We write a lot about how to make money online, but what about how to keep it? As much as industry-leading apps have dominated the financial tracking industry for years, longevity and dominance are not always the best factors in determining the best solution for an app – especially in a category like finance. After being frustrated with budgeting apps like Mint, YNAB, and Pocketguard, I wanted something easier to use, visually appealing, and an app with in-depth customization. Enter Copilot: a beautifully designed financial hub for your finances that lets you connect, customize, and conquer all of your accounts in one place.
Copilot is a finance management tool that helps you track your accounts, subscriptions, bills, and net worth. It has an extremely well made interface that makes it easy to manage your money and see where it's going. Copilot can also connect to your investment accounts and send you notifications when you get paid. It's a helpful tool for gaining control of your money and improving your financial planning. After using it for a little over 2 years, I think it's finally time for me to declare how much I absolutely love this app. Seriously.
Regardless if you're a seasoned budgeting pro or a beginner trying to learn the ropes, I can't say enough good things about Copilot. Its customization options are especially great — you can tailor it to your specific needs and preferences, so that it better reflects where your money is going each month. You can also easily train Copilot to understand your finances, which saves a ton of time. With 4.8 stars and almost 6,000 reviews on the app store, it's clear they're doing something right.
Is Copilot Safe?
Copilot uses 256-bit encryption to protect your data at rest and Transport Layer Security (TLS) to protect it in transit. In addition, they don’t start your bank login credentials, partnering with data aggregators like Plaid and Finicity to connect with your financial institutions.
Copilot does not access your data, except when necessary to provide direct services. Examples when you request support for data-related issues. Otherwise, they use aggregated and anonymized data for internal analytics and business purposes.
Key Features
With a bunch of useful features, Copilot can help you manage your money, track where it's going, and understand your long-term trends. PS: Screenshots have sensitive financial information removed!
Account Management
With an easy to view graph, you can see every account you'd like to track on one page. This includes checking, saving, credit cards, investment, loan accounts, and even Crypto wallets! If the platform currently doesn't support automatic tracking of one of you financial accounts, you can add it manually. On this page you can view your assets and debts in graphs ranging from 1 week to 1 year ago. If you don't want to see your debt, you can hide it! You can also add financial accounts to your account page but disable them being added or subtracted from your net worth.
Investment Overview
If you're an avid investor, this page will be wonderful for you. Easily track your investment earnings – or losses if you haven't had the best luck – from a single overview. Again, you can view the last week or up to a year depending on preference. Add IRA, stock, and other investing accounts to this page for a better understanding of your overall net worth.
Transaction List
If you want to face the unfortunately reality of your spending habits, fear no more! On the transaction page, you can view up to years of history on a single page. As you begin to categorize each transaction into your budgeting categories (which we'll go into later), you'll have everything populated on a single page. You can search transactions if it's been a while, or add them manually if they're external or completed in cash. Filter by date, price, category, and even account to get a granular view of your spending trends. Copilot makes it super easy to understand and manage your finances with personalized insights and automatic transaction organization. Plus, the app constantly gets better thanks to crowdsourced feedback and machine learning.
Budgeting & Categories
Stay on top of your finances with Copilot's budgeting feature, which is tailored to your unique spending habits and includes automatic detection of recurring bills and subscriptions. Budget Rollovers make it easy to track spending across multiple months and avoid unexpected expenses. If you're not somebody who budgets, that's totally fine too. Copilot allows you to customize and adjust as needed, or simply add transactions without a budget if that works better for you.
- Customize your budget categories to suit your needs
- Establish custom rules for categorizing transactions
- Roll over budget excesses on a per-category basis from month to month
- Set up variable budget categories for different months
- Quickly adjust and balance your budget categories as needed
Simple Dashboard
Once you've tailored all these pages to your spending and budgeting habits, you can view an overview of it all on the dashboard. The dashboard will show you a graph and budget line based on how much you've set your target spend rate for that month. You'll see how close or far you are from your budget, and at what time of the month you exceeded expectations. You'll also see a review of your finances from the last month, including how much you made and spent. This page further shows you any recurring purchases that are coming up and the current income you've made this month
Pretty Graphs
Everything we've spoken about is displayed in pretty graphs on each page of the app. Why wouldn't you use an app with pretty graphs? Jokes aside, these interactive graphs help you quickly and easily understand your overall financial situation. You can customize the range of dates to view or add indicators such as net worth, cash flow, savings rate, and more.
Demo Mode
Updated 3/21/2023 – Well wow. I wish this was a feature before I wrote this review! Copilot recently added a demo mode that lets you show sample financial data. This is great if you're trying to show the app to friends and family. I really do swear by this app so I'm glad they added it (I can convince my friends even more).
Some Missing Features
Of course, no app is is perfect. There are a few areas the app could introduce some changes to benefit a wider spectrum of users (or at least improve their experiences).
Platform availability - Currently Copilot is only available on iOS and macOS devices, leaving out those on Android or Windows. Hopefully support will be added in the near future, because these users are missing out on a great app.
Connectivity issues - This doesn't happen too often, but some of my accounts will need to be reverified every few months for security reasons. It mainly happens with Amex, but once happened with a Chase account. It gets annoying when it happens, but I'm sure it'll get fixed soon.
Household Support - If you're looking to share budgeting information with a spouse or partner, Copilot doesn't currently offer any support for this. Being able to include accounts for a partner and view them individually and together would be very helpful.
Who Should Use Copilot?
The great news about Copilot is pretty much anyone can benefit from it. From a recent grad looking to keep tabs on their first job to a retiree managing multiple investments, Copilot can help anyone manage their finances. Additionally, the app is well suited for those with unique spending habits or multiple sources of income. The customizable categories, budget rollover feature, and interactive graphs make Copilot a great tool for anyone trying to take control of their money.
How to Get Copilot?
Currently Copilot is available on iOS and macOS. The desktop version has started to pilot to certain users as of a few weeks ago. With its crisp computer + phone interface, Copilot is quickly becoming one of the go-to financial apps for those looking to get their money in order.
How Much Does Copilot Cost?
With pricing starting at $8.99 per month or $69.99 yearly (under $6 a month), Copilot is cheaper than apps like YNAB and offers similar pricing to other industry-leading budgeting apps like Goodbudget. Using the code PENGUIN will get you a 1-month free trial, which you can test out 100% of the apps features to determine if Copilot is the right budgeting app for you!
Conclusion
If you're looking for a finance app that's easy to use and customize, check out Copilot. It's got a great interface and a range of features to help you track your accounts, subscriptions, bills, and net worth, as well as connect to your investment accounts and get notified when you get paid. It's perfect for anyone who wants to take control of their finances and make better financial decisions. Plus, the development community is constantly working to improve the user experience. With over 4,000 reviews and a 4.8-star rating, it's clear that a lot of people love Copilot. Give it a try and see how it can help you manage your money better!
Happy budgeting! 🙂
