How to use oda

Guide 1

Your first month

Five minutes, and oda can tell you what is left to spend every day.

1. 1

   Open oda at app.oda-daily.com. There is nothing to sign up for.

2. 2

   Say what comes in each month — your salary. A round number is fine; you can change it later on Plan.

3. 3

   Add your bills on Plan: rent, the generator, internet, school, a loan payment. Each is added once and comes back every month.

4. 4

   Log what you spend with the + button: the amount, a tap on a category, save. Two taps for a coffee.

5. 5

   Read Home. The big number is what is left to spend this month, with bills you have not paid yet already taken out.

Good to know. Categories are searchable: start typing in the expense form and the one you want comes first, or add a new one right there.

Guide 2

Paid between the 25th and the 30th

If your salary lands at the end of the month, a calendar month is the wrong box for it. Count payday to payday instead.

1. 1

   In Settings, under Payday (or above your list on Spending), switch Month to Cycle.

2. 2

   Say how pay comes: once a month between two days (the 25th to the 30th), twice a month, every two weeks, weekly, every few days or weeks, or irregularly.

3. 3

   When the window opens, Home asks. Tap My pay arrived on the day it does, and the new cycle starts that day. If you forget, it starts on the window’s last day on its own.

4. 4

   Paid early, or a bonus? Tap Start a new cycle, and change the amount if it was not your usual pay.

5. 5

   Pay the mortgage the day after an early salary, and it counts for the cycle it belongs to — not “paid twice in September and missing in October”.

Good to know. Plan shows your rhythm: the last six cycles as bars, red when a cycle spent more than came in. Tap one to see its spending.

Guide 3

Bills that change every month

The electricity is $100 most months and $83 in this one. That is fine.

1. 1

   Add the bill on Plan with its usual amount, and how often it comes: every month, twice a month, every two weeks or every week.

2. 2

   When it is due, it shows on Home under Needs you. Tap Mark paid.

3. 3

   The amount is already filled in with the usual figure. Change it to what it actually came to, and save.

4. 4

   Paid at all is paid: an $83 bill is settled, not “$17 short”.

Good to know. On Plan, “Add to calendar” puts your bills — and your expected paydays — into your phone’s own calendar, with a reminder the day before. No account, no notifications server.

Guide 4

A loan or a mortgage

Enter the loan from its papers, and oda works out what is left, the interest still ahead, and what paying early would do.

1. 1

   On Owe, add a loan. Pick the lender if it is on the list — Banque de l’Habitat, for one — and its rate and early-payoff rules fill in for you.

2. 2

   Enter the amount borrowed, the monthly payment and months left.

3. 3

   Already a few payments in? Under Bank loan details, set Payments already made. Four made and 236 to go is a 240-month loan, four in.

4. 4

   Enter only the loan part of the payment. If your bank adds insurance or fees, oda says so when the payment is more than the loan needs, and adds those costs as bills of their own.

5. 5

   Open What if… on the loan to see what paying more each month, or a lump sum, would save.

Good to know. Your lenders are yours to edit: when a bank changes its rate, change it on the Lenders list and the next loan picks it up.

Guide 5

Back up, and move to a new phone

Your ledger lives only in this browser. The backup is the one copy that can travel.

1. 1

   Open Backup and download the file. It is an ordinary spreadsheet you can open anywhere.

2. 2

   Keep it somewhere safe — your email, a drive. oda reminds you when the last one is getting old.

3. 3

   On the new phone, open oda and choose I have a backup file (or Backup → Import).

4. 4

   Everything comes back: entries, bills, loans, goals, categories, your paydays, your lenders and your settings.

Good to know. Importing the same file twice adds nothing, and importing into a ledger you already use never changes its currency.

Guide 6

Lock it, and hide the amounts

For a phone that gets passed around.

1. 1

   In Settings, turn on Lock oda. From then on it asks for your face or fingerprint as soon as it opens.

2. 2

   Tap the eye in the header to hide every amount on screen. Showing them again asks for your face or finger.

3. 3

   Forgot how to get in? The lock screen can erase this ledger — the backup is how you get it back.

Guide 7

Put it on your home screen

oda works like an app, and opens without a connection.

1. 1

   iPhone: open app.oda-daily.com in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.

2. 2

   Android: open it in Chrome, tap the menu, then Install app.

3. 3

   It updates itself in the background and waits for you: when “Update ready” shows, tap it whenever you like.