Tracking your subscriptions without spreadsheets

Updated 2026-05-19 · 4-minute read

Short answer: To track recurring subscriptions (Spotify, Netflix, cloud storage, etc.), use a budget app with a recurring-charge feature — log each subscription once with its monthly amount and billing day, and the app auto-logs the charge every month with a reminder the day before. Penno does this without needing bank linking or any subscription detection algorithm.

The average US household pays $200-400/month in subscriptions, half of which they've forgotten exist. The fix isn't a fancy "subscription detection AI" — it's just writing them down once.

The audit (do this first, once)

Open your last bank statement. Scan for recurring charges. Common categories:

Write down every recurring charge with: name, monthly amount, day of month it bills, category. This is your "subscription inventory."

Enter each one into Penno's recurring

For each item in the inventory:

One-time setup takes 5-15 minutes depending on how many subscriptions you have.

How the auto-charge works

Every time you open Penno, the app checks for any active recurring whose next_billing_date ≤ today. Those automatically get logged as transactions in your ledger, and the billing date advances by one month.

If you missed a few opens (vacation, etc.), the app catches up — it can log up to 24 months of accumulated charges in a single open, with a safety cap.

You do nothing. The recurring transactions appear in your monthly totals just like manually-entered ones.

Day-before reminders

If you enable notifications during onboarding, Penno schedules a local notification the day before each recurring charge fires. Useful for:

The reminders are local — they don't require a push server, and they work even if the app hasn't been opened recently.

The quarterly review

Every three months, open the Recurring tab. Look at the full list. For each one ask: "Am I still using this?"

Cancel the ones you're not. Penno can't cancel subscriptions for you (no bank linking, no account access) — but seeing them on one screen, with their monthly costs visible, makes it obvious which ones don't justify themselves.

A typical user finds 2-4 cancellable subscriptions on a first review. That's $30-80/month saved. The app itself usually pays for itself in this single act.

What about income that's recurring?

Penno supports recurring income too (salary, freelance retainers, child support, etc.). Same flow — type "income" instead of "expense". Income recurring auto-logs the same way as expense recurring, contributing to your monthly cash inflow.

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from Rocket Money's subscription detection?

Rocket Money scans your bank feed and automatically finds recurring charges. Penno requires you to enter them manually — which takes 15 minutes once. The trade-off: no bank linking, no monthly fee, no third-party data sharing.

What if a subscription's price changes?

Open the recurring entry, edit the amount. Future auto-charges use the new amount; previously logged charges keep their historical amount. The audit trail is preserved.

Can I track annual subscriptions?

Penno's recurring is monthly only. For an annual subscription, divide the annual price by 12 and enter it as monthly — psychologically accurate, and the math works out per-year. Or enter it as a one-time transaction on the billing day each year.

How do I handle a subscription that's paused?

Set its "active" flag to false in the recurring entry. Auto-charges stop. Toggle back on when you resume — Penno picks up where it left off.

Try Penno

Recurring auto-charge with day-before notifications. No bank linking. No detection AI needed.

Visit Penno home →

See also: Budget without bank linking