date, Type, Category, and Amount columns. Description and Notes are optional. Rows that do not fit are skipped without a warning, so have a look at your transaction list afterwards.
Tips for a clean import
This is Lens's own CSV layout rather than a raw bank statement. The quickest way to see it is to export your transactions first, because the export uses exactly the columns the import expects.
Type has to be income, expense, investment, or transfer. Dates can be DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD. If the file from your bank uses different headings, rename the columns in a spreadsheet before importing.
Exporting is a Pro feature. Importing is free on every tier.
How to scan a receipt
Tap the + button and choose "Scan receipt". Point your camera at the receipt and take a photo.
Lens reads the total amount and merchant name. Review the details and save as a new transaction.
Tips for better scans
Make sure the receipt is flat and well-lit. The total amount should be clearly visible. If the scan misses something, you can always edit the transaction afterwards.
Basic scanning runs on your device and is free. AI-assisted parsing for tricky receipts is a Pro feature and needs no API key.
A transfer is not spending
When money moves from one of your accounts to another, that is a transfer, and it is neither income nor an expense. Nothing left your hands.
So a transfer never reduces what is left to spend today, never shows up in your category totals, and never makes a week look worse than it was. Moving £500 to savings or ¥50,000 into an investment account is you organising your own money, and Lens treats it that way.
Money you set aside is saving
Putting money into a goal, a pot, or an investment account counts as saving, not spending. It moves out of what you have to spend day to day, and it stays yours.
It is the same reason a bill does not read as overspending: money that was always going somewhere specific is handled separately from your everyday budget, so the one number you look at each day stays honest.
Why a transfer sometimes gets blocked
A transfer can only move money an account actually holds, so Lens will stop one that would push an account below zero and tell you which account it was. Credit cards and loans are the exception, since their balance is what you owe rather than what you have.
Investment, ISA and pension accounts are stricter still: their cash can never go below zero, whichever way you try it, so a withdrawal is capped at the cash sitting in the account.
Expenses are not blocked this way. An expense records something that already happened, and a current account going negative is exactly how an overdraft looks.
How to add
Open More, then Recurring, and tap the + button. Enter the name, amount, and how often it repeats (weekly, monthly, yearly, etc.).
Set the start date to when the first payment happens.
Fixed cost and essential toggles
Fixed cost: Turn this on for bills that are the same amount every time (rent, subscriptions). These show as "Fixed" on the Today screen.
Essential: Mark items you cannot skip (rent, utilities). This helps Lens understand your spending flexibility.
Recurring items with "Fixed cost" on are included in the fixed vs discretionary (everyday) split on your Today screen.
How to edit
Tap any recurring item to edit its amount, frequency, name, or toggles. You can also pause or delete it.
Pausing a recurring item stops it from being included in calculations without deleting it. Useful for seasonal subscriptions or items you might restart.
When to use which
Use recurring for anything that repeats on a schedule: rent, salary, subscriptions, regular savings transfers.
Use one-time transactions for everything else: a shop, a meal out, a one-off purchase.
Recurring items feed into your Today screen calculations (fixed costs, budget splits). One-time transactions count as actual spending.
Income, Budget, Saved and Everyday
Your monthly plan splits your income four ways.
Income is what comes in. It is taken from your recurring income, like your salary, so add your pay as a recurring item and the plan always reflects real money.
Budget is your bills: the recurring costs you have marked as fixed, like rent, mortgage and subscriptions. It is locked because your bills decide it.
Saved is money heading to your goals, plus any extra cushion you choose to set aside.
Everyday is what is left for day to day spending. Budget, Saved and Everyday always add up to your income.
Moving money with the slider
Open More, then Monthly plan. Budget sits on the left of the bar and stays locked, because your bills set it. Drag the handle to move money between Saved (green) and Everyday (blue): drag towards everyday to spend more, towards saved to save more.
You can also tap the Saved amount and type an exact figure. When it looks right, tap Save plan.
Left to spend today and the weekly bars
Your Everyday amount becomes a daily allowance, shown on Today as "Left to spend today". Your bills are set aside first, so this is genuinely yours to spend.
The This week chart shows each day against that allowance. The bar fills up to the dashed budget line as you spend (blue for today, dark blue for past days) and turns red above the line if you go over the day's allowance. A small grey cap means a bill landed that day. Bills do not count against your everyday spending, so a bill day never reads as overspending.
Goal money is saving, not spending
Moving money into a goal is saving, not spending. It never shows on the weekly spending bars and never lowers what is left to spend today. Your bills work the same way: they are handled separately, so paying rent never looks like you blew your everyday budget.
How your budget works
Your plan starts from your income and your bills. Add your income as a recurring item and mark your bills as fixed costs. Lens then works out what is left for everyday spending.
It uses that everyday amount to set your daily number, track your pace, and show whether you are ahead or behind.
Changing your budget
Open More, then Monthly plan, to change how your income splits between saving and everyday spending at any time. The change takes effect immediately and every Today number recalculates.
What is the split?
Fixed (your Budget) is the total of all recurring items marked as a fixed cost, converted to a monthly amount. This is money already committed to bills.
Everyday (discretionary) is what is left after your bills and your savings. This is the money you actually have flexibility over.
How Lens calculates it
Fixed = sum of recurring items with "Fixed cost" turned on (converted to monthly if weekly or yearly).
Everyday = income - bills - savings.
Example: income 2,000. Rent (800) + subscriptions (100) = 900 of bills. Set aside 500 to savings, and 600 is left for everyday.
Are budgets monthly or weekly?
Budgets are monthly only. You set a target for each spending category for the whole month, and Lens tracks how much you have spent against that monthly amount.
If you want to limit spending in a category, think about your average monthly spend and set a monthly budget from there.
Where can I see my category budgets?
Open More, then Categories. You can set a monthly budget for each category on this screen, and the same screen shows your spend for each category this month and how close you are to your monthly limit.
When do I get alerted about budgets?
On the Today screen, the "Watch this week" card appears when any of your categories reaches 90% or more of its monthly budget. Tapping "All" opens Categories this month, so you can see which ones are close to their limit.
How to create a goal
Open More, then Goals, and tap the + button. Pick a type, then give it a name, a target amount, and optionally a target date. You can enter how much you have already put aside too.
The same step has a slider for the amount you want to put in each month. As you move it, Lens works out when you would reach the target at that rate, and if you have set a target date it tells you how much you would need per month to make it.
Goal types
Emergency fund, house, vacation, car, wedding, pension, ISA, investment, crypto, debt payoff, pay off a credit card, or other. The type is mostly a label to help you organise, and it does not change how the goal works.
The one exception is "Pay off a credit card". Add your credit limit and statement closing day to it and you get the cycle timeline and the reported-balance projection on top of the usual goal.
How progress works
Open a goal to see your progress bar, current amount, and how much is left. If you set a target date, Lens shows whether you are on track.
The goal detail screen also shows your contribution history.
Adding money to a goal
A contribution is simply a transaction tagged with the goal. Tap the + button, choose Expense, then set the category to Goals, Investment, or Pension. A Goal row appears, and picking your goal there links the money to it.
For something regular, add a recurring item with one of those categories and choose the goal on the form. Every time it runs, the contribution is counted.
Money you put toward a goal does not come out of what is left to spend today. Lens treats it as saving rather than spending, so a big contribution never reads as an overspend.
How to edit
Tap a goal to open it, then use the menu to edit, pause, complete, or delete it.
Editing lets you change the name, target amount, target date, current amount, and the monthly amount you are putting in. Completing a goal moves it to your completed list.
Pausing is for when you want to step back from a goal without losing it. A paused goal moves into its own section on the Goals list, stops being marked as ahead or behind, and stops turning up in your insights. Everything you have already saved stays exactly as it is, and the same menu unpauses it.
Start with the goal
Choose "Pay off a credit card" when you create a goal and it works like any other goal: a target, a ring that fills as you pay it down, and an estimate of when you will be clear.
That is the whole feature if you want it to be. Everything below is optional, and only worth adding if you care about what your card looks like on your credit report.
The closing day is not the due day
These two dates get mixed up constantly, and the difference is the whole point of this feature.
Your payment due day is when the money has to reach the card. Your statement closing day is when the bank takes a snapshot of the balance and reports that number. They are usually a couple of weeks apart.
Paying after the closing day still avoids interest, and it still counts as paying on time. It just does not change the number that was already written down.
What adding the details turns on
Add your credit limit and your statement closing day to the goal and Lens can start showing you the timing.
You get a cycle timeline, a projection of what will be reported on the closing day, and a slider to try a paydown: drag to a target balance and Lens tells you what would be reported and how much you would need to pay to land there. After each close it records what was actually reported, so you build up a history.
You will also get a heads-up on Today as the closing day approaches. Bank transfers can take a day or two to land, so the reminder comes early enough to act on.
Where this applies, and what it is not
This one is built around how UK credit reporting works. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion each record one balance per card per month, taken on the closing day, and a smaller recorded balance tends to support a higher score. If you are not building a UK credit file, the goal still works normally, but the reporting projection will not mean much.
Lens shows you the arithmetic and where the numbers come from. It does not tell you what to do with your money. Decisions about paying down a card are yours.
Daily budget ("Left to spend today")
This is what you can still spend today. It starts each morning as your remaining everyday money spread over the days left, and everything you log today comes straight off it.
Overspend and it goes red for the day. The extra comes out of the rest of the month, so tomorrow starts a little lower.
What happens when you overspend a day
The full spend lands on today. Spend £346 against a £262 day and the hero reads -£84 in red until midnight, with a line underneath saying where the extra goes.
Overnight, whatever is left in your everyday pot is re-spread over the remaining days, so each day ahead starts a little lower instead of today's damage being hidden.
One expensive day never wrecks the month. It is just shown where it happened.
Ahead or behind
This compares where you should be vs where you actually are.
Positive means you have spent less than the even pace. Negative means you have spent more.
Example: Budget 1,500 on day 20 of a 31-day month. Expected spend = 1,500 x 20 / 31 = 967.74. Actual spend = 50. You are 917.74 ahead.
Fixed and discretionary (everyday)
Example: income 2,000. Rent (800/month, fixed) plus 500 to savings leaves 700 for everyday.
This month's stats
If you have not added any income transactions, income shows as 0 and saved will be negative (equal to your expenses).
Financial runway
How long your savings would last if income stopped.
Example: 2,950 in savings, 1,500/month burn rate = 1 month and 29 days runway.
The runway updates as you add transactions and your spending patterns become clearer.
What is left to spend today?
Each morning Lens takes your remaining everyday money for the month and splits it over the days left. Today's share is fixed for the day.
Everything you spend today comes straight off it, one for one. Go past it and the number turns red for the rest of the day. Tomorrow starts fresh with whatever is left, spread over the days remaining.
What does EST mean?
EST means estimate. When you first set up Lens, the daily number is an estimate because we do not yet know your true spending patterns.
As you add transactions over time, Lens learns how much you actually spend each month. Once we have enough data, the estimate badge disappears and your runway becomes confirmed.
What is the pace dot?
The dot in the hero's footer is about the month, not today.
Green = the month is at or under an even spending pace. Amber = you are spending faster than an even pace. It sits next to the month pill, which says the same thing in words.
What happens when the monthly pot runs out?
If your everyday money for the month runs out entirely, the hero goes red and the status line says how far past the pot you are.
Your bills and savings are untouched, this is only the flexible part of your plan, and next month starts fresh.
What triggers the "Watch this week" card?
This card appears on your Today screen when any spending category reaches 90% or more of its monthly budget.
It reminds you to check that category and decide if you want to slow down spending there or adjust your monthly budget.
Is this weekly or monthly?
It is monthly. The card tracks your spending against your monthly budget targets, not a rolling weekly calculation.
Each month resets, and the card reappears if any category hits 90% again.
What is net worth?
Net worth = total assets - total liabilities.
Lens calculates this from all your accounts.
How to see it
Open Reports from the More menu. This month shows a single Accounts line with what you hold in total and which way it moved, and that line is free. Tap it for the per-account list.
For the full split into cash, invested, other and debts, switch to Last month, and for the trend over time switch to Year to date. Those two periods are part of Pro.
What the report shows
The monthly report summarises what came in, what went out, and what you kept for a given month. It breaks spending down by category so you can see where the money went.
Use the period control at the top of Reports to move between This month, Last month and Year to date. Everything updates as you add transactions.
At the start of a new month, Reports offers the month just gone as a short story: six cards covering the verdict, the biggest shift, where it went, goals, net worth and what you kept. It is built on your device and nothing leaves it. After the first week the banner folds away, and you can still open it from Last month.
What is Reports?
Reports answers one question about a period: how did it go, and what is worth acting on?
Three periods sit across the top: This month, Last month, and Year to date. Each has a different job.
This month is the live view, and it is free. The hero carries the verdict, what came in, what went out, what you kept, and a pace chart of your everyday spending against your plan. Under it sit your bills, one spending card, and a line each for goals and accounts. Tap any of them to open the full screen behind it.
Last month and Year to date are finished stories, so they carry the depth: the full income breakdown, your net worth split, what each goal took, trend charts, the month ledger and export. Those two are Pro. Without Pro you still see your own verdict for the period, blurred, and a list of what Pro adds.
The verdict
At the top of Reports, Lens composes a sentence about your period based on whether you kept money or overspent, and whether your runway and goals improved.
The kept figure is the same number the Kept column shows underneath: everything that came in, minus your bills and your everyday spending. It is not the same as the Saved row in the year ledger, which counts only money you put aside.
On the finished periods a bar sits under those figures, split the same three ways Lens splits your money everywhere: Bills, Everyday and Kept.
This is also why the verdict and the pace line under it can point different ways. The verdict is about the whole month's money. The pace line is only about your everyday money. You can be putting money aside and still be running hot on everyday, and both sentences are true at once.
Period comparisons
Year to date compares this month against last month, and this quarter against last quarter, so you can see whether you are trending up or down.
Comparison rows only appear if there is data to compare against. In your first month there are no prior months, so they stay hidden. The comparisons live on Year to date only, because a single month in flight has nothing settled to compare.
Charts and progress
This month's hero carries a pace chart. The solid line, marked "Spent so far", is what you have spent from your everyday money. The dashed line, marked "Planned pace", is your everyday plan spread evenly across the month. Drag across it to read any day, and let go to snap back to today.
Above the chart, one line tells you the day, what you had spent by then, and whether that left you under pace, on pace, or over pace. Both lines come from the same figures as the verdict above them, so they cannot disagree.
Year to date carries the longer views: a monthly spend trend with 1M, 3M, 6M, 1Y and All chips, and a net worth trend line. Each needs at least two points of history before it draws anything.
The category donut in the spending card is interactive. Tap a slice to highlight it and read the category, the amount, and its share in the middle. Tap it again, or the empty centre, to clear it. The legend lists your top five categories and folds the rest into one "everything else" row, so the total still adds up.
Smart insights in Reports
Each month Lens looks across your spending, goals, and runway to surface a handful of personalised observations. Things like which category has grown fastest, how many no-spend days you have had, whether your savings rate has improved, how your subscriptions add up, or how much of this tax year's ISA or NISA allowance you have left.
A green dot is a win. Blue is something worth noting. Red is something worth a closer look.
What are insights?
Insights are automatic observations about your finances. Lens analyses your spending, subscriptions, goals, and budget to surface things you might miss.
They appear on the Today screen and in the dedicated Insights tab.
Types of insights
Free vs Pro
Free gives you one insight a day: the Insight of the Day card on Today. The Insights tab shows that same one, alongside a card explaining what Pro adds. Swiping an insight away works on every tier.
Pro opens the full feed, so every insight Lens has worked out for you is listed and you can read through them and clear them as you go.
What is the Insights tab?
The Insights tab is a dedicated space to see your financial story across multiple dimensions. It includes your runway progression over time, a breakdown of your monthly spending, and smart observations about your finances.
Runway breakdown
Tap the runway card to expand it and see the numbers behind your runway: your income, monthly budget, what you have spent so far, what is left, and how much cash you have to draw on.
Lens remembers whether you had it open, so next time you come back it will be just as you left it. Some rows have a small info icon you can tap for a plain-English explanation.
Spending sparkline
The sparkline shows your daily spending pattern for the current month. It helps you spot unusual days or trends in your spending behaviour.
Insights feed
Below the breakdown is a feed of Smart Insights rules that have fired based on your data. You can mark insights as read or dismiss them. The bottom nav shows a dot when you have unread insights.
What is runway?
Runway tells you how many months your cash would last if your income stopped tomorrow. It is a quick read on your financial safety net.
The more you use Lens, the more accurate this number becomes.
Why is my runway card an amber colour?
An amber border means the runway is still an estimate based on the spending figure you told Lens during onboarding.
Once you have logged enough transactions for Lens to see your real spending pattern, the border turns blue and the number reflects your actual habits, not an estimate.
What it tells you
The briefing is a short read on how the week actually went, written in plain sentences rather than left for you to work out from charts.
It covers whether you came in under or over for the week and how that compares to the week before, how many days you stayed on track, what you spent most on, the category that moved the most, what you kept as a share of what came in, bills landing in the next 30 days, and how much of your net worth is invested.
Once a month it changes to a longer "Month in review" version.
Where to find it
It sits near the top of your Today screen. If you would rather not see this week's, you can dismiss it and it will be back with next week's.
The briefing is part of Pro. On the free tier the card shows what it is, and the content unlocks when you upgrade.
It does not use your AI allowance
The briefing is written once per period and then kept, so opening it again costs nothing and it does not touch the allowance that Ask AI and AI receipt scanning share.
That is also why the wording stays the same when you reopen it. Change the assistant's personality in Settings and it will write that period once more in the new voice.
What is Ask AI?
Ask AI lets you ask questions about your finances in plain language. It sees a summary of your accounts, spending, goals, and budget, then answers based on your actual data.
Examples: "Am I on track for my emergency fund?" or "Where am I overspending?"
Using Ask AI
Ask AI is a Pro feature. There is no API key to set up. Once you have Pro, open Ask AI from the Insights tab and start asking about your spending, budget, or goals.
Your question and a snapshot of your numbers go through Lens's secure service to Google's Gemini to answer, and are never stored. Ask AI and receipt scanning share a fair-use allowance of 20 a day and 100 a month.
Daily and monthly limits
Ask AI and AI receipt scanning share one allowance on Pro: up to 20 actions a day and 100 a month. The daily count resets at midnight (UTC) and the monthly count on the 1st. Your Weekly briefing is separate and does not use this allowance.
Setting up a lock
Open Settings from the avatar at the top of Today, then tap Screen lock. You can set a 6-digit PIN, and turn on biometric unlock (Face ID on iPhone, fingerprint or face unlock on Android) with the toggle above it.
With either one on, Lens locks itself whenever you leave the app and asks you to unlock when you come back.
Changing or removing
Open Settings, then Screen lock, and tap PIN code. From there you can choose a new PIN or remove the one you have. Either way you enter your current PIN first.
Removing the PIN turns biometric unlock off automatically, since there is nothing left to fall back on.
Where is my data?
All your financial data is stored locally on your device using an on-device database. Lens has no cloud database of your finances and no user accounts.
The only time data leaves your phone is when you choose to use the optional Pro AI features (Ask AI and receipt scanning). See "No cloud, no tracking" below for the detail.
No cloud, no tracking
Lens is designed to be privacy-first. There is no cloud sync for your financial data. No one at Lens can see your accounts, transactions, or balances.
Data leaves your device only for features you choose. Ask AI and receipt scanning go through Lens's secure Cloud Function to Google's paid Gemini API, which Google states does not use prompts to train its models. Live investment prices send only ticker symbols, never your amounts or identity, through the same kind of Lens-operated function. Lens never stores what you send.
Where is my data stored?
All your personal financial data, your transactions, accounts, balances, goals, budgets, everything, is stored in a local database on your phone. Lens has no cloud database of it and cannot see it.
The one exception is the optional Pro AI features: if you use Ask AI or receipt scanning, what you send goes through Lens's secure service to Google's Gemini to answer, and is never stored.
What about Firebase and RevenueCat?
Lens uses two services for technical reasons:
Firebase: Only to deliver push notifications to your phone. We never send it your financial data.
RevenueCat: Only for managing subscriptions. It sees your subscription status but not your financial information.
How to back up
Open Settings, then Privacy, then Data & backup. Tap "Create backup" to save a copy of all your data as a file.
Store the backup somewhere safe: your phone's files app, a cloud drive, or emailed to yourself. This is your safety net if you switch devices or need to reset.
How to restore
On the Data & backup screen, find "Restore from backup" and tap "Choose backup file". Lens will load all your data from the backup.
Restoring replaces your current data, so make sure you want to overwrite what is currently in the app.
Why balances might differ
The most common reason is a missing transaction. If you spent money but did not log it in Lens, the balance will be off.
Other causes: wrong starting balance, duplicate transactions, or a pending bank transaction that has not cleared yet.
How to fix it
This feature is on iPhone only.
The same payment twice
A payment often reaches your bank twice: once while it is still pending, then again when it settles. The settled version can arrive with a different reference and a tidier shop name, so it can look like a separate charge.
Lens works out that the two are the same payment and keeps one. If you are looking at a duplicate from before this was fixed, you can leave it alone. It clears itself on the next sync.
A charge that never really happened
Some card payments are only ever a hold. A petrol pump reserves an amount before you fill up, a hotel holds a deposit, a Transport for London touch-in sits there until the day's travel is added up. Sometimes the bank drops the hold and never turns it into a real payment.
Lens clears those, so you are not left with money missing that you never actually spent. It only does this when it can see your bank is reporting properly, so a patchy connection is never mistaken for a pile of cancelled payments.
The balance does not match my bank
On a synced account, your bank owns the balance. Every sync takes the bank's own figure and lines Lens up with it, so if the number ever drifts it puts itself right the next time you sync.
Because of that, do not edit the starting balance on a synced account. That is the right fix for an account you keep by hand, but here it will just be overwritten. If the balance still looks wrong after a sync, that one is worth telling us about.
What you can and cannot change
Transactions that came from your bank cannot be deleted, because the next sync would bring them straight back. The amount, the date and the bank's own description stay as the bank reported them.
Everything that is yours stays yours. Change the category, add a note, link it to a goal. All of that works exactly as it does on a transaction you added yourself.
Nothing has been deleted
If your Pro subscription ends, nothing you created is removed. Anything over the free limit is locked instead, which means set aside rather than deleted. While it is locked it stops counting towards your totals and your budget, and it sits there untouched.
So a padlock is never bad news about your data. All of it is still there, exactly as you left it.
Which ones lock, and why those
The rule is simple and it is not random: the oldest stays unlocked.
Lens sorts by the date you created each one and keeps the earliest ones active, up to the free limit. Three things are counted this way: your first 3 goals, your first 3 accounts, and your first 3 custom categories carry on as normal. The ones you added most recently are the ones that lock. Your longest-running goal is never the one taken away from you.
Your recurring bills are not touched at all. However many you have set up, every one of them keeps working, keeps landing on your Today screen, and keeps counting towards your budget. Going back to Free returns you to the free tier, it does not put you below it, and a budget that quietly forgot half your bills would be worse than no budget.
Getting everything back
Subscribe again and it all unlocks straight away, exactly as you left it. There is nothing to restore by hand and nothing to rebuild.
If you are already on Pro you should not be seeing a padlock at all. If one turns up anyway, it is a leftover marker rather than anything real, and it clears itself next time you open the app. Restoring purchases from Settings sorts it too.
Email hello@edniroya.com and tell us what you were doing, what you expected, and what actually happened. We read every message.