Frequently Asked Questions
Can't find your answer? See the How to Use guide or contact support.
Using the app
- Tapping a bill does nothing. Is it broken?
- No — that is deliberate, so scrolling can never settle a bill by accident. Touch and hold a bill to record a payment, edit it or skip a cycle. On iPhone and iPad you can also swipe it; on a Mac, right-click or double-click.
- How do I record a payment?
- Touch and hold the bill and choose Record Payment. A full payment moves the bill on to its next cycle; a partial payment leaves it due and shows what is still owed. You can do the same from the bills under the Calendar.
- A bill was not due this month
- Touch and hold it and choose Skip This Cycle. That moves the bill forward without recording money, and the skip is listed in History so the gap is explained.
- My electricity bill is different every month
- Turn on Amount Varies Each Bill. After each full payment the amount clears to zero, ready for you to enter the next statement's figure. Reports averages such bills from what you have actually paid.
- Can the app record payments that come out automatically?
- Yes — turn on Recorded Automatically for that bill. Bill Compass records the payment on the due date and moves the bill on. It never moves money itself; it only keeps the record.
- I recorded a payment by mistake
- Find it in History, touch and hold it, and choose Edit Payment to correct it or Delete Payment to remove it. Deleting it also puts the bill back on the date it was due before, so it is owed again.
- I stopped a service but want to keep its history
- Archive the bill rather than deleting it. It leaves the Overview, the Calendar and reminders, keeps every payment recorded against it, and can be restored later from the Archived screen.
- What does the coloured dot next to the title mean?
- It is your status at a glance: green when nothing is overdue, amber when one or two bills are, red when more are.
- Where are Settings and Archived on iPhone?
- In the ••• menu at the top left of the screen.
- Can I change how it looks?
- Settings offers five accent colours, light or dark, and a background of a colour or one of your own photos. On iPad and Mac you can also choose how bills are arranged — a list, a grid, or a board of paper notes. Appearance is set per device on purpose, so your Mac and your phone can differ.
Reminders
- Why are my reminders not arriving?
- Reminders need to be switched on in the app and permitted in your device's Settings under Notifications. Archived bills never remind, and a bill can have reminders turned off individually on its own edit screen.
- I changed the reminder setting but my bills did not change
- New Bills Remind sets the starting point for bills you add from now on. Each existing bill keeps its own lead time — change it on that bill's edit screen.
- What does the number on the app icon mean?
- How many bills are overdue or coming due within your reminder window.
Sync and purchases
- Do I have to pay to sync?
- Syncing between devices is a one-time Lifetime iCloud Sync purchase of $7.99 — not a subscription. Everything else works without it, on one device. Because it is tied to your Apple Account, buying it once covers your iPhone, your iPad and your Mac.
- I bought sync but nothing is syncing yet
- Reopen the app. Bill Compass decides how to open your database when it launches, so a purchase made while it is running takes effect the next time you start it. Settings will say so after you buy.
- I already bought it, but a new device says sync is off
- Settings → iCloud → Restore Purchase, with the device signed in to the same Apple Account you bought it on. Nothing is charged twice.
- My bills have not appeared on my other device
- First, check sync is unlocked on both devices — Settings → iCloud. Then both need to be signed in to the same Apple Account with iCloud Drive on. Syncing is handled by iCloud and is not instant — it can take a few minutes, and a device that has been asleep may need the app opened once. On iPhone and iPad you can pull down on the bill list to prompt a refresh; on a Mac, use Sync Now. Settings → Diagnostics shows whether sync is on and when data was last sent and received. More on the iCloud Sync page.
Your data
- How do I back up my bills?
- Settings → Backup → Export Backup… writes everything — bills, payments, tags and payment methods — to a single CSV file you can email to yourself or keep in Files. Restore From Backup… merges that file back by record, updating what it recognises and adding what is missing, without deleting anything.
- Does Bill Compass connect to my bank?
- No. It never sees your bank, never moves money, and makes no network requests of its own. It keeps the record you give it.
- Who can see my bills?
- Only you. They are stored on your devices and, with sync, in your own private iCloud database. There is no account, no analytics and no server of ours. See the privacy policy.
Bill Compass