A little help with Penny.

About the private beta

Penny is currently in internal TestFlight testing, with no public App Store release or public TestFlight invitation link. Existing invited testers can install the app through Apple’s TestFlight app. To ask about future testing, email hello@support.hastingsdynamics.com. An enquiry does not guarantee an invitation.

The main apps target iPhone and iPad with iOS/iPadOS 18.4 or later and Mac with macOS 15 or later. The updated beta includes native iPhone/iPad and Mac builds. An Apple Watch companion follows separately.

Explore the fictional demo first. In Settings, choose Switch to my finances to use personal records; the beta requires iCloud sign-in for that mode. TestFlight purchases use Apple’s sandbox and do not charge real money. Test data can still sync through your real iCloud account, so use fictional records while testing sharing and deletion.

Membership and restore purchases

Open Settings → Penny membership to subscribe or restore. Use the Apple Account associated with the purchase. One membership covers the subscriber’s supported devices; each partner needs a separate subscription. Subscription Family Sharing is not enabled.

For a paid App Store subscription, manage or cancel it through Apple’s subscription settings. Cancelling renewal normally leaves access until the current entitlement expires. You can still read, export and delete existing records after expiry. Apple handles billing and refund requests through Report a Problem.

If the beta cannot load the subscription price, check your App Store connection and try again later. Sandbox subscription metadata can take time to become available.

Connect Apple Wallet

Update to TestFlight 0.1.0 (7) or later for resumable Wallet sync and the earlier crash fixes. Apple has granted the entitlement for Penny. You still choose the accounts and history Penny can access, and unsupported banks cannot be connected this way.

You can prepare Wallet itself: select a supported card in Wallet, open More → Card Details → Get Account Balance & Activity, and complete your issuer’s authentication yourself. See Apple’s Wallet connection guide. Merely adding a payment card is not the same as connecting its account history.

In Penny on iPhone, switch to your finances, activate the sandbox membership, then open Settings → Connect Apple Wallet. Review the personal-use and private iCloud/companion-device choices, continue, and select accounts in Apple’s authorisation screen. Importing reads the latest information Wallet has available; it does not force a bank update. Penny resumes when the app opens or returns to the foreground, retries unfinished accounts while open, and checks completed accounts again after five minutes. Refresh Wallet starts an immediate attempt using saved progress. iOS controls execution while the app is closed; background delivery is not included in this beta. Unsupported institutions remain available through manual accounts or CSV.

Missing accounts, old data or denied access

Permission granted does not necessarily mean that account data is available. Penny shows the import stage, the result and the last completed check in Settings. If no accounts or transactions are available, set up balance and activity in Wallet first. If the connection is already configured but balances do not update, check that Fetch Data is enabled in Wallet’s connection settings.

Confirm that Wallet itself shows the account balance and activity. An empty list may mean the issuer or card is unsupported, no accounts were selected, or access was turned off. Review Penny’s access in Apple’s settings and reconnect. The selected history range limits the transactions available. Account update times reflect the bank’s data; Penny cannot request an immediate bank update.

One iPhone per person imports Wallet data. When replacing it, use Make this my importing iPhone in Penny Settings after iCloud has synced, then reconnect. iPad and Mac receive personal records through iCloud.

Slow imports, timeouts or many connected banks

Wallet sync saves balances and transaction pages as they arrive, with two accounts loading at a time. You can browse and edit saved records while the remaining accounts sync. Settings shows each account’s progress; totals can be incomplete until the remaining history arrives.

If one bank is slow, completed pages stay saved and other banks can finish. Penny retries that account automatically while open, with longer pauses between repeated failures. Leaving the app pauses the current attempt; returning resumes from saved progress. A late response from a cancelled or timed-out request cannot overwrite it.

Use Pause sync to stop automatic attempts, then Resume Wallet sync when ready. Refresh does not reset saved progress. Use Rescan available history only when you deliberately want to read the authorised history again. It preserves your notes and categories.

The updated beta also retains the earlier fixes for large imports freezing the interface and suspension-related closures. Update through TestFlight without deleting records or reinstalling. If a problem continues, send support the build number and the step where it occurs, without bank details.

On-device AI and questions from iPhone

Update Penny through TestFlight on both your iPhone and Mac without reinstalling. On the eligible Mac, enable Apple Intelligence in system Settings if needed and let its model download. M-series Macs, including the M4 Mac mini, support Apple Intelligence with the required system version. Penny’s AI requires macOS 26 or later; iPhone 14 Pro cannot generate answers locally.

Open Penny on the Mac, switch to your personal finances, restore membership and allow iCloud to sync. In Settings → On-device AI, choose Use this device if the Mac is not already selected. Keep Penny running. The importing iPhone and the AI device are separate choices.

Open Insights from the iPhone overview. Chat questions wait for your selected Mac and answers return through iCloud. If a question is waiting, check whether the Mac is asleep, Penny is quit, the on-device model is unavailable, or iCloud has not delivered the request. There is no cloud AI fallback.

AI fills only uncategorised transactions. Correct a category or undo the AI assignment in transaction details. Reviews cite calculated facts. Budget plans use observed earlier-month spending, which may be incomplete; review and edit the limits before Apply budget. Currencies stay separate.

Turn On-device AI off in Settings to cancel unfinished work after devices sync. Insights’ history menu exports or deletes saved questions, answers, reviews and drafts. Applied categories and budgets remain unless their source records or Wallet consent are deleted. AI is included in the existing membership; saved results remain readable after expiry.

Import a CSV statement

Create or choose an account, then open Settings → Import CSV. Map the date, description and signed amount columns, review the preview and possible duplicates, and confirm your selection. Amounts should be negative for money out and positive for money in; statements with separate debit/credit columns need a combined signed amount column first.

Imported transactions do not recalculate a manual account’s balance. Update that balance separately. Keep different currencies separate and review transfers, refunds and credit-card repayments so spending totals reflect your intent. Penny recognises its own Wallet exports and does not reimport them as shareable CSV records; reconnect Wallet for those records.

iCloud and household planning

Check that iCloud is available, your device is online and there is sufficient iCloud storage. Your own devices must use the same Apple Account to receive personal records. Allow changes to sync before editing the same record on another device; concurrent changes to the same record may resolve to one version.

For household planning, invite a partner’s separate Apple Account and explicitly select the summaries or expenses to share. Do not share an Apple Account or bank login. Use the household controls to stop publishing, leave or revoke access. Access changes cannot reach an offline device immediately.

FinanceKit-derived partner sharing is pending Apple’s separate written permission. Use manual entries and independent CSV records for the current household beta.

Export or delete your records

Open Settings → Export transactions to save a CSV. To remove an account, use Delete account; to clear personal records, use Delete personal records and read the confirmation. Disconnect bank imports stops fetching while keeping history. Delete Wallet data withdraws continued-use consent and removes Wallet records and notes while preserving independent manual/CSV records. Open Penny online on your other devices to apply the withdrawal. Delete any exported files separately.

Deletion withdraws published account data, but separately entered household expenses and previously exported copies remain separate. Let iCloud sync the deletion to your other devices. Uninstalling the app does not delete all iCloud data or cancel a subscription. See the privacy policy’s deletion details.

Contact support

Email hello@support.hastingsdynamics.com with the subject “Penny Support”. Include the app version/build, device model, operating-system version, whether you are using the demo or personal mode, and the steps that led to the problem.

Please redact names, amounts, account identifiers and notifications from any screenshot. Never send bank passwords, verification codes, full statements, unredacted transaction exports or a partner’s private information. For access, deletion or privacy requests, use the subject “Penny Privacy”.