How to use Amwalio
A short guide to the planner
The quickest way to start
Open the Onboard Assistant from the button at the top of the page. It walks you through each part of a family budget — money in, bills, food, travel, giving. Where there are published figures for your country it offers one you can accept or change. Nothing is guessed for you: every amount is yours to set.
It asks one thing at a time and you can stop at any point; whatever you have entered stays. A suggested figure is what households of your size typically spend, taken from whatever the official statistics body for your country publishes. It is a starting point for a number you do not already know, never a recommendation, and your own bill always beats an average. Some countries publish little or nothing, and there the Assistant simply asks rather than suggests.
Once you finish the Assistant, its button stops calling for attention and opens a review of your answers instead. Everything it entered can still be changed by you, whenever you like.
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Getting started. How to fill in your plan for the first time.
Meet the Rahmans. Two parents, two children, renting a two bedroom flat in East London. Every figure in this video is theirs, typed into the real app as you watch.
Amwalio starts completely empty. The quickest way to fill it is the Onboard Assistant.
First, where you are. Your country, and the money you count in.
The rest of this screen is optional.
Then what comes in. Three thousand seven hundred pounds a month, after tax.
And child benefit for the two children, one hundred and eighty eight pounds a month.
Now the home. Rent is one thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds a month, the largest single thing this family pays.
Where Amwalio has a typical amount for your country, it offers one. Take it, or type your own over the top.
The bills come next. Energy, water, council tax, the phones and the internet, one screen at a time.
Travel next. The Rahmans have no car, so it is buses and trains. Then the children: school costs, the dentist and the glasses.
What the family spends on itself, and what it gives away. Charity and zakat have a screen of their own.
Then saving. A hundred and fifty pounds a month towards three months of cushion.
And the costs that come once a year rather than every month. Amwalio spreads them across the twelve, so they never arrive as a surprise.
Near the end it asks whether there is anything to remember, in your own words.
The last screen offers to keep the plan in an account. You do not have to. It works on this device without one.
And there it is. What comes in, what goes out, and what is left, month by month for the year ahead.
Nothing was guessed for you, and every figure on this page can be changed later.
General or Islamic features
On the first step you choose between General and Islamic features. General is the everyday planner. Islamic features adds the Zakat tab, giving, Ramadan and Eid costs, and help with avoiding interest, all switched on together. In Settings you can untick any of them, or go back to General, at any time. Nothing is assumed about you, and the choice stays on this device.
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General or Islamic features. A choice at the start of the Onboard Assistant.
The Rahmans open the Onboard Assistant. On the first step, there is a choice to make.
Two cards, side by side. General is the everyday planner, with nothing extra. Islamic features adds zakat, giving and more, and each part can be adjusted later in Settings.
Islamic features starts selected. It is only where the screen begins. The family decides, and one choice changes it.
With Islamic features selected, the row of tabs behind the Assistant ends with a Zakat tab.
Choosing General leaves the extras out, and the Zakat tab disappears from the row.
Choosing Islamic features again brings the Zakat tab back.
In Settings, all three extras start ticked: Zakat and giving, Ramadan and Eid costs, and Avoiding interest. Each one can be unticked there.
The choice can be changed in Settings at any time. Settings says it is kept on this device only, and applies at once.
General or Islamic features. It is the family’s choice, and the family can change it whenever it likes.
Reading the page
- The cashflow table. Each month shows the money in, the money out, anything one-off, what is left that month, and the balance you end on. This is the part that answers “what happens if nothing changes?”
- Money out and money in. The things that repeat, grouped so you can see where the money actually goes; once-a-year costs sit at the bottom, shown as a monthly share. Change something here and every month updates.
- Notes and Reminders, alongside where your plan is kept and the useful links.
Those three go in whatever order suits you: take the grip in any column’s corner and drag it where you want it, and Amwalio remembers. That is why nothing here is described as being on the left or in the middle. On a phone they become two tabs, one tap apart.
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Reading the page. What the planner is telling you.
This is the Rahmans’ plan, filled in the way the first video showed.
The cashflow table runs month by month. What comes in, what goes out, and the balance the family ends each month on.
Money in and out holds the things that repeat, grouped so you can see where the money actually goes. Change one here and every month changes with it.
Costs that come once a year sit at the bottom as a monthly share, so a big annual bill never lands on one month.
Notes and Reminders is for the reasoning. Why a figure is what it is, months after you set it.
Those three columns go wherever you want them. Take the grip in a corner and drag.
And if a figure looks wrong, Amwalio says so at the top, in plain words, without changing anything itself.
Nothing here needs saving. It is already yours, on this device.
Adding and changing things
- Something every month — use Add money in or Add money out on the planner.
- Something once a year — add it as money out and choose Once a year. Amwalio spreads it across the year so a big annual bill does not ambush one month.
- Something in one month only — use the + beside that month’s name.
- Money you are putting aside — choose Savings goal, and give it a target if you have one.
- To change or remove anything, tap it and edit it in the box that opens.
Amounts are monthly, or once a year, which Amwalio spreads across the months. Nothing you enter is final: there is no saving step, no confirmation, and no figure that cannot be changed later.
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Adding and changing. Putting something new in, and changing your mind later.
The Assistant is only the start. Anything can be added afterwards, and anything can be changed.
Something that goes out every month: name it, and say how much. This one is a gym the family has just joined.
Something that comes once a year goes in the same box. Choose once a year, and Amwalio spreads it across the twelve months, so it never lands on one.
Money you are putting aside is a savings goal. Give it a target and a month, and Amwalio works out what it costs each month.
To change anything, tap it. The same box opens with what you typed in it.
And watch the months while you add. Three new things, and this family is short again. That is the point of putting them in: better to find out here than at the end of the month.
Adding a bank statement
Instead of typing every amount, you can add a statement and let Amwalio sort the lines into money in and money out. You can paste the lines, or choose a PDF, CSV or text file.
- Kept on your device. The statement is read in your browser and sent nowhere, unless you choose, for that one statement, to have an AI tidy up messy text. Saying no never stops the import.
- You decide every line. Lines Amwalio is sure about are listed together. Interest, transfers, refunds and anything unsure are put to you one at a time.
- Nothing is added until you have checked it, and the whole import can be taken back in one go.
The other tabs
- Debts — what is already owed, recorded so your zakat is right. Amwalio does not offer, compare or recommend borrowing.
- Savings and Investments — what you already hold, so you can see it in one place and use it in the zakat calculation. Something big you are saving towards goes here too, as a savings goal with a target and the month you want it by: Amwalio works out what that costs a month and whether you are on track, without borrowing.
- Zakat — a working of what may be due, calculated on this device. The method is shown in full and every choice in it can be changed.
Each tab carries its own short explanation behind the info icon beside its name, including what Amwalio does not do.
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The other tabs. Debts, savings, investments, and zakat.
Cashflow is one of five tabs. The others hold what a family already has, and what it owes.
Debts records what is owed. Amwalio never offers, compares or recommends borrowing. It counts what is already there, so the zakat comes out right.
This family owes an uncle twelve hundred pounds and is paying it back at a hundred a month. Nothing is charged on it, so the cost of borrowing stays at zero.
Savings is what is being put aside and what it is for. Investments is what is already held.
And Zakat works out what may be due, from those same figures, on this device.
The working is shown in full and every choice in it can be changed. It is a calculator, not a ruling, and it says so.
None of this is sent anywhere. It is worked out on your own device, from figures you typed.
Notes that remind you
Give a note a date and it appears in the bell list the day before, on the day, and for a month after if it is overdue. Regular gifts you record in the Giving plan add their own dated notes, and take them away again when the gift is stopped.
To be alerted by the browser as well, tick the box under your notes. It is off until you tick it, the browser asks for permission only then, and an alert shows only while Amwalio is open in a tab. Nothing is sent anywhere: it all happens on this device.
Keeping a record of what you give
The Giving plan has a Ledger tab: gifts by year, the recipients, receipts, regular gifts and Gift Aid declarations. Amwalio only keeps the record. It never takes, sends or holds money, and it never rates a charity.
- For a regular gift, note how it is paid and where to manage or cancel it. Stopping a gift sets its end date; cancel with the charity or your bank as well.
- Fees and tips are shown as their own total and are left out of what you gave.
- Print or save the year statement as a PDF, for the calendar year or the tax year.
- Tax rules are stated as facts with the official GOV.UK link, never as advice.
Settings
Behind the sliders icon: the month to start from, how many months to show (up to 60), your starting balance, and the country and money everything is counted in. The Onboard Assistant can be reopened from there too, at any time.
The same panel holds the things that move your plan about: save it to a file, load one back, or clear this device entirely. A saved file is the only copy that survives a cleared browser, so it is worth making one before you change computers.
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Settings. How far ahead to look, and where your plan lives.
Everything about how the planner behaves sits behind the sliders.
The month to start from, and how many months to show. Up to sixty, which is five years.
The starting balance is what is in the account today, so the months that follow mean something.
Your country and the money everything is counted in are here too, if either ever changes. And the Assistant can be reopened from here, whenever you like.
Your plan lives in this browser, on this device, and nowhere else.
Download a copy and it is yours: a spreadsheet, or a file you can load back in. That copy is the only thing that survives a cleared browser, so it is worth making one.
And on a shared computer, Clear this device wipes it. Amwalio has no copy to give back, which is the point.
Keeping Amwalio on your phone
You can put Amwalio on your home screen so it opens like an app, full screen and with its own icon. On an iPhone or iPad, open Amwalio in Safari, choose Share, then Add to Home Screen. On an Android phone, open your browser’s menu and choose Install app or Add to Home screen.
This only adds a shortcut. Amwalio does not store anything extra: your figures stay on this device, exactly as they do when you use it in the browser.
Where your plan lives
In your browser, on this device, and nowhere else. Nothing goes to the cloud. That means:
- It will not follow you to another device or another browser — yet. Accounts are coming.
- Clearing your browser data will clear your plan, and we cannot restore it.
- On a shared computer, use Clear this device when you have finished.
The full detail is in the privacy notice.
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Where your plan lives. And how to keep a copy of it.
Everything you have seen is held in this browser, on this device, and nowhere else. Nothing has gone to a server.
You can choose to keep it in an account instead, so it follows you to another device. That is a choice, and it is off until you make it.
Or keep the copy yourself. A spreadsheet to open anywhere, or a file Amwalio can read back in.
Upload that file on any device and your plan is there again. It is the only copy that survives a cleared browser.
And on a shared computer, Clear this device wipes it. We have no copy to give back, which is the whole point.
Your money stays yours. That is not a setting. It is how the planner is built.
Where to get proper advice
Amwalio adds up your own numbers. It is not financial advice, and it cannot know your circumstances. For free, independent help where you are:
- MoneyHelper — Government-backed and free
- Citizens Advice — Free help with money, benefits and debt
- StepChange — Free debt advice
- National Zakat Foundation — For zakat questions
Amwalio has no affiliation with any of them and earns nothing if you go. If you represent one and would like it removed, send us feedback.
Tell us what is wrong
You do not need an account. Everything sent here is read — it is how the roadmap gets decided. You can also email hello@amwalio.app instead.
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Where to get proper advice. And what Amwalio is not.
Amwalio adds up your own numbers. It is not financial advice, and it cannot know your circumstances.
So beside your plan there are places that can help, for free, chosen for the country you told us you are in.
Money guidance, debt help, and organisations that answer zakat questions. Each one has a few words saying what it is.
Amwalio has no affiliation with any of them and earns nothing if you go. If there is nothing listed where you live, it says so rather than filling the space with somewhere else’s charities.
A planner shows you what your numbers do. For what you should do about them, talk to one of these.