FEATURES
Earn in dollars, spend in pesos, see one clear picture
9 mins read | August 9, 2026
Cash Captain is a multi-currency expense tracker for freelancers and households who earn in one currency and spend in another. Log the amount you actually typed ($2,500 from a client or ₱890 at a restaurant) and the app keeps original amounts, converts for account balances, and rolls everything into one primary currency for budgets and insights.
Why multi-currency tracking breaks most apps
Freelancers earning in USD while paying rent in PHP do not think in a single column. A $2,500 client payment and a ₱890 Grab ride are different kinds of numbers. Forcing one currency into the other at log time loses the story.
Cash Captain treats every transaction with a source amount: what you typed or imported. That original value stays on the ledger. Conversions happen for account math and workspace totals, not as a replacement for what actually moved.
Source amount, account currency, and primary currency
Each transaction stores a source amount and source currency (the figure you entered). Your account has its own native currency (a Wise USD wallet or a BDO PHP checking account). Your ship's primary currency is the reporting lens for budgets, insights, and net-worth style totals.
When you log $12.99 for Spotify on a PHP account, Cash Captain converts from source (USD) into the account currency (PHP) for that account's balance, and from source into your primary currency for workspace totals. Aggregations use the workspace amount, converted at the transaction date.
- Source fields: what you typed, always preserved on the transaction
- Account fields: native currency of the wallet or bank account you picked
- Workspace fields: converted into your ship's primary currency for rollups
Worked example: USD client income, PHP daily spending
Maria is a remote designer in Manila. She sets PHP as her primary currency because rent and groceries are peso-priced. She has a Wise USD account for client payments and a BDO PHP account for daily spending.
She logs +2,500 USD upwork in Quick Entry on her Wise account. Cash Captain stores $2,500 as the source amount, credits $2,500 to the USD account, and converts roughly ₱140,000 (at the day's rate) into workspace totals. A lunch logged as 890 grab on her BDO account stores ₱890 at source, debits ₱890 from the PHP account, and adds the peso equivalent to the same workspace rollups.
Her Insights and Budget screens show one coherent picture in PHP without her having to mentally convert every USD invoice first.
Exchange rates and conversion timing
Rates are fetched when you save a transaction, keyed to the transaction date. Past-dated entries use a published daily snapshot when one exists. If that snapshot is missing, Cash Captain falls back to the latest available rate and records which date the rate came from.
Transfers between accounts in different currencies use the same rate service, with an editable received amount when what landed differs from the quoted conversion.
Quick Entry across currencies
Type amounts in the currency you are thinking in. Symbols ($, ₱), prefixed regional markers (S$), and ISO codes (USD, PHP, EUR) parse inline. Ambiguous bare symbols like $ offer a picker when multiple currencies share the symbol.
Recurring USD subscriptions ($12.99 spotify on a PHP card) can be marked recurring from the preview so due dates and matches stay on the Recurring tab while amounts stay in the currency you logged.
Examples that parse today
Each line below is accepted by the live Quick Entry parser in Cash Captain.
+2,500 USD upwork
Client income with an ISO currency code
890 grab
Everyday PHP expense in your default currency
$12.99 spotify
USD subscription amount on a peso account
5k transfer from Wise USD to BDO
Cross-currency transfer between named accounts
FAQ
- Can I track USD income and PHP expenses in one workspace?
- Yes. Create accounts in each currency, log source amounts as you receive or spend them, and let workspace totals convert into your primary currency for budgets and insights.
- Which currency do budgets and insights use?
- Your ship's primary currency, chosen at onboarding. All workspace rollups convert source amounts into that currency using rates at the transaction date.
- Does Cash Captain replace my bank's exchange rate?
- No. Cash Captain uses published daily rates for tracking consistency. If your bank's actual conversion differs, edit the received amount on transfers or adjust the logged figure in the preview.
- How many currencies are supported?
- Over 150 ISO currencies are in the registry, including PHP, USD, SGD, EUR, and GBP. Quick Entry and account creation use the same list.
- Is this good enough for tax reporting?
- Cash Captain is a personal finance tracker, not tax software. Use it to understand cash flow. Consult a tax professional for filing amounts.
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by Cash Captain