Set Up Apple Pay Expense Tracking in Expensa on iOS 26 and Earlier

This guide is for iOS 26 and earlier. It shows the manual Wallet Transaction automation in Shortcuts. On iOS 27 or later, Expensa uses a ready-made shortcut with a Wallet notification trigger; follow the separate iOS 27 setup guide.

For eligible new Apple Pay payments on selected cards, Shortcuts can pass the amount, merchant and date to Expensa without manual entry. This guide walks through that automation. It does not import past Wallet transactions or guarantee that every payment will trigger.

Setting this up in the Philippines, where Apple Pay just launched? There’s a dedicated guide covering the supported banks and local specifics.

What you’ll need

• iPhone with Apple Pay configured
• Expensa installed
• Shortcuts app (built into iOS — no download needed)

Allow a few minutes to create and test the automation.

Need older payments? See what you can export from Wallet and your card provider.

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Step 1: Open the Shortcuts app

Find the Shortcuts app on your iPhone and open it. It comes pre-installed on every iPhone running iOS 13 or later — if you’ve never opened it, it’s probably in the Utilities folder.

Step 2: Go to the Automation tab and tap “New Automation”

At the bottom of the screen, tap the Automation tab. Then tap the New Automation button to create a new automation.

Step 3: Select “Wallet”

Scroll down to find the Wallet Transaction trigger. This is the card-transaction route shown in the screenshots, distinct from the iOS 27 Wallet notification shortcut. Apple explains which card transactions can trigger an automation.

Step 4: Select your cards and set to Run Immediately

Select the cards you want the automation to work with. Then change the run mode to Run Immediately. If you choose Run After Confirmation, Shortcuts will ask for approval before it runs. Run Immediately removes that approval step for qualifying transactions.

Step 5: Tap “Create New Shortcut”

When prompted to choose what the automation does, tap Create New Shortcut. This opens the action editor where you’ll add the Expensa action.

Step 6: Search for and add the Expensa action

In the search bar, type Expensa or Tap to Pay Automation and select it from the results. This is the Expensa action that receives the transaction data.

Step 7: Map the transaction fields

Now connect the Apple Pay data to the Expensa fields. For each field in the action, tap it → select Variable → then Shortcut Input, and choose the matching field:

• Transaction Amount → Amount
• Merchant Name → Merchant Name
• Transaction Date → Date (optional)

Step 8: Tap “Done” to save

Tap Done in the top-right corner. Your automation is live.

Make a small real payment with a selected card. Then check the amount, merchant, date and destination space in Expensa before relying on the automation.

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Expensa for iPhone Track spending automatically Apple Pay capture, voice entry and budgets. Free to download on the App Store. Get the app

Choosing which space transactions go to

You can choose where new imports are saved in Expensa under Settings → Apple Pay Sync → Save transactions to. Pick the space you want, such as a dedicated “Card” or “Daily” space.

Troubleshooting

The automation asks for confirmation every time — go back into the automation, tap the three-dot menu, and make sure the run mode is set to “Run Immediately”.

Transactions aren’t appearing — check that the Expensa action is the one with all three fields mapped. If any field says “No Variable”, tap it and reassign it.

I can’t find the “Tap to Pay Automation” action — make sure Expensa is installed and open it at least once before searching. iOS needs to register the app’s actions in Shortcuts.

A payment did not appear — check that the correct card is selected and the Wallet trigger ran. Payments outside the trigger’s coverage need another entry method. If you later switch to the iOS 27 Wallet notification setup, disable the older route after testing to avoid duplicate expenses.