Make an app
Make a budget and expense tracker app for iPhone
A budget app only works if adding a purchase takes seconds. Describe your categories and limits and Borel builds a native iPhone expense tracker in Swift: what's left this month on the first screen, a three-tap way to add spending, receipts scanned with the camera, and charts by category, with your figures kept on your phone and Face ID in front of them.
Updated
“A monthly budget app: I set categories like Food, Rent, Transport and Fun, each with a monthly limit. The home screen shows what's left in each this month. Adding an expense takes an amount, a category and an optional note and receipt photo. A chart shows spending per category, and the app is locked with Face ID.”
Screens
What a budget app needs
The screens Borel builds from the prompt above. Ask for more, fewer or different ones.
This month
Each category's limit, what's spent and what's left, red when it's over.
Add expense
A number pad, category chips and an optional note and receipt photo.
History
Every expense this month, grouped by day, searchable by note.
Charts
Spending by category as a ring, and month against month as bars.
Data
What it keeps
Borel writes these as Swift models. On the phone they work with no connection; in Borel's cloud they follow a signed-in person.
| What | Holds | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Name, icon, monthly limit | On the phone, with SwiftData |
| Expense | Amount, date, category, note, receipt | On the phone, with SwiftData |
| Month | Income and what you carried over | On the phone |
Native iPhone features
What it can use on your iPhone
Written in Swift with Apple's own frameworks, so they work the way iPhone owners expect.
Make it yours
What to ask for next
Once the first version runs, ask for changes in the chat, in words like these.
- “Let a category's unspent money roll over into next month.”
- “Add repeating expenses like rent and subscriptions on a set day.”
- “Split an expense between two categories.”
- “Show a shared budget my partner can add to.”
How to make it
From a prompt to your iPhone and the App Store
- 1
Describe it
Paste the prompt on this page into Borel, or write your own in plain words. Borel plans the screens with you before it builds.
- 2
Try it in your browser
Borel writes the app in Swift and SwiftUI, builds it with Xcode on its own Mac and opens it in a live iPhone simulator in your browser, free.
- 3
Put it on your iPhone
With Pro, Borel Companion for Windows or Mac installs it on your own iPhone with your Apple ID: a cable the first time, then Wi-Fi.
- 4
Publish it when it's ready
Pro publishes to the App Store from the same project. Apple's Developer Program, $99 a year, is the one thing you pay Apple.
Add a week of real spending on your iPhone. The test is the till: can you log a coffee before you've put your card away? Scan one receipt with the camera, and check that Face ID asks when you open the app and not again on every screen.
Most budget apps people make with Borel stay personal. If you publish one, Borel's real budget build is a good starting point, and a shared household budget works through accounts in Borel's cloud.
Building starts free, with 5 free credits a day, up to 30 a month, and the simulator in your browser costs nothing. Pro, from $20 a month, adds installs on your own iPhone through Borel Companion and publishing to the App Store.
Before you start
Good to know
- It doesn't connect to your bank; you add expenses yourself, or import them by asking Borel for a CSV import.
- There's no Apple Pay or Wallet integration for reading purchases.
- Amounts are in one currency unless you ask for more.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Describe your categories, limits and how you add expenses, and Borel writes the app in Swift and runs it in your browser.
Your figures stay on your iPhone with SwiftData unless you add accounts, and Face ID can guard the app.
Yes. The real builds page shows a budget app with a limit per category and what's left this month, with its prompt, screens, cost and time.
Yes. Ask for accounts and a shared budget, and Borel keeps it in its cloud for both of you, with the app on the App Store for your partner.
Make your budget app
Start from the prompt on this page, change it to fit your idea, and Borel builds it while you watch.