How to track subscriptions and recurring bills on iPhone

By Mohamed Elatabany · Updated October 2026 · Suggest a correction

Write every subscription and fixed bill down once as a recurring rule, so it appears in your ledger on the day it is charged without being typed again. Then review the list every few months: recurring rules make bills visible, and visible bills are the ones you actually cancel.

Find what you already pay

Before tracking anything, make a list. Most people underestimate their subscriptions because each one is small and arrives on a different day.

1. App Store subscriptions. On iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. This lists everything billed through Apple, active and expired. 2. Card and bank statements. Scan the last three months for repeated amounts and merchants: streaming, music, cloud storage, gym, software, news. 3. Fixed bills. Rent, phone, internet, utilities, insurance and loan instalments. Note the amount, the day of the month and the account it comes from. 4. Annual charges. Domain names, memberships, insurance and some software renew once a year. They are the most likely to surprise you.

Write each one with four fields: name, amount, how often, and the next date. That list is the input for everything below.

Recurring rules in TrackExpenses

TrackExpenses calls these Recurring. Open More → Recurring and tap the plus button. For each item:

• Choose expense or income. Salary is a recurring income rule.
• Enter the amount, category and account it is paid from.
• Choose how often: every day, week, month or year. You can also repeat every N periods, for example every 2 weeks or every 3 months for a quarterly bill.
• Set the start date to the next charge.

When the date arrives, the transaction is added to your ledger automatically the next time you open the app. Each occurrence is created once, even if you use two devices with iCloud sync, so a rent rule never charges twice. The Repeat Setting screen groups income and expenses and shows their totals, so you can see at a glance how much of your month is already committed.

Free includes three recurring rules, enough for salary, rent and one subscription. Pro makes rules unlimited.

Bills that change every month

Electricity and phone bills vary. Two approaches work:

• Recurring with an estimate. Create the rule with a typical amount and edit the generated entry when the real bill arrives. Your budget sees the bill coming from the start of the month.
• Log when charged. Skip the rule and record the bill when it arrives, by hand or from your bank's SMS alert. Accurate, but invisible until it happens.

The payday budget guide explains how to make the period match your salary.

For budgeting, the first is usually better, because the money is spoken for even before the bill lands.

Put bills inside your payday month

If you are paid on the 25th, set your budget month to start on the 25th under More → Period & Entry. Then rent on the 1st and the phone bill on the 10th fall inside the same period as the salary that pays them. Budget pacing becomes clearer too: a large rent payment early in the period explains a high percentage on the budget bar, and you can see it is planned rather than overspending.

Let alerts confirm the charge

If your bank texts you for each charge, a TrackExpenses SMS automation can record bills and subscriptions as they happen. Combined with a recurring rule, this can create two entries for the same charge. Choose one source per bill: use a recurring rule for things that don't send alerts, such as direct debits some banks don't announce, and let the alert record the ones that do. Imported entries with the same amount and payee as a nearby entry are flagged as possible duplicates, so a double is easy to spot and remove.

Review the list every quarter

A subscription list is only useful if you act on it. Every three months:

1. Open More → Recurring and read each rule. 2. For each subscription, ask whether you used it in the last month. 3. Cancel what you didn't use. App Store subscriptions are cancelled in Settings → your name → Subscriptions; others on the provider's website. 4. Delete the rule in TrackExpenses so your forecast stops counting it. 5. Look for price increases. If a rule says 9.99 but your statement says 12.99, update the rule.

Use Stats to see the total of your subscriptions category over the last few months. A number you can see is easier to reduce than one spread across twelve statement lines.

Annual subscriptions

Yearly charges deserve their own rules, with the repeat set to every year. Some people also divide the annual cost by twelve and set aside that amount each month in a savings account with a monthly transfer rule, so the renewal never feels like a shock. TrackExpenses records the transfer without counting it as spending, and the yearly charge as an expense on the day it happens.

Frequently asked questions

How do I see all my subscriptions on iPhone? Open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions for anything billed through Apple. Subscriptions billed to your card directly appear only on your statements.

Can TrackExpenses add bills automatically every month? Yes. Recurring rules add each occurrence on its date, every day, week, month or year, or every N of them. Three rules are free and Pro is unlimited.

What if the bill amount changes? Create the rule with a typical amount and edit the entry when the actual bill arrives, or log variable bills when they are charged.

Will a recurring rule and a bank SMS import create duplicates? They can if both cover the same bill, so pick one source per bill. Imports that match a nearby entry are flagged as possible duplicates.

Source: Apple Subscriptions settings and TrackExpenses Recurring rules, checked in October 2026. Amounts are examples, not financial advice.

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