How MADBU works
Everything from your first entry to installing the app on your phone. Should take about four minutes to read, and about one to start.
Create your account
Tap Get started, enter a first name, email and a password of at least eight characters. You're signed in immediately — no confirmation email to wait for.
Set your monthly budget
Go to Account → Budget and enter what you can spend this month. Pick your currency while you're there. You can change both any time.
Log your first entry
Tap the + button, choose Spent, Earned or Saved, type the amount and pick a category. Save. Your dashboard updates instantly.
Spent, Earned, Saved
Every entry is one of three kinds, and each one moves a different number on your dashboard.
- −Spent — money leaving. Counts against your monthly budget and shows in "Where it went".
- +Earned — money arriving. Paychecks, freelance work, gifts. Doesn't touch your budget.
- ★Saved — money you moved aside. Tracked separately and can be pointed at a savings goal.
Saving is deliberately not counted as spending. Money you set aside is still yours — treating it as an expense makes people avoid saving.
SPENT
−$41.00
🛒 Groceries · Weekly shop
EARNED
+$3,200
💼 Salary · Paycheck
SAVED
$400.00
🛟 Emergency fund
What each tab does
Home
Your money at a glance: what's left to spend, income and savings this month, your streak, this week's spending pattern, where the money went, goal progress and recent activity.
Tracker
The full ledger. Search, filter by type or category, pick a date range, edit or delete any entry, see daily subtotals, and export everything to CSV.
Rewards
Your level, points, current and best streak, and all twelve badges — earned ones in colour, locked ones showing exactly what unlocks them.
Account
Budget, display name and currency. Create and manage savings goals. Install the app, sign out, erase your data or delete your account outright.
Put MADBU on your home screen
MADBU is a progressive web app. It installs straight from your browser — no app store, no download, and it updates itself.
iPhone & iPad
Open madbu.com in Safari (it must be Safari). Tap the Share button, scroll down and choose Add to Home Screen, then tap Add. MADBU appears as its own icon and opens full-screen.
Android & desktop
Open madbu.com in Chrome or Edge. You'll see an Install prompt in the address bar, or use Account → Install MADBU on this device. Confirm and it's added.
How scoring works
Points exist for one reason: to make logging feel worth doing on the days you'd rather not.
+10
Every entry you log, any type.
+15
Bonus for your first entry each day.
+2 / day
Streak bonus, capped at ten days.
+25–400
One-off awards for each badge.
Miss a day and your streak resets to one — but your points, badges and best-ever streak are kept permanently.
Common questions
Do I have to connect my bank account?
No, and you can't. MADBU never asks for bank credentials, card numbers or read-only banking access. You enter what you spend. That's a deliberate trade: a few seconds of typing in exchange for never handing over your banking login.
Is it really free?
Yes. Creating an account, logging entries, setting budgets and goals, and earning badges are all free. There's no trial clock and no card required.
Can I use it on my computer as well as my phone?
Yes. MADBU is one account across every device. On a phone it behaves like a native app with a bottom tab bar; on a laptop it switches to a wider layout with a sidebar. Your data is identical on both.
What happens if I forget to log for a few days?
Your streak resets to one the next time you log, but nothing else is lost. You can also backdate an entry — pick any past date when you save it — so a catch-up session still records the right day.
Can I get my data out?
Yes. The Tracker has a CSV export covering every entry with its date, type, category, amount and note. It opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.
How do I delete my account?
Account → Danger zone → Delete my account, then type DELETE to confirm. That permanently removes your login and every entry, goal, point and badge attached to it. There's also "Erase all my entries" if you want a clean slate but want to keep the account.
Is my information private?
Your entries are visible only to you when signed in. Pages showing your figures are never stored in any shared cache. For anything else, email contact@madbu.com.
Ready when you are
Create an account and log your first entry in under a minute.
Start tracking free