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02Getting started

Set Ledgerly up.

Seven steps. Two are optional. The first time through takes around five minutes, most of it just confirming what Ledgerly already figured out from your SMS.

01

Install Ledgerly

Ledgerly is pre-launch. It is not yet on Google Play. When it is ready, the install button will live on a Play Store listing and on this page.

In the meantime, if you would like a heads-up when it ships, send a note to madmaxlabsllc@gmail.com and we will write back.

02

Allow SMS reading

On first launch, Ledgerly asks for permission to read incoming SMS. Allow it and your ledger starts filling itself the next time your bank sends a transaction message.

What this gets you
  • Incoming bank SMS gets parsed into clean transactions on your device.
  • Promotional and personal SMS is ignored. Only messages that match transaction patterns are kept.
  • Only the parsed details are stored: amount, merchant, date, bank, last four of the card. The original SMS text is discarded.
What it does not do
  • Ledgerly does not request the older READ_SMS permission, so it cannot read your existing SMS history, only new ones from the moment you allow it.
  • SMS does not leave your device. There is no Ledgerly server.
  • You can revoke this any time in Android settings.
03

Check your bank sender IDs

Indian banks send SMS from sender IDs like HDFCBK, JD-HDFCBK, or VK-HDFCBK depending on your operator. Ledgerly canonicalizes them all to the same bank, but the first time you run the app, take a moment to confirm the senders it detected look right.

If a transaction shows up with the wrong bank or no bank, you can correct the mapping. Future messages from that sender will use the correction.

04

Add your credit cards

Open the Cards section and add the cards you actually use. Two ways:

  • From the bundled catalog: 57 cards across HDFC, ICICI, SBI, Axis, IndusInd, Standard Chartered, and more. Each carries its real reward rates, caps, and exclusions.
  • Auto-detect: if your bank SMS has named a card, Ledgerly offers to add it for you.

Adding cards turns on the optimizer, the Cashback Bank, Card Karma, Welcome Bonus Radar, and the rest of the credit-card features. Without cards in your wallet, those screens stay quiet.

05

Turn on the accessibility helper

Optional

This step is optional. Skip it and the rest of the app still works fine.

If you turn it on, Ledgerly can read the item details inside the supported shopping apps, so a single Blinkit or Swiggy order becomes an itemized list in your ledger, with packaging fees and tip broken out. The same service powers the optional pre-swipe card nudge that suggests the best card on a checkout screen before you pay.

To enable: Settings > Accessibility > Ledgerly. Android will show its own warning about the powers an accessibility service has. That warning exists because the API can be misused; the way Ledgerly uses it is described below and in the privacy policy.

What this gets you
  • Reads order screens only inside the apps Ledgerly knows about: Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy, Zomato, Uber Eats, Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, Dunzo, Myntra, Nykaa, Ajio, plus the GPay, PhonePe, and Paytm payment apps.
  • Reads only when you tap the capture button, a Quick Settings tile, or a notification action. Nothing runs in the background.
  • The pre-swipe nudge is off by default, opt-in per app.
What it does not do
  • It does not read banking apps, messaging apps, or anything else.
  • Captured details never leave your device.
  • One toggle turns it off.
06

Add an OpenAI key

Optional

Also optional. Without an OpenAI key, every non-AI feature works and your data stays on the device.

Add a key to unlock: the Card Concierge chat (questions answered against your real wallet), Wallet Wrapped (year-in-review), Wallet Roast (the playful version), the spending-insight narrator, and AI-assisted receipt and statement imports.

Where to set it: Settings > AI features > OpenAI API key.

What this gets you
  • The key is stored encrypted on your device, using the Android Keystore. It is excluded from Android cloud backup.
  • Calls go directly from your device to OpenAI, billed to your own account. Ledgerly has no shared model and no API key of its own.
  • What gets sent: for the text features, summarized figures (monthly totals, top merchants, your card list, the question you typed), not the raw transaction list. For imports, only the file you are importing.
What it does not do
  • Ledgerly does not route AI requests through a Mad Max Labs server. There is no such server.
  • OpenAI handles whatever is sent under its own privacy policy. We neither receive nor store any of it.
  • Remove the key in Settings to turn every AI feature off.
07

Take a first look around

The four screens worth knowing about on day one:

  • Dashboard. Balance, monthly spend against budget, the cash-flow forecast, the Cashback Bank tally, today’s card.
  • History. Every transaction, ordered by day. Long-press a row to recategorize, mark it as a subscription or a loan, classify inflow (refund, gift, borrowed), or edit the amount.
  • Insights. Monthly headline, trend lines, fee totals, top items, and a plain-English summary of the month.
  • Settings. Permissions, AI key, accessibility opt-ins, backup, integrity check.

Want more detail?

The features page walks through every screen, with examples.