Anyone recommend a good app for keeping track of Finances

Calltocall

As title says looking for a easy to use app which keeps track of personal finances, income v expenditure etc. Still use a pen and paper but be handy to find a good app. Any suggestions be much appreciated

Thanks folks

howamidifferent

YNAB 4

Doodah7

Excel.

advertsfox

A simple Excel / Google sheet is more than enough. All incomings / outgoings with a few empty fields for unexpected ins and outs - done.

PM me if you'd like a copy of the sheet I use, I look through mine daily and its a life saver.

cookie1977

+1 for Excel

Easy to update the file on mobile too if you've got the file saved to the cloud.

Eggs For Dinner

Download the budget planner here. I find it great. All self calculating

https://www.zurich.ie/savings-and-investments/savings-and-investment-calculators/personal-annual-budget-spreadsheet/

cefh17

howamidifferent wrote: »

YNAB 4

The legacy version does the job for me, I can't justify spending for the subscription, but a +1 for YNAB in general

howsshenow

"Expense manager" for me.
Customise it to your own needs. Backed up to Dropbox and exportable to Excel.

is_that_so

cookie1977 wrote: »

+1 for Excel

Easy to update the file on mobile too if you've got the file saved to the cloud.

Yep can add simple cell formulas too to make instant updates and projections!

Sunrise_Sunset

I use an excel and find it good.
I spend almost exclusively with debit card so I can see on my online banking where it's all being spent and transfer the info to excel. I then budget based on what my expenditures generally are.

Jimmy Bottlehead

howamidifferent wrote: »

YNAB 4

I use New YNAB and its legitimately been a life changer for me. I handled every single expected and unexpected bill the summer threw at me, and am looking to clear a credit card within the next six months that has been hanging around my neck for over a decade.

Cannot recommend it enough.

Sam the Sham

I use Banktivity (mac only). I like the way it lays things out and also the way it handles multiple currencies. A bit pricey, though, and they frequently charge for upgrades to new versions that really only have a few changes.

Yggr of Asgard

On Windows:

While it is years old and the online functions don’t work anymore it still works for me to track spending and it’s free:

Microsoft Money

Just search for “Microsoft Money Sunset fix” and you can download it for free.

NIMAN

Can I ask how an app has been a life saver for some?

What did it do that being sensible with your money can't?

Can any examples be given as to why we should all use one?

Sam the Sham

Well, if you're in a couple or a family, particularly since the advent of touchless payments (and decline in the use of cash), it becomes possible to have a very good handle on who is spending what on what. Human psychology is such that people sometimes think they're being sensible when, in fact, they are not. For example: grocery bills. Do you know how much you spend on food in a month, including the spend on convenience stores, speciality stores, etc.? Would you know if your grocery spending had increased by 20% in a month?

Questions arise all the time of this kind: "can I/we afford this particular item or should/must we do without it?" and it's often difficult to answer if your only guideline is "just be sensible with money."

All of this is especially necessary where income and expenditure are roughly equal every month (or expenditure exceeds income) and then you have to figure out where you can/should cut back. The strategy of "just be sensible with your money" really only works for many people in a situation where income is generally far above expenditure.

Another way of thinking about it: why do businesses keep track of income and expenditure? Can you imagine running a business with nothing other than the watchword to "just be sensible"?

is_that_so

NIMAN wrote: »

Can I ask how an app has been a life saver for some?

What did it do that being sensible with your money can't?

Can any examples be given as to why we should all use one?

Nobody has to have one but they do serve a very good purpose. It's the ability to record your spending patterns that makes them useful. Even being sensible it's quite easy to lose track and unexpected expenses can throw it right off. They can also be handy as a planning tool to look at future expenses and costs.

NIMAN

OK, appreciate that some will use them and find them useful.

But if one tells you that that coffee every morning is costing you E50 per month, common sense would tell you its expensive to buy a coffee at 2.50 every morning on your way to work.

Perhaps seeing it as a figure at the end of the month might shock you into stopping buying it? But for me, I'd know its an expensive purchase monthly without the app.
Plus there would be a lot of time spent on the app inputing stuff surely?

NIMAN

I was looking to see how they were so useful to see if I needed to start using one.
I'll leave the discussion now, seems to be upsetting some.

Sabre0001

I like Clearcheckbook - allows setup of many accounts, can set reminders and automatic transactions for bills and things like that, I also use the jived / unjived feature so you can have money already deducted from your account's balance without actually changing the "today's balance" value; really helps with planning. I use this feature to store money in a "bills" account within my current account, for example.

The J Stands for Jay

Is there anywhere to get info on psd2 services that will do this? I'm sick of getting notifications that the banks are complying with the new regs, I want to be able to link all my data in one service and see how I'm doing financially. I can't be messing about with different format .CSV files as well as some that only offer .PDF downloads.

Grumpypants

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

I use New YNAB and its legitimately been a life changer for me. I handled every single expected and unexpected bill the summer threw at me, and am looking to clear a credit card within the next six months that has been hanging around my neck for over a decade.

Cannot recommend it enough.

YNAB for me too, I've tried spread sheets etc in the past and it never made a difference. I keep getting to the end of the month and have to dip into savings or overdrafts. Usually something would pop up to destroy any spare cash I thought I would have. €300 for Oil, €200 for bins, €200 for a plumber etc.

I started with YNAB at the very end of November last year. Christmas prob wasn't the best time to start budgetting so 2019 was basically practicing and getting used to the App.

Into 2020 and I started to notice some roll over from Jan to Feb. I have just rolled into March and hit 34 days in my "Age of Money". March is fully covered! and I could even put money into savings. We have 2 weddings this month and have already set aside €400 for them. Oil has been bought, bins are paid for, money is being set aside for upcoming expenses like a holiday, power hosing the house etc.

Best €80 I ever spent.

Static M.e.

Does YNAB integrate the with Irish Banks now? I understand that you can link with the UK Banks from last year. I use excel but I only do it on a quarterly basis. I've looked at YNAB about four or five times now but I find it hard to commit the €80 or so.

Glad to see it is working for you.

cefh17

Static M.e. wrote: »

Does YNAB integrate the with Irish Banks now? I understand that you can link with the UK Banks from last year. I use excel but I only do it on a quarterly basis. I've looked at YNAB about four or five times now but I find it hard to commit the €80 or so.

Glad to see it is working for you.

Just Ulster bank I believe, can't remember where I've seen someone say that though. Disappointed n26 isn't linked with it

howamidifferent

You can still download the desktop version which sold for $60 and the android APK is on many android stores if you can get an activation key, often resold on reddit. I bought it in 2015 for $60 and through referrals got $120 back!!

ifElseThen

Grumpypants wrote: »

Usually something would pop up to destroy any spare cash I thought I would have. €300 for Oil, €200 for bins, €200 for a plumber etc.

I use google sheets and suffered the same issue. Non-recurring monthly items were blowing the excess away.

Wife and I sat down and identified stuff like school fees, book fees, sports club fees etc. Total up, ÷ by 12 and hold that money aside each month to pay when these type of things that crop up throughout the year.

cefh17

howamidifferent wrote: »

You can still download the desktop version which sold for $60 and the android APK is on many android stores if you can get an activation key, often resold on reddit. I bought it in 2015 for $60 and through referrals got $120 back!!

Easier ways around it! If anyone needs to know I know

crisco10

I just use revolut for day to day expenses and nothing else. Then use it's reports at end of month/quarter/year to analyze my habits etc.

Sunrise_Sunset

ifElseThen wrote: »

I use google sheets and suffered the same issue. Non-recurring monthly items were blowing the excess away.

Wife and I sat down and identified stuff like school fees, book fees, sports club fees etc. Total up, ÷ by 12 and hold that money aside each month to pay when these type of things that crop up throughout the year.

Yes, I use sinking funds in that way too. Makes budgeting a lot easier.

Grumpypants

Static M.e. wrote: »

Does YNAB integrate the with Irish Banks now? I understand that you can link with the UK Banks from last year. I use excel but I only do it on a quarterly basis. I've looked at YNAB about four or five times now but I find it hard to commit the €80 or so.

Glad to see it is working for you.

I don't think so (but open to correction), There is a website showing up on google, that appears to add this functionality for some UK banks and lists Ulster. But it is £3.99 a month and I'm a bit dubious around attaching anything banking to any service.

I have my transactions split out. The ones I know are the same each week/month (Child care, Mortgage, life insurance, property tax etc.) These are set as recurring so you only need to set them up once it it takes care of everything else.

I input the others manually. It learns your Payee and auto fills the rest of the info. So if you shop in Aldi, as soon as you type Aldi it sets the category to Groceries for you. So this really doesn't take much time. Less 2 mins a day really.

I actually like the manual process as it keeps you reflecting on unessesary spending on an ongoing basis, rather than waiting until the end of the month and then realising you blew another €400 on speed boat lessons again. :pac:

The best thing is the roll over. Once money has been assigned to a category it stays in that one. For example I wanted to have €700 for groceries available in Jan and ended up spending €650. When Feb came the €50 rolled over so I only had to budget €650 from Feb wages to bring the available amount up to €700 again. For March I only had to budget €560 from my wages to get to €700.

PhilOssophy

Spending tracker on Play Store. I love it.