A dozen small jobs a week, each with its own trip to the hardware store, is exactly the pattern that defeats tidy bookkeeping.
Separate business account · No bank logins · Works offline
A handyman's costs are not three large invoices a month, they are forty small runs. Cash Compass is built around making a single entry take seconds — voice, a receipt photo, or amount-first manual entry — because at that volume the per-entry cost is the only thing that matters.
Two accounts, one tap between them. Screws, sealant, a new blade and the trip to collect them go under Business; the weekly shop goes under Personal. The split happens as you log, which is the only version of this that survives a busy week.
Nothing to connect, no business account required, no credentials handed to an aggregator. That matters if you are starting out, working partly in cash, or simply do not want a third party holding a key to your bank. Manual logging is free and unlimited, so there is no cost to finding out whether it sticks.
Voice, photo of a receipt, or 3-tap manual entry — every method takes seconds.
Pick Business or Personal, and the category. Cash Compass remembers your pattern.
Charts show where the money went, and flag a category running above its usual pace.
It is an expense tracker, not accounting software. There is no invoicing, no estimates, no payroll, no job costing, and no GPS mileage log — mileage is usually a trade's biggest deduction, so run a dedicated mileage app alongside it. What this replaces is the shoebox of faded receipts and the end-of-year guessing.
For the core job, yes. Unlimited manual entry, both accounts, and the category charts cost nothing and carry no ads. Premium is what unlocks unlimited voice and receipt capture, CSV export and iCloud sync across devices. Voice and receipt scanning each get a small number of free uses so you can see whether they suit how you work before deciding. Plenty of sole traders run on the free tier through a first year and upgrade when the export becomes the thing they need.
Keep it coarser than feels natural. Materials, Tools, Vehicle, Trade Waste, Insurance and Phone will carry most of a handyman's Schedule C, and a short list is one you will still be using in six months. Per-job categories are tempting and almost always abandoned by week three — if you need per-job profitability rather than per-category spending, that is a job-costing tool, and Cash Compass is not one.
No. Cash Compass tracks what you spend, not what you bill. There is no invoicing, no estimates, no payment collection and no payroll. If you need to send quotes and invoices you will want a separate tool for that side; what this replaces is the shoebox of receipts and the end-of-year guessing, not your invoicing.
Premium syncs through your own iCloud account, so a new iPhone signs in and the data is there. On the free tier the data lives on the device, which means a lost phone means lost history — worth knowing up front. Either way nothing routes through a Cash Compass server: there is no bank connection, no account to create, and the transactions are not being sold on.
Two accounts with a one-tap switch, each with its own categories and charts.
No bank logins, no Plaid, no data sales. Your data stays in your iCloud.
Unlimited manual entry, both accounts, and charts — free, with no ads.
Free to start, with unlimited manual entry. Premium is $29.99/year and unlocks unlimited voice, receipt capture, iCloud sync, and the CSV export your accountant will ask for.
Download Cash Compass on the App Store