If you are a busy person it can be difficult to keep track of your finances.
Often you will set up a budget on a spreadsheet, use it a couple of times and then get frustrated when you realize you haven’t got all the data to input. You might not have all your receipts, you might forget about the little expenses you’ve incurred and then you find yourself guessing when it comes to your actual spending.
Whilst there is a myriad of downloadable spreadsheet templates or programs for your home computer, mobile apps are starting to take over with budgetary management.
Here are a few popular apps that will help you get your finances into shape.
Quickbooks
Intuit’s Quickbooks has been an accounting platform since 2002. It would be remiss not to include the app version of this well-known personal and business accounting software.
The central goal of this app is to provide an all-encompassing resource when it comes to accounting, generating reports and invoices at the click of a button.
Its Dashboard offers insights into your monthly expenses, allowing you to separate them into appropriate categories. You can see your profit and loss, giving you a good idea of where you might improve your spending habits. Rather helpfully, there is an option for it to auto-categorize your expenses.
It collates all your bank accounts, so you can get a good handle on your overall balance with one tap. “Once you’ve got a handle on all this you can prepare for self-assessment, where it can do the number crunching for you. It will even calculate VAT so you can be assured of submitting accurate returns,” says Cheryl Mosby, financial analyst at Last Minute Writing and Researchpapersuk.
In addition, it has a dedicated Cloud Storage option, meaning you can access your accounts from anywhere.
Mvlopes
Mvlopes is based on a pre-digital system, where you keep your cash in envelopes organized for different categories of expenses.
“Mvlopes takes this system and turns it into a simple, effective system for managing your bills.
While most apps simply track your spending and offering you tips on how to spend less and save more, Mvlopes works in a different way,” explains Staci Shelton, technologies enthusiast and writer at Draftbeyond and Writinity.
It can analyze your transactions, including income, bills and regular payments then create spending forecasts. It actually estimates your spending each month and gives you tips on proactively reducing it. Once it creates your funding profile you can easily replicate your spending and saving needs each month.
Acorns
Acorns works a little harder than many other apps and actually finds a way to grow your money. It’s a simple but ingenious way of getting into the ruthless world of investment but without as much risk involved as larger investments.
It takes any transaction and rounds it up to the nearest dollar, depositing the difference into an investment cache so that it can grow. Most people do this kind of rounding up anyway when spending, so it’s an interesting psychological technique to employ, with often surprising results by the month’s end.
Wally
Wally uses intelligent technology, such as AI to organize and report on your expenses. It’s a free app which employs a simple layout which can be used by both the everyday user and for anyone looking to streamline their business expenses.
Once you have inputted your data it will give you detailed feedback and allows you to share this feedback if the bank account is a shared or business account.
The most ingenious feature is its ability to store and analyze photos and files of receipts and invoices. This means you don’t have to manually input anything!
Mint
Undoubtedly one of the most popular and well-used money management apps, Mint has been around since 2006. Since then it has gone from strength to strength, and it takes a holistic approach to personal finance management.
It is an easy-to-use app, and completely free. It covers your budgets, tracking of spending and can collect your bank accounts into one place so you can see your spending habits at a glance.
It will send you reminders of due bills and payments so that you aren’t slapped with an unexpected late fee, giving you greater control over your spending.
YNAB (You Need A Budget)
YNAB has been an important player in the field of budget management apps for a while now, and it is no wonder it has such a huge following.
It works off of a core idea that every dollar has a job to do. Via its easy-to-navigate interface, you will use it for both your everyday spending and for any outgoings down the line. It urges you to be honest about your expenses and modify your spending behavior accordingly and takes into account not just every month but your costs over the whole year.
Christopher Phan is a content writer and proofreader at Gum Essays and Lucky Assignments with years of experience. Chris has a degree in Marketing and enjoys writing about business strategies, entrepreneurship and startup companies.
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