How Smoothy works

Smoothy makes managing bills and saving money easy. Our super simple budgeting app uses secure bank feeds to build a personalised plan that’s always up to date — and only takes 5 mins to set up.

Updated 27th Oct 2026

Bank transactions are messy and meaningless. Smoothy turns them into a personalised money management plan that’s always up to date, and you don’t need a maths degree to understand.

In the time it takes to make a cup of tea, Smoothy helps you:

Detect recurring bills and subscriptions
Predict upcoming costs and see how much to put aside
Know what you can safely spend

Utilities and subscriptions Smoothy found, including Electric Kiwi, Skinny Mobile, Spotify and Netflix — Find recurring bills & subscriptions

Bills due before next pay, with upcoming amounts for Skinny Mobile, Electric Kiwi, rent and more — Predict upcoming expenses

Safe to spend of $507.60, a warning about an uncovered bill, and spending this month by category — See what’s safe to spend

Automated budgeting powered by bank feeds

Smoothy uses secure bank feeds to analyse your transactions and create a personalised budgeting plan that’s always up to date. Bank feeds are a safe and secure way for you to authorise your bank to share your financial data with accredited financial services providers, via New Zealand’s new, open banking system. Open banking is regulated by the government, supported by all major New Zealand banks, and used by apps like Sharesies, Simplicity, Sorted, PocketSmith & Xero.

Learn more about open banking & security

Getting set up

It takes less than 5 minutes to sign up and connect bank feeds. You can also see a demo household in the Smoothy app once you sign up.

1. Create Smoothy account

To create a Smoothy account and view demo data, you only need to enter your email address and an email verification code. (You’ll complete further security steps when you’re ready to connect your bank feeds.)

2. Connect bank feeds

We use Akahu, New Zealand’s most widely used open finance provider to provide secure bank feeds.

Verify your email address with Akahu
Choose which bank accounts you’d like to connect
Authorise bank feeds through your mobile banking app

Smoothy home screen with a Connect bank feeds button and logos for ASB, ANZ, Westpac, BNZ and TSB — Smoothy uses Akahu for secure bank feeds

Akahu screen saying Smoothy is requesting ongoing access to personal and account information — Authorise Akahu to connect bank feeds

Akahu screen confirming the email address used to manage connected accounts — Confirm your email address with Akahu

Akahu screen to select your provider, showing NZ banks and other financial services — Choose bank / provider accounts

Mobile banking app asking you to confirm with Face ID or a PIN — Authorise bank feeds in your banking app

ANZ screen to approve sharing account, balance and transaction details for a pending bank feed — Approve the accounts you want to connect

TIP: Smoothy gives you the most accurate plan when you connect all the bank accounts and credit cards you use regularly, but you can always add more later. You can connect many KiwiSaver and other investment accounts like Sharesies too.

3. Add pay day info (optional)

Smoothy organises all your costs into ‘time buckets’ that sync with your pay cycle — it’s a big part of how Smoothy makes managing money easier, so give it a go if you have a regular pay cycle.

TIP: Save Smoothy to your home screen to make it easier to come back to, or sign in at smoothy.nz/sign-in. Native iPhone and Android apps with biometrics like Face ID are on the way!

TIP: Smoothy is a web app that works on both mobiles and laptops. Add Smoothy to your homescreen on your mobile for easy access. Native mobile apps with Face ID and passkeys are on the way :-).

Managing recurring expenses

Smoothy finds all your recurring expenses including subscriptions, utility bills, insurance plans and debt repayments. You’ll see a list of the bills and service providers you pay regularly, if there are any you don’t consider recurring expenses, you can exclude them and they won’t be considered recurring expenses going forward.

Once your transactions have been analysed the first time (it shouldn’t take longer than 5 minutes) you’re good to go!

Troubleshooting

Very occasionally there are issues with the bank feeds on the bank’s side, and transactions don’t load or accounts have to be reconnected. Follow the instructions in the app to refresh connections and it should be easily resolved. Any problems, contact support@smoothy.nz.