I am looking for an app that I can keep track of my spendings (from bills to entertainment). It doesn't have to be free, but free is always better. I have tried Cha-Ching. Didn't like it, not for that price anyways.
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Finance App
- Thread starter cycocelica
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It had a learning curve to it, but Liquid Ledger does the job for me. I have searched endlessly for something to replace Microsoft Money (which I feel is the best financial app by far). It lacks in the area of reporting and graphs, but it is quick and teaches you a bit about accounting and journaling. Don't go with Quicken in my opinion, it's bloated and bad. I went for Liquid Ledger when they were first starting up and it has served me well, especially since I use multiple currencies.
You have no idea how popular a question this is 
I have searched for so many years for something good. People's needs are so different too since some programs are designed for online banking and some aren't. I paid for Liquid Ledger since I couldn't find a free one I liked enough. I'll try to remember a few though, Cash, iBank, Buddi, EZ Money to name a few... look on the Mac OSX downloads page.
I have searched for so many years for something good. People's needs are so different too since some programs are designed for online banking and some aren't. I paid for Liquid Ledger since I couldn't find a free one I liked enough. I'll try to remember a few though, Cash, iBank, Buddi, EZ Money to name a few... look on the Mac OSX downloads page.
As of now I am testing out Money and EZ Money. Both seem pretty good and will do what I need. I will keep trying them out and let everyone know.
I hated EZ Money, and iCheck (or was it iCash?).
I'm now trying "Cashbox". It's very simple, but for a student like me who is just trying to keep track of my spending ("how much did I spend on computer stuff this month?") I think it will work.
Of course you have to manually enter your account balances to start, and you have to update everything yourself (doesn't interface with online banking), but it allows you to apply labels to spending items so you can visibly see which purchases were "Bills", which where "Car/Gas", etc.
I'm now trying "Cashbox". It's very simple, but for a student like me who is just trying to keep track of my spending ("how much did I spend on computer stuff this month?
") I think it will work.Of course you have to manually enter your account balances to start, and you have to update everything yourself (doesn't interface with online banking), but it allows you to apply labels to spending items so you can visibly see which purchases were "Bills", which where "Car/Gas", etc.
I have been looking at that one. Can you download your account information from your bank??
EZ Money sucks. Doesn't come loaded with categories.
Now its between Money and iBank. The only complaint I have so far with Money is that they don't show you the balance you have vs. the balance before the checks cleared.
Now its between Money and iBank. The only complaint I have so far with Money is that they don't show you the balance you have vs. the balance before the checks cleared.
well, i keep it pretty simple really. balancing the checkbook, etc i do all online with the banks web interface so i do not track that at all beyond looking at my accounts every couple of days.
i have one sheet setup with shared costs my girlfriend and i spend; every time we goto the market, or home depot, etc. and one of us pays we put the money in as a line item, split it in half and add it as a debit or credit; that keeps a running tally of how much money she owes me/i owe her at any given moment.
i have another sheet with basic client info like open invoices, what has been paid, what is due, etc.
all of my receipts go into a monthly folder that the accountant gets at the end of the year (this includes printouts of my utility bills i pay online and photocopies of cancelled rent checks since i write off part of that stuff as a home studio.) i also keep a sheet listing anything that is purely a business expense (computer stuff, office supplies, etc..) just as a reference.
theoretically i could do all this in some specific application (quickbooks, etc.) but i find excel easy to use and until i am managing more than myself and the occasional subcontractor i do not think i am going to change. i like to keep the money stuff as simple as possible. all you really need to know is take in more than you spend.
as far as the rest of my organizing goes, i am desperately trying to figure out some system that works for me (in terms of project management, to-do's, lists, calendars, etc.) as referenced on a post here, here and a few other forums.
thanks for that. maybe i should try excel to do mine as well. i have to get organized like you are first i guess
Found this comment from one of the software support guys on the iBank forum:
"iBank does not support automatic downloading of transaction data from your financial institutions. You must manually download the data and import it into iBank using the program's importing features."
I use Moneydance, which is able to download transactions online using OFX/QFX, which is the same protocol Quicken uses to synch with the banks. The interface is not particularly pretty, but it does everything I want it to and with less hassle than Quicken or (shudder) GnuCash.
I would recommend Budget
It uses an "envelope" method where you can put by certain amounts of money in each envelope for expenses you want to budget for. You can set up your salary to get split between these envelopes. Basically, it shows you your bank balance and it shows your "available" money which hasn't been allocated to other things.
You spend out of the envelopes or available envelope too, so you use tools to see how much you have spent on each envelope (aka category).
It uses an "envelope" method where you can put by certain amounts of money in each envelope for expenses you want to budget for. You can set up your salary to get split between these envelopes. Basically, it shows you your bank balance and it shows your "available" money which hasn't been allocated to other things.
You spend out of the envelopes or available envelope too, so you use tools to see how much you have spent on each envelope (aka category).
I think that Qucken and MoneyDance are the only two Mac apps that download directly into your register. The others use the two step export, import process.
I have iBank but I'm still not convinced with it. I have used excel since switching to Mac, but I do wish my bank would allow me to download an xls file. Only options I have are money and quicken files and we all know only quicken is useful to Mac.
I've never seen a bank that provided Excel download format, but some of them have CSV, which can be imported into Excel and databases. QIF and OFX seem to be the typical formats.