How to Use:
Set Up Fin OS in 10 Minutes
Get your financial command center live in under 10 minutes. Add accounts, configure your billing cycle, set your first budget, and let the AI engine start working for you.
What You'll Learn
- How to add every account type correctly — including the difference between loans as accounts vs. assets
- Why the Billing Cycle Start date matters more than your income amount for accurate daily metrics
- The single most important action to take in your first 24 hours to build the logging habit
What It Does
The first 10 minutes in Fin OS determine whether the app works for you or becomes another thing you opened once. This guide walks you through the exact setup sequence — in the right order — so your Home dashboard and DNA engine produce accurate data from day one.
Who This Guide Is For
You've just downloaded Fin OS and want to get fully configured as quickly and correctly as possible.
Sign In or Continue as Guest
When you first open Fin OS, you'll be asked to sign in with Google or continue offline as a Guest. Signing in links your data to a Google account, which is required for cloud backup and Pro features. If you choose Guest mode, the app works fully offline — but your data is tied to the device only. You can link an account later from Hub → Settings.
If you plan to subscribe to Pro, link a Google account before purchasing. Fin OS will prompt you if you try to subscribe as a Guest.
Complete the Onboarding Flow
Fin OS walks you through a short setup flow on first launch. You'll enter your name, choose a financial goal (e.g., Wealth Building, Debt Freedom), set your monthly income, choose a spending budget tier (Strict 50%, Balanced 70%, Relaxed 80%, or Custom), enter your starting savings balance, and pick your currency. Every field here powers your Home dashboard's live metrics — especially income, which drives your safe daily spend calculation.
Enter your actual take-home income — the amount that lands in your bank account after tax and deductions. If you're unsure of your starting balance, enter 0. You can update it later by editing the account in the Accounts tab.
Set Your Billing Cycle Start Day
After onboarding, go to Hub → Settings (tap the gear icon in the top right of the Hub tab). Under System Preferences, find 'Billing Cycle Start' and set it to the day your salary typically arrives — for example, the 1st, 5th, or 25th. This date controls when your monthly budget cycle resets and drives the 'Spent This Month' counter on your Home screen.
This is the most commonly misconfigured setting. If your spending metrics look wrong — like the month's data starting too early or too late — this is almost certainly the fix. You can change it at any time without losing historical data.
Add Your Accounts
Tap the Accounts tab (second icon in the bottom nav). Tap the + button in the top right. Add every account where money lives: your salary bank account (type: Savings or Current), any secondary savings accounts, credit cards, cash wallet, and any active loans. For each account, enter the name, type, and current balance. Loans and credit cards have additional fields — fill in the interest rate, EMI amount, and remaining tenure for accurate Debt Crusher data.
Account types matter. Savings, Current, Cash, and Wallet are counted as liquid cash. Credit Cards and Loans are counted as liabilities. Investment type accounts are tracked separately as assets. Choosing the wrong type will skew your net worth calculation.
Create Your First Budget
Go to the Hub tab (last icon in the bottom nav). Tap 'Budget' in the Finance & Analytics grid. Tap the + or 'Plan Budget' option. The app shows the current month as the planning period. Set a Master Ceiling (your total monthly spend limit) and then allocate it across categories — Food, Transport, Entertainment, EMIs, etc. Tap the checkmark in the top right to save.
If you set a budget during onboarding, it created a global spending limit but not a category breakdown. This step lets you add category-level limits, which unlock the category pacing alerts on your Home screen. You can tap 'Copy Last Month' once you have a second month to speed this up.
Enable Notifications
Go to Hub → Settings → Notifications & Alerts. Turn on 'Daily Reminders' — this sends you nudges throughout the day to log your expenses. Also enable 'Scheduled Payments' to get alerts before your upcoming bills and EMIs are due. Both notifications are off by default on some devices depending on your OS permissions.
If notifications don't appear after enabling them, check Hub → Settings → 'Background Sync Health' and follow the prompt to exempt Fin OS from battery optimization. This is an Android-specific step and prevents the OS from silencing the app's alerts.
Pro Tip
After completing setup, log one transaction manually right away — even if it's something small like a coffee. The act of logging anchors the habit. Users who log their first transaction within 24 hours of setup are far more likely to still be using the app after 30 days.
No. Fin OS works forward from today. Enter your current account balances as your baseline and start logging transactions from now. Trying to reconstruct months of history is the most common reason people abandon setup. If you want historical data, use Hub → Import Data to upload a bank statement CSV instead.
Add the joint account normally using your total current balance. When logging transactions from it, only log your share. If you split household expenses 50/50, log only your half of each joint expense.
Yes. Update your income via the Profile screen (tap your avatar on the Home tab). Update your budget at any time via Hub → Budget — tap into the current month's budget and edit it. Historical budgets remain unchanged.
Ready to try it?
Download Fin OS Pro and put this guide into practice. Everything runs locally — private by design.
Get Fin OS Pro