How to log expenses with the iPhone Action Button, Siri, Back Tap and Shortcuts

The quickest way to log spending on an iPhone is to put it on a button. My Money, a free daily-budget app for iPhone, gives the Action Button, Siri and the Shortcuts app two actions. Voice Log opens My Money straight into a full-screen voice recorder that starts listening; you check the draft, tap save, and the recorder closes. Quick Log saves a line of text without opening the app at all. Put Apple's Dictate Text action in front of Quick Log and you have hands-free logging: press and hold the Action Button, say "lunch 12", and the expense is saved. iPhones without an Action Button can run the same shortcut with Back Tap or Siri.

Voice Log or Quick Log: which should you use?

Both start with one press. The main difference is whether you see the entry before it is saved.

If you are new to voice logging, start with Voice Log. You will see how your sentences are read and learn which phrasing works. Once your entries keep coming out right, move the Action Button to Quick Log. You can also use both: one on the Action Button, the other on Back Tap or Siri.

Why log an expense at the moment you pay?

Manual expense tracking usually breaks in the gap between paying and writing it down. A $40 grocery run is easy to remember in the evening. A $4 coffee, a $3 bus fare and a snack from the vending machine are not, and those are the entries that go missing. The fix is not more willpower. It is fewer steps between the payment and the record.

Three habits make any tracker easier to keep, whether it is a notebook or an app:

• Log before the phone goes back in your pocket. The price and the reason are still in front of you.
• Use one fixed format: item, then amount. "Coffee 5", "Taxi home 18", "Groceries 42". Short sentences are faster to say and easier to check.
• One purchase per entry. Separate entries are easier to correct and to sort into categories later.

A hardware button makes the first habit close to automatic. There is no app to find and no screen to tap through: press, speak, done.

Option A: put Voice Log on the Action Button

This is the simplest setup. You don't need to edit anything in the Shortcuts app.

1. Open the Action Button settings. Go to Settings → Action Button.
2. Choose Shortcut. Swipe through the options until you reach Shortcut.
3. Pick Voice Log. Tap to choose a shortcut, find My Money and select Voice Log.
4. Try it. Press and hold the Action Button. My Money opens in the full-screen recorder, already listening. Say what you bought, check the draft, then tap save. The recorder closes.

Option B: log expenses without opening the app (Dictate Text → Quick Log)

Quick Log on its own needs a line of text to log. Apple's Dictate Text action turns your voice into that text, so the two together make a voice button that never opens My Money. You build it once in the Shortcuts app.

1. Create a new shortcut. Open the Shortcuts app and tap + to start a blank shortcut.
2. Add Dictate Text. Search for Dictate Text and add it. Expand its options and set Stop Listening to After Short Pause, so it ends soon after you finish your sentence. Check that its language is the one you will speak.
3. Add Quick Log. Search for My Money and add Quick Log below Dictate Text.
4. Connect the two. In the Quick Log action, set Log text to the Dictated Text variable. This is the step that passes your words to My Money.
5. Name it. Rename the shortcut at the top, for example "Voice Log Anywhere", and tap Done.
6. Bind it. Go to Settings → Action Button, swipe to Shortcut and choose Voice Log Anywhere.

My Money also has a step-by-step guide for this exact setup in its Settings, if you would rather follow along on the phone.

What happens after you press the button?

The entry then shows up in My Money's recent entries and history like any other. The "left to spend today" figure comes from the budget you set on first launch; the daily budget method guide shows how it is worked out.

Which iPhones have the Action Button?

The Action Button is on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, every iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 model, iPhone 16e and iPhone Air. The standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, and earlier models, don't have one. My Money itself runs on any iPhone with iOS 17.0 or later.

No Action Button? Use Back Tap

Back Tap runs a shortcut when you tap the back of your iPhone.

1. Open Back Tap. Go to Settings → Accessibility → Touch → Back Tap.
2. Choose Double Tap or Triple Tap.
3. Pick your shortcut. Scroll to the Shortcuts section and choose Voice Log Anywhere, or a shortcut that runs Voice Log.

If Double Tap fires when you don't mean it to, switch to Triple Tap.

Can you log expenses with Siri?

Yes. My Money's two actions come with Siri phrases:

• "Voice log with My Money" opens the voice recorder, the same as Voice Log.
• "Quick log with My Money" runs Quick Log.

You can also ask Siri to run your own shortcut by its name, such as "Voice Log Anywhere". Pick a name that is easy to say and doesn't sound like another shortcut. Siri is handy when your hands are full.

Troubleshooting voice expense logging

Voice is unavailable in My Money

My Money's recorder uses on-device speech recognition only. If your iPhone doesn't support on-device recognition for the language you are using, voice is unavailable. Type the entry instead, such as "Coffee 5"; the amount and category are filled in for you.

Quick Log saved something wrong

Quick Log has no review step. The entry is saved as soon as it runs. Open My Money and edit or delete the entry from your history. If it happens often, use Voice Log for a while, since it shows you the draft first.

The amount or item came out wrong

Say the item and the amount clearly, and keep the sentence short: "lunch 12", "taxi home 18". Leave out filler words. Pause briefly at the end so dictation stops cleanly.

Dictation stops too early or too late

Change Stop Listening in the Dictate Text action. After Pause waits longer than After Short Pause, and On Tap keeps listening until you tap.

What happens to your voice and your data?

• Voice Log: speech is recognized on the iPhone. Raw audio is never uploaded.
• Quick Log shortcut: iOS's Dictate Text action does the listening, and My Money receives only the text.
• Reading the entry: done on device by default. The optional online AI (DeepSeek) is off by default, asks you feature by feature before anything is sent, and then sends only that entry's text. You can switch it off at any time.
• Your records: stored on your iPhone. No account, no sign-in, no bank connection.

For the wider trade-offs, see budgeting without linking a bank account.

What this setup can't do

• No bank or card sync. Every entry comes from you: typed, spoken, or read from a screenshot.
• iPhone only, iOS 17.0 or later. There is no Android, web or Mac app.
• Quick Log doesn't ask for confirmation, so mistakes are fixed afterwards in the app.

If most of your spending already appears as payment confirmations or receipts, turning screenshots into expense entries can be faster than speaking each one.