Getting Started with PayShare: Your First 10 Minutes

PayShare is designed to get out of your way. No accounts to create, no bank credentials to hand over, no complicated dashboards to learn. Just install, set up a few things, and start tracking.

Here's everything you need to do in your first 10 minutes.

Step 1: Install and Open

Download PayShare from the App Store. When you open it for the first time, you'll see a quick onboarding that explains the core concepts: Timeline, Analytics, Budgets, Savings, and Connections.

No sign-up form. No email verification. PayShare uses your existing iCloud account — the same one your iPhone already uses — so there's nothing to configure.

Step 2: Create Your Categories

Before you start tracking, head to Settings → Manage Categories and create the categories that match your spending. Some ideas:

• 🛒 Groceries
• 🍽️ Dining
• 🚗 Transport
• 🏠 Rent & Utilities
• 🎬 Entertainment
• ☕ Coffee
• 💊 Health

These categories appear every time you make an Apple Wallet payment, so keep the list focused on what you actually spend on. You can always add more later.

Step 3: Set Up Apple Shortcuts Automation

This is the key step that makes PayShare effortless. Once set up, every Apple Pay transaction automatically gets captured — you just pick a category from a notification.

1. Open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone
2. Tap the Automation tab
3. Tap + and find the Wallet trigger
4. Select the cards you want to track
5. Set it to Run Immediately without asking
6. Add the PayShare → Add Expense action
7. Map each field to Shortcut Input

The whole process takes about 5 minutes. After that, it works forever.

Step 4: Make Your First Payment

The fastest way to confirm everything works: make a small Apple Pay purchase. After the Wallet notification, your categories pop up automatically. Tap one, and the transaction appears in your Timeline.

If you skip the category prompt, the transaction still saves as "Uncategorized" — you can categorize it later.

Step 5: Set Up Manual Shortcuts (Optional)

Not everything goes through Apple Pay. For cash payments and income, create two additional Shortcuts:

• Log Expense — for cash or non-Apple Pay card purchases
• Log Income — for salary, freelance payments, refunds

You can trigger these from your Home Screen, Lock Screen, or with Siri voice commands.

What's Next?

Once you have a few days of transactions, explore:

• Analytics — see where your money goes, grouped by category, merchant, or location
• Budgets — set monthly spending limits and track progress in real-time
• Savings — create savings goals and log deposits over time
• Connections — invite family members via iCloud to share expense tracking

PayShare works across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Everything syncs automatically through iCloud — no setup needed on additional devices.