Personal Finance smartphone application

[warp]

Hi guys,

I am looking for personal finance application - Android (me), iOS (my wife, kids), desktop. Some requirements:
- multiple account (maybe multiple currency support)
- categories (shopping, rent, loan, car, school, entertainment, etc)
- synchronization between devices
- useful graphs to know, where is possible to save money
- app should be free or cheap
- easy to add new record
- etc..

What is your recommendation, your experience?

Thank You very much. Cheers!

[msangi]

You should give a look to YNAB. It lacks multiple currencies support but I think it works neatly for all your other requirements.

There is a thread about it in the forum if you want to get some more opinions and comments.

[Doubleh]

Worth taking a look at the snappily named Home Budget With Sync. Both iOS and droid, and costs around $5 for iOS, assume droid is similar. All transactions you enter are immediately synced between devices, even across platforms.

The wife and I have used this for about 4 years, with multiple accounts and different currencies and  found it great. Very quick &  easy to update, and 2 levels of categorisation gives a good degree of granularity. There are some pretty reasonable on screen reports and graphs or if you want more detail is easy to export to csv and make up your own charts in excel. Definitely recommend.

[kaetana]

I'm a BIG fan of YNAB. I'll go through your requirements with it:

- multiple account (maybe multiple currency support) Yes - it lets you create multiple budgets, but it does not support multiple currencies in the same budget. You would have to either have separate budgets for different currencies, or convert all transactions to the same currency in the one budget.
- categories (shopping, rent, loan, car, school, entertainment, etc) Yes - you can have as many master and sub-categories as you want.
- synchronization between devices Yes - it syncs between mobile, tablet, and desktop apps seamlessly using Dropbox.
- useful graphs to know, where is possible to save money Yes - but only in the desktop app.
- app should be free or cheap No - it has a 30-day full-featured trial period for free, but after that you would need to pay to continue to use it unless you're a full time student (in which case you can get it for free if you send in your student ID). It is normally $60, but you can get it for cheaper by using someone's referral link ($6 off) or waiting around for their Steam sales (you can get it for 75% off, down to $15).
- easy to add new record Yes.
- etc..
You can import transactions from bank accounts, although I personally prefer manual entry immediately after purchase. YNAB is based on the envelope system. The forums and tutorial videos are a wealth of information, and the methodology is worth looking into even if you don't end up buying the app. The app license is for your whole household and uses an honesty system instead of limiting the amount of devices it can be installed on.

Oh - and other than being an extremely happy user and having a referral link, I don't have any connection to YNAB. I just love it that much, and recommend it to everyone because it changed my life!

[warp]

Hi,

thank you for information. I want to investigate several apps, YNAB be on the list. I am looking forward for some another tips.

[schimt]

mint.com is a free option, YNAB is generally considered more of a proactive budgeting tool, and Mint is an automated tracking tool. It automatically connects and downloads transaction, where YNAB requires you to put them into the application manually.

Mint has automatic notifications for spending and when you are reaching a limit on a budget category, it is also nice because it will notify you of any unusual spending, send you weekly summary emails and gives you a nice picture of your entire financial picture in one place. They also recently added free credit monitoring.

[catccc]

Another vote for YNAB, I'm a big fan.  I haven't ever seen it for 75% off on steam, but I got it during a Black Friday sale last year for $24.  It was half off of the usual $60, plus I used someone's referral link, which was another $6 in savings.  And full disclosure, when you use my referral link (or anyone's referral link), the source also gets $6.  Anyway, it's been well worth it.  I do wish the app was closer to the desktop version.  You do need to access the full desktop version to get all of the budgeting done.  The app is for entering transactions and checking budget balances, basically.  (It would also be great if it could get my partner to enter the transaction in the app rather than text me when he spends money... but that's not the software's issue.)

[schimt]

  I do wish the app was closer to the desktop version.  You do need to access the full desktop version to get all of the budgeting done.  The app is for entering transactions and checking budget balances, basically.

Just an FYI, you can do budgeting with YNAB on their iPad app, much more then on just the phone app.

[warp]

Mint looks really well..but I am not able to download it - not sure why, because I have latest google phone and android version..probably my country is not supported.

I just found (and I am trying it) app Wallet ...looks that is only Android and Desktop now - https://www.walletapp.net/ Ok, I know that it does't work on iOS, but is very nice, I mean design. I also have installed YNAB http://www.youneedabudget.com/ ...yes, there is a lot of app...

[warp]

I just found Money Wizard, http://moneywizapp.com/ ...not free, looks well

[schimt]

i saw this article on rockstar finance this morning, not sure if any of the suggestions will help, but a couple more ideas in there.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fueled/use-your-phone-as-a-piggy_b_5941996.html

[frugalnacho]

mint.com is a free option, YNAB is generally considered more of a proactive budgeting tool, and Mint is an automated tracking tool. It automatically connects and downloads transaction, where mint requires you to put them into the application manually.

Mint has automatic notifications for spending and when you are reaching a limit on a budget category, it is also nice because it will notify you of any unusual spending, send you weekly summary emails and gives you a nice picture of your entire financial picture in one place. They also recently added free credit monitoring.

Not sure what you are talking about, mint automatically tracks everything.  The only thing you have to manually enter is cash transactions, but i'm pretty sure that's true of all budgeting/tracking apps.

Mint is actually annoying in that it auto tracks too much; I have to hide transactions between my accounts.  Not sure why mint thinks transferring money (that's already accounted for) from my checking to my savings account needs to show up as income.

[warp]

Anyone using some different app than was not mentioned here?

[schimt]

It automatically connects and downloads transaction, where mint requires you to put them into the application manually.

Not sure what you are talking about, mint automatically tracks everything.  The only thing you have to manually enter is cash transactions, but i'm pretty sure that's true of all budgeting/tracking apps.

sorry that was a typo, and has been modified, *cheers*