getting shekel working

simplefin bridge is an independent service that connects to your banks, cards and brokerages and gives apps read-only access. shekel has no server of its own, so it asks simplefin for your accounts directly from your phone.

it's a separate subscription, about $1.50 a month or $15 a year, billed by simplefin. shekel never sees your bank passwords.

1. sign up at bridge.simplefin.org and start a subscription.

2. add each bank, card and brokerage. new connections can take a few minutes to show accounts.

3. under apps, add a new app connection and copy the setup token it gives you.

4. in shekel, go to settings → sync sources, tap simplefin bridge, paste the token (copy the whole thing) and tap connect and sync.

the paste didn't contain a full token. go back to simplefin bridge and copy the entire setup token: it's one long string of letters and numbers with no spaces. the paste button in shekel reads it straight from your clipboard.

a setup token only works once. if a connection attempt failed partway, or you already used that token, create a new app connection in simplefin bridge and paste the new token.

your simplefin subscription has lapsed or the payment failed. renew it at bridge.simplefin.org, then tap sync now in settings → sync sources.

the app connection was deleted in simplefin bridge. in shekel, open settings → sync sources, tap disconnect, then make a new setup token and connect again. your existing accounts and transactions stay on the phone.

check bridge.simplefin.org first. if the institution shows an error there (often it needs you to log in again), fix it in bridge and the account will show up on the next sync.

newly added institutions can take a while before simplefin has data for them.

simplefin only pulls from your banks about once a day, and limits how often apps can ask it, so shekel refreshes every few hours rather than constantly. you can change how often in settings → sync sources, or tap sync now.

if sync sources says “needs attention”, the last error is shown under simplefin bridge. after a failure shekel waits 15 minutes before trying again.

simplefin only provides roughly the last 90 days of transactions when you first connect. from then on shekel keeps everything it has seen, so history grows the longer you use it.

pending charges are replaced by the posted version once your bank settles them, which can take a few days. if a duplicate sticks around after that, email me.

apple card, apple cash and apple savings come straight from your iphone through apple's financekit, not simplefin. go to settings → sync sources, tap the row under apple card, cash & savings and allow access.

financekit needs ios 17.4 or later. update ios and try again. you can still use shekel with simplefin in the meantime.

turn access back on in the iphone's settings → privacy & security → financekit, then sync again from shekel.

the budget is built from last month: income is whatever came in tagged income, and fixed costs are whatever went out tagged recurring. if you only connected recently, or nothing from last month is tagged yet, there's nothing to build from.

tag last month's paychecks as income and your rent, subscriptions and bills as recurring. a payee rule (settings → tags & rules) makes it stick for every future transaction from that payee.

tag them with a tag marked not spending (for example a transfers tag). those are left out of spending, the budget and the pie chart.

turn on track brokerage holdings in settings. for e*trade and fidelity, simplefin reports what you hold and shekel uses it on every sync. for other brokerages, open the holding in the stocks tab and set its share count from your broker's app once; trades after that are picked up from the feed.

some brokerages (e*trade, for example) describe trades by the security's name without its ticker. pick the right symbol once and shekel remembers it.

in your icloud drive, in the shekel folder, after each sync and whenever you tap back up now in settings → backup & restore. the last 10 are kept. if icloud drive is off they're saved on the phone instead, so turn it on if you want them to survive losing the phone.

install shekel on the new phone, sign in to the same icloud account, and open settings → backup & restore. pick the latest backup to restore. you'll need to connect simplefin again with a new setup token, since the old one stays in the old phone's keychain.

deleting the app removes everything on the phone. backups can be deleted from icloud drive → shekel in the files app.

face id needs a passcode set on the iphone. set one in the iphone's settings → face id & passcode, then turn on require face id in shekel's settings → app lock.