If you pay for an auto, a Rapido or an Ola by UPI, you've seen the problem. Every ride pays a different UPI ID, often just a string of digits like rapidoauto.98213@ybl or a driver's phone number. The bank's message doesn't name a shop, so an expense tracker has nothing to learn from, and every ride lands in Other.
Pocket Clear's latest update fixes that in three ways.
1. Rides, food and groceries by keyword
Capture now has simple keyword rules for the payments history can't learn. Uber, Ola, Rapido, auto and metro rides go under Transportation. Food words like café, restaurant or ice cream go under Food & Dining, and grocery, fuel and utility words go to those categories. The rules match your own categories, even if you've renamed them, and never create new ones.
They only apply to money going out. A refund or a credit from Ola isn't filed as a ride.
2. It remembers each UPI ID, subcategory included
File one payment to shop.qr@paytm under Groceries › Vegetables, and the next payment to that UPI ID gets both the category and the subcategory. Change them later and the next payment follows your change. This works even when the UPI ID has digits in it, which is exactly the kind of payee that was never learned before.
3. It recognises your daily commute
Some payments name nobody. Your morning auto from home to the metro might cost ₹53 one day and ₹70 the next, paid around 8:30–8:50 every weekday, to a different driver each time. No keyword, no repeat UPI ID.
So when a payment names nobody Pocket Clear knows, it looks at what you paid in the past week:
- The same kind of day. Weekdays are matched with weekdays, weekends with weekends.
- About the same time. Within 45 minutes either side.
- A similar amount. ₹62 matches ₹53 or ₹70, not ₹600.
Say you filed Friday's 8:35 ride of ₹58 as Transportation › Auto. On Monday at 8:42 a ₹62 payment to a new UPI ID arrives. Pocket Clear files it as Transportation › Auto too, instead of Other. If there are several candidates, the most recent day wins, then the closest time, then the closest amount. Saturday's lunch at 1 PM won't be mistaken for it.
Captured expenses keep their real time
A payment captured today is saved at the moment you paid, not at noon. Your 8:42 auto sits before your 1:15 lunch in the day's list, where it belongs.
How to use it
- On iPhone: set up the bank SMS automation once and each UPI debit text logs itself. Auto-log bank SMS with iPhone Shortcuts
- On Android: turn on Auto-log bank notifications and pick your Messages app and UPI app; each debit is logged from its notification, read on your phone. Pocket Clear never asks for SMS permission.
- On iPhone or Android: share a bank message to Pocket Clear, or paste it into Quick Log on Home.
Turn on Capture from the On-Device AI tab. Messages are read on your phone and never uploaded, and there's no bank linking. Typed and shared captures still stop on a confirm card with the category filled in, so you can change it before saving. Auto-logged ones save straight away and appear under Recent captures, where you can edit or undo them.
The full order Capture follows is in the help centre: How Capture picks a category.
Questions
Why did my UPI auto rides go under Other before?
Each ride pays a different UPI ID, often just digits, so there was no merchant name to learn from. Pocket Clear now recognises rides by keyword and recognises a daily commute by its time, amount and kind of day.
Does Pocket Clear remember subcategories for a UPI ID?
Yes. Once you file a payment to a UPI ID under a category and subcategory, the next payment to the same UPI ID gets both. If you change them, the next payment follows the change.
Does Pocket Clear read my SMS on Android?
Pocket Clear never asks for SMS permission on Android. Since version 2.17 you can turn on bank-notification auto-log and pick your Messages app, so each bank or UPI text's notification is read on your phone and debits are logged; or share or paste a message. On iPhone, a Shortcuts automation you set up passes your bank's debit texts to the app.
Is my bank message uploaded?
No. Capture reads the message on your phone. Only the expense you save is stored, and it leaves your phone only if you turn on Cloud Sync.
Stop Filing Every Auto Ride by Hand
UPI payments that file themselves under the right category. No bank linking, read on your phone.