The Autopilot revamp: welcome to the self-budgeting account

Most accounts can show you your balance.¹ We want to help you reach your financial goals. With the new Autopilot, it's never been easier to control your finances in Crew.

A better way to bank and budget

Problems with the pile

You'd never dump all your groceries in the closet in a pile, lock the door, and only take out random amounts of food when you were hungry — but that's how many people handle their money.

The problem is the pile wrecks visibility and accountability.

Most people have a rough idea of their account balance, but would struggle to answer questions like:

• How much of your balance is already committed to bills, lenders, and credit cards?
• Are you saving enough for inevitable costs like holiday gifts, auto repairs, or back-to-school shopping?
• Will you still be on track by the end of the month? How about the end of the year, or even a few years down the road?

You can't control what you don't understand

Crew is different. We know that organization brings clarity, and automation leads to consistency. Once you can understand and control your finances, your life becomes much easier.

The newest Autopilot revamp is a major step toward helping people understand and control their money.

What's new?

Combining the old with the new

We've offered pockets and automations for a while, but haven't provided a systematic way to set it all up. Each user did their own thing — some used the default pockets and no automations, others made dozens of new pockets and custom rules, and most were somewhere in between.

Autopilot now provides structure and freedom, making it a great starting point for nearly everyone. Here's how it works.

1. Enter your income. The app will guide you through the process. Simply tell Crew how much you make and when you get paid.
2. Add your bills. Next, you'll guide Crew through identifying all of your bills, from the very frequent (rent, mortgage, internet, phone) to the infrequent (insurance premiums, membership dues, and the big purchases you know are coming).
3. Set up your goals. Now it's time to tell Crew about the money you owe to your future self. These aren't recurring bills, but things like building an emergency fund, saving up for the holidays, or guilt-free spending for date nights.
4. Monitor and adjust. Crew projects your incoming funds and outgoing needs five years into the future. The app will tell you if you're falling behind, or if you're building a surplus. You can check on your goal progress and make any adjustments.
5. Add any custom rules you want. Autopilot should meet most people's needs most of the time, but we also understand that a lot of people treat personal finance like an art. Want a rule that sends checks from Grandma straight to the emergency fund, or that sweeps your Fun Money pocket into savings at the end of each month? Go nuts.

With the new Autopilot:

• Share your needs and goals, and Crew automatically creates rules to fund pockets and manage transactions.
• The app onboards you by looking for bills and paychecks in your transaction history.
• Your cashflow is projected years into the future, so you know whether you're trending ahead or behind.
• You can still create additional pockets and custom rules whenever you want.

Questions and answers

Q. I spent a lot of time setting up my account just how I like it. Will the new Autopilot wreck that?

A. No, it won't. Some of the menus and displays will change, but you can keep using the custom rules and pockets you have now.

Q. How does Autopilot work?

A. Very well. We've had almost 1,000 accounts beta testing this Autopilot version and its components for more than half a year, and most of the feedback has been very positive.

If you're curious how the app calculates what gets set aside, the short answer is that it looks at all of your incoming funds and outgoing expenses, calculates the highest stress point over the next five years, and then sets enough aside from each check to get you through the low point.

Q. What if I don't like it?

A. Like kids and veggies at dinnertime, we think the new Autopilot is good and good for you, and we hope you'll try it. If you eat a serving and decide it's not really your thing, you can just turn it off.

Q. How long does it take to set up Autopilot now?

A. That depends on how long you've used Crew and how well you already know your financial picture. For those who have used Crew as their primary account for more than a year, there should be a record of your regular paychecks, deposits, and bills for the app to identify. Others might have to look up which bills they have, how much is due, and when they get paid. Either way, we don't expect you'll break a sweat.

Q. Why did Autopilot set aside so much money?

A. Usually this has to do with some quirk of the schedule — maybe a month is coming up when a bill will hit before your paycheck, or there are irregular bills up ahead you forgot about.

Q. Anything else I should know?

A. Autopilot works best when it can work over time. If you're setting it up for the first time on the 30th of the month and almost all your bills are due on the 1st, then the first reallocation of funds will be dramatic. As you stick with it, you'll start to get a smoother experience.

Summary

Our goal is to help millions of people succeed financially. To accomplish this, we try very hard to make tools powerful enough to change your life, but easy enough to use that they don't disrupt it.

We think Autopilot is one of the most impactful features we've made, and we hope it will let every Crew user understand what's coming in, going out, and being built — all in one convenient process.

We're betting you're going to love it.

Try Crew