Paymaster accounts are objects for which you track the movement of funds: wallet, bank cards, bank deposits, loans, debtors, creditors.
To create a new account, click on the "Add account" line or on the + button.
Accounts with pluses are assets (money that you have on a card, a deposit or in a wallet, a person’s debt to you, ...).
Accounts with minuses are liabilities (bank loans, mortgages, or your debt to someone, ...).
Swipe left on the account line to open edit / delete menu.
Long press on the account line to pick it up for drag to the right place.
Above “Create Account” line there is a divider string. It can be dragged to the right places to structure the accounts.
General principles: Transaction type.
Paymaster has three types of transactions: income, expense and transfers between accounts.
Expense transactions are buying in a store, paying for services, ...
Income transactions are salary, winning the lottery, ...
Transfer transactions are cash withdrawals from a card, transfer of money to an account, obtaining a loan, giving money in debt, ...
To create a transaction, click on the + button or on the account from which this transaction will be.
To delete or edit the transaction swipe from left on the transaction line.
The + button can be removed in the settings.
General principles: Transaction creation
Account from which the transaction is carried out.
Paymaster has three types of transactions: incomes, expenses, and transfers between accounts.
To create an expense transaction choose a category from the Expenses tab.
To create an income transaction choose a category from the Incomes tab.
To create a transfer transaction choose an account from the Transfers tab.
Transaction sum.
Transaction currency. If the transaction currency is different from the currency of the account, then the exchange rate block appears.
Transaction date.
Tag.
Transaction comment.
General principles: Loans and debts
Let's enter in Paymaster transaction of borrowing 1000 rubles from Ekaterina in cash.
1. Create an account Ekaterina with zero balance.
2. Make a transfer transaction from Ekaterina account to a Cash account.
3. As a result, Ekaterina has minus 1000 rubles on the account (the sum with a minus shows that this is a debt), and the sum on the Cash account has become 1,000 rubles more.
4. The total balance (displayed at the top of the main screen) has not changed. Because money is not earned, but borrowed.
To create an account with a negative balance (credit, loan, debt to someone, ...), put a minus before the sum on the account creation screen.
General principles: Categories
You can see expenses and incomes categories in the "Categories" section of the menu.
Tabs allow you to switch between incomes and expenses categories.
To create a category, tap the “Add category” line at the bottom of the list or at the + button.
Swipe left on the account line to open edit / delete / subcategory menu.
Long tap allows you to drag category lines.
If you drop a category line between subcategories, it will become a subcategory.
If you drop a category line above category line, it will become a category.
Try it - everything is simple and logical.
General principles: Scheduled transactions
If you need to schedule transactions in the future (loan payments, receipt of funds, regular purchases, etc.), create templates for scheduled transactions (section Scheduled transactions in the menu).
One-time ones are needed for a one-time transaction (debt repayment, gift purchase, etc.).
Repetitive ones are needed for repetitive transactions (loan repayment, rent payment, etc.).
The repetition period of a repetitive transaction is selected in an additional block of the keyboard.
Initially, you create templates for scheduled transactions.
Upon reaching the specified time, a transaction project is created from the template.
Tap on the check mark on the right in the transaction project line accepts it. Tap to the center of the line opens it for editing.
Templates of scheduled transactions, transaction projects and transactions can be edited and deleted - left swipe on the corresponding line.
General principles: Budgets
Budgets help plan spending and control the execution of this plan.
For example, you are having lunch at a cafe and can afford to spend on this item of expenditure of 100 USD per week.
Create a budget in which select Restaurant as the category, specify the amount of 100 USD and the period - a week.
Now every time you create an expense transaction for a restaurant, you will see that the budget line is colored green.
When the budget is exceeded, its line will turn purple and transactions that exceed the budget will also be colored purple.
It is also possible to create budgets tied to tags. For example, it is convenient to plan a vacation in such a way! Create the appropriate tag and budget for it.
When creating eachtransaction related to the vacation (buying tickets, booking hotels,...), put the appropriate tag on it.
Being on vacation, select the appropriate tag when creating a transaction and lock it. Further on all created transactions will be with appropriate tag. This saves time.
If you have scheduled transactions (periodic or one-time), you will see them in the budget lines as a pale bar that continues the green bar.
If this pale bar turns violet, then the budget will be overspent during the execution of the planned transactions.
General principles: Joint accounting
Paymaster allows you to run joint accounting for family or business.
Create a pair with the counterparty.
Enter the name of the counterparty, select an icon for it and indicate those accounts for which you want to open information on the counterparty. Click the check mark.
Recognize with the camera one smartphone a QR code on another smartphone. Wait 15 seconds until the pair created appears on both devices.
Now you will see the accounts of the counterparty (those that he allowed you to watch) and the transactions made on these accounts.
The accounts and transactions of each of the counterparties are colored by the color you chose for its icon.
You can make transactions from the accounts of the counterparty and make transfers from your accounts to the accounts of the counterparty. Your counterparty should approve such transactions.
If you delete a pair on your device, then the information about the accounts and transactions of the counterparty will be deleted from your device and about your accounts and transactions from your counterparty device.
If you want to keep a joint accounting with three or more counterparties, then create a pair with each of them.
General principles: SMS and push notifications recognition (Android)
Paymaster can recognize SMS and push notifications of banks.
Recognition is performed by the neural network on the servers, respectively, the smartphone should have access to the Internet enabled. We would like the recognition to be carried out on your smartphones, but so far it is not technically possible.
If Paymaster knows your bank number, it will immediately begin to recognize incoming SMS from the bank.
If the SMS came from the bank, but Paymaster did not recognize it, then you need to tell him the number. Copy this SMS and tap the SMS button on the Paymaster main screen. Then select the account and category. Save the transaction and Paymaster will remember the bank number.
Paymaster creates transaction projects (gray lines with checkmarks on the right) from the recognized SMS and push notifications.
If data in the transaction project is correct, then click the check mark on the right and the transaction project will turn into a transaction.
If some fields are not recognized or data is incorrect, then click in the center of the transaction project line and the transaction editing window will open. Correct what you need and save.
At first, there will be incorrect recognitions but over time 99% of SMS and push notifications will be recognized perfectly.
If Paymaster repeatedly recognizes SMS or push notifications incorrectly, send them as text or screenshot via the “Contact us” section of the menu. We will retrain the neural network and everything will be fine.
General principles: SMS recognition (iOS)
Paymaster can recognize SMS and push notifications of banks.
Recognition is performed by the neural network on the servers, respectively, the smartphone should have access to the Internet enabled. We would like the recognition to be carried out on your smartphones, but so far it is not technically possible.
To recognize SMS, copy it and tap on the SMS button on the App main screen.
Due to the iOS limitations, automatic recognition of SMS and push notifications on the iPhone is technically impossible.
Paymaster creates transaction projects (gray lines with checkmarks on the right) from the recognized SMS and push notifications.
If data in the transaction project is correct, then click the check mark on the right and the transaction project will turn into a transaction.
If some fields are not recognized or data is incorrect, then click in the center of the transaction project line and the transaction editing window will open. Correct what you need and save.
At first, there will be incorrect recognitions but over time 99% of SMS and push notifications will be recognized perfectly.
If Paymaster repeatedly recognizes SMS or push notifications incorrectly, send them as text or screenshot via the “Contact us” section of the menu. We will retrain the neural network and everything will be fine.
General principles: Currencies
Paymaster allows you to keep records in more than 150 currencies, the rates of which are updated daily.
To create an exchange rate, tap the “Add exchange rate” line at the bottom of the list or at the + button.
If you lock the exchange rate line, Paymaster will stop updating it from the server and will remember the value you entered.
You can select the currency on the transaction creation screen and edit the exchange rate.
On the exchange rates chart screen you can see how an exchange rate has changed over time (one exchange rate should be selected).
On the exchange rates chart screen you can compare the dynamics of different exchange rates (select two or more).
Tap on the chart to see the exact exchange rate value.
Tap on a currency pair to change its direction: EUR / USD <-> USD / EUR.
General principles: Tags
Tags allow you to analyze data associated with some "event" or "counterparty".
For example, you want to plan and analyze your vacation expenses.
Create a tag "Vacation 2018". This can be done on the Keyboard Tag when creating a transaction or when creating a budget.
On the budget screen on the Tag tab, create a budget for the Vacation 2018 tag. All transactions tagged with this tag will be counted in this budget.
When creating each transaction related to the vacation (tickets, payment for a hotel, payment for excursions, payment at restaurants on vacation, ...), select the tag “Vacation 2018”.
If you close the lock on the tag cell when creating a transaction, then when creating subsequent transactions, the tag will be selected by default until you open the lock.
Pie chart will help you to analyze expenses marked with one tag.
Also by tag you can do a search. On the Main screen and on the Transaction screen.
General principles: Filters
Using filters, you can choose which transactions you want to display in the list or use for charting.
Filters are available on TRANSACTIONS and CHARTS screens (the filter buttons are in the upper right corner).
The Filter by accounts allows you to specify those accounts for which you want to filter out transactions.
The Filter by categories allows you to specify those categories for which you want to filter out transactions.
In the Filter by categories on a separate tab, there are filters for transfer transactions.
Example 1: If you want to filter out the transactions on Cash account on the expenses category Food. To do this, in the Filter by accounts choose the VISA account, in the Filter by categories choose the expenditure category Food, in the Filter by categories filter on the Transfer tab, disable "Transfers from accounts" and "Transfers to accounts".
Example 2: If you want to filter out the transactions on the VISA account on the incomes category Salary. To do this, in the Filter by accounts, choose the VISA account, in the Filter by categories, choose the incomes category Salary, in the Filter by categories on the Transfer tab, disable "Transfers from accounts" and "Transfers to accounts".
Example 3: If you want to filter transfer transactions from the VISA card. To do this, in the Filter by accounts, choose VISA account, in the Filter by categories remove all checkmarks from the incomes and expenses categories, in the Transfer tab, enable "Transfers from accounts" and disable "Transfers to accounts".
Filters of accounts and categories work together. The result of their work will be transactions, which simultaneously satisfy accounts specified in the Filter by accounts and categories specified in the Filter by categories.
If you need to quickly find transactions for some account or category, do not necessarily use filters. Faster will be use the search on the transaction screen, or on the main screen (appears below when the Transactions block is deployed).
General principles: Projects
Projects will allow you to analyze incomes and expenses within individual projects.
Rent out an apartment, run a hairdresser, write and sell paintings, develop apps - Paymaster will help account expenses and incomes by projects.
Create a project.
On the Project screen, set an icon, name and currency, expense and income categories that relate to the project, tag.
If you run the project together, choose counterparty. Now the project indicators will be calculated taking into account the counterparty transactions.
In the project string there are income, expense and balance for chosen period.
By clicking on the chart button, you can view a column chart of project’s income, expense and balance by periods.
To get the information on the project for all time, select tab with the infinity sign (∞).
General principles: Funds
Funds help plan expenses and monitor the implementation of this plan.
In budgets, you define a spending limit for a period and control how you fit into it. In funds you determine the amount that you are ready to spend on certain categories of expenses, and then, without reference to periods, you control how you fit into this amount.
For example, suppose you want your entertainment expenses to be strictly within the funds you allocate for them. Create an Entertainment fund with categories of expenses that you attribute to entertainment.
Each time you create an expense transaction for the categories included in the fund, the fund balance will decrease.
When you run out of funds in the fund, the color of the balance amount will change to red and you will receive appropriate notifications.
You can specify the amount of funds in the fund when it is created, and then replenish it using replenishment templates. You can also edit the fund balance at any time.
Replenishment templates contain the replenishment amount and the proportion in which this amount will be distributed among the funds.
The ability to set the proportion is needed so that you can replenish funds in a given proportion in one action. For example, you want to send 30% of replenishment sum on entertainment and 70% on sports. To do this, specify in the replenishment template 30% for the Entertainment fund, and 70% for the Sports fund.
Within the funds, you can control not only your own expenses, but the expenses with counterparties. To do this, on the fund creation screen, enable the corresponding counterparty and in the CATEGORIES block above, select its categories.
FAQ: Can not pay a subscription!
We use standard "Google Play Market" and "Apple App store" payment methods. Paymaster app itself just call the payment procedure and does not participate in it any more. So the problem can be either at the bank side or at the "Play market" / "App store" side.
Here are the most common payment issues and how to fix them:
The bank prohibits the transaction. Contact the bank support service and find out the reason. It is possible that payments abroad are prohibited, then you need to ask the bank to allow the operation.
The "Google Play market" / "Apple App store" prohibits buying in some countries and regions.
Here are some articles how to resolve payment issues.
We use the standard Google Play market subscription system. Lets make sure your subscription is in the Google play market. To do this, go to the “Play market”, “Menu”, “Subscriptions” section. If the Paymaster subscription is in the Google play market, but is not active in Paymaster itself, an error has occurred during transfer of subscription information from the Google Play market to the application. Here is what you need to do:
Go to “System Settings”, “Applications” section, “Google play market”, in the opened window select “Storage” (sometimes it is called differently), then “Clear cache” and “Delete data”.
Go to “System Settings”, “Applications” section, “Google play services”, in the opened window select “Storage” (sometimes it is called differently), then “Clear cache” and “Delete data”.
You may need to restart the phone and wait a few minutes until the Google play market receives information from Google servers.
FAQ: How to set up SMS recognition?
SMS recognition is performed by neural networks on servers. Internet access must be enabled. In the settings Paymaster must be given permission to access the SMS.
The recognition logic is as follows:
The app should find out your bank number in order to recognize incoming SMS from it automatically.
The app must link the card-determining symbols in the SMS (for example VISA1234) to the account in Paymaster.
Both of these actions are done as part of the following procedure:
Copy SMS from the bank.
In Paymaster, click on the SMS button on the main screen.
A transaction project line will appear (gray with a check mark on the right), with not recognized account and category.
Tap its center, in the opened transaction editing window, specify the account and category.
Tap the check mark in the upper right corner of the transaction editing window.
Paymaster will remember your choice and will be acting by analogy in the future. If you make a mistake, just edit the next transaction project, Paymaster will remember your new choice.
You should do this for each bank card.
If Paymaster says that SMS is not an SMS transaction, then send us its text at support@paymaster.site
FAQ: How to setup push notifications recognition?
Push notifications recognition is performed by neural networks on servers. Internet access must be enabled. In the settings Paymaster must be given permission to access the push notifications.
The recognition logic is as follows:
The application must know the ID number of your bank application.
The app must link the card-determining symbols in the push notification (for example VISA1234) to the account in Paymaster.
This is done as part of the following procedure:
After a push notification recognition a transaction project line will appear (gray with a check mark on the right), with not recognised account and category.
Tap its center, in the opened transaction editing window, specify the account and category.
Tap the check mark in the upper right corner of the transaction editing window.
Paymaster will remember your choice and will be acting by analogy in the future. If you make a mistake, just edit the next transaction project, Paymaster will remember your new choice.
If push notifications come, but the transaction project strings do not appear, then send us a screenshot of the notification and the ID of the bank application at support@paymaster.site.
To get the bank app ID find it on the Play Market (https://play.google.com/store/apps) and open its page. Tap into the address bar, copy it and send it to us.
To take a screenshot of the push notifications do as follows. Find the notification log in the system settings and take a screenshot with the details of the corresponding notification. On some smartphones there is no notification log in the settings. In this case, install the QuickShortcutMaker application (free) from the Google play market. On its main page, enter in the search field "notification" and a link to the settings section you need will appear. Go through it and click on "View". In the list, find the required notification and take a screenshot of it.
FAQ: SMS and push notifications are not automatically recognized. Joint accounting is not working properly.
For automatic recognition of SMS and push notifications you need:
Enable Internet access.
Give permissions to access SMS / notifications (PERMISSIONS section of Paymaster settings).
Have an active subscription.
If everything is done, but automatic recognition does not work, then the reason is that your phone blocks Paymaster background processes that “catches” SMS and push notifications.
Same is with joint accounting. Android blocks it backgrount process too.
It is necessary to prohibit the operating system to interfere with the work of Paymaster.
On phones of different manufacturers, these settings are in different places and are called differently.
HUAWEI: System settings, "Battery" section, "Run applications" item, select Paymaster in the list, disable "Automatic control". Paymaster must be enabled for Manual.
Xiaomi: System Settings, “Applications” section, select Paymaster. The “Activity Control” setting must be switched to “No restrictions”. You also need to enable “Autostart” and “Run in background”.
Samsung: System Settings, Apps, Paymaster, Battery, Battery optimization, All apps, Paymsater, Don’t optimize. System Settings, Apps, Paymaster, Allow background activity. Toggle off battery optimization at all. Read more here: https://9to5google.com/2021/02/18/samsung-background-apps-android-11/
LG: System Settings, "Battery" section, "Exceptions from the power saving mode". Find Paymaster in the list and exclude it from power saving mode.
Sony: System Settings, "Battery" section, the menu on the top right, "Battery Optimization", go to the Applications tab and tick Paymaster. As a result, Paymaster should go to the “Not Optimized” tab.
If this is done on your phone somehow else, write to us at support@paymaster.site and we will update this instruction.
p.s. Keep in mind that Android is cunning. After updating the application, or after rebooting the phone, or when Jupiter enters the constellation of Aquarius, Android can turn on the power saving mode for Paymaster without permission. That is, if recognition stops working again, check this setting.
p.p.s. Due to the iOS limitations, automatic recognition of SMS and push notifications on the iPhone is technically impossible.
FAQ: Categories are incorrectly defined when recognizing messages.
First, I'll tell you about the message recognition process.
Upon receipt of a message, Paymaster sends it to the server for recognition.
The neural network on the server analyzes the message and highlights words in it that define the category, account, amount, currency and date.
Paymaster receives this data from the server and forms a transaction project based on it (gray transaction string with a check mark on the right).
Every time you confirm or correct a category in a transaction project, Paymaster remembers your choice of category. The next time a message from the same merchant is recognized, Paymaster will suggest the same category.
It may happen that the neural network made a mistake and selected the wrong words from the message to determine the category. As a result of such an error, Paymaster will start to make mistakes in determining the category. This is usually expressed in the fact that Paymaster suggests in the transaction project the category that you selected when recognizing the previous message.
How to fix it:
Go to the menu, settings, "Categories identifiers". A list of categories and their corresponding words from messages will open.
Review this list and remove any incorrect combinations of categories and words that define them (swipe left on the line and tap delete button). Incorrect words are usually numbers, short words, card numbers.
If you cannot figure it out yourself, write to me at support@paymaster.site, I will help you.
FAQ: Accounts are incorrectly defined when recognizing messages.
First, I'll tell you about the message recognition process.
Upon receipt of a message, Paymaster sends it to the server for recognition.
The neural network on the server analyzes the message and highlights words in it that define the category, account, amount, currency and date.
Paymaster receives this data from the server and forms a transaction project based on it (gray transaction string with a check mark on the right).
Every time you confirm or correct an account in a transaction project, Paymaster remembers your choice of account. The next time a message from the same bank is recognized, Paymaster will suggest the same account.
It may happen that the neural network made a mistake and selected the wrong words from the message to determine the account. As a result of such an error, Paymaster will start to make mistakes in determining the account.
How to fix it:
Go to the menu, settings, "Accounts identifiers". A list of accounts and their corresponding words from messages will open.
Review this list and remove any incorrect combinations of accounts and words that define them (swipe left on the line and tap delete button).
If you cannot figure it out yourself, write to me at support@paymaster.site, I will help you.
FAQ: How to transfer data to a new phone?
From Android to Android (if Google Account on the new phone is the same as on the old one):
Create a backup on the old phone (Paymaster settings - Save to Google Drive - Create backup).
Restore on a new phone from this backup (Paymaster settings - Save to Google Drive - Restore from backup).
From Android to Android (if the Google Account on the new phone differs from the account on the old one):
Create a backup on the old phone (Paymaster settings - Create backup) in Google Drive or locally on the phone.
Transfer the backup file to the Paymaster folder in Google Drive or to the local folder on the new phone.
Restore on the new phone from this backup (Paymaster settings - Restore from backup).
From Android to iOS
Create a backup on the Android phone (Paymaster settings - Create backup) in Google Drive or locally on the phone.
Transfer the backup file to the Paymaster folder in iCloud.
Restore on the iPhone from this backup (Paymaster settings - Restore from backup).
From iOS to iOS
Create a backup on the iPhone (Paymaster settings - Create backup).
If the user account on the new phone is the same, then on the new phone, restore from this backup file (Paymaster Settings - Restore from Backup).
If the user account on the new phone is different, then transfer the backup file to the Paymaster folder in iCloud on the new phone and restore from this backup file (Paymaster Settings - Restore from Backup).
From iOS to Android
Create a backup on the iPhone (Paymaster settings - Create backup).
Transfer the backup file from iCloud to the Paymaster folder in Google Drive or to the local folder on the Android phone.
Restore on the Android phone from this backup (Paymaster settings - Restore from backup).
p.s. If you switch to another system, do not forget to cancel the subscription on the previous one. The subscription is tied to Google Play Market or Apple App Store and could not be transferred between them.
p.p.s. The iOS version of Paymaster app can not automatically recognize SMS and push messages. This is an iOS limitation.
Values in the "Transaction type" cell can only be the following: Expense, Income.
The created file must be loaded in the "Import" section of the "Data export / import" item of the application menu.
FAQ: How to start from the scratch?
To start from the scratch delete Data and clear Cash of Paymaster in the system settings.
Option 1:
Long tap on the Paymaster icon on the desktop.
In the menu that appears, select "About the application.
Tap Storage.
Clear Data and Cash
Option 2:
Go to system settings.
Tap Apps.
Find Paymaster in the list.
Tap Storage.
Clear Data and Cash.
FAQ: How to cancel the subscription?
To cancel the subscription, go to the “Play market”, “Menu”, “Subscriptions” section. Select the Paymaster subscription and cancel it.
FAQ: How do I get a refund?
If you forgot to cancel your subscription, do not worry, we will make a refund!
Android users.
Option 1. Contact us. When you make a purchase on the Google Play Store, Google sends you a confirmation email with order number (GPA.xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxx). Send this order number to support@paymaster.site. If you cannot find the email, go to www.pay.google.com. In the "Subscriptions and Services" section, select a Paymaster subscription, there will be the order number.
This notification was added to improve the stability of the Paymaster background processes, which recognize messages (SMS and notifications) and carry out joint accounting.
You can disable this notificatio in Menu - Settings - "Keep Paymaster Active", but we recommend that you do not do this.
This notification may contain useful information for you - account balances. You can choose which accounts to display in the settings. Clicking on the account line in the notification will open the screen for creating a transaction for that account. Also in the settings you can turn off the display of the hint line "What is this notification?" in the notification.
