Getting started with Sandouq.

1 Getting started

On first launch, Sandouq walks you through five simple steps — count on less than two minutes before recording your first transaction.

The 5-step onboarding

The welcome screen shows a linear flow you can step back through at any time:

• Step 1 — Language: French, English, or Arabic. Picking Arabic immediately flips the interface to RTL (right-to-left) using IBM Plex Sans Arabic.
• Step 2 — Primary currency: choose from MAD, TND, DZD, EGP, SAR, AED, QAR, KWD, BHD, OMR, JOD, LBP, EUR, USD, GBP. This is the currency your net wealth and Zakat will roll up to; each transaction keeps its own original currency.
• Step 3 — Demo data or manual account: if you want to explore the app, pick "Demo data" (a sample set you can wipe with one tap). Otherwise, create a first account (Bank, Cash, Savings, or Home Vault) in seconds.
• Step 4 — Madhab: Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, or Hanbali. This choice drives the default Nisab threshold (gold vs silver) and how worn jewellery is treated in the Zakat calculation. You can change it later without losing any data.
• Step 5 — Sentry consent: disabled by default. If you turn it on, only anonymised crash reports (no entered data, no identifiers) are sent to help us fix bugs. You can flip it on or off any time from Settings → Privacy.

Clear the demo data

If you picked demo mode at onboarding, you can wipe everything in one gesture: Settings → Data → Clear sample data. Sandouq asks for a confirmation, then resets the database instantly — any real accounts you created in the meantime are preserved.

2 Discover: 5 hidden features

Sandouq is deliberately minimal — but a few native Android gestures unlock powerful behaviours that new users often miss at install.

1. The eye — hide every amount with one tap

In the top-right corner of the header sits an eye icon. Tap it: every amount visible on screen — balance, transactions, budgets, goals — becomes ••••••. Tap again to reveal. Indispensable when you hand your phone to someone or check Sandouq at a café. The state is remembered across sessions.

2. Swipe left — delete a transaction

On any transaction in the list, swipe left: a red "Delete" button appears. Tap it and Sandouq shows a confirmation dialog (Android Alert) before the permanent delete. This double gesture prevents accidental deletes. If you change your mind during the swipe, release without reaching the button.

3. Long-press — full contextual menu

On a transaction or an account, press and hold for about 400 ms: a context menu opens with available actions (Edit, Duplicate, Convert to recurring, Change category, etc.). Faster than opening the detail card and hunting for each option. A short haptic vibration confirms the menu opens.

4. Hijri date dual display

Every Gregorian date in Sandouq carries its Hijri equivalent displayed underneath, in a quieter typography. Handy for tracking Ramadan nights, planning Hajj or Umrah, or pinpointing the exact date your Zakat hawl will complete. The built-in calendar covers the full modern range (roughly 1400 AH – 1500 AH).

5. Live Nisab calculator

Inside the Zakat tab, the "Calculate Nisab" button fetches spot gold and silver prices and computes:

• Today's Nisab threshold (gold 87.48 g and silver 612.36 g) in your primary currency;
• Your consolidated net wealth across every eligible account;
• The exact Zakat amount due at 2.5%, if you're above the Nisab.

The calculation refreshes on every open but stays functional offline using the most recent cached prices. To try it without installing the app, use the Sandouq Zakat calculator directly on the site.

3 Zakat, Sadaqah & Hijri

Sandouq clearly distinguishes three types of religiously-motivated giving, and gives you the tools to track each one within its own jurisprudential frame.

Zakat al-Mal, Zakat al-Fitr, Sadaqah: three different logics

• Zakat al-Mal — the compulsory annual alms of 2.5% on net wealth exceeding the Nisab, due once per lunar year (hawl). Sandouq calculates it automatically via the Zakat module from all your eligible accounts.
• Zakat al-Fitr — a fixed per-person alms paid before the Eid al-Fitr prayer. Sandouq reminds you of the deadline via the built-in Hijri calendar and lets you enter the local amount (equivalent to one sa'a of staple food).
• Sadaqah — voluntary giving, with no fixed amount or frequency. Sandouq tracks it via the built-in "Sadaqah" category, which totals your monthly and yearly giving and shows your consistency over 12 months.

Since the 2026-06 update, each of these three types has its own pre-installed category (Sadaqah, Zakat al-Mal, Zakat al-Fitr) for separate annual tracking — your statistics now distinguish the legal obligation from voluntary giving, with no overlap.

How Sandouq calculates the Nisab

The app uses the two classical thresholds: 87.48 g of pure gold or 612.36 g of pure silver. The choice between gold and silver depends on your madhab: Sandouq applies the default of the school you picked at onboarding (changeable any time). Spot prices are fetched daily when you have internet; offline, the app uses the last known prices, typically within a 24 h window. For method details, see our Sandouq Zakat calculator page.

Enable the hawl reminder

The hawl is the full lunar year during which you must have maintained wealth above the Nisab. To trigger it: Settings → Notifications → Zakat reminder, toggle it on. Sandouq will notify you one month before the end of your hawl, then on the day itself — always based on the Hijri calendar.

Track a recurring Sadaqah

To automate a monthly donation (mosque, charity, sponsorship): create a transaction, pick the Sadaqah category, then enable the "Recurring transaction" option with a monthly frequency. Sandouq will create the entry automatically each month and add it to your annual Sadaqah summary, visible in the Statistics tab.

4 Budgets & categories

Budgets in Sandouq are monthly by default and work per category. The idea isn't to fill 40 boxes — it's to set 3 to 5 simple limits that alert you before you overshoot.

Create a monthly budget per category

Budgets tab → + New budget button. Pick a category (food, transport, Sadaqah, mosque, etc.), enter a monthly amount, and that's it. Sandouq alerts you automatically at 80% spent, then at 100%. The counter resets on the 1st of every calendar month.

Rollover: carry the remainder into next month

For categories where spending is smoothed over the year (clothes, gifts, books), enable the "Roll over remaining balance" option on the budget card. If you spend less than planned in May, the surplus is automatically added to your June budget. Conversely, an overshoot is not carried forward to avoid chaining deficits.

MENA-aware pre-installed categories

Sandouq ships with categories designed for the real life of a MENA family, alongside the classics (Food, Transport, Rent):

• Sadaqah — voluntary giving, totalled separately from other expenses.
• Mosque — contribution, upkeep, imam support.
• Market — souks and everyday cash purchases.
• Extended family — support for parents, siblings, cousins.
• Hajj & Umrah — dedicated savings and on-the-ground costs.

You can create your own categories, delete some, or reorder the display. The base version supports up to 3 active budgets; for more, see Extending Sandouq.

5 Multi-accounts & currencies

Sandouq distinguishes the type of holding (a current account isn't a cash envelope) and the currency (useful for the diaspora and Gulf expats).

Four account types

• Bank — current or checking account in a conventional or Islamic bank.
• Cash — wallet or drawer cash, daily-life tracking.
• Savings — savings book, locked deposit, term deposit.
• Home Vault — household reserve in cash, gold, or foreign currency kept at home.

Each type has its own icon and feeds into the net wealth shown on the home page. The base version supports up to 3 simultaneous accounts; see section 8 to unlock unlimited accounts.

Change the primary currency

The primary currency is the one your net wealth and Zakat aggregate into. To change it: Settings → Primary currency. You can switch between MAD, TND, DZD, EGP, SAR, AED, QAR, KWD, BHD, OMR, JOD, LBP, EUR, USD, GBP. Each transaction's history keeps its own original currency: only aggregations (totals, charts) are reconverted at today's rate.

Diaspora case: multi-currency accounts

If you live in France and send savings to Morocco, you can keep an EUR account (France) and a MAD account (Morocco) side by side. The net wealth view shows everything consolidated in your primary currency — useful for tracking your real financial position, without exchange-rate trickery.

6 Backup & migration

You own your data. Sandouq stores nothing in the cloud: to migrate or archive, you export a file yourself, send it wherever you want, re-import it whenever you want.

Two export formats

• CSV — Excel-compatible: one row per transaction, with date, amount, currency, category, account, note. Ideal for year-end accounting, opens in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice, or Google Sheets with no conversion. Full CSV export is unlocked for free during the launch period; it will later be part of Sandouq unlocked.
• JSON — full snapshot: a structured format that contains absolutely everything (transactions, accounts, budgets, goals, categories, settings). This is the format to use for migrating to a new phone or making a monthly safety backup. Included in the base version.

Restore from any backup

A JSON file exported 6 months ago is still readable: open Settings → Backup → Restore from file, pick the JSON from the Android picker, and confirm. Sandouq offers two modes: Replace (your current database is overwritten) or Merge (the backup's transactions are added without touching the existing ones).

Switching Android phones, step by step

1. On the old phone: Settings → Backup → Export as JSON. Sandouq generates a sandouq-backup-YYYYMMDD.json file.
2. Send that file to your new phone: email attachment, upload to Google Drive, USB OTG stick, or Nearby Share.
3. On the new phone: install Sandouq from the Play Store. Once Premium arrives, your purchase will restore by signing in to your Sandouq account (your email) — it will be tied to your account, not to the device.
4. Open Sandouq, complete the onboarding (5 steps), then Settings → Backup → Restore from file, pick your JSON. Your data is restored in seconds.

7 Privacy & Sentry

Privacy isn't an option in Sandouq — it's the architecture. But a few settings deserve to be understood: the Sentry opt-in, clearing demo data, and what the app does (and doesn't) ask for as permissions.

Your financial data, 100% local

Sandouq stores your transactions, accounts, goals, and Zakat calculations in a local SQLite database, inside the app's private space encrypted by Android (/data/data/app.sandouq/databases/). That data never touches a server, a cloud, or a bank connection. The network is used only to: (1) refresh gold/silver prices once a day if allowed, and (2) if — and only if — you've turned it on, send anonymous crash reports via Sentry. Once Sandouq Premium arrives, it will also be used to verify your Premium status via secure sign-in.

Sentry: opt-in, anonymised, switchable

Sentry is the crash-reporting tool we use to fix bugs. It is disabled by default. If you enable it (at step 5 of onboarding or later in Settings → Privacy → Crash reports), only anonymised crashes are sent: technical stack trace, phone model, Android version. No entered data (amounts, account names, transactions, contacts) is ever transmitted. You can disable Sentry at any time with one tap. For more details, see our privacy and local-storage page.

Clear the demo data

If you accepted demo data at onboarding to try the app and now want to start fresh: Settings → Data → Clear sample data. Sandouq asks for a confirmation, then resets the database instantly. Any real accounts you created in the meantime are preserved.

Android permissions requested

• Storage — to export and import your JSON and CSV files.
• Notifications — for hawl reminders, Zakat al-Fitr deadlines, budget overruns.
• Internet — for gold/silver prices (optional) and Sentry (optional).

Sandouq requests no access to contacts, location, microphone, SMS, or calls. The camera is used only on your explicit action, to photograph a receipt stored locally. You can verify these permissions in Android Settings → Apps → Sandouq.

8 Extending Sandouq

During the launch period, all features are unlocked for free for everyone. Once Premium arrives, Sandouq will run in two modes: the base version (free, everything essential for 90% of families) and Sandouq unlocked (a one-time purchase that will lift the limits). No recurrence, no extra tier, ever.

Included from install

• Up to 3 accounts simultaneously (Bank, Cash, Savings, Home Vault).
• Up to 3 budgets per category, monthly.
• 1 savings goal (Hajj, wedding, emergency fund…).
• Unlimited Zakat calculator — Nisab, hawl, 2.5%, multi-madhab.
• Dual-display Hijri calendar throughout the app.
• Sadaqah tracking, built-in charity category, monthly and yearly totals.
• 14 currencies, 3 languages (FR/EN/AR), native RTL interface.
• Full JSON export for backup and migration.
• Works offline, no ads, no tracking.

What Sandouq unlocked will add (Sandouq Premium, optional one-time purchase)

• Unlimited accounts — useful for the multi-country diaspora or households with several savings books.
• Unlimited budgets — for families who want fine-grained category steering.
• Excel-compatible CSV export — year-end accounting opens in any spreadsheet.
• Advanced savings goals — multi-goal in parallel, monthly projection, alerts.

Once Premium arrives, the purchase will be processed by Paddle (secure web payment) and tied to your Sandouq account (not the device): one purchase = one account, usable on your own devices by signing in with the same email. For the full grid, per-currency price equivalents, and the editor's commitment on future features, see the Extending Sandouq page.