Use Essara to save more, stress less.
Your complete operating guide. Follow the daily, weekly, and monthly workflows to plug every money leak.
Start Here (First 3 Minutes)
01
Finish Onboarding
Choose a clean start, sample data, or import. Set your currency and monthly income.
02
Set Budget & Balance
Go to Settings and establish a realistic monthly spending baseline you can actually sustain.
03
Add First 3 Transactions
Start with rent, groceries, and transport. Instant clarity follows your first three entries.
Daily Flow (5 Minutes Total)
Morning
Open Dashboard, check budget pace, and see how yesterday closed.
At Spend Time
Log each transaction instantly or scan your receipt while in line.
Subscriptions
Tag any recurring charges correctly to maintain a clean data set.
Night Review
Quick 60-second check: missing entries and category cleanup.
Weekly Review (Sunday, 15 Minutes)
Open Dashboard and identify your top 3 expense categories for the week.
Compare current pace vs. monthly budget — are you above trend?
Review subscriptions and prune at least one low-value service.
Check investments; avoid emotional changes, focus on tracking discipline.
Core Principle
One small, sustainable cut per week compounds far better than one extreme cut you cannot sustain.
Monthly Reset (30 Minutes)
Budget Tuning
Increase only categories you repeatedly underestimated. Reduce leakage categories first.
Performance Review
Track spend delta month-over-month and lock improvements into next month's targets.
Safety Checkpoint
Export a data backup from Settings. One minute of work that protects years of data.
Savings Playbooks
Subscription Slimdown
List all subscriptions, rank by value, cancel lowest first, and set a renewal reminder.
Category Leak Fix
Pick one over-budget category, set a weekly cap, and track daily until the habit stabilizes.
Cash Buffer Build
Move a fixed amount every payday, log it as a goal contribution, and track monthly progress.
Impulse Spend Control
Add purchases as pending notes first. Wait 24 hours, then approve only what still feels essential.
API + Agents
Base URL: https://essara.space/api/v1
POST — Create Transaction
curl -X POST https://essara.space/api/v1/transactions \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"amount": 42.80,
"description": "Groceries",
"category": "cat-food",
"type": "expense",
"date": "2026-02-17"
}'GET — Dashboard Stats
curl "https://essara.space/api/v1/dashboard/stats?month=2026-02"
Agent Intent Example
"Add expense 18.40 for lunch today" → parse fields → POST /transactions → confirm ID.
FAQ
I am new. What should I do first?
Set your budget and starting balance, then log every transaction for 7 days. The dashboard will immediately surface your biggest spending patterns.
How do I maximize savings quickly?
Use the Weekly Review to identify your biggest over-budget category and cut it by 20% per week. Small compounding reductions win over aggressive one-time cuts.
Can I track crypto, gold, and silver?
Yes. The Investments module supports equities, crypto, gold, and silver with live pricing feeds.
Is my data portable and secure?
All data is stored locally by default. Export a full backup from Settings at any time. No cloud = no breach.
Core Modules