Getting started
Caudal needs no setup before you can use it — but four things are worth doing on day one, or the numbers will be incomplete.
1. Add your accounts
An account is wherever money actually sits: cash, a card, a savings pot, crypto. Every expense leaves some account, so without accounts there is nothing to record against. More → Accounts.
If you hold several currencies, create an account for each. The app converts everything into your main currency and shows one total.
2. Check the categories
Signing up creates a dozen typical categories. Delete the ones you do not use and add your own — categories are the tiles on the home screen, and they are what you will tap every day.
3. Record your first expense
Tap a category on the home screen, type the amount, save. That is all. The first entry matters more than perfect setup: until there are transactions, no report can show anything.
4. Add your income
The Income section. Without it the app cannot say what you have left or how long it lasts.
After that
After that, simply record what you spend on the day you spend it. Two or three weeks in, the charts and the forecast start telling the truth about your budget. That habit is the only thing this app asks of you.