Automatically Log Payments from Bank Notifications in Lode

On iOS 27, Shortcuts can run an automation the moment an app sends you a notification. Lode uses that with its Log Bank Notification action: it reads the push your bank already sends — the amount, the merchant, and which way the money went — and logs it in Lode without you opening the app. Money that comes in is logged as income.

Bank notifications or Apple Pay?

Lode has two automations that log payments for you. They differ in what they cover:

• Bank notifications — every payment the bank pushes: physical card, online, transfers — and income too. Set up once per bank. Needs iOS 27 and the bank’s notifications turned on. Reads the bank’s own wording, so check the first few entries if your bank is an unusual one.
• Apple Pay — tap-to-pay purchases only, with the exact amount and merchant straight from Wallet. Set up once per card. Works on iOS 18 and later.

Use one per card. Running both for the same card usually logs a tap-to-pay purchase twice — Lode only catches the copy when both name the merchant the same way within about two minutes.

Requirements

• iPhone or iPad with iOS 27 or later — the Notification trigger is new in iOS 27, so there is no manual setup for earlier versions
• Lode installed, with at least one account
• Your bank’s app installed, with its payment notifications turned on — real notifications, not just badges

Setup

The automation comes ready-made. The one thing it cannot carry is your bank, so that is the one thing you choose. You can also open this straight from the app: Settings → Automation, the Bank Notifications segment.

1. Open Lode — Bank on your iPhone and tap Add Shortcut. In the app, this is the Download the Automation button.
2. Open the new automation — in Shortcuts it sits under Library → Automation, in the Finish Setting Up section. In the trigger at the top, tap App and choose your bank’s app — the one that sends you payment notifications.
3. It arrives switched off. Tap the trigger’s chevron and turn Automation on. Leave Notify off.
4. If you keep several accounts in Lode, open the Lode action and set Account to the account this bank’s card belongs to. With a single account it is picked automatically.

That’s all. Body and Title are already passed to Lode and Show When Run is already off — the automation stays silent, and Lode’s own notification is what you see after each payment.

More than one bank? Download it once per bank and pick that bank’s app in each copy.

Building it by hand

If you’d rather assemble it yourself:

1. In Shortcuts, tap + to create a new shortcut. If it offers to describe a shortcut, skip that — add the actions yourself.
2. Add the trigger When I receive a notification from and pick your bank’s app. In its options, turn Automation on and Notify off.
3. Add Lode’s Log Bank Notification action.
4. Tap its Notification Text field → Select Variable → Notification, then tap the token and choose Body. Expand the action and set Notification Title the same way, choosing Title.
5. Set Account if you keep several, turn Show When Run off, and tap the back arrow to save.

How it works

Every time your bank sends a notification:

1. The automation runs and hands the notification’s title and text to Lode.
2. Lode reads the amount, the currency, the merchant or the other party, and whether the money came in or went out.
3. Purchases and payments become expenses under the merchant. Lode picks the category the same way the Apple Pay automation does: the one you last moved this merchant to, or else the closest match from your own list.
4. Salary, refunds, interest and deposits become income.
5. Money to or from a person — “You sent $500 to John Doe”, “Maria sent you $42” — goes to Transfers to People or Transfers from People: a friend paying you back for dinner is not earnings, and paying a friend is not groceries.
6. Amounts in another currency are converted to the account’s currency at the current rate. A bare $, ¥ or Rs is read as the account’s own dollar, yen or rupee when it has one, and as USD, JPY or INR otherwise.
7. Lode saves the transaction to the account you selected and posts its own notification.

When Lode asks instead of guessing

A few payments depend on how you keep your books, so Lode asks — in its notification, and on the Dashboard, where “payments need your decision” stays at the top until you tap Review Payments and answer:

• Cash taken out or paid in at an ATM, a terminal or an agent is not recorded until you choose Record as Expense, Record as Income or Don't Record. Lode remembers your answer for that place, so the same ATM is asked about once. You can forget an answer in Settings → Automation → Remembered Merchants.
• A bill’s charge. When a payment is clearly one of your bills — its merchant at about its price, around its due date — Lode records it as that bill’s payment instead of adding a second row. When it only might be, the payment is logged on its own and Lode asks: Link to Bill or Not This Bill.

What is ignored, on purpose

Not every bank notification is a payment. Lode skips these without logging anything:

• Declined payments
• One-time codes and fraud checks — “Is this you? Reply YES”
• Reminders — “payment of $250 is due”, “will be charged”
• A transfer that is still pending. The bank says again when it goes through, and that one is logged.
• Card checks — a merchant’s temporary hold of a small amount, and its release
• The card bill being paid, and moves between your own accounts
• Anything about the account rather than money: a credit-limit change, a dispute, points, a sign-in, a card on its way, offers with a figure in them, balances and statements

Notifications

A silent automation has no screen of its own, so Lode’s notification is the only thing you see. It reports the account, the amount, the merchant and the category it chose, and tapping it opens that exact transaction.

It also tells you when a payment was not saved — a text Lode could not read, a cross-currency payment once the free monthly conversions are used up, or one with no exchange rate available — and tapping it lets you add the payment by hand. Without notifications those failures are invisible and your ledger is quietly wrong, so allow them when Lode asks, or turn them on in Settings → Automation.

Privacy

The notification text stays on your device. To pick a category, only the merchant name is sent to the AI, with the list of your categories (and running projects) to choose from, under the Lode AI consent you have already given. A merchant you’ve already moved to a category isn’t sent at all. If the text cannot be read at all, it is sent once with the card number blanked out.

Known limits

• Two identical purchases within two minutes — same store, same amount — collapse into one. That is the guard against a bank sending the same push twice; two coffees a few minutes apart are still two. For money to or from a person the window is 15 minutes, because banks often announce a transfer more than once.
• Two notifications within a second. Shortcuts drops a notification that arrives within about a second of the previous run starting. Pushes a few seconds apart all run, one after another.
• An unfamiliar bank. Lode is checked against real notification wording from more than 450 banks in over 90 countries. A bank that writes its pushes differently will usually still yield the amount; the merchant may come out partial, and the category will follow. Check the first few entries.
• Offline. The category matcher needs the network. When it is unreachable, Lode uses the kind of place the bank names (a fuel station, a supermarket) when it names one, or matches the merchant name against your categories directly, and otherwise the payment lands in your catch-all category.
• Other currencies. On the free plan a cross-currency payment uses one of your 5 free conversions a month — once they’re used up, cross-currency payments aren’t saved until next month, unless you upgrade to Premium or use an account in the card’s currency.

Troubleshooting

Nothing happens

• An imported automation is switched off until you turn it on. Open Library → Automation in Shortcuts and check its switch — and that your bank’s app is chosen in the trigger.
• Check the bank app’s notifications in iOS Settings: they must be delivered as notifications, not only as badges.
• Test with a purchase. A balance notice or a promo is ignored by design.
• Unlock your iPhone. Locked, the automation still runs, but it can take longer.

The wrong account is used

• Open the Lode action and set Account to the right account. Left empty, Lode uses the first active account.

The wrong category is used

• Lode chooses from your own categories based on the merchant name and never invents one. Move the transaction to the right category once — Lode remembers that merchant and files its next payments there (see Settings → Automation → Remembered Merchants). Rename categories to be clearer if similar merchants keep landing in the wrong place.

The amount or currency is wrong

• Check that the selected Account uses the currency you expect for this card — a bare $ is read against it.
• If your bank writes amounts in an unusual way, send us the notification text with the card number removed, and we’ll add the format.

A payment was logged twice

• You are probably running the Apple Pay automation for the same card. Keep one per card.
• If one of the two rows is a bill’s own charge, answer Link to Bill when Lode asks, and the two become one.

Questions? Reach out — we’re happy to help.