Track what you used, not just what you paid

Budgeting apps record what a bill cost. The quantity behind it — the kilowatt-hours, the cubic meters, the hours — usually ends up in a note, if it's kept at all, where no chart can read it. A meter gives that number a field of its own, and it comes in two kinds:

• a meter reading is a running total, like an electricity or water meter: you type what the meter shows, and the app takes the difference from the previous reading;
• an amount used is counted entry by entry: the hours a payment covers, the nights a booking was for, the visits a membership got.

The unit is yours to name. kWh, m³, liters, gallons, kilograms, hours, minutes, GB, visits and nights are a tap away, and anything else can be typed in.

When you add a meter that takes readings, the form asks what it shows today: that becomes the starting point, so the first bill already has something to compare with.

Each meter says which transactions it shows on: certain categories, payees, accounts, projects, assets or vehicles. Several of one kind mean any of them; different kinds must all match, so a meter can show on "the Electricity category, paid to the power company". A category includes its subcategories.

When a transaction matches, its form shows a Meters card under the amount, with a field for each meter. One bill can carry several: a building's utilities bill takes both the cold and the hot water reading. As you type, the card shows what was used since the previous reading, and warns if a reading is lower than the last one.

A reading's date follows the transaction's date. When the meter was read on another day — the reading printed on a bill you pay a week later, hours worked in October and paid in November — tap the date next to the reading and change it, so the usage lands in the right month.

The price per unit is what you paid divided by what you used. A bill that pays for two meters in the same unit is spread across them by usage, so both get the bill's one price.

When that isn't fair — hot water costs more than cold, and the same bill also covers the building's upkeep — turn on Split amount and enter what each meter's share cost. Each meter then gets its own price, and whatever is left of the bill stays out of all of them.

Without a split, a fixed monthly charge is part of the price: the less you use, the more each unit seems to cost. That's honest about what you paid, but worth knowing when a quiet month shows a higher price.

The transaction shows the price in the currency you paid in. The meter's page averages it in your base currency, so a meter paid in several currencies still adds up.

An amount-used meter turns a payment into a rate: what you paid, or were paid, divided by what it covered. On income that's an hourly rate; on a membership, a cost per visit; on bookings, a cost per night.

The number often comes later than the payment — a month's gym visits are known when the month is over — so add it by editing the payment then.

A reading doesn't need a payment. Add one on the meter's page, or put a reading button for it on your dashboard. That covers the cases where meter and money don't line up.

The Meters page lists every meter with its latest reading, the latest month's usage and small bars for the last eight months. Meters can be grouped — Home, Summer house, Rental flat — when the list grows.

Each meter has a page of its own: the last reading, the average usage per month and the average price over the last twelve months, a chart, and every reading with the bill it came from.

The Meter usage chart switches between usage, cost, price per unit and the reading itself, month by month. Meters in the same unit stack, so the cold and hot water meters together show all the water the household used. It works as a dashboard widget too.

Fuel and the odometer have their own place: the vehicle ledger records refuels, fuel economy and servicing. See how budgets work, put a meter's chart or reading button on your dashboard, or browse all features and guides.