KakeiBuddy User Guide

KakeiBuddy is a budgeting app that helps users record income and expenses, review weekly spending, complete budgeting challenges, and reflect on money habits. It is designed for beginner users and for pilot testing in Learning Group and Persuasive Technology research studies.

Quick Navigation

About Kakeibo

Kakeibo is a mindful budgeting method. It encourages people to plan, record, review, and reflect on everyday money decisions instead of only tracking totals.

KakeiBuddy uses four simple Kakeibo spending groups:

• Needs: food, housing, bills, transport, medicine, and other essential spending
• Wants: treats, convenience purchases, shopping, and entertainment
• Culture: learning, hobbies, social activities, and personal growth
• Unexpected: emergencies or unplanned costs

The goal is not to judge spending. The goal is to notice patterns and make the next budget decision easier.

First-Time Setup

When users open KakeiBuddy for the first time, they will go through onboarding.

1. Read the app introduction.
2. If joining a study, choose the assigned research group.
3. Complete consent, pre-study survey, and knowledge check if required.
4. Choose how data is saved: Sync Mode or Private Mode.
5. Select country and currency.
6. Set monthly income range, income pattern, pay schedule, and savings goal.
7. Choose a primary budgeting goal.
8. Continue to the Home screen.

After setup, the app shows a beginner tutorial for the bottom navigation and the + button.

Data Mode

KakeiBuddy has two data modes. Users can change this later in Settings.

Sync Mode:

• Backs up simple monthly totals for app continuity.
• Keeps transaction notes and full transaction rows out of research reports.
• Lets Budget Coach use budget summaries, not full records.
• Recommended for most testers.

Private Mode:

• Keeps transaction rows on the phone.
• Turns off monthly backup.
• Still allows Budget Coach to use simple budget summaries.
• Sends study data only if the user joins Research Mode.

Research exports do not include raw transaction rows, transaction notes, exact income amounts, exact expense amounts, or monetary aggregates.

Research Groups

Both research groups use the same app. Users should only choose the group assigned by the researcher.

Learning Group:

• Focus: budgeting awareness, confidence, reflection, self-regulated learning, and coaching support.
• Main features to use: Budget Coach, explanations, reflections, surveys, and learning checks.
• Main measures: budgeting awareness, confidence, self-efficacy, reflection quality, and learning outcomes.
• Study length: 21 days.
• Checkpoints: pre-study, Day 11, and Day 21.

Persuasive Technology Group:

• Focus: challenges, rewards, badges, progress, nudges, and motivation.
• Main features to use: Challenge tab, Quest Hub, rewards, streaks, badges, and weekly check-ins.
• Main measures: engagement, motivation, progression satisfaction, challenge completion, and gameful learning.
• Study length: 28 days.
• Checkpoints: pre-study, Day 14, and Day 28.

App Tutorial And Guides

New users will see a short tutorial after setup. It explains:

• Home
• Expenses
• Challenge
• Budget Coach
• Profile
• The floating + button for logging income and expenses

Users can replay guides from Settings. If tutorials are turned off, guide buttons and automatic first-time guides are hidden.

Main optional guides:

• Home guide
• Expenses guide
• Transaction list guide
• Transaction analytics guide
• Wallets guide
• Challenge guide
• Budget Coach guide

Home Screen

The Home screen gives a quick view of the current month.

Users can see:

• Level, streak, and points
• Monthly budget overview
• Savings target and spent amount
• Weekly Overview
• Spending categories
• Recent transactions

Weekly Overview lets users switch between Week 1 to Week 4. The weekly check-in appears only for the current week when there is recorded activity.

Adding Transactions

App navigation: tap the floating + button on Home, Expenses, Challenge, Budget Coach, or Profile.

Use the floating + button to log income or expenses.

Basic steps:

1. Tap +.
2. Choose Income or Expense.
3. Enter the amount.
4. Pick a category.
5. Choose a wallet if needed.
6. Confirm the date.
7. Save.

Category info modal:

• Expense category info: + > Expense > enter amount > Done > choose an expense category > tap the i icon in the Kakeibo Category card.
• Income category info: + > Income > enter amount > Done > choose an income category > tap the i icon in the Income Source card.

Transaction details:

• Open from Home > Recent Transaction.
• Open from Expenses > View all transactions > select a transaction.
• Open from Wallets > select a wallet transaction.

Users can also add monthly repeating transactions. Repeating transactions are generated locally for the current month and the next two months, with future months refreshed as the app is used.

After saving, users can open a transaction from the transaction list to review its amount, category, wallet, date, and description. Tap Edit to update the saved transaction.

Expenses Screen

App navigation: bottom navigation > Expenses.

The Expenses screen helps users review income, spending, savings, charts, and wallets.

Users can:

• Choose a month.
• Switch between chart and trend views.
• Filter by wallet.
• Review income, spent, and saved totals.
• Open transaction history.
• Open Manage Wallets.

The chart focuses on expense categories. Income and expenses are kept separate so totals are easier to understand.

Wallets

App navigation: Expenses > Manage wallets.

Wallets help users organize where money is tracked, such as Cash, Bank, Card, or E-wallet.

Users can:

• Create a wallet.
• Edit wallet name, type, icon, and starting balance.
• Set a default wallet.
• Archive wallets that are no longer used.
• View recent transactions for a wallet.

Archived wallets are kept for history when they already have linked transactions.

Transaction Analytics

App navigation: Expenses > Yearly Analytics.

Transaction Analytics gives a wider view of spending and savings over time.

Users can:

• Review one year or all-time data.
• Filter by wallet.
• View income, spent, and saved summaries.
• Check savings trend charts.
• Compare category breakdowns.
• Open monthly or yearly cashflow details.

Challenges

App navigation: bottom navigation > Challenge. To browse more challenges, tap the + button on the Challenge screen.

The Challenge tab contains budgeting challenges. Challenges are used for the serious-game and persuasive-technology parts of the study.

Users can:

• View current level and progress.
• Check active challenges.
• Browse recommended challenges.
• Accept challenges.
• Track challenge progress.
• Claim rewards after completion.
• Earn points and badges.

Accepting a challenge does not immediately award points. Rewards are claimed after the challenge is completed.

Budget Coach

App navigation: bottom navigation > Budget Coach.

Budget Coach gives one recommended step and supporting budget guidance.

The main item to test is Recommended Step:

• Start now: accepts or opens the suggested action.
• Why this?: explains why the step was shown.
• Not now: dismisses the suggestion.

Budget Coach uses budget summaries and ratios. It does not need raw transaction notes or full transaction rows.

Budget Coach can still be useful for new users:

• With no transactions, it gives profile-informed guidance.
• With early logs, it uses first spending patterns.
• With more activity, it becomes more personalized from current budget ratios.

Users can also complete Quick Reflection to record what happened and what they want to try next.

Reflections

App navigation: Budget Coach > Quick Reflection. To view past entries, tap View All beside Quick Reflection.

Reflections help users review budgeting habits.

Users can:

• Submit a quick reflection from Budget Coach.
• Open the reflection journal.
• View previous reflections.
• Edit or delete current-week local journal entries.

Research-submitted reflections may be treated as submitted study data. Local edits are for the user journal.

Profile And Settings

App navigation: bottom navigation > Profile. Tap the gear icon to open Settings.

Profile shows the user’s progress, badges, budget profile, and settings entry.

Settings includes:

• App Preferences
• Country and Currency
• About My Account
• Learning and Coach
• Privacy and Research
• Notifications
• Data Management
• App Tutorial and Guides
• Report an Issue

About My Account shows the anonymous user handle and participant code. Users can copy these when reporting bugs or communicating with the researcher.

Notifications

App navigation: Home > bell icon for the notification list. To change reminder settings, go to Profile > Settings > Notification Reminders.

Notifications are optional reminders.

Users can open Notification Settings to:

• Enable phone notification permission.
• Turn reminders on or off.
• Send a test notification.
• Resync reminders.

Notification list shows helpful nudges, scheduled reminders, and recent notification history. If permissions are blocked, users need to allow notifications in phone settings.

CSV Import And Export

App navigation: Profile > Settings > Data Management.

CSV tools are in Settings under Data Management.

Export My Data:

• Saves a spreadsheet-friendly CSV file on the phone.
• Includes personal local app data for the user.
• This is separate from protected research export.

Import CSV Transactions:

• Lets users choose a CSV file.
• Lets users map columns before import.
• Supports Date, Type, Amount, Category, Kakeibo Type, Notes, Wallet, Repeat, and Repeat Until.
• Required fields are Date, Type, and Amount.
• Lets users choose the date format, such as YYYY-MM-DD, MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, or month-name formats.
• Shows warnings for ambiguous dates like 03/04/2026 until the user chooses a format.
• Normalizes saved dates to YYYY-MM-DD.

Excel workbook files are not supported. Use CSV, TSV, or plain text files.

Reset Local App

App navigation: Profile > Settings > Data Management > Reset Local App.

Reset Local App clears local data on the phone, including transactions, summaries, settings, onboarding state, local research flags, notifications, points, badges, and app cache.

Reset keeps the anonymous user ID by default. It also tries to cancel current active challenges, while keeping completed challenge history and claimed rewards on the backend.

Important: reset does not delete records already uploaded to backend research or sync storage.

Tester Instructions

Use this checklist before distributing or testing the APK.

First-time flow:

• Install the APK.
• Open the app.
• Complete onboarding.
• Choose the assigned study group.
• Choose data mode.
• Complete profile setup.
• Confirm the Home tutorial appears.

Core app test:

• Add one income.
• Add one expense.
• Check Home totals.
• Check Expenses chart and wallet filter.
• Open transaction list and transaction analytics.
• Create or review a wallet.
• Open Budget Coach and test Recommended Step. This is one of the main research features.
• Accept one challenge. Challenges are one of the main research features.
• Claim a reward after completing a challenge.
• Submit one reflection.
• Open Profile and Settings.
• Send a test notification if permissions are enabled.
• Open Report an Issue.

Connectivity test:

• Confirm the app opens without network errors.
• Confirm Budget Coach suggestions or fallback guidance loads.
• Confirm Challenge data loads.
• Confirm Research screens load if the user joined Research Mode.

Reporting Issues

App navigation: Profile > Settings > Support > Report an Issue.

Preferred path:

1. Open KakeiBuddy.
2. Go to Profile.
3. Open Settings.
4. Tap Report an Issue.
5. Complete the Google Form.

If the app cannot open, use the direct bug report link provided by the researcher.

When reporting an issue, include:

• Email or contact method if follow-up is allowed
• User handle or participant code
• Study group
• Data mode
• Phone model and Android version
• Screen where the issue happened
• Short description of the issue
• Screenshot or video if possible

Privacy reminder: do not upload screenshots showing sensitive financial details. Blur or crop transaction notes, names, account details, and personal information before submitting.

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