FAQs

Auto-record reads the transaction alerts that reach your phone, using Android's Notification access permission. Grant it once and every bank, card, UPI and wallet alert is picked up for you, with no further effort. Your SMS inbox is never read, and everything that is not a transaction is ignored.

1. Lekhya → Settings
2. Transaction Capture
3. Set up Auto-record (Notification access)
4. Tap Open Settings
5. Android's Notification access list
6. Switch Lekhya ON
7. Tap Allow
8. Back in Lekhya, tap Done

Can't find the list? It is under Settings → Apps → ⋮ → Special access → Notification access on Samsung and Pixel, and under Settings → Privacy → Special permissions → Notification access on Xiaomi. Searching Settings for "Notification access" works everywhere. Lekhya shows the exact steps for your phone's make inside the app.

Nothing being captured? Check the permission is still on (some phones switch it off after an update or under battery optimisation), and that your bank's alert really appears in your notification shade: Lekhya can only see what your phone shows you.

Apple does not let any app read your Messages on its own, so on iPhone Auto-record uses a Shortcuts automation: each time a message arrives, the automation hands its text to Lekhya, which has a ready-made action called Send Text to Lekhya. You create the automation once.

1. Open the Shortcuts app
2. Automation tab → +
3. Trigger: Message
4. Leave sender and text filters blank
5. Choose Run Immediately (turn off Ask Before Running)
6. Add Action → Send Text to Lekhya
7. Pass the message's Shortcut Input
8. Done

The same steps, with a button that opens Shortcuts, are in Settings → Transaction Capture → Set up Auto-record (Shortcut). Lekhya sorts the messages on your phone: transactions go to review, and the rest are filed under Skipped messages.

• Share (Android and iPhone): from WhatsApp, Messages, a website or any app, select the text, tap Share and choose Lekhya.
• Copy: copy the message and open Lekhya. It offers to read what you copied and file it. On iPhone the text reaches the app only when you tap the system Paste button.
• Lock Screen quick-add
  • Android: turn on Settings → Lock screen quick-add; a silent shortcut sits in your notification shade.
  • iPhone: touch and hold the Lock Screen → Customise → Add widgets → Lekhya.
• Home-screen shortcut (Android and iPhone): touch and hold the Lekhya icon and pick Add expense or Add income.
• Type it: the + button.

Nothing is added behind your back. A message that looks like a transaction opens a review sheet, and it is saved only when you approve it. Messages Lekhya decides are not transactions (offers, OTPs, requests, duplicates) are not thrown away either: they are kept in Skipped messages so you can look them over, and add one yourself if Lekhya got it wrong.

Open Settings → Teach Lekhya, paste a sample message and Lekhya learns that bank's pattern. Everything it has learned is listed under Taught patterns, where you can edit or remove it.

• Android: Settings → Apps → Lekhya → Permissions. There is no internet permission to find, and without it Android itself refuses to let the app open a connection.
• Both platforms: turn on aeroplane mode and use Lekhya as normal. Nothing changes, because nothing was being sent.
• iPhone: iOS has no permission to withhold, so Lekhya blocks network clients itself at startup. Settings → Privacy & Security → App Privacy Report shows each app's network activity.
• Data usage: your phone's mobile-data screen shows no usage for Lekhya.

The detail, including how to inspect the published file yourself, is on the security page.

Only on your phone. There is no account and no server. Bank message text is encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, using a key held in the Android Keystore or iOS Keychain. Backups are encrypted with a key derived from your passphrase. Card numbers are never stored in full, and no CVV or PIN is ever stored or asked for.

Everything happens on the device. Messages are read and understood by on-device code, your records live in a local database, and charts and insights are computed on the phone. The released Android app does not declare the internet permission, the app blocks network clients at startup (which covers iOS too), it contains no networking code, and automated tests and a release check enforce all of this. There is no analytics, no ads and no remote configuration. See the security page for the four layers in full.

No. It never asks for bank credentials and could not use them if you gave them. It reads only the alerts and messages already on your phone.

Google Play (Android) or the App Store (iPhone) takes the payment in their own app, with their own permissions. Lekhya only asks the store a question on the device and receives yes or no. It never sees your card or identity. See the privacy policy.

Yes, on both. Turn on App Lock in Settings. The OS handles it, Lekhya stores no PIN of its own, and the app hides its contents in the task switcher.

• Android: opens with your fingerprint, face or device PIN.
• iPhone: opens with Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode.

Your data lives only on your phone, so its safety depends on you. Lekhya's reminders help you keep a backup of that data, log your spends, review transactions waiting for approval, and build a steady habit. They are all optional and you control when they come, under Settings → Notifications. Free: the daily reminder. Pro: bill, EMI, SIP and FD reminders.

• Android: allow notifications when Android asks (Android 13 and later), or later under Settings → Apps → Lekhya → Notifications.
• iPhone: tap Allow when iOS asks, or later under Settings → Notifications → Lekhya.

Free: Auto-record and every other way of capturing, transactions, the monthly budget and alerts, spend-vs-income and category analytics, recurring detection, the monthly Money Story, encrypted manual backup and restore, App Lock, dark mode, green or ink-blue colour, the Android widget, both languages, and 20 money calculators (SIP, lumpsum, lumpsum vs SIP, SWP, CAGR, FIRE, FD vs SIP, EMI, FD, RD, PPF, Sukanya Samriddhi, EPF, NPS, EPF vs PPF vs NPS, gratuity, bonds, stocks, mutual funds, gold and silver).

Pro (₹249, one time, forever): scheduled backups, CSV export, CSV / screenshot / PDF import, per-category budgets and custom categories, savings accounts and goals, gold and silver, stocks, mutual funds, SIPs, FDs, PPF, Sukanya Samriddhi, EPF, NPS and bonds, bill / EMI and investment reminders, Tabs (हिसाब) and split groups, deeper analytics (top merchants, tags, calendar, custom range, Planning insights) and the year-in-review Money Story.

Everything is free to try for 7 days from install. Nothing to cancel; the trial simply ends.

Go to Settings → Restore purchase. It asks the store whether your account owns Pro and switches it back on. This works after a reinstall or on a new phone, as long as you are signed in with the account you bought with: your Google account on Android, your Apple ID on iPhone.

Refunds are handled by the store, not by us; we never receive your payment directly. Android: Google Play. iPhone: Apple (App Store). If the problem is something we can fix, please write to us first.

Settings → Backup → export an encrypted .lkh file protected by a passphrase you choose. Keep it anywhere, cloud storage included, because it is encrypted before it leaves the app. To restore, use Settings → Backup → Restore, or open the file on your phone and choose Lekhya. Scheduled backups (Pro) write the same file daily or weekly:

• Android: to a folder on your phone. Copy it elsewhere, or sync that folder with a drive app, so it survives losing the phone.
• iPhone: to a folder you pick on the phone or in iCloud Drive, which keeps it safe if you lose the phone.

Forget the passphrase and the backup cannot be opened by anyone, including us. There is no reset, so write it down somewhere safe.

Same steps on both: export a backup on the old phone, install Lekhya on the new one and restore it.

• Android: your data is deliberately excluded from Android's automatic cloud backup and from device-to-device transfer, so this manual step is the only way, and that is the point.
• iPhone: save the .lkh file to Files or iCloud Drive, open it on the new iPhone and choose Lekhya.

Delete entries in the app, or uninstall Lekhya to remove all of it. Nothing was ever uploaded, so there is no account to close and no server-side copy to ask us to delete.

Yes. Settings → Language switches the whole app between English and हिन्दी, independent of your phone's language. Settings → Language & Appearance has dark mode and the green or ink-blue colour. All free.