Australia, no bank link
A money app for Australia that does not link to your bank
Tobsy is a money app made in Australia that does not connect to your bank: no bank login, no Open Banking, no feed. You type a purchase in a few taps, or catch up from a screenshot or a statement, and every entry lives in a Google Sheet in your own Google Drive.
· 5 min read
It is priced in Australian dollars, A$59 once after thirty days free, with no subscription. It is made by one person, a sole trader in Australia, not a company.
What Tobsy is, and what it is not
If you searched for a budgeting app, Tobsy is close, but the word does not quite fit. A budget is a rule you set in advance and then get told off for breaking. Tobsy is about awareness: it shows you, calmly and honestly, where your money goes and what you kept. If you want a target, you can set an intention for a category, and Tobsy shows where you sit against it without scolding.
It is also not a bank, not financial advice, and not a spreadsheet template. It is an app on your phone and computer, with screens of its own: quick entry, analysis, usual ranges, intentions, goals and a six-month forecast. The Google Sheet is the database you own; the app reads and writes it for you.
| Topic | What Tobsy does, and does not do |
|---|---|
| Bank link | None. No bank login, no account sync, no Open Banking |
| Where your data lives | A Google Sheet in your own Google Drive |
| Price | A$59 once, after thirty days free. No subscription, no renewal |
| People | Up to six on one copy, one payment |
| Devices | Any phone, tablet or computer |
| Languages | English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Dutch and French |
| Who makes it | One person in Australia, a sole trader |
No Open Banking, by design
Australia's Consumer Data Right, often called Open Banking, lets you choose to share your banking data with an app. Tobsy does not use it. It does not ask for a bank login and does not sync an account, so there is no connection to set up and nothing for a bank to hand over.
Entering a purchase yourself is the point. It takes a few taps, and it is the moment you notice. Anything you enter regularly fills itself in from a single word, and Tobsy learns your shops and how you file them.
When you fall behind
Life gets busy. There are two ways back in:
- A screenshot. Drop in a screenshot from your banking app. It is read on your own phone, and the image is not sent anywhere.
- A statement. Import a CSV statement from your bank, or paste one in.
Either way the rows are laid out for a quick check first, and nothing reaches your ledger until you say so. The trial includes every import, so you can see how your own bank's file reads before you pay anything.
Priced in Australian dollars
Tobsy costs A$59, once. The trial is thirty days with every screen, and it needs an email address and nothing else: no card, no password. On day thirty-one the app stops and asks to be paid for. Everything you entered is still in your sheet, and you can download all of it whether you pay or not.
Paddle, in London, takes the payment for us, so it appears on your card statement as PADDLE.NET* TOBSY. Some Australian cards add a small international-transaction fee on top. That is the bank's charge, and we would rather you knew before than after.
Refunds are on request within 14 days, with no explaining and no arguing. The terms say plainly that nothing in them limits your rights under the consumer law where you live, and that in Australia the consumer guarantees apply.
Set up for Australia
Pick the Australian dollar as your base currency, and dates and numbers follow your country's formatting. Foreign spending, a trip to Bali or a purchase in US dollars, is recorded in its own currency with the rate frozen on the day. Exchange rates come from a Google Finance formula inside your own sheet, so even that does not go through us.
Set-up takes about ten minutes, once, on a computer, with any free Google account. The set-up guide shows a picture of every button before you have to find it.
Who makes Tobsy
Tobsy is made and sold by a sole trader in Australia, trading as Tobsy; the ABN is on the terms page. It is built and looked after by one person who wanted to see where the money went without handing a bank login to anyone. Write to [email protected] and a person answers.
Does it work in New Zealand?
Yes. Tobsy works in any currency: pick the New Zealand dollar as your base currency, and dates and numbers follow your country's formatting. The price is set in Australian dollars, and your card is charged in your own currency at the checkout's rate.
For catching up, CSV statement import and screenshot import are there for any bank. The site does not list particular New Zealand banks, so the honest way to know how your bank's file reads is to try it in the thirty days free. You see every row before anything is saved.
Read on
- The demo: the real app with fourteen months of sample entries, no sign-up.
- No bank sync, on purpose: what typing it in costs you, and what it gives back.
- Privacy by design: who holds what, in plain words.
- Tracking: how an entry takes seconds.
- For couples and families: one household, several people, splits and settle-up.
Sources
- Tobsy pricing — the price, the trial, the card-surcharge note, the budgeting-app and template answers, currencies and languages; read 2026-10-13
- Tobsy terms — sole trader in Australia, the ABN line, Paddle as merchant of record, consumer law; read 2026-10-13
- Privacy by design — no bank connections, screenshots read on the device, exchange rates from inside the sheet; read 2026-10-13
- Tracking — quick-entry rules, learned shops, screenshot and CSV statement import; read 2026-10-13
- Tobsy home page — who makes Tobsy, devices, languages; read 2026-10-13
- Consumer Data Right — what the CDR lets a person do; read 2026-10-13
- Savings.com.au: Zip axes Pocketbook — Pocketbook's closure date and how it read bank data; read 2026-10-13 (getpocketbook.com no longer carries Pocketbook)
- Savings.com.au: Westpac axes MoneyBrilliant — MoneyBrilliant's closure dates and its account connections; read 2026-10-13 (moneybrilliant.com.au no longer resolves)
Questions
Do budgeting apps in Australia need my bank login?
Some do. Tobsy does not. It does not ask for a bank login, does not sync an account, and does not use Open Banking. You type entries in, or import a screenshot or a statement you choose.
I used Pocketbook or MoneyBrilliant before they shut down. Is this the same kind of thing?
Not quite. Pocketbook closed in August 2022 and MoneyBrilliant in December 2022, and both worked by connecting to your bank accounts and drawing the transactions in. Tobsy does not connect to a bank at all, so there is no feed to lose.
Your entries are typed in, or imported from a CSV statement or a screenshot you choose, and they live in a Google Sheet in your own Drive. If you stop using Tobsy, the sheet stays yours and readable.
How much does Tobsy cost in Australia?
A$59, once, after a thirty-day free trial. There is no subscription and no renewal. Paddle takes the payment, and some Australian cards add a small international-transaction fee on top; that is the bank's charge, not ours.
Where is my data stored?
In a Google Sheet in your own Google Drive. No Tobsy server stores your entries, your figures or anything about your money. One small Tobsy server holds only your email, paired with your trial or purchase key.
Can my partner use it too?
Yes. One copy holds up to six people, and any two of them can share a household. Shared costs are split the way you choose, each of you sees your own share, and Tobsy keeps track of who fronted what so you can settle up.
Thirty days free
Try it, or look around first.
The demo is the real app with fourteen months of sample entries. The trial is every screen, for thirty days, with your own.
About ten minutes to set up, once, on a computer. You’ll need a Google account. A$59 after the trial, if you want to keep it.