Rebekah MayThereâs a whole bunch of free and juicy features waiting for you when you first download Emma.
To make sure youâre getting the most out of our app, weâve decided to write this handy guide to navigating all the Emma Finance features during your first 10 days!
Day 1: Add Multiple Accounts
Hoorah, youâve officially downloaded Emma and have connected one of your accounts.
The next thing youâre going to want to do is connect all of your accounts. With Emma, you can connect as many accounts as you like!
The Accounts tab is split into different sections – Everyday, Savings, Investments & if youâre in the US/CA youâll also have a Loans section.
To add an account, click the button which says âAdd Accountâ.
Youâll now be prompted with a list of banks we currently support. The process is straightforward from here, you just need to select your bank of choice. If you can’t see your bank on the main screen, try searching for it using the search bar.
Next, youâll be directed to a consent screen. This makes sure that youâre aware of the data weâre going to access. We don’t share this data with any third party providers, apart from those that make the actual connection such as Plaid (Canada and US only).
You will then be asked a couple of questions to finish connecting your bank account to Emma, but it shouldnât be long before your details are visible in our app.
If you canât see your bank on the list, you can suggest an integration by posting on the Emma Community.
Day 2: Set Budgets
Now that your Emma account is linked to a financial institution, creating budgets is extremely simple.
First, youâll need to go to the Analytics tab. Youâll see a message which says Set Up Budgeting, so click where it says Let’s get started. Youâll then need to choose your budgeting period.
Your budgeting period could be payday to payday – or you could set up a budget that rolls over monthly. You can find out the difference between these budgets on our FAQ page here. Choose whichever you think works best for you!
There are two ways you can now set budgets in Emma. The first is by setting a total budget, i.e. this month I can spend ÂŁ1,000. Or, if you want more detail, you can set individual budgets by category. For example, you could allow ÂŁ100 a month for groceries, ÂŁ150 for bills, and so on.
Your total budget and the combined total of your category budgets do not have to be equal. If you want your total budget to be equal to the combined total of your category budgets, copy the Combined Budget Total you find at the top of the edit budget screen and enter it as your total budget.
If youâve set budgets by category, youâll now be able to track your spending vs your budget each month. Youâll notice as you spend more money in each category, the category box fills up with colour. You can use this as a visual guide to make sure you donât go over your budget.
Weâll also keep you on track of your budgeting by sending you helpful notifications if we think youâre likely to overspend in one area!
Day 3: Review Your Subscriptions
Today we’re going to focus on reviewing your subscriptions.
Emma is able to detect recurring payments and subscriptions you might have, from direct debits to standing orders to normal purchases. Clever, right?!
Youâll find all of your subscriptions at the bottom of the Feed tab. Click on âsee allâ and youâll be directed to a screen which shows Active and Inactive subscriptions.
An active subscription is something you are currently paying for, whereas an inactive subscription could be an old energy supplier, or mobile phone contract that you are no longer being charged for.
For your active subscriptions, weâll let you know if there is any change in the amount paid. Next to the merchant name youâll see a little arrow which identifies if your bill is more, or less, expensive than last month. This can be a great way to identify any issues or price hikes that you may not have been aware of.
Weâll also predict when your next payment is due, helping you manage your cash flow more effectively!
If Emma has not picked up on any transactions you consider to be a subscription, you can also add this by clicking on the Add button in the top right-hand corner. Simply search for your transaction, and select it as a recurring payment.
Day 4: Edit A Category & Add A Tag
Every time you spend money weâll automatically group this spend into set categories.
Today we want you to have a go at editing a category. Open the Emma app and on the Feed tab, youâll see a section called Recent Transactions. If you click the âsee allâ button youâll be directed to a whole list of your recent purchases.
Under the amount spent, youâll see the category name. There may be occasions when the category weâve automatically assigned needs to be changed.
For example, there could be a transaction for Tesco which has been categorised under âgroceriesâ when actually this was petrol and should be grouped under the âtransportâ category.
If you want to change the transaction category, select a transaction and click on the category button underneath the transaction name. Select a new category. If you want to apply this change to all transactions with that merchant name, click âapply edit to allâ.
If youâd like to categorise your spending in even more detail, you can add a tag. A quick and easy example would be creating tags like #train #flight and #fuel for transactions under the category ‘Transport’.
You can then also filter what you spent across a certain period of time via tags in your feed.
Day 5: Visit The Save Money Tab
By now you should be getting to know your finances pretty well. Youâve got all your accounts linked in one app, youâve set your budgets, youâve reviewed your subscriptions and youâve even organised your categories and tags. You really are well on your way to greater financial control!
But now itâs time to find out how we can help you SAVE money.
The Save Money tab has a whole host of features that can help reduce your outgoings. Weâll help you save on your bills, compare insurance, pay off your debt, and more! The offers available are slightly different depending on if youâre in the UK or the US. You can see each of the services available on the image below – the UK services are on the left, the US is on the right.
Spend some time looking through each of the tabs and decide which feature may be best for you and your finances.
Day 6: Use The Search Function
One of our newest features is the ability to search through all your transactions. To access this feature, go to your most recent transactions list and click on the small magnifying glass in the top right corner.
You have a few options here. You could either search for a merchant name, or you could use the filters at the bottom of the page. Hereâs what each of the filters does.
- Filter by category
- Select specific merchants
- Filter by tag
- Select transactions with a price higher than >x
- Filter on transactions with a price lower than <x
- Choose a date range – this/last week, month, quarter or year
- Filter by if the transaction has a receipt attached to Emma
You can use all of these filters in conjunction with each other. As shown in the image below, where we wanted to see all our transactions this month for transport under ÂŁ5.
Day 7: Sign Up To The Fun Stuff
One of our main goals at Emma is to make money management fun. Thatâs why we offer two exciting features, the Emma weekly quiz and the Emma weekly spending reports.
The weekly quiz comes out every Saturday and gives you the chance to win ÂŁ500! Just answer all 5 questions correctly, and youâll be entered into a prize draw to win the money.
Then thereâs the weekly spending reports. Every Tuesday youâll be sent a spending report which gives you valuable insights into how youâve spent your money that week. Weâll tell you what your biggest spend was, which category you spent the most money on, and if we think youâre likely to go over budget this month.
To make sure you receive these fun features, go to the More tab, then click on the cog to access your Account Settings. Scroll down until you see âpreferencesâ and make sure youâre set to receive both of these features!
Day 8: Use The Scramble Function
By now youâre probably thinking, âyep this app is really good, Iâd love to show it to my friendsâ?
With scramble mode, your data will be shuffled and the currency will be changed to âÂĽâ. This means you can take your pals through the app, without worrying theyâll be checking out how much you earn, or spend!
Day 9: Try Emma Pro
All the features weâve mentioned so far are completely free on Emma! But, we do also have a premium version for those that want to manage their money in even more detail.
With the premium version you get a whole bunch of extra features. You can:
- View your Accurate Net Worth by adding the value of your real estate, cars, jewellery
- Create Custom Categories for those areas of your spending we donât currently cover
- Export your data into a CSV file so you can analyse your spending in excel
- Action Advanced Transaction Editing by re-categorising multiple transactions, as well as renaming transactions
- Add Offline Accounts to get a full picture of your spending, even for the banks Emma doesnât support
- Split transactions to help you more accurately manage your spending across different categories
- Set rolling budgets, so any money not used in one category can be rolled into the next month
Weâve written about these features in more detail here, and you can give it a go for free with our 7-day free trial!
Day 10: Get Friendly
You’ve now been using Emma for quite a while and have had time to get to grips with all of our amazing features. There’s just a couple more things you can do in our app!
1. Finish Your Profile
Itâs nice to make things a lil more personal, so today weâre going to work on finishing your profile. Open the Emma app and click on the tab which says âMoreâ.
In the top left corner youâll see thereâs a space for you to add your own picture. You can either take a photo, or choose one from your photo gallery.
Underneath your new profile photo thereâs a section called Quests. If you click this button, youâll now be directed to a list of locked tasks for you to complete. You should see the âupload a pictureâ task is no longer locked! Hooray.
If you wanted to play around with your personal details, like name and email address then click the back arrow, and then the cog icon in the top right corner. From here click on personal details and change the information as you wish.
2. Follow Us On Socials
The money-saving fun doesnât stop with the weekly spending reports and quizzes. Weâve got loads of fun money-saving tips and discussions happening on our social channels. You can click through to them by following the links at the bottom of this article, or you can access them through the app by going to Account Settings and scrolling down to the âabout usâ section.
3. Leave Us A Review
If youâve really enjoyed all of the free features available on Emma, weâd love it if you could leave us a review. Find your way to the Account Settings page and click on âRate this appâ.
If you know anyone that you think would be interested in Emma, then invite them to join the app by clicking on âquestsâ and then âinvite 1 friendâ
Summary
Remember at the start of the article we said there were a whole bunch of juicy features waiting for you in Emma? Well, we hope theyâre all a little clearer now!
If you have any questions about any of these features, then head to the in-app live chat!
And as always, if you thought this article was useful then let us know on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or on the Emma Community!
Emma is a money management app that connects all your bank accounts to track your monthly spending and subscriptions. Emma will help you visualise and take control of your finances. Make sure you arenât overspending, and show you practical steps to start budgeting effectively.
