Banks can take hours, sometimes a day, to report a purchase. With Apple Pay logging, your iPhone tells Copper the moment you tap to pay, so left-to-spend is right before you’ve left the store.
Apple Pay logging is iPhone-only. On Android, purchases show up when your bank reports them. See Copper on Android.

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How it works

  1. You pay with Apple Pay like you always do.
  2. An iPhone Shortcuts automation runs Copper’s Log Apple Pay Purchase action with the amount, merchant and card.
  3. Copper logs a pending purchase and takes it out of left-to-spend right away. Your auto-assign rules and round-ups run on it, just like a synced purchase.
  4. When your bank sends its copy, the bank’s copy takes the logged one’s place. Any bucket and notes you added are kept, so nothing counts twice.

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Set it up

You need the App Store version of Copper on your iPhone.
1

Turn it on in Copper

Go to Settings › Apple Pay Sync and tap Turn On. Purchases go to the budget you have open; if you can edit more than one budget, tap Change to pick another.
2

Start a new shortcut

Tap Show Me in Shortcuts. A short video starts in a small floating window and Shortcuts opens, so you can follow along step by step. In Shortcuts, tap +. If it asks you to describe a shortcut, tap Edit to build it yourself.
3

Add the Wallet automation

Tap Automation under the search field, then type Wallet and tap the Wallet automation (“When I tap a Wallet Card or Pass”). Without Automation picked, a search for Wallet lists Wallet’s actions first and the automation can end up hidden under the keyboard. It runs for any card; to log only some, tap Any Card and pick them.
4

Add the Copper action

Search for Copper and add Log Apple Pay Purchase.
5

Fill in the blanks

Tap Amount, then Select Variable and Transaction. Tap the Transaction you just added and pick Amount. Do the same for Merchant (pick Merchant) and Card (pick Card or Pass). Then tap the back button; Shortcuts saves it, and it’s listed under Library › Automation.
On iOS 26 and earlier, Shortcuts has an Automation tab instead: tap Automation, then + and choose Transaction. Pick your cards, choose Run Immediately, tap New Blank Automation, add Log Apple Pay Purchase and fill in its blanks from the transaction. The video in Copper shows the steps for the iOS version you have.
The next time you tap to pay, the purchase appears in Copper marked Logged with Apple Pay.
No floating video? Picture in Picture may be off: turn it on in the iPhone Settings app under General › Picture in Picture. The steps are also listed in Settings › Apple Pay Sync.

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Matching with your bank

When the bank’s copy of a purchase syncs, Copper looks for a logged purchase that matches it and merges the two into one transaction:
  • The bank’s details (account, final amount, posted status) replace the logged ones.
  • The bucket you chose and any notes stay.
  • If the final amount differs, the bucket and round-up are adjusted to match.
If the purchase goes to the budget your Left-to-Spend widget shows, the widget updates right away, without opening the app.

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Turn it off

In Settings › Apple Pay Sync, tap Turn off on this iPhone. Copper forgets this iPhone’s key, so the automation can’t log anything anymore. Purchases still show up when your bank sends them. You can also delete the automation in Shortcuts. Each iPhone is set up on its own. Other iPhones on your account are listed under Other devices, where you can remove them. On the web, Settings › Banks & accounts lists your devices too.
Logging needs a budget you can edit. It runs only on iPhone; the web app can list and remove devices but can’t set one up.