Couple Tracking Expenses Each Month...Mint? Personal Capital?

[uneven_cyclist]

Greetings MMM forum,

Has anyone out there set up a dashboard using an expense-tracking website like Mint or Personal Capital to track expenses for two people using the same dashboard? 

Right now we are tracking expenses using Mint and then on a monthly basis inputting data into a spreadsheet. 

This is giving us some really good / detailed data about where our money is going and about how we are spending our money and so on.  However, the process is time consuming because we have to manually input data from our individual mint accounts into a single sheet so that we can then see what our spending / saving looks like as a couple.

We are in a phase right now where we are trying to bring our spending levels down in multiple categories and to set goals and so on, so it is important for us to track things closely right now. 

We are hoping to make this process, which we are doing on a monthly basis, as efficient as possible so that we can quickly identify areas of opportunity and then move on with our day.

From what I can see on the Personal Capital website, it looks like it is possible to set up a combined dashboard that pulls in spending data from two different people.  Has anyone used this?  Would this be a good way for me to achieve my goals?

Any other advice or suggestions that folks have? 

Thanks!! 

[RWD]

Why can't you just put all your accounts under one Mint? Did you want to be able to still see the numbers separate as well? If so, maybe set up a third Mint account that has everything combined?

I personally use GnuCash but if you are complaining about manually inputting data then it's not for you.

[cool7hand]

Mint is better for tracking expenses, setting budgets, getting control. Just combine everything there.

[beee]

I prefer manual tracking.
I think this is the best way to keep everything secure and under control.

[Steeze]

DW and I use Mint, just started a month or so ago, so far so good.

We just agreed to only use the joint accounts and cards that are connected to mint for the year so it is more accurate. Still have to audit the categories, but it is 98% accurate. Doing it by hand would be a pain!

Not sure if you can track each of your spending separately though, we just have joint everything so it works out well for us. Maybe the three mint accounts would work, two separate and one combined.

[the_hobbitish]

I really like You Need a Budget. I started using it years ago when I was saving every spare dollar to put toward student loans. I like that I can set aside/categorize money for yearly expenses. I tend to import purchases weekly because it takes less time and makes it easier to adjust spending as needed.

[jbfishing]

I've been using mint for about 5 years and you can add bank and credit card accounts from different people.  DW and I have joint and separate credit cards and works fine. You can hide and unhide accounts as needed. In Trends you can select separate accounts if needed to view spending by person, by account, or whatever your choice. Test it by adding one of your partner's accounts to your Mint. If you don't like it then just delete it.

[uneven_cyclist]

Thanks all for the feedback -- it didn't occur to me to go with the simplest / easiest approach and to just add both of us to a single Mint account! 

I did set up a Personal Capital account today as well but discovered that it actually *wasn't* possible to link a second user / to set up a joint dashboard.  I had been reading about a joint checking account that they offer (unaware that PC also offers banking services in addition to their dashboard tracker) and was thinking that this was describing a function that might enable linking a second user to the dashboard.

At any rate, I do suspect that it would also be possible to just add accounts/cards from a second person to a single dashboard using PC in the way that folks are describing with Mint.  I was particularly interested in PC because the tracking calculators at Mad Fientist seem to be geared toward PC.

At this point, I am going to try setting up Mint and PC using both of our cards / bank accounts and then explore the differences between them and see how they work for a little while!

Thank you all for the advice and input, I really appreciate it!