Voice input

The fastest way to record an expense is to say it out loud. Tap Dictate in the transaction form, say the whole phrase — “groceries at VkusVill 540 yesterday” — and stop talking. Svodly parses what you said and fills in the form: the transaction type, amount, date and category, plus the counterparty, project and account if you named them. All that's left is to check it and save.

The feature is in testing. For now there is a limit of 2 recognitions per day per account. The counter resets at midnight Moscow time, and what's left is shown in the recording dialog before the microphone is switched on.

What the button needs to work

• A connected Svodly cloud — recognition goes through our server, just like the FNS receipt scanner. Without the cloud the button is inactive and, when tapped, shows a “Works with Svodly cloud connected” hint.
• Microphone access — the system will ask for permission the first time you start recording.
• An internet connection — voice input does not work offline; everything else in Svodly works offline as usual.

How to dictate a transaction

1. Open a new transaction: the + button in the top bar (on the phone — + in the centre of the bottom tab bar).
2. Tap Dictate below the amount field.
3. Say the whole phrase: what, how much, when and — if needed — who from. For example, “groceries at VkusVill 540 yesterday”.
4. Stop talking — the recording is sent for recognition by itself after about a second of silence. If it's noisy around you and the pause isn't detected, tap Done.
5. A couple of seconds later the form fields are filled with the recognised draft. Check them, fix anything you need — and save the transaction.

What Svodly takes from the phrase

Anything Svodly isn't sure about is left empty: an empty field beats an invented one. That's also why voice input only reads the book's directories — it never creates new categories, counterparties or projects.

A draft is not a transaction

What was recognised is never written to the book silently. The result is a filled-in form, not a saved transaction: you see every field and confirm it with “Save”. Don't like what came back — edit the fields right there or close the form, and nothing is left in the book.

Anything you typed by hand before recording wins: the voice draft does not overwrite it. A category you named out loud, on the other hand, beats the automatic suggestion — you said it explicitly, so that's what you meant.

How to speak so it lands

• One transaction per phrase. “Coffee 250 and a taxi 400” will not be split into two transactions by a single recording.
• Name the counterparty the way it is stored in the book. Grammatical endings are fine, but “the shop round the corner” matches nobody.
• Keep the amount next to what you spent it on — “groceries 540”, not “five hundred and forty… erm… well, groceries”.
• Stay within 10 seconds — that's the ceiling for one recording. An ordinary phrase needs three or four.
• Don't whisper or step away from the microphone: the recording stops on silence, and speech that is too quiet can be taken for a pause.

The waveform and auto-send

While the recording runs you see a volume waveform — so you can tell the microphone hears you — and a timer showing how much of the ten seconds is used. When you've finished, just stop talking: a second of silence sends the recording for recognition. The Done button stays for noisy places where the pause isn't detected, and Cancel closes the dialog without spending an attempt.

The limit: 2 recognitions per day

While the feature is in testing the limit is the same for everyone: 2 recognitions per calendar day, Moscow time. What's worth knowing:

• What's left is shown in the recording dialog — “2 of 2 left today” — before the microphone is switched on, so an attempt is never spent blindly.
• The limit is counted per account, not per device: your phone and your computer draw from the same counter.
• Failed attempts don't count: if nothing was heard or the connection let you down, the recognition goes back into what's left for today.
• When the limit is used up, Svodly says “Daily limit reached” and suggests coming back after midnight. Every other way of entering data — by hand, with the receipt scanner, via a statement import — has no limits.

What happens to the recording

The voice recording is passed through for recognition in transit: Svodly does not store the audio on the server or in cloud storage — neither before nor after parsing. Only what you confirmed in the form ends up in the book. Recognition itself runs on servers in Russia; the data does not leave the country.

The book's directories (categories, counterparties, projects, accounts) are sent along with the recording — otherwise the right category and counterparty could not be picked out of the phrase. Amounts, balances and transaction history are not sent.

If it didn't work

Where to next

• Transactions — every field of the form and how to edit it.
• FNS receipts — the other fast input: a till receipt QR with the full item list.
• Auto-categorization — so the category is filled in without voice too.
• Sync — connecting the Svodly cloud, without which the button stays inactive.
• Security — what leaves your device and where it goes.