Automatic bank sync seems obviously better. But many people deliberately choose manual tracking. Here's why.
The Awareness Factor
When you log each expense manually, you:
- Think about the purchase again
- Feel the money leaving
- Stay connected to your spending
- Notice patterns immediately
Automatic sync happens invisibly. You check weekly and wonder where money went.
Privacy Benefits
- No bank credentials shared
- No third-party data access
- No risk of aggregator breaches
Reliability
Bank sync breaks constantly:
- Banks change security
- Connections timeout
- Transactions duplicate or vanish
- Categories wrong
Manual entry: you control everything.
The Time Cost
About 30 seconds per transaction. 10 transactions/day = 5 minutes. That's it.
Best of Both
Some people use automatic sync for monitoring, manual for budgeting. Pocket Clear is built for the manual approach.
Start Tracking Together
Download Pocket Clear free. Simple expense tracking for couples and expats.