Personal finance software typically works by collecting your personal data, linking the software to your financial institution, investment accounts, and credit cards, and then helping you set up your financial goals. Once you've linked your accounts, it can monitor your credit, track your spending and savings habits, help you create a budget, offer tips and investment advice, and send out bill pay and savings goal reminders.
Personal finance software varies in features, functions, and costs. Some software offers basic features with free and paid versions. Other software helps you meet more complex financial goals and charges monthly fees.
Financial Software For Mac
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Personal finance software typically costs between $5.97 and $12 per month, or you can pay annually for a discounted rate. Other software charges an annual $35 fee, and software that focuses on investing charges an annual percentage based on managed assets.
It simplifies the process of personal financial management by largely bypassing traditional receipts and spreadsheets. At the same time, the best personal finance software lets you collate your records, have them all in one place and backed up too, often using cloud storage (opens in new tab) for added flexibility.
Basic financial planning software simply provides an easy portal for managing your finances, but some of the more advanced packages can help with reducing debt, managing budgets, or even provide finance advice as an additional service.
If you're looking to keep your business books with a bit more detail, check out our guides to the best accounting software for small business (opens in new tab) and best tax software (opens in new tab).
If you're in need of some organisational clout, especially if you're running a small business, picking a personal finance software package can help a great deal. Depending on your needs you'll find that the best personal finance packages allow you to keep on top of things like receipt logging and managing expenses, all from within one program.
The other bonus is that most of the personal finance software packages allow you to share your data with your preferred tax and accounting software. That means you'll be much better placed when it comes to tax filing time. There are personal finance packages tailored to both online and offline needs, with many having apps that let you track spending day to day. Cloud-based personal finance packages let you keep all of your data in a safe place too, so all bases are covered.
Desktop or mobile?Have a think about where and how you'll use your personal finance package. Most of us tend to spend money on the go, so having a software package that allows you to log and track outgoings means a mobile and app-based solution makes a lot of sense. Most packages offer both desktop and mobile solutions however.
Easy integrationYou'll want to check that any personal finance software you're considering will ideally work in tandem with other packages. This is crucial when it comes to logging items like expenses. Check your package can be used to move figures from one place to another for much more efficient tax filing purposes.
Help and supportAs is the case with any software package, it's always good to check there will be help at hand should you need it. Some personal finance packages come with free support, while others have it as part of a paid-for plan. How much help you will need depends on your confidence with the software.
Get 10% off the normal price for Quicken (opens in new tab), the best personal finance software when it comes to keeping your money in order. Manage budgeting, bills, and investments from a single desktop or mobile app.
Quicken offers a good range of financial reporting tools. These are set around a few different areas, namely budgeting, bills, accounts, and even investments. For budgeting, it offers you a chance to input your purchases and income so you can compare them both together to get a better idea of how much you are spending compared to how much you are earning.
It's not the prettiest software around, and it's slightly more awkward to use than many of its more refined cousins, although BankTree does produce very neat reports which you can break down by time, or by payee. It may be worth experimenting with the free trial before you choose to invest in this one.
The desktop software comes with one year of updates and support, though you are restricted to one PC and there is a charge for any additional PC you want to run the software on. There's also a browser-based version available.
BankTree - Personal Finance (opens in new tab)BankTree Desktop Personal Finance software is available now for just 35.00. We will provide you with free email support, and free updates, and bug fixes to the current version of BankTree Desktop Personal Finance version 3.0. You can install the software on one computer. Any additional installations are charged at just 5.00 per computer.
Its reporting features are quite strong if not spectacular to look at, and one of Moneydance's most useful sections is its account register. If you're old-school and once managed a cheque book, this operates on a very similar principle. There's also an iOS app for logging transactions on the go, which later syncs with the software on your desktop.
Managing accounts in different currencies is no problem, but you'll have to enter data into this free personal finance software rather than having your transactions pulled in from your bank account. That said, if you download statements from your online bank account, these can then be imported to saved time with manual entry. AceMoney Lite also makes it easy to track your spending and investments, making it a reasonable financial tool for anyone looking to take control of their finances.
Although relatively easy to use, this free personal finance software does really require some familiarity with accounting software, and it's simple to migrate from another program because you can import data in QIF and dOFX formats. Support for expense tracking makes this ideal software for preparing for tax season, and there are a huge number of reporting options to help you to make sense of your cashflow. The software is available for macOS, Windows and Linux, as well as Android, and it's highly recommended that you try out this great tool before you consider any of the paid-for alternatives.
Picking which personal finance software package to use is pretty straightforward. The main thing is to consider what you'll need it for, and how much you'll be using it. After all, there's little point in purchasing a premium personal finance package if it has got lots of features you'll never use.
For example, you may be a little disorganised when it comes to budgeting, so having software that can help with setting goals can be really useful. Setting up your personal finance package to assist with reach goals, and ensuring it lets you know if you're slipping behind schedule can be invaluable.
Everyone has different needs when it comes to managing personal finances. That means the range and choice of best personal finance software packages is expansive, which is great for us, the consumers.
The best starting point if you're on the lookout for the best personal finance software package is therefore to decide just how complicated you think your money matters are. If you run a tight ship and are quite good with your finances, then a basic package will more than suffice.
Consider factors including how much you spend eating out each month and what sort of credit card terms you're working too such as managing monthly payments. You might want to factor in how much you need to save towards a pension. The best personal finance software can help with these, and more.
However, if you're not organised, you'll want to look at more complex personal finance packages that can do a lot more of the money management legwork. More sophisticated packages can help you become better at budgeting, keep track of incomings and outgoings and build up an archive of your financial affairs.
Remember, it's still possible to use a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel (opens in new tab) if you prefer. However, the great thing about personal finance software is it has been created specifically for money management needs.
What we look for in the best personal finance software packages is primarily the ease of use factor, combined with the range of features and functions. We also test how well the software runs, particularly in the app or mobile environment. Lots of us are time poor and being able to manage finances on the go is a popular option.
Naturally, we're also looking for just how well the software can handle tasks, especially for folks who have more complex personal finance affairs. Keeping your data safe and secure is a given too, especially if it's a package that can integrate with the best accounting software (opens in new tab) or tax filing packages.
The Personal Finance category features software to help you create a budget, save money, pay off debts and make well-informed financial decisions. Program types include budget calculators and financial report builder.
The latest version of iBank offers a full suite of financial management capabilities at an incredibly deep level. Direct Access and direct downloads allow you to connect directly to bank accounts, and you can quickly import from Quicken to update all your data. Budgeting, investment tracking, and advance notifications about bills are all included. You can also build you own financial charts and reports if you want to analyze a particular part of your finances. The downside to this universal collection of features is, unfortunately, the price. If you love to customize your iPhone, take a look at our review of these 15 eye enticing parallax wallpapers for the iPhone 5s.
Fortora is a newer entrant in personal finance software than previous options, and specializes in more streamlined features that allow you to quickly search for specific transactions, bulk edit entire fields to save time, and use shortcuts when setting budgets and recording items. It can import not only bank account information but also stock quotes for your investments. Otherwise, it makes a strong competitor to services like iBank and MoneyWell, although its support on mobile devices like iPad is unfortunately lacking. 2ff7e9595c
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