Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
checkbook/budget application
- Thread starter DanielQ
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm a bit biased, but I like this one: http://www.adamcode.com/spend/
It's not really meant for managing a checkbook, but is very good at keeping track of your spending in different categories.
It's not really meant for managing a checkbook, but is very good at keeping track of your spending in different categories.
my favorite is daybank
I agree. Day Bank is inexpensive and does a great job with both my bank accounts. Its very easy to add expenses and deposits and keep your balance up to date. You can also take pics of receipts which is pretty cool.
I've been using the Palm version of SplashMoney for years... They have an iPhone version and just released the desktop version that lets you import/export in Quicken and .csv formats..
I'm trying out Budget app right now. It's $2
The interface could be better, but once setup up, it doesn't take long to add an expense.
It doesn't let you set up weekly, daily, yearly expenses, it just does a month by month overall budget. You can go back to previous months.
Say you create a "Rent" expense in the main list. Set the budget for it. So, say rent is $775, also put a due date on it. Even, a reminder. Don't know the exact time it does, but it reminded me of a bill days before the due date. Every time I launched the app, it would bring up the reminder. Once you enter in an expense for that reminder's section, it will stop bugging you, even if it's not the exact amount of say the rent. There is no repeat expense forever, but when you create one, the month it starts is already in, and the last month is set for 2010. But at least you can set it for so many months, like if you bought an art piece on layaway for 4 payments.
You can also set some to auto fill, like bills and income that you know are the same each month and are on auto pay. Each month, these budgets will auto fill. Like I know my Cable is always $58, and it's automatic pay, so each month it will auto calculate into what has been spent. This feature is called auto actual. Now, you can still enter an expense and it will disable auto actual. So say your bill was lower or higher than the budget, like your ATT bill having a $18 upgrade fee that month, your budget reflect that.
It shows on the bottom left your total possible income, and your total possible expense. While on the right, your income so far, and your total spending thus far.
Each category has a fever chart showing the budget as a flat line, and a line of what you actually spent over a year. Might be useful to keep track of your power bill, and notice when it's higher during the year, and lower. Or, you may find a section that you continually under spent, then adjust the budget to match, and then maybe use the difference to increase budget in areas you consistently overspent.
The expenses can be set to skip months, so if it's every 2 months, 3 months, and so on. Wish I could set my car insurance to be for 4 months straight, then skip 2 months. But at least there's an on off switch for budgets so I can turn it off for 2 months without deleting it.
Downsides, editing a budget or creating it can be several pages to finish it, and one wrong click, like hitting back, it later becomes cancel, so one to many taps is deadly. But entering things into finished areas is quick. Though, lists can only be in alphabetical order, and so far, day to day expenses in each category list newest at the bottom. A tip right now for the category is to put a space in front of the name in your most used ones to be at the top (updates after you reopen the app)
Maybe not great for check booking, but can help you set up a budget to control spending, and actually see what you spent from month to month. I really like the reminder. I know there's no alarm or e-mail, but since I'll be using it daily, I'll usually get the notice to make the payment when I open it. I wish the yearly chart feature would show the average cost per month based off total spent over the year.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=283281224&mt=8
The interface could be better, but once setup up, it doesn't take long to add an expense.
It doesn't let you set up weekly, daily, yearly expenses, it just does a month by month overall budget. You can go back to previous months.
Say you create a "Rent" expense in the main list. Set the budget for it. So, say rent is $775, also put a due date on it. Even, a reminder. Don't know the exact time it does, but it reminded me of a bill days before the due date. Every time I launched the app, it would bring up the reminder. Once you enter in an expense for that reminder's section, it will stop bugging you, even if it's not the exact amount of say the rent. There is no repeat expense forever, but when you create one, the month it starts is already in, and the last month is set for 2010. But at least you can set it for so many months, like if you bought an art piece on layaway for 4 payments.
You can also set some to auto fill, like bills and income that you know are the same each month and are on auto pay. Each month, these budgets will auto fill. Like I know my Cable is always $58, and it's automatic pay, so each month it will auto calculate into what has been spent. This feature is called auto actual. Now, you can still enter an expense and it will disable auto actual. So say your bill was lower or higher than the budget, like your ATT bill having a $18 upgrade fee that month, your budget reflect that.
It shows on the bottom left your total possible income, and your total possible expense. While on the right, your income so far, and your total spending thus far.
Each category has a fever chart showing the budget as a flat line, and a line of what you actually spent over a year. Might be useful to keep track of your power bill, and notice when it's higher during the year, and lower. Or, you may find a section that you continually under spent, then adjust the budget to match, and then maybe use the difference to increase budget in areas you consistently overspent.
The expenses can be set to skip months, so if it's every 2 months, 3 months, and so on. Wish I could set my car insurance to be for 4 months straight, then skip 2 months. But at least there's an on off switch for budgets so I can turn it off for 2 months without deleting it.
Downsides, editing a budget or creating it can be several pages to finish it, and one wrong click, like hitting back, it later becomes cancel, so one to many taps is deadly. But entering things into finished areas is quick. Though, lists can only be in alphabetical order, and so far, day to day expenses in each category list newest at the bottom. A tip right now for the category is to put a space in front of the name in your most used ones to be at the top (updates after you reopen the app)
Maybe not great for check booking, but can help you set up a budget to control spending, and actually see what you spent from month to month. I really like the reminder. I know there's no alarm or e-mail, but since I'll be using it daily, I'll usually get the notice to make the payment when I open it. I wish the yearly chart feature would show the average cost per month based off total spent over the year.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=283281224&mt=8
PocketMoney!
Not sure why it hasn't been mentioned yet! Pocket Money is the perfect solution. At least, it is for me.
Their application looks great and the latest update they released has solved all the bugs I found annoying. There is no support for automatic recurring transactions at this time, but I don't need that feature. There is also no desktop syncing (data is saved when you backup your iphone though) either. This is a feature I wish it had and that it probably will have in the future. I can live without it, however.
It can support multiple accounts. Those accounts can be checking, savings, credit card, etc... Each account can have an icon.
There are graphical reports. Support for withdraws, deposits, and transfers.
If I remember right, it was ~$10 but worth every penny in my opinion. As a college student, it is more than enough to track every iota of financial information I need to track.
I've added my checking account to it and then created a savings account on it. Of course, the savings account is fake but its good enough for me. It allows me to transfer money from checking to savings and hide the savings balance from my total balance on the home screen.
Out of sight, out of mind... I don't know how much i've saved so I don't know how much I can steal from it. Great job!
If you havn't picked an app yet, i'd suggest PocketMoney.
Not sure why it hasn't been mentioned yet! Pocket Money is the perfect solution. At least, it is for me.
Their application looks great and the latest update they released has solved all the bugs I found annoying. There is no support for automatic recurring transactions at this time, but I don't need that feature. There is also no desktop syncing (data is saved when you backup your iphone though) either. This is a feature I wish it had and that it probably will have in the future. I can live without it, however.
It can support multiple accounts. Those accounts can be checking, savings, credit card, etc... Each account can have an icon.
There are graphical reports. Support for withdraws, deposits, and transfers.
If I remember right, it was ~$10 but worth every penny in my opinion. As a college student, it is more than enough to track every iota of financial information I need to track.
I've added my checking account to it and then created a savings account on it. Of course, the savings account is fake but its good enough for me. It allows me to transfer money from checking to savings and hide the savings balance from my total balance on the home screen.
Out of sight, out of mind... I don't know how much i've saved so I don't know how much I can steal from it. Great job!
If you havn't picked an app yet, i'd suggest PocketMoney.
I've got Day Bank too, and while I like most of it, it doesn't differentiate between a positive balance and a negative balance. Pretty basic thing to be missing from a register app.
www.clearcheckbook.com has an iPhone webapp. It's pretty nice because it offers home computer access too that way.
www.clearcheckbook.com has an iPhone webapp. It's pretty nice because it offers home computer access too that way.
They are going to have something on the App Store come September. I hope this works well.
It does, just reverse your thinking. Make the first balance amount a payment so it puts it in the negative and every time you make a payment, select deposit.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I haven't bought one yet - I'm looking for the most feature-rich one.
That's why I bought the cheap $2 Budget app, figure I can at least watch my month to month spending for the time being until a major app comes out.
They are going to have something on the App Store come September. I hope this works well.
Yea! That sounds like it'd be awesome! I like the webapp, but native would just be icing on that cake.
QuickBank
There is a new personal finance application out called QuickBank. Supports unlimited accounts and transactions, personalized categories, account exporting to Quicken/Microsoft Money/etc..
Very quick and easy to use -- more features already on their way. 99 cents.
iTunes Link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286753971&mt=8
Website:
http://www.quickbankapp.com/
There is a new personal finance application out called QuickBank. Supports unlimited accounts and transactions, personalized categories, account exporting to Quicken/Microsoft Money/etc..
Very quick and easy to use -- more features already on their way. 99 cents.
iTunes Link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286753971&mt=8
Website:
http://www.quickbankapp.com/
Found a new really great app called Pennies (made by the guy who did AppZapper). Really sweet user experience.
http://designbyaknife.com/pennies/
http://designbyaknife.com/pennies/
I saw this at macworld, and the website vid makes it look really polished, one good review from you guys and I'm pulling the trigger.
I liked Budget app, it's gotten better since release, but now that I lost nearly two months of day by day expenses thanks to the iPhone crashing and the backup being corrupt, I don't ever want to use it again.
SO, of which apps have syncing with desktop "PC" clients and or web servers?
The last post mentions SplachMoney, but I have a feeling the client is Mac only. EDIT: Maybe not, I'll see. Does anyone know BofA status with direct connect, like is it free for sure if you have direct deposit.
SO, of which apps have syncing with desktop "PC" clients and or web servers?
The last post mentions SplachMoney, but I have a feeling the client is Mac only. EDIT: Maybe not, I'll see. Does anyone know BofA status with direct connect, like is it free for sure if you have direct deposit.