Howtoo
Five minutes to settle in
From the first launch to setting up your card payment date, in order.
Getting started
No sign-in required. Install it and start.
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Open the app and tap “Start with these”
Every field is pre-filled with a reasonable value. Changing your take-home salary and monthly fixed costs is enough to begin. Everything else can be adjusted later in Settings.
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Check the accounts that were created
The Assets tab already contains cash, a main bank account, a debit card and a credit card. Rename them and set your balances. Long-press to delete any you do not need.
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Enter your first transaction
Tap the “+” button at the bottom right of the Ledger tab. Amount, category and account are all you need. Star an entry you use often and it becomes a one-tap entry next time.
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Paste a card approval SMS
Paste the message from your card issuer into the paste field on the entry screen and the amount, merchant and date are filled in for you. The app never asks for permission to read your messages — you copy and paste it yourself.
Setting up a credit card payment date
This is the heart of Howtoo. Set it once and the payment date and amount are calculated for you from then on.
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Tap the card in the Assets tab
When the account group is “Card”, fields for the payment date and billing period appear.
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Enter the payment date
Use the date printed on your statement. For the 14th of each month, enter 14.
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Enter the day the billing period starts
Read the billing period from your statement and enter the day it starts.
Billing period on the statement Value to enter 1st to the last day of the previous month 1 13th of last month to the 12th of this month 13 16th of last month to the 15th of this month 16 As you type, the app shows “this month’s billing period ○○ – ○○ · debited ○○” right below. Check it against your statement.
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Choose the payment account
Pick the account the card bill is debited from. Setting this is what lets the app warn you when that account will be short on the payment date.
Fixed costs and holiday rules
Money leaves in different ways depending on the item. You can express that difference directly.
| Setting | When to choose it |
|---|---|
| Same day | Direct debits such as insurance premiums and phone bills that leave the account on the day, weekend or not. (default) |
| Next business day | Card bills and some bank transfers. On a holiday they slide forward. |
| Previous business day | Items such as salary that arrive early when the date is a holiday. |
Register these under Ledger > Fixed costs. As you enter one, “this month’s debit date ○○” appears immediately, and if a holiday pushes it into the following month, the app says “moves to next month”.
Turning on alerts
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Settings > Low balance alert for payment dates
Turning the switch on asks for notification permission. Allow it and you are notified at 9 a.m. the day before the day you would run short.
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What you receive
“On 26 October, 600,000 won leaves your main account. You are 100,000 won short.” Billing-period cutoffs are included too.
Using a spreadsheet on a PC (optional)
Keep a spreadsheet in Google Drive and sync it with the app in both directions.
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Settings > Spreadsheet ledger
Connect a Google account and create or pick a file. The app can only reach the file it created — it does not see the rest of your Drive.
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Install Google Drive for desktop on your PC
Open the same file in Excel, edit it and save. Wait for the Drive upload to finish, then sync in the app.
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Formulas work
SUM, SUMIFS, IF and similar formulas in the amount column or a summary sheet are evaluated by the app. Formatting and charts are preserved.
Backup and moving to a new device
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Settings > Export JSON
Transactions, accounts, investments, journal entries and photos are saved into one file. Always export before changing devices.
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Import on the new device
Settings > Import JSON restores everything. Spreadsheet connection details are deliberately excluded from the backup for security, so reconnect on the new device.
Writing a spending journal
A number alone tells you nothing next month. One line is enough.
Right from the expense entry
Tap “📝 write a line about this” at the bottom of the entry screen and the journal opens with the date, amount and merchant already filled in.
Mood and photos too
Pick 🙂 😐 🙁 and attach a photo. Photos are kept in the app's own folder and never sent to a server.
Your streak
The home screen shows how many days in a row you have written. Missing one day does not reset it to zero.
Period log (optional)
See what you craved and what you spent at each point in the cycle. It does not appear unless you turn it on.
Settings > Period log
Turn the switch on and it appears in the home shortcuts and in Settings.
Record a start date once
Tap “start today”, or tap a date in the calendar. From the second record on, your average cycle length appears.
Mood, symptoms, cravings
Tap any date to log how you felt and what you wanted to eat. Once these build up, the per-phase statistics appear.
Setting a lock
Settings > Lock > Create PIN
Choose 4 to 8 digits. Creating one locks the journal straight away.
Choose what it covers
Turn it on separately for the journal and for the period log. Five wrong attempts start a wait, and the wait doubles with each further mistake.
Making it yours
Settings > Change user type
Choose from schoolchild, middle and high school, university, first job, newlywed, parent of young children, parent of school-age children, midlife, and retired. Categories and budgets are laid out to match and unused screens are hidden.
Categories you already use and everything you have recorded are left alone — only missing categories are added.
Settings > Theme
Brightness follows your device, or stays light or dark; the accent is green, blue, plum or sand. Left on the device setting, it darkens by itself at night.
Settings > Guide
Replay the in-app guide at any time, or switch it off entirely.
Separate ledgers, one combined view
When each partner runs their own pension and ISA accounts, only combining the assets shows the whole picture.
Settings > Ledgers
Create a ledger per purpose. Invite the other person to a shared one with an invite code. A personal ledger stays invisible to them unless you share it.
Settings > Combined view
Pick the ledgers to combine and see net worth — account balances plus holdings — along with income and spending for the period, on one screen.
Pension and retirement accounts are counted separately because you cannot draw on them now. Cards and loans are subtracted as money you owe.
If you get stuck
Lunar New Year 2027 isn’t marked as a holiday
Dates that move each year, such as Lunar New Year and Chuseok, need to be fetched. Use Settings > Holidays > Update public holidays, or add the date yourself on the same screen.
The projected payment doesn’t match my statement
The app only adds up the transactions you entered — it does not pull them from your card issuer. Check for missing entries first, then check that the billing period start day matches your statement.
I’m not getting alerts
Check that the switch is on in Settings and that notifications are allowed for Howtoo in your device settings. No alert is sent if the shortfall date has already passed or the balance is sufficient.
I want to delete my period records
Delete individual entries from the calendar, or erase all of them at once under Settings > Period log. Uninstalling the app removes them too.
I changed the theme but only part of it changed
Leave the screen and come back and it applies everywhere. If you left it on the device setting, it follows your device's dark mode automatically.
I want to delete my account
See Account and data deletion. If you only use the app, there is no account to delete — uninstalling removes your data with it.