記消費日還是付款日？信用卡帳單算哪一類？一張發票二十個品項怎麼辦？這些問題我們被問了很多年，一次講清楚。
Do you log the day you bought it or the day you paid? Where does a credit-card bill go? What about a receipt with twenty different items? Here are the answers, in one place.
先說一個故事。一位朋友接到母親的電話，說家裡的冰箱壞了。她準備出門選購，母親交代：買一台跟之前差不多大的就好，上一台是 12,300 元，記得錢帶夠。
她愣住了，那台冰箱買了很久很久，母親怎麼還記得價錢？母親把記帳本拿出來給她看，上面工整地寫著：民國 95 年 1 月 25 日，買冰箱，12,300 元。接著又搬出過去二十年、十幾本的帳本。「記帳我才會知道每天花了多少錢。」
這就是記帳真正的價值：不在記下去的那一刻，而在很久以後你還查得到。今天不必手抄二十年。在 App 裡用「搜尋記帳」輸入關鍵字（備註、店家）就能翻出那一筆，日期區間還可以選「全部」，從你的第一筆一路查到今天。
反過來說，這也決定了該怎麼記：多寫一點內容比只記金額有用。「冷氣機 28,000」十年後找得到，「電器 28,000」就不一定了。
常見的付款方式大致三種，記帳日期的原則是統一的：錢換成東西的那一天。
| 付款方式 | 常見例子 | 記在哪一天 |
|---|---|---|
| 先享受後付費 | 信用卡 | 刷卡消費那天，不是月底繳款那天 |
| 先付費後享受 | 悠遊卡、iCash 等儲值卡 | 真正拿卡去買東西那天，不是儲值那天 |
| 邊享受邊付費 | 現金、金融卡 | 當天，兩個日期本來就一樣 |
儲值卡最常被問：為什麼不在儲值當天直接記一筆「儲值 500 元」就好？當然可以，只是這麼記，你只知道有 500 元離開了口袋，不知道它變成了十杯咖啡還是二十趟公車。等到真正消費那天才記，錢才會落到正確的分類裡。
建議是：帳單本身不要記。
假設這期帳單 2,000 元，背後其實是「牛排大餐 1,500 元」和「看電影 500 元」兩筆。分開記，1,500 進「食」、500 進「樂」，報表才看得出錢花在哪裡。如果連帳單那筆 2,000 元也記一次，同一筆錢會被算兩次，這個月的支出就憑空多了一倍。
想知道哪些消費是刷卡付的？用標籤，往下看。
這是我們最常被問、也最常被抱怨的一件事：為什麼不能設現金帳戶、信用卡帳戶，然後在帳戶之間轉帳？
算一下就知道了。一個人平均有 6 到 8 個「帳戶」：現金、兩張信用卡、兩個銀行帳戶、悠遊卡、一卡通，還沒算外幣和其他卡片。做成帳戶架構，代表你每一筆帳都要多點一次「這筆錢從哪裡出去」，還得處理帳戶之間的轉帳。但我們自己做過的調查裡，超過七成的人記帳只想知道一件事：錢到底花到哪裡去了。
為了少數人想要的精準對帳，讓所有人每天多按好幾下，多數人會因此放棄記帳。所以哈啦Money 從第一天就選了最單純的流水帳：只記「什麼時候、花了多少、買了什麼」。想標記付款方式的人，用標籤一樣做得到。
分類回答「這是哪一類消費」，標籤回答其他所有問題，而且一筆帳可以同時貼好幾個。常見用法：
標籤可以在「設定 → 標籤管理」新增與整理，記帳時直接挑現有的標籤就好。之後在搜尋裡用標籤篩選，就能把同一個標籤的帳全部拉出來；報表裡的「標籤分析」也可以直接搜尋標籤看統計。標籤還能當預算的基礎，例如給「沖繩旅行」設一個預算，而不是給整個「食」設預算。
到量販店一次買了香蕉、咖啡、一本書、一把雨傘，結帳只有一張電子發票。記成一筆「賣場 1,280 元」最省事，但那四樣東西本質上分屬「食」「育」「住」，混成一筆，報表就看不出真相了。
也不需要自己一項一項敲進去。用 App 掃描發票上的 QR Code，一張發票會被拆成多筆品項，各自對應到自己的分類。詳細做法（包含品項掃不齊、想改分類）請看電子發票指南。
沒有人能每一筆都當天記完。補帳的做法很單純：先把那筆記下來（語音、掃描或手動都可以），再點進那筆記錄把日期改成正確的日期就好。常常重複的消費，也可以直接把舊的那筆「複製」一份再改日期。
不過我們設計這個 App 的出發點，一直是希望你能當天記完。補帳能救急，但補久了就會漏。
老實說，這個功能我們一開始很排斥。如果連記帳都需要別人提醒，那不是很難養成習慣嗎？
直到一位使用者告訴我們，那是她人生第一次學記帳。在習慣還沒養成之前，她需要有人（或機器）在旁邊持續鼓勵她、提醒她。我們才想通：我們的責任不只是做一個 App 給已經有記帳習慣的人用，而是幫還沒有習慣的人養成習慣。
所以有了「每日記帳提醒」。在設定裡打開，選一個你通常有空的時間（很多人選睡前），讓它提醒你三十天。三十天之後，你多半就不需要它了。
想讓記帳更快，看語音記帳指南；想搞懂電子發票與手機條碼，看電子發票指南；想看懂首頁那幾個「餘額」，看看懂四種餘額。其他問題歡迎到常見問題，或到我們的 Facebook 粉絲專頁私訊小編。
A story first. A friend got a call from her mother: the fridge had died. As she headed out to buy a new one, her mother said, just get one about the same size as the old one, that one was 12,300 dollars, bring enough money.
She stopped. That fridge was ancient. How could her mother remember the price? Her mother fetched her notebook and showed her the line, neatly written: 25 January 2006, refrigerator, 12,300. Then she brought out twenty years of them, more than a dozen notebooks. "Writing it down is how I know what I spend."
That's what a ledger is really for. Not the moment you write the entry, but the day years later when you can still find it. You don't have to hand-copy twenty years any more: search your entries by keyword (memo, store name), and set the date range to "all" to search from your very first entry to today.
That also tells you how to write entries: a little detail beats a bare amount. "Air conditioner 28,000" is findable in ten years. "Appliance 28,000" may not be.
There are roughly three ways people pay, and the rule is the same for all of them: the day the money turned into something.
| How you pay | Typical example | Which date to log |
|---|---|---|
| Enjoy now, pay later | Credit card | The day you tapped the card, not the day the bill is due |
| Pay first, enjoy later | Stored-value cards (EasyCard, iCash) | The day you actually bought something, not the day you topped up |
| Pay as you go | Cash, debit card | The same day either way |
Stored-value cards raise the obvious question: why not just log "top-up 500" on the day you top up? You can, but then all you know is that 500 left your pocket. You won't know whether it became ten coffees or twenty bus rides. Log it on the day you spend it and the money lands in the right category.
Our advice: don't record the bill at all.
Say the statement is 2,000. Behind it are two real purchases: a 1,500 steak dinner and a 500 movie ticket. Record those two, one under food and one under entertainment, and your reports show where the money actually went. Record the 2,000 statement as well and the same money is counted twice, doubling the month out of thin air.
Want to know which purchases were on the card? Use tags — see below.
This is the question we get most, and the complaint we get most: why can't I set up a cash account and a credit-card account and move money between them?
Do the arithmetic. The average person has six to eight of these: cash, two credit cards, two bank accounts, an EasyCard, an iPass, before we even mention foreign currency or extra cards. Building the app around accounts means one extra tap on every single entry to say where the money came from, plus a whole transfer flow to maintain. But in our own surveys, more than seven in ten people track spending to answer exactly one question: where did my money go?
Making everyone tap more every day, so that a few can reconcile precisely, is how people give up on tracking altogether. So from day one SpendSay has been a plain running ledger: when, how much, what for. If you do want to note the payment method, tags handle it.
The category answers "what kind of spending is this". Tags answer everything else, and one entry can carry several at once. Common uses:
Create and tidy tags under Settings → tag management, then just pick an existing tag as you record. Later you can filter your search by tag to pull up everything carrying it, and the tag analysis report lets you search tags and see the totals. Tags can also be the basis for a budget — set one on "Okinawa trip" rather than on all of "food".
You go to the supermarket and come out with bananas, coffee, a book and an umbrella on a single e-invoice. Logging it as one "supermarket 1,280" is the easy way out, but those four things belong to food, education and household. Merge them and your reports stop telling the truth.
You also don't have to type them in one by one. Scan the QR code on the invoice and the app splits it into separate items, each filed under its own category. For the details (including partial scans and changing a category) see the e-invoice guide.
Nobody records every entry the same day. Catching up is simple: record the entry now (by voice, by scan, or by hand), then open it and change the date. For something you buy regularly, you can also duplicate an older entry and change its date.
That said, the app was designed around recording the same day. Catching up rescues the odd entry; do it for weeks and things start going missing.
Honestly, we resisted building this. If you need someone to remind you to track your spending, isn't the habit doomed anyway?
Then a user told us this was the first time in her life she had tried to keep a ledger, and that until the habit formed she needed something beside her, encouraging and reminding her. That changed our minds. Our job isn't only to build an app for people who already track their spending; it's to help people become those people.
Hence the daily reminder. Turn it on in settings and pick a time you're usually free (many people choose just before bed), and let it nudge you for thirty days. After thirty days you probably won't need it.
To record faster, read the voice entry guide. For Taiwan e-invoices and the carrier barcode, read the e-invoice guide. To decode the balances on your ledger screen, read the four balances. Anything else, see the FAQ or message us on our Facebook page.
