Introduction
What Monthli does
Monthli is a salary-first budgeting app. You enter the money available for a month, add savings and regular bills, then record spending as it happens. Monthli continuously calculates what is left now and what should remain after unpaid bills and savings.
Monthli does not add a sample salary, bills, savings target, or spending to a new account. The welcome checklist and guided tour show you what to complete first.
The five main areas
Getting started
Set up your first month
- 1Sign in.
Use Apple, Google, or an email magic link. A magic link signs you in without a password.
- 2Complete the app tour.
Tap Next to learn what Home, Add, Plan, Log, and Profile do. You can replay the tour from Profile.
- 3Open Plan.
Choose the month, enter your salary, an optional savings target, and any carry-over money.
- 4Add fixed bills.
Add the bill name, expected amount, due day, and group. Save the plan when it looks right.
- 5Record spending.
Use Add whenever you spend. Home and Log update automatically.
Sign-in and backup
Account and automatic cloud sync
Your Monthli account keeps your budget separate from every other user. After sign-in, the app loads only the personal or family budget connected to that account.
Sign-in choices
- Continue with Apple: use your Apple account on supported devices.
- Continue with Google: use your Google account.
- Email magic link: enter your email, open the secure link on the same device, and return to Monthli.
How cloud sync works
- Every saved change is synced securely to Supabase.
- Signing in again restores the latest cloud budget automatically.
- Profile details, including your phone number, are saved with your account.
- Family members connected to the same family budget see the shared changes.
There is no manual local backup or restore process. Cloud sync is designed to happen automatically while you are signed in and connected to the internet.
Home
Understand your dashboard
The Home screen answers two different questions:
- Salary remaining now: salary and carry-over minus spending and bills already marked paid.
- Expected left: the projected amount after remaining bills and the savings target are included.
Summary cards show salary, fixed commitments, spending, savings, and bill progress. “Bills still to pay” highlights upcoming items so you can see what is due without opening the full plan.
Plan
Salary, savings, carry-over, and monthly history
Plan fields
- Salary: the income available for the selected month.
- Money to save: an optional savings goal deducted from the projected amount left.
- Carry-over money: optional money brought forward from outside the current salary.
- Month: the month whose plan you are viewing or editing.
When your salary changes
Change the salary in the month when the new amount begins. Previous months keep their original salary, while the new salary is used for that month and upcoming months. This keeps reports and past balances historically correct.
If your salary was AED 32,000 through May and becomes AED 35,000 in June, update the June plan. January to May remain AED 32,000; June onward uses AED 35,000.
Tap Save plan after changing salary, savings, carry-over, or month-specific information.
Fixed expenditure
Manage recurring monthly bills
Fixed bills are recurring commitments such as rent, utilities, subscriptions, school fees, loan payments, or insurance. Each entry includes a name, amount, due day, and group.
Add a fixed bill
- Open Plan and tap the new-bill button.
- Enter the bill name, amount, due day from 1 to 31, and category group.
- Save the bill, then save the plan.
Update, pay, or remove a bill
- Edit an entry when its expected amount or due day changes.
- Mark it paid when the payment is complete; Home updates the bill progress.
- Use the remove action on the bill entry to delete a fixed expenditure you no longer need.
A bill change takes effect from the selected month forward. Older months retain the amount that applied at the time, so a DEWA bill changing from AED 250 to AED 350 does not rewrite last month.
Bill assistant
Automatic bill detection
Monthli can find a provider, amount, and due date from supported bill sources. It creates a suggestion first; your plan changes only after you review and approve it.
Bill-related SMS scanning
Grant message access after reading the in-app explanation. Monthli checks recent bill-like SMS messages locally and stores the structured suggestion, not the full message.
Read-only Gmail connection
Connect Gmail with read-only access. Monthli searches bill-related emails and cannot send, edit, or delete your email. iPhone does not request access to your SMS inbox.
Reviewing a suggestion
- Open Plan and connect the supported source for your platform.
- Run a scan or allow the automatic check to complete.
- Review the detected provider, amount, and due date.
- Approve the suggestion to add a bill or update it from the applicable month.
- Dismiss anything you do not want to use.
Add
Record everyday spending
Use Add for variable purchases such as groceries, fuel, dining, shopping, transport, or entertainment. Enter the amount, select a category, add an optional note, and choose the date.
- The date defaults to the relevant current date but can be changed.
- Notes help identify a transaction later and may be left blank.
- Saving immediately updates Home, the current balance, and the spending log.
- Open a log entry to review its full details.
Log
Review and download your spending
Log lists the selected month’s spending and total. Use the category filter to focus on one type of spending or return to all categories for the complete list.
Download list
Tap Download list to create a file containing the visible spending list. On a phone, use the system share or save sheet to store it in Files or send it to another app. If a category filter is active, check the downloaded content before sharing it.
Shared budgeting
Share a budget with a family member
A family budget lets two or more signed-in members view and update the same salary, bills, and spending. Changes made by one member sync to the others.
Invite someone
- Open Profile and find Family budget.
- Tap Invite a family member.
- Share the generated eight-character invite code. The code remains valid for seven days.
- The family member signs in to their own Monthli account, enters the code, and taps Join budget.
Every family member in the budget can see and update its salary, fixed bills, and spending. Share invite codes only with people you trust.
Each person keeps their own sign-in and profile. The budget data is shared; personal authentication details are not.
Notifications
Salary, bill, and weekly reminders
Reminder controls are available in Profile:
- Salary day reminder: uses the salary paid day saved in your profile.
- Bill due reminders: alerts you before planned bills are due.
- Weekly money check: prompts you to review spending and the amount left.
The mobile app requests notification permission when required. Reminders cannot appear if notifications are denied or disabled for Monthli in the phone’s system settings. Changing the payday, bill schedule, or reminder switch updates the scheduled notifications.
Profile
Personal details, photo, and security
Profile details
Save your name, email, phone number, country, currency, and salary paid day. Your country and currency control how values are presented. A selected profile photo is fitted into the avatar frame so the whole image is represented without anchoring it to the top-left corner.
Security and access
- Enable device protection to require the phone’s unlock method before opening budgets where supported.
- Review the active device shown in Profile.
- Open the profile icon menu to sign out safely.
Data and support tools
- Download my data: export a copy of your Monthli information.
- Terms: open the current terms of use.
- Contact support: get help from PlushRoad.
- Show app tour: replay the first-time walkthrough.
- Reset this phone: clear Monthli’s local state on the current device; use with care.
Privacy
How Monthli handles your data
- Account and budget records are stored in Supabase and scoped to the correct account or family budget.
- Android SMS access is optional and used only for bill-related detection.
- Gmail access is optional and read-only; Monthli cannot send, edit, or delete email.
- Automatic detection saves structured bill suggestions rather than full message or email content.
- You decide whether to approve a detected bill change.
- You can download your data and request account deletion.
Help
Troubleshooting
The magic link opens Monthli but does not sign me in
Open the newest link on the same phone where you requested it. Return to Monthli after the browser confirms the link. If it expired, request a new link and use only the latest email.
My saved information is missing after signing in
Confirm you used the same sign-in account and allow a moment for Cloud sync to finish. A personal budget and a family budget are separate, so also confirm that you joined the intended family budget.
I can see another person’s budget
Check Profile to see whether you intentionally joined a family budget. Outside a shared family budget, accounts must remain isolated. Sign out and contact support if unrelated information is visible.
Reminders are not appearing
Enable the reminder inside Monthli, then confirm notifications are allowed for Monthli in the phone’s Settings. Check that the salary paid day and bill due days are valid.
Automatic bill detection finds nothing
Confirm the Android message permission or Gmail connection is active. The source must contain a recognisable provider, amount, or due date. You can still add or update the bill manually.
The download button does not appear to work
On mobile, wait for the system share/save sheet. Check browser download permissions on the web. Try again after ensuring the selected month contains spending entries.
Still stuck? Visit Monthli Support or email support@plushroad.com.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does Monthli add a default salary?
No. A new account begins blank so you can build an accurate budget.
Will changing my salary rewrite previous months?
No. The new value applies from the month you change it, while earlier months keep their historical salary.
Can my spouse update our budget?
Yes. After joining the same family budget, both members can view and update the shared salary, bills, and spending.
Does iPhone read my text messages?
No. iPhone does not provide Monthli with SMS inbox access. The iPhone bill assistant uses an optional read-only Gmail connection.
Is backup automatic?
Yes. Signed-in changes sync to Supabase automatically and restore when you sign in again.