Toshl Finance Blog

The Road to 2.0: Compatibility and Sync

Posted on

With the new Toshl, we have rebuilt from the ground up. We’ve learnt a lot along the way and used this knowledge when constructing the next version of Toshl. This new modern architecture will enable us to do some really nice things in v2 as well as enable us to scale a lot better in the future.

Since the changes are quite radical, both in the user facing features as well as on the back end, we needed to pay a lot of attention to compatibility. To enable everything to work seamlessly together we brought parts of the old sync system to the new one, so people with either generation of the Toshl apps can continue to sync their devices just as they have before.
 

sync compatibility

 

Web App, iOS v2

You get the new app right away and can use and sync categories, accounts and all the new stuff. Everyone’s web app will be upgraded to v2, no matter which phone app they use.
 

Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry (BB10 Android port), iOS v1.x, older Toshl apps

Android and Windows Phone users will get the v2 of Toshl a bit later. We would love to do them all at once, but sadly it’s impossible for us to do so at this point. But don’t worry, you will still be able to use the sync as you did before, as well as use the brand new v2 Web App.
 
Here’s how it will work:
 
–     You sync your app normally just as you have before. If you don’t use the Web App, you won’t notice any changes.
 
–     The expenses that you added in the 1.x app will show up with category “unsorted” and the default financial account in the web app, since the 1.x apps only use tags. You can assign a category later in the web app if you want.
 
Example:
 
Added on Android Toshl v1.7
40 €
Tags: food, groceries
 
Shows up on Web App v2
40 €
Category: unsorted
Tags: food, groceries
Account: [the default one, most likely Cash]
 
 
–     The expenses that you added on the web app or the v2 iOS app will have the category and account displayed as a tag in the 1.x apps, but will remain as you entered it on the web app.
 
Example:
 
Added on Web App v2
30 €
Category: Home & Utilities
Tags: internet
Account: Bank of Lilliput
2 photos
 
Shows up on Android Toshl v1.7
30 €
Tags: Home & Utilities, internet, Bank of Lilliput
 
 
–     Your budgets will continue to sync normally. Only budget types that were supported in 1.x will sync to 1.x mobile devices. That means budgets for all expenses and specific tags. Budgets for categories will not be synced.
 
 
We’re sorry we can’t update all the apps at once, it doesn’t mean that we love some of the mobile platforms any less. It’s just a lot more complicated and time consuming to develop them all at once with such a major leap. The combination we chose is quite simply a good mix of a relatively large market share and simpler testing due to less device fragmentation on iOS.
 
We hope to develop the Toshl apps more in step once we return to our regular cycle of smaller and more frequent updates. We don’t have a date planned yet for Android and Windows Phone, but they will be coming. We’ll let you know once we can share more.
 
If you have any further questions regarding the compatibility, let us know and we’ll try to fill in the additional information.
Posted in Announcements, Development

The Road to 2.0: Toshl Pro and Pricing

Posted on

With Toshl 2.0 we will be enhancing a lot of existing features, adding some new ones and generally making things nicer. So the question we get asked a lot is, “How much more will this cost?”

The answer is, “It won’t”. Our pricing plans for the Toshl Pro subscription will stay mostly as they are now:
 

1 month – $1.99

1 year – $19.99

3 years and the T-shirt – $59.99

 
As you can see the only change is with the 3 year plan, which is a little bit more expensive. We’re making swanky new designs for the T-shirts, with even better materials, T-shirt models for women and we hope to speed up the delivery in the future as well.
 

Discounts

The discount system will remain in place as well, 5% discount for sharing on Twitter, 5% for Facebook and we’re adding 5% for Google+. Post on either two of those and it becomes a 20% discount.
 

What about existing Toshl Pro users?

Things will stay as they are, you will still have Toshl Pro and you’ll simply get apps with way better functionality once we release the new version. You already have Toshl Pro, so there will be no additional upgrade pricing. Thank you for your trust and patience!
 

Payment methods

We will keep the payment methods we have and add a bunch of new ones as well. You will still be able to upgrade with the in-app purchases on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. On the website we’ll continue to offer upgrades with credit cards and PayPal but with a friendlier interface for the former. We’ll also be adding AliPay, TenPay, bank transfers in the European Union countries, Amazon Payments, Paysafe card, UnionPay and, of course, Bitcoins.
 

Which new features will be in Toshl Pro?

Now you wouldn’t want to ruin a surprise, would you? ;)
Generally, some of the new things will be payable, some will be free right from the start and we will make some of the previous Pro features free as well. In general, both the free and Toshl Pro members will be a lot better off.
 
 
But most importantly, we’ll continue to strive to make Toshl Pro…
toshl_characters27
… more awesome than lightsaber wielding ninjas on unicorns!
Posted in Development

The Road to 2.0: Migration from Toshl 1.X

Posted on

As we are accepting the first limited batch of beta testers on the site, let’s take a look at how migrating your data from the previous version of Toshl will be like.

As you may have gathered from our sneak peek at 2.0 or our posts on the Toshl community forums, we will be changing how the expense data is structured in the new version.
 
This simply means we’ll be adding some new information to each expense, like categories, locations, reminders etc. Most of these are optional and don’t affect your existing data at all. The main change will come with tags and categories.
 
Here are the main things you need to know:
1. Every expense needs a category.
2. An expense can only have one category.
3. Tags are now optional.
4. You can still use as many tags as you want.
5. You can transform your existing tags to categories or leave some as tags.
 

The Migration

We have prepared a migration wizard to make this transition as smooth and understandable as possible. There will be a little bit of reading and clicking, but once you’re done, you will be able to use the new Toshl with all it’s new graphs, features and your existing data.
 
To not beat around the bush too much, let me just show you how the migration process will look like. Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress and that there are bound to be some changes before this ships in the final version.
 
step1
 
step2
 
step3
 
Don’t worry, we didn’t forget Step 4. Step 4 is for sorting incomes, Step 5 for sorting expenses. Otherwise the interface is the same, so let’s just skip to Step 5 one, as it’s a bit more interesting.
 
step5
 
The tags that you see in the red buttons on top are the ones that have been brought over from your existing Toshl data. When you’ll be migrating, your tags will of course show up there.  You might also notice that some tag names in this case already match the categories below. This is only because I have been experimenting with the tag names before and have manually renamed them in advance. Your tags will show up exactly as they were.
 
The easiest thing is to drag a tag into one of the categories that have been pre-created below. The other way is to click on the tag and you will see all the actions you can do with this tag.
 
We have developed a smart system to help match the tags that you would usually use together in a category. It depends a bit on how you used Toshl so far, but likely you won’t need to drag them all one by one as we can suggest some automatic moves for you.
 
step5-tag-details
 
After you have finished sorting all the tags we’ll show you where things stand in the new interface and you’ll then be able to see your data in the glory of the new graphs, lists and with some cheeky comments, courtesy of the Toshl monsters.
 
The interface for editing and merging categories, tags etc. will remain available as Edit categories even after you have already migrated. You can sort out some details there and perfect your categorisation system.
 
If you don’t like the results of the migration at all and would like to start over to sort the expenses and tags differently, you will be able to  revert the migration in Edit categories up to two weeks after you have done it. If you revert it, all your data will be returned to the state before the migration and you can go through the process again.
 
One of the reasons why we are posting this in advance is to get your feedback about the migration process. If there are things that are unclear or if you have additional questions, please ask us here or write to our private support. Perhaps you can help us improve the process before we release this for everyone to use.
Posted in Development

WalletGear – Use Toshl on a Samsung Gear Smartwatch

Posted on

We’ve always been fans of adding your cash expenses quickly and on the move, integrated into your daily routine. But having to pull the phone out of your pocket and unlock it can cost you those precious extra few seconds when you’re standing at the cash register.

If you’re a proud owner of a Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch, that’s not a problem anymore thanks to Anton Udal’yev. Anton made WalletGear, a great looking Toshl client app for Gear 2 and Gear S watches that connect to your Toshl account using our developer API.

 

You can add expenses complete with tags quickly and right from your wrist. There’s also the option to list the expenses from the last month or week so you can be in control of your spending.

It’s available as a paid download for $1.5 from Samsung Apps on you smartwatch.

 

We haven’t been able to try it out ourselves yet, since we don’t have a current generation Samsung Gear around. We’d love to hear about your experiences with the app.
Posted in Announcements, Goodies

Sign up for Toshl 2 Beta

Posted on

Pssssst… We have something for you. Here’s the deal, click the link below and sign up for the Toshl 2 Web App Beta with your email.

We’ll gradually start letting people in next week. Help us with the testing and we’ll get this baby out in the wild before this year is over.

Baby out in the wild? Doesn’t sound right… Anyway sign up please, we wont harm any babies – but Toshl will be put through its paces.

Toshl 2 – Beta sign up

Posted in Uncategorized
Older posts
Newer posts