Manual

Description

Shopping Manager Classic turns your shopping into a one-tap routine. You enter each product once — with its shop, category, price and unit — and build up a personal master list over time. When you plan a trip, you mark what you need; when you shop, you check items off as they go in the cart. Everything is stored locally on your device and needs no account; the only optional network features are the barcode product-name lookup and the encrypted cloud sync (Pro).

Highlights:

• Two modes: plan in All mode, shop in Needed mode
• Items organized by shop, category and aisle, with prices, units, quantities, priority, coupon and notes
• Alternative shop prices per item, with a warning when something is cheaper elsewhere
• Virtual categories that work like reusable tags or templates
• Multiple independent lists (databases), each with its own items, shops and categories
• Item photos from the camera or gallery, with a zoomable full-screen viewer
• Barcode scanner — scan a product to put it on the list, with automatic product-name suggestions
• Recipes with ingredients, photo and read-aloud preparation steps — all ingredients onto the list in one tap
• Planned purchases with reminder notifications
• Best Buy calculator, CSV import/export, and "Send list" by email or SMS
• Trash and Archive — nothing is lost, everything can be restored
• Custom appearance (theme, colors, font sizes, list background) and configurable item details
• Pro (one-time purchase): home screen widget, ZIP backup, encrypted cloud sync, list backgrounds, more than three lists and unlimited recipes
• English and German UI; no ads, no tracking

Quick start

On first launch a default list called Standard is created for you. To get going:

• Add a shop and a category (optional but recommended) — open the navigation drawer (the hamburger icon, top left) and tap Shops and Categories, then the + button on each screen.
• Add an item — on the main screen tap the + button, type a name, pick a shop and category, and optionally enter a price, quantity and more. Tap Done.
• Mark what you need — tap an item to mark it as needed and set a quantity.
• Shop — switch to Needed mode for a focused list, then tap each item to check it off as it goes in your cart.
• Finish — tap Checkout to reset the checked items for next time.

Tip: If you tap + while a search term is active, the new item's name is pre-filled with what you typed.

Core concepts

A few ideas to keep apart:

• Item — a single product on your list. Every item belongs to one shop and one category, and lives in one list (database).
• Item state — each item is Default (on your master list but not currently wanted), Needed (you want it this trip), or Checked (already in your cart). The flow is Default → Needed → Checked.
• Mode — All mode shows your whole master list for planning; Needed mode shows only what you're buying right now.
• List / database — a self-contained shopping list with its own items, shops and categories. Keep separate lists for, say, groceries and hardware.

The item list

The main screen shows your items. A statistics bar and a mode toggle sit at the bottom; the toolbar at the top holds the navigation drawer, search, shop/category filters and the sort control.

All vs. Needed mode

Toggle between the two modes with the All / Needed buttons at the bottom of the screen.

• All — your complete master list. Tapping an item cycles its state. This is where you plan and maintain items.
• Needed — a clean view of only the items you marked as needed. Tapping an item toggles it between Needed and Checked only — ideal for one-handed checking off while you shop. Marking an item as Needed with quantity 0 automatically sets its standard quantity.

Two settings control overlap between the modes: Show needed in All mode and Show checked in Needed mode.

Statistics bar

The bar at the bottom keeps a running count and total as you work. In All mode it shows the number of needed items against the total, plus the total price of the needed items. In Needed mode it shows how many items you've already checked against the total, plus the total price of the checked items.

Search & filter

Type in the search field (Filter items…) to narrow the list to matching items as you type. By default it matches item names; enable Search in notes in Settings to include notes.

Two dropdowns let you filter by All Shops and All Categories. Pick a shop and/or category to show only matching items — handy for focusing on one store while you shop there.

Sorting

Items are first grouped by state (Needed, then Checked, then Default by default), and within each group sorted by up to four criteria you choose in Settings. Available criteria: Name, Category, Shop, Aisle, Priority, Price, Note and Unit. Category and Shop sort by your manual drag order (see below), then by name. You can configure separate sort rules for All mode and Needed mode.

Item actions & swipe

Tap a row to open the item for editing. The tap area that checks an item off is configurable (Complete line or Checkbox only) in Settings.

If the info button is enabled (Settings → Options), each row shows an info button with quick actions:

• Edit item — open the full editor.
• Change quantity — set the quantity without opening the editor.
• Copy item — duplicate the item.
• Move item — move it to another list (database).
• Best Buy — open the Best Buy calculator with the item's price and unit pre-filled.
• Delete item — move it to the trash.

Swipe gestures on a row:

• Swipe right — Delete (moves the item to the trash, with an undo option).
• Swipe left — Archive (moves the item to the archive).

A red up-arrow (↑) before an item's price warns you that the item is cheaper at one of its alternative shops (see Alternative shops).

Checkout & undo

When you've finished shopping, tap Checkout. The app asks to reset the checked items back to Default so the list is ready for next time. Most actions — delete, archive, state change, quantity change and checkout — show a brief Undo option so a mistake is easy to reverse.

Reset Visible Items (in the navigation drawer) resets the states of all currently visible items in one step, respecting your active search and filters: in All mode everything visible goes back to Default, in Needed mode Default items are lifted to Needed, and for Checked only the Needed items are checked. This too can be undone.

Adding & editing items

Tap + on the main screen to create an item, or tap an existing row to edit it. The editor groups everything an item can carry. With Auto-save on (Settings → Options), changes are saved automatically when you navigate back; otherwise use Done to save or Revert to discard.

Item fields

Which of these details appear on each row in the list is configured under Settings → Item Details.

Photos

Open the image section of the editor to attach a photo — take one with the Camera or pick one from the Gallery. Photos are stored privately on your device. Tap a photo to open it in a zoomable full-screen viewer, or use Remove image to clear it. A photo is handy when you want a specific brand or product.

Barcode scanner

Tap the scanner icon in the top bar of the main screen and scan a product's barcode. If an item on your list already carries that barcode, it is marked as needed right away. For an unknown barcode a dialog opens: create a new item — the app suggests a product name looked up on Open Food Facts (only the barcode is sent, nothing else) — or assign the barcode to an existing item. Either way the item ends up on your needed list, so restocking is a single scan.

You can also enter or scan a barcode directly in the item editor's Barcode field.

Planned purchases & reminders

In the editor, enable Planned purchase and pick a date and time to plan an item ahead. The app reminds you with a notification around that time (it asks for notification permission once), and an overdue planned item is automatically marked as needed the next time you open the list. Checking the item out clears the plan.

Alternative shops

Beyond the primary shop, you can record the same item at other shops with their own price and aisle. In the editor, open Alternative Shops and tap + Add…, then pick a shop and optionally enter a price and aisle. (You can't add the primary shop again.)

When an alternative shop is cheaper than the primary, the item list shows a red up-arrow (↑) before the price as a reminder that you could buy it cheaper elsewhere.

Virtual categories

A virtual category is a secondary tag you can assign to many items at once, independent of an item's primary category. Think of one as a reusable template or group — for example a "Pizza" virtual category assigned to flour, cheese, tomatoes and herbs.

Assign virtual categories to a single item in the editor's Virtual Categories section, or to many items at once with Execute Action → Assign virtual category. An item can belong to any number of virtual categories (but not to its own primary category as a virtual one).

Shops, categories & units

Open these management screens from the navigation drawer. Each list supports add, edit, delete and manual reordering: long-press and drag a row to reorder, tap a row to edit it, and swipe a row to delete it.

Shops

Maintain the shops you buy from. Their manual order is used when you sort items by Shop. Deleting a shop moves it to the trash, where it can be restored.

Categories

Maintain your item categories. Their manual order is used when you sort items by Category. Deleting a category moves it to the trash.

Units

A unit pairs a value with a name, for example 0.7 Liter or 1 kg. Maintain your reusable units here with the + button; each has a Value (e.g. 0.7) and a Name (e.g. Liter). Units travel with items in CSV transfer. Deleting a unit is safe — items that used it keep their current unit text.

Databases (multiple lists)

A database is a complete, separate shopping list with its own items, shops and categories. Open Databases from the drawer to manage them:

• Add a new database with the + button.
• Switch to a database by tapping it; the main list then shows that database's items.
• Rename, Clear (remove all items, shops and categories) or Delete a database from its row.
• Color — give a database its own color; it tints the main-screen title so you always see at a glance which list you're on.
• Reorder databases by long-pressing and dragging.

Each row shows the number of items it contains. To move items between databases, use Execute Action → Copy to DB / Move to DB. The free version includes up to three lists; Pro removes the limit.

Recipes

Open Recipes from the drawer to store your recipes right next to your shopping list. Each recipe can hold:

• Ingredients — each with an optional quantity and unit. Reorder them by long-pressing and dragging; swipe to delete. When adding an ingredient, the app suggests names from your current list.
• A photo — from the camera or gallery, with a zoomable full-screen view.
• Preparation steps — free text. Tap the read-aloud button in the section header and the app reads the steps to you while you cook, with play, pause and resume.

Add to list puts every ingredient on your shopping list in one tap: existing items are marked as needed (quantities add up), unknown ingredients are created as new items. Ingredients are matched to items by name.

The free version includes up to three recipes; Pro removes the limit. With cloud sync enabled, recipes (including photos) sync across your devices.

Best Buy calculator

Open Best Buy from the drawer to compare two pack sizes and see which is the better deal. For each of Item A and Item B, enter the Price and the number of units (#Units). The app shows each item's unit price and tells you which is cheaper — or that they're equal. The unit price is shown rounded to two decimals using your locale's decimal separator.

Execute Action (batch operations)

Open Execute Action from the drawer to apply one operation to many items at once. Pick an action, choose its target where needed, select the items in the list (All / None helpers are provided), and tap Execute. Available actions:

• Assign alternative shop — add a shop as an alternative on each selected item.
• Assign virtual category — tag the selected items with a virtual category.
• Change shop — set the primary shop on the selected items.
• Change category — set the primary category on the selected items.
• Copy to DB — copy the selected items into another database.
• Move to DB — move the selected items into another database.
• Delete items — delete the selected items.

Trash & Archive

Deletion is never immediate and final. Two safety nets:

• Trash — deleted items, shops and categories go here. Open Trash from the drawer to Restore entries (individually or Restore all) or to Delete permanently. Empty Trash clears everything for good. Entries are grouped into Items, Shops and Categories.
• Archive — items you've finished with but want to keep for reference. Swipe an item left to archive it, then open Archive from the drawer to Restore them back to the list.

CSV data transfer

Open Data Transfer from the drawer to export or import items as CSV — useful for backups or moving data between lists and devices. Choose the Mode (Export or Import):

• Export — choose All items or Needed items, optionally include a header row, and export to the clipboard or share it as a .csv file via the share sheet.
• Import — paste CSV data, optionally Update existing items (rather than only adding new ones), and import. The result tells you how many items were added and updated. You can also share text or a CSV file from another app straight into Shopping Manager — the import field is pre-filled for you.

The columns are: Name;Category;Shop;Unit;Price;Quantity;Note;Aisle;Tax1;Tax2;Priority;Coupon;StdQty. The field separator is configurable.

Send list

Open Send List from the drawer to share your list as text. Choose to send via Email or SMS, whether to include All items or Needed items only, and (for email) which columns to include — Name, Quantity, Price, Unit, Category, Shop, Aisle, Note and Priority. Tap Send to hand off to your mail or messaging app.

Home screen widget (Pro)

Add the Shopping Manager widget to your home screen to see the needed list of your active database without opening the app. Tap an item's checkbox to toggle it between Needed and Checked right on the home screen; tap the header to open the app.

Backup & restore (Pro)

Under Settings → Backup you can save a complete backup of the app as a single ZIP file — all lists, recipes, photos and settings — to any location you choose (e.g. your Downloads folder or a cloud drive). Restore reads such a file back; the app validates the archive first, then replaces its data and restarts. Restoring overwrites the current data, so it asks for confirmation.

Cloud sync (Pro)

Under Settings → Cloud sync you can keep several devices in sync through your own cloud storage. Supported providers: Nextcloud and generic WebDAV.

• End-to-end encrypted — you choose a sync password; everything is encrypted on the device before upload. Use the same password on all devices. Without it, the data in your cloud storage cannot be read — not even by the cloud provider.
• Automatic merging — changes from all devices are merged per item; the most recent change wins. Deleted items travel too, so lists stay consistent.
• Photos optional — a separate toggle controls whether item and recipe photos are transferred as well.
• Auto-sync — sync on app start plus a daily background sync, optionally restricted to Wi-Fi.

Settings

Open Settings from the drawer.

Language, tap area & options

• Language — System default, English or Deutsch.
• Check item tap area — whether tapping the Complete line or the Checkbox only checks an item off.
• Options — toggles for: Show needed in All mode, Show checked in Needed mode, Name wraps (let long names wrap to multiple lines), Search in notes, Show info button, and Auto-save (save an item automatically when navigating back).

Item details

Under Item Details, choose which details appear on each row in the list: Priority, Category, Shop, Aisle, Coupon, Price info and Note.

Sorting

Set up to four sort criteria each for Sorting in All Mode and Sorting in Needed Mode, choosing from Name, Category, Shop, Aisle, Priority, Price, Note and Unit (or None). Two extra toggles — Show needed separate and Show checked at bottom — control how the state groups are arranged.

Import/export & tax

• Tax 1 / Tax 2 — two global tax percentages. Items flag which taxes apply to them; the totals in the statistics bar include the applicable tax.
• CSV separator — the field separator used by CSV import/export.
• Quantity decimals — how many decimal places quantities are shown with.

Appearance

Open Appearance from Settings to make the app your own:

• Theme — Light, Dark or System.
• Colors — set text colors for the item name in each state (Default, Needed, Checked), plus Details and Note. Choices include Black, White, Blue, Red, Green, Gray, Dark Blue and Dark Red.
• Font Sizes — pick sizes for the Name, Details and Note lines (12–24).
• Background (Pro) — give the item list a background color or an image from your gallery, with a visibility slider.

Pro version

Pro is a one-time in-app purchase (no subscription) that unlocks the features for power users: the home screen widget, the ZIP backup, the encrypted cloud sync, list backgrounds, more than three lists and unlimited recipes. Open Pro version from the drawer to buy, or use Restore purchase after reinstalling or switching devices — the purchase is tied to your Google account.

Privacy

The app stores everything locally on your device. There are no accounts, no ads and no tracking. Exactly two optional features use the internet: the barcode scanner sends only the scanned barcode to Open Food Facts to suggest a product name, and cloud sync (Pro) uploads your data end-to-end encrypted with your sync password, only to the cloud storage you choose. Permissions are requested only on demand: the camera / photo picker when you attach an image, and notifications for planned-purchase reminders. See the privacy policy for details.

Credits

Shopping Manager Classic is a private, offline shopping-list app for Android (Kotlin + Jetpack Compose + Room), available in English and German. By Andreas Grauf.