May 27, 2011 at 22:42Overview of Home Accounting Systems
When selecting programs for review, an important requirement for me is the lack of synchronization with any external service (yes, I'm paranoid) and the availability of a version for an iPhone. Comparison table in Google guides .
Unless otherwise specified, “iPhone” means all iOS devices. I tried to give comments on each program in essence and for those points that are not reflected in the comparative table. If there is an asterisk in the table field, then there are comments in this review for this value.
A common point - those programs that update the exchange rate automatically do this with finance.yahoo.com .
CSV (comma separated values) - here and so everything is clear. The data is listed in rows. Inside a string, items are separated by a comma (or other sign). This format is read by Excel and many other programs.
OFX (open financial exchange) is the most common format for exchanging financial information. Most Internet banking know how to export data to it. Alfa Bank and Citibank too.
QFX is a proprietary version of OFX. Used exclusively by Intuit in their Quicken financial app to collect tribute.
QIF (quicken interchange format) is an open format that appeared before OFX and has not been supported since 2006.
MT940 (message type) is a message format introduced by SWIFT for exchanging account information. Used by banks around the world.
salary,
entertainment,
cinema,
4D,
5D,
slot machines,
regular payments,
Internet (1000 rubles per month),
mobile telephone (as consumed) ——
ZhKH (the amount is not the same every month).
For the item “Internet” there was an attempt to set a monthly automatic charge with a reminder of payment. For the "housing and communal services" is just a reminder every month.
There was an attempt to get two profiles: me and my dog (we will call it Martin). For the first, accounts were opened in cash and credit card (in dollars). For the second - “account in a big bank” (in euros) and “debts” (where does the dog get cash?). Accordingly, there was an attempt to make several transactions, including transfers between accounts. Next, we display statistics with different parameters.
It’s impossible to start using it just like that, the first thing to do is to synchronize with an iPhone / iPod first. The process is not entirely trivial, because you must first use the separate button "select a device", and then use the other button "synchronize". And at the same time, the tab with synchronization should be open on the iPhone. The mobile application interface itself leaves much to be desired, which is worth only one pop-up menu.
Inconvenient switching between accounts and categories (using the drop-down menu). When you try to delete a predefined category or account, the application crashes. On a mobile application, it turned out to be done. As it turned out, on a desktop application you can only drive in new transactions, all the rest of the functionality is carried out on an iPhone.
Account types are not supported in the usual sense, you can create different groups (for example, "cash" and "credit cards"). The currency automatically clings to an iPhone, apparently, from the localization settings, and does not change further. The next payment reminder can only be set for recurring transactions. Statistics can be viewed only in text mode and filtered only by category and month, for a year you can’t see. I was pleased with the ability to do calculations directly in the input field. The search only works on the iPhone, but there are no results for my queries (obviously matching transactions).
In general, a very negative impression of both the desktop version and the mobile application.
A very sophisticated application with various pleasant but not always necessary buns.
When creating an account, he suggests linking it to a bank with subsequent integration with Internet banking. But, as we have already found out, for our village this is not relevant. For different types of accounts, you can set specific characteristics. For example, for a credit card - the interest rate, for debts - the name of the borrower, the number of payments, interest rate, the number of payments, etc. In general, almost all parameters are taken into account.
There is no support for profiles as such, but you can create a group for account members and thus indicate to whom which accounts belong. Recipient / payer management is implemented on one side only: if you enter an existing recipient in the corresponding field, the program will automatically assume what and how much money was spent. You cannot view the list, rename it, or somehow integrate the list of recipients with the address book.
Printing and searching are fully supported. Statistics are also very convenient with all kinds of goodies.
Also in the program there are all kinds of bells and whistles for people involved in all kinds of financial transactions. For example, a game on the stock exchange.
After an hour of active use, it began to consume almost 100% of the CPU (the laptop almost took off), although before that the day normally hung in inactivity.
The site says that the mobile version costs € 3.99. At iTunes Store $ 4.99. Do not be confused - the currencies are different. For the desktop on the site they want € 14.99, and in the online store - $ 18.99.
When creating an account, you can manually specify the data for automatically downloading statements from online banking. But I couldn’t check, because those Internet banking services that I use either load everything with javascript or do not generate statements in OFX format. You can attach several cards to one account. Debts in the program are not realized.
Nested categories are supported, but it is implemented as category groups, that is, transactions cannot be assigned a group, but a category (which is not a group) can be assigned.
Currencies are only supported at the account level.
Filters for statistics by time, but not by category.
It supports a lot of languages, among them there is Russian and even Chinese. In Russian eppstore is in first place in financial applications. When you first start, very convenient tips.
Accounts can be grouped into folders, just like in iBank. There are no types of accounts as such, you can only set the parameters of the bank to which the account is linked. The concept of debt also does not exist.
Recipients are supported at the most primitive level, each time it is necessary to drive in handles.
It can export only in CSV or its own ifi3a format, which can be used when transferring from one system to another.
A simple application (compared to peers) with a set of necessary functions and a minimalistic interface.
Requires mandatory registration on IronMoney.com. Accordingly, synchronization through their website. It has its own API.
I could not find a demo version, so the comparative characteristics of this program are based only on the information that is on the developers website.
You can keep a budget on their website, which is completely free. There is no password protection as such, but the application is tied to a specific account, so this is a kind of protection.
All screenshots can be viewed on the developers website .
This project is a logical continuation of Money 2, and it will be followed by Money 4 with new goodies. For an upgrade with Money 2 they want $ 19.
I used this application for a long time, and I liked it. The only thing that upset me there was that there was no such thing as “debts,” so certain difficulties arose. There is Russian localization.
It supports the so-called “smart accounts”, which can display transactions from multiple accounts according to user-created rules. Each account can be protected with a separate password.
Nested categories are supported only up to the second level.
The program also has a set of functions for economically advanced users: invoices (and a catalog of goods to them), investments, stock summaries.
Statistics can be filtered by time, categories, accounts, and create your own rules.
The version for iOS 3 is free, and for iOS 4 it is already $ 1.99 (without the version for iPad).
You can now download Money 4 (beta) from the official site with a very nice and convenient interface. In addition, there appeared such a useful function as attaching files to transactions.
In Jumsoft has an educational discount of 20% on all products (interested and will tell you how to get in hp).
There are versions for all platforms, as it is written in Java. There is unconfirmed information that the project was abandoned. Not very convenient and nice interface. After removing one of 20 categories (with confirmation of deletion!), I want to strangle the developers.
It is able to export in addition to QIF in its own formats, as well as in files with tabs as a delimiter.
The program believes that Russia and the ruble, respectively, do not exist. In general, she has a fairly limited set of currencies.
The set of functions is standard, but the controls are very inconvenient.
You can sync with multiple iOS devices. The site says about synchronization with the iPad, but there is no version for it in the iTunes store. The license for a single user for the desktop application costs $ 49.99, and the family one costs $ 79.99.
Instead of categories and budgets, the developers decided to implement “baskets”, an analog of envelopes in which people used to put money in order to pay for electricity, an apartment, a car, etc. The idea is similar to 4 Kraynov envelopes , but in this case cash flows are limited by time and categories.
You cannot set seed capital for accounts.
Due to the implementation of the “baskets”, each of them must be set a limit on expenses or replenish, otherwise a minus will be displayed in the reports.
It can synchronize with multiple iOS devices and with android phones. Backup requires SyncDocs .
The program is very inconvenient to manage, it seems that the design is generally from three (at least) different people.
Photos can be attached to transactions (for example, scans of receipts).
When trying to make a transfer from one account to another, glitches with the exchange rate were discovered. Despite the fact that the course automatically clings (or is set by handles, if desired), the absolute value of the transfer was the same on both accounts (you can clearly see in the screenshot).
The budget can be set as restrictions on certain categories (as in MoneyWell).
Statistics only text.
The program does not allow you to start working without synchronization with an iPhone, the version for which costs $ 4.99. Therefore, the data (as in the case of Iron Money) about the program was taken from the developers site.
Judging by the screenshots, the program has some kind of children's interface with shiny icons. It is alleged that you can upload your own icons.
There are versions for all iOS devices, as well as for android phones, blackbury, windows mobile and Palm OS. You can sync with all mobile devices. A simple license for a desktop application does not allow synchronization with mobile devices; you must buy one of the mobile versions. If you already have a desktop version for Palm OS, then you can get a code for iPhone, Windows mobile or Blackberry for free. The iPad version is sold separately.
Exchange rate updates for iPhone and iPod only.
In general, despite the repulsive appearance, the program has the necessary set of functions for conducting home accounting.
They do not want to make the version for Windows under the pretext that the latter does not support the technologies that the application uses. After the launch, it became clear why. In the program, everything spins and turns, all kinds of 3D lotions. All this, apparently, is a cantor for the "interfaces of the future", although this is clearly excessive.
Immediately after launching and creating the first account, the error “Items cannot be deleted from transactions” began to periodically fall out, apparently due to the fact that I deleted the default category at startup (although why did it even let me do this?). Categories can only be controlled from the settings (you have to guess before that).
You can create folders (pseudo-profiles) and “smart folders” based on rules (as in Money 3). After creating the folder, I couldn’t delete it.
There is no automatic reading of data in banking, although you can connect to them through the built-in browser and import the necessary data from there.
You can calculate the amount directly in the input field (you must put the = sign).
Able to predict based on available statistics.
If you turn off the whistles and farts, then it’s quite a nice and convenient program.
iCash is an application without a client for an iPhone. Extremely clumsy and inconvenient interface. The developers seem to have decided that someone else would like their unique idea of budgeting.
Koku (formerly Cashbox ) - without an iPhone client. When buying Koku, you can use the Cashbox promo code and get a $ 5 discount.
Cha-Ching - merged with the Intuit project , offering to either use Quicken or Mint . In Quicken only desktop version costs $ 49.99, but it seems there are a few third-party clients for iPhone, including from Mint.com.Mint is cool without a doubt, when you connect it requires you to choose a bank, but since there are no Russian banks on the list, you cannot go beyond the first step of registration.
A little about the rating: I used to pay attention to him, because "thousands of lemmings cannot be wrong." But then I realized that in some cases he was wrong about his own feelings about using the program. Usually when buying an application (if there is no light version) I read reviews first of all, if this is not enough, I surf the Internet and read reviews and reviews there. And, in the end, an application for a buck can be bought just to test.
All rights to logos belong to the respective companies.
PS Some designers and interface developers for Mac OS amaze me. They consider the use of standard controls (buttons, fonts, etc.) a bad manners, although these standard elements are more than digestible. In an attempt to create their own beautiful, they give birth to something that you want to immediately close and never open again. Under Windows, by the way, the same story.
UPD A few words about how applications were selected for review.
The lack of synchronization with an external service (Iron Money leaked) and the presence of an iOS client I already voiced.
Next, I looked at the first 100 applications rated both in the eppstore and in the internet store. Another google search for "mac os home budget" and similar.
Unless otherwise specified, “iPhone” means all iOS devices. I tried to give comments on each program in essence and for those points that are not reflected in the comparative table. If there is an asterisk in the table field, then there are comments in this review for this value.
A common point - those programs that update the exchange rate automatically do this with finance.yahoo.com .
Description of criteria
Some of the criteria listed in the document are described here.Import and export data
All formats found in the table are quite common.CSV (comma separated values) - here and so everything is clear. The data is listed in rows. Inside a string, items are separated by a comma (or other sign). This format is read by Excel and many other programs.
OFX (open financial exchange) is the most common format for exchanging financial information. Most Internet banking know how to export data to it. Alfa Bank and Citibank too.
QFX is a proprietary version of OFX. Used exclusively by Intuit in their Quicken financial app to collect tribute.
QIF (quicken interchange format) is an open format that appeared before OFX and has not been supported since 2006.
MT940 (message type) is a message format introduced by SWIFT for exchanging account information. Used by banks around the world.
Server installation option
Item for megaparanoics. If you do not want to share your financial data with service employees, and you need access from all devices at least in the apartment, then install the service on your server.Account Support
Ability to create many, many accounts (> 1). An account means all kinds of options for storing money: bank cards, savings accounts, cash ...Account Types
Cash, current accounts, credit accounts / cards, debts. I was particularly interested in the item “debts”, since not everyone has implemented it, and the item is very important in our harsh reality.Recipients
Ability to enter payees: companies or people. You can use it when generating statistics, such as "how much I spent on the purchase of pencils in ikey."The ability to recognize checks
Personally, this function would be very useful to me. The costs that we pay in cash, sometimes just too lazy to make manually. In no application has this feature been detected.Ability to attach files
As a replacement for the previous function: incurred expenses, attached scan scan. You can save invoices received by mail.Currency Support
The ability to specify your own currency for each account and transaction.Profile Support
Ability to indicate who owns the account: me or my dog. It is necessary if the budget is kept for several people.Invoices
Invoice - a document provided by the seller to the buyer, which indicates the characteristics of the goods, as well as delivery times and the amount payable. According to Wikipedia, an analogue in the Russian Federation is an invoice. Obviously, this is only necessary for those people who are going to trade something.Budget planning
Setting a limit for spending, and receiving messages when that limit is reached.Nested Transactions
For a nested transaction, you can break down the amount into categories or simply by name (as in a regular store receipt).Rules for automatic transaction processing
This feature resembles filters in a mailbox. For example, if the name contains “Internet”, then you need to set the recipient “Megatelecom”.Filters for statistics
Receiving a report filtered by various criteria: time, categories of payments, etc.Testing
In order to collect more or less complete information about the application, I tried with each to do the following manipulations. For each application, I tried to create categories:salary,
entertainment,
cinema,
4D,
5D,
slot machines,
regular payments,
Internet (1000 rubles per month),
mobile telephone (as consumed) ——
ZhKH (the amount is not the same every month).
For the item “Internet” there was an attempt to set a monthly automatic charge with a reminder of payment. For the "housing and communal services" is just a reminder every month.
There was an attempt to get two profiles: me and my dog (we will call it Martin). For the first, accounts were opened in cash and credit card (in dollars). For the second - “account in a big bank” (in euros) and “debts” (where does the dog get cash?). Accordingly, there was an attempt to make several transactions, including transfers between accounts. Next, we display statistics with different parameters.
Day bank station
It’s impossible to start using it just like that, the first thing to do is to synchronize with an iPhone / iPod first. The process is not entirely trivial, because you must first use the separate button "select a device", and then use the other button "synchronize". And at the same time, the tab with synchronization should be open on the iPhone. The mobile application interface itself leaves much to be desired, which is worth only one pop-up menu. Inconvenient switching between accounts and categories (using the drop-down menu). When you try to delete a predefined category or account, the application crashes. On a mobile application, it turned out to be done. As it turned out, on a desktop application you can only drive in new transactions, all the rest of the functionality is carried out on an iPhone.
Account types are not supported in the usual sense, you can create different groups (for example, "cash" and "credit cards"). The currency automatically clings to an iPhone, apparently, from the localization settings, and does not change further. The next payment reminder can only be set for recurring transactions. Statistics can be viewed only in text mode and filtered only by category and month, for a year you can’t see. I was pleased with the ability to do calculations directly in the input field. The search only works on the iPhone, but there are no results for my queries (obviously matching transactions).
In general, a very negative impression of both the desktop version and the mobile application.
iBank
A very sophisticated application with various pleasant but not always necessary buns. When creating an account, he suggests linking it to a bank with subsequent integration with Internet banking. But, as we have already found out, for our village this is not relevant. For different types of accounts, you can set specific characteristics. For example, for a credit card - the interest rate, for debts - the name of the borrower, the number of payments, interest rate, the number of payments, etc. In general, almost all parameters are taken into account.
There is no support for profiles as such, but you can create a group for account members and thus indicate to whom which accounts belong. Recipient / payer management is implemented on one side only: if you enter an existing recipient in the corresponding field, the program will automatically assume what and how much money was spent. You cannot view the list, rename it, or somehow integrate the list of recipients with the address book.
Printing and searching are fully supported. Statistics are also very convenient with all kinds of goodies.
Also in the program there are all kinds of bells and whistles for people involved in all kinds of financial transactions. For example, a game on the stock exchange.
After an hour of active use, it began to consume almost 100% of the CPU (the laptop almost took off), although before that the day normally hung in inactivity.
iCompta
The site says that the mobile version costs € 3.99. At iTunes Store $ 4.99. Do not be confused - the currencies are different. For the desktop on the site they want € 14.99, and in the online store - $ 18.99. When creating an account, you can manually specify the data for automatically downloading statements from online banking. But I couldn’t check, because those Internet banking services that I use either load everything with javascript or do not generate statements in OFX format. You can attach several cards to one account. Debts in the program are not realized.
Nested categories are supported, but it is implemented as category groups, that is, transactions cannot be assigned a group, but a category (which is not a group) can be assigned.
Currencies are only supported at the account level.
Filters for statistics by time, but not by category.
iFinance
It supports a lot of languages, among them there is Russian and even Chinese. In Russian eppstore is in first place in financial applications. When you first start, very convenient tips. Accounts can be grouped into folders, just like in iBank. There are no types of accounts as such, you can only set the parameters of the bank to which the account is linked. The concept of debt also does not exist.
Recipients are supported at the most primitive level, each time it is necessary to drive in handles.
It can export only in CSV or its own ifi3a format, which can be used when transferring from one system to another.
Iron money
A simple application (compared to peers) with a set of necessary functions and a minimalistic interface. Requires mandatory registration on IronMoney.com. Accordingly, synchronization through their website. It has its own API.
I could not find a demo version, so the comparative characteristics of this program are based only on the information that is on the developers website.
You can keep a budget on their website, which is completely free. There is no password protection as such, but the application is tied to a specific account, so this is a kind of protection.
All screenshots can be viewed on the developers website .
Money 3
This project is a logical continuation of Money 2, and it will be followed by Money 4 with new goodies. For an upgrade with Money 2 they want $ 19. I used this application for a long time, and I liked it. The only thing that upset me there was that there was no such thing as “debts,” so certain difficulties arose. There is Russian localization.
It supports the so-called “smart accounts”, which can display transactions from multiple accounts according to user-created rules. Each account can be protected with a separate password.
Nested categories are supported only up to the second level.
The program also has a set of functions for economically advanced users: invoices (and a catalog of goods to them), investments, stock summaries.
Statistics can be filtered by time, categories, accounts, and create your own rules.
The version for iOS 3 is free, and for iOS 4 it is already $ 1.99 (without the version for iPad).
You can now download Money 4 (beta) from the official site with a very nice and convenient interface. In addition, there appeared such a useful function as attaching files to transactions.
In Jumsoft has an educational discount of 20% on all products (interested and will tell you how to get in hp).
Moneydance
There are versions for all platforms, as it is written in Java. There is unconfirmed information that the project was abandoned. Not very convenient and nice interface. After removing one of 20 categories (with confirmation of deletion!), I want to strangle the developers. It is able to export in addition to QIF in its own formats, as well as in files with tabs as a delimiter.
The program believes that Russia and the ruble, respectively, do not exist. In general, she has a fairly limited set of currencies.
The set of functions is standard, but the controls are very inconvenient.
Moneywell
You can sync with multiple iOS devices. The site says about synchronization with the iPad, but there is no version for it in the iTunes store. The license for a single user for the desktop application costs $ 49.99, and the family one costs $ 79.99. Instead of categories and budgets, the developers decided to implement “baskets”, an analog of envelopes in which people used to put money in order to pay for electricity, an apartment, a car, etc. The idea is similar to 4 Kraynov envelopes , but in this case cash flows are limited by time and categories.
You cannot set seed capital for accounts.
Due to the implementation of the “baskets”, each of them must be set a limit on expenses or replenish, otherwise a minus will be displayed in the reports.
PocketMoney
It can synchronize with multiple iOS devices and with android phones. Backup requires SyncDocs . The program is very inconvenient to manage, it seems that the design is generally from three (at least) different people.
Photos can be attached to transactions (for example, scans of receipts).
When trying to make a transfer from one account to another, glitches with the exchange rate were discovered. Despite the fact that the course automatically clings (or is set by handles, if desired), the absolute value of the transfer was the same on both accounts (you can clearly see in the screenshot).
The budget can be set as restrictions on certain categories (as in MoneyWell).
Statistics only text.
Splashmoney
The program does not allow you to start working without synchronization with an iPhone, the version for which costs $ 4.99. Therefore, the data (as in the case of Iron Money) about the program was taken from the developers site. Judging by the screenshots, the program has some kind of children's interface with shiny icons. It is alleged that you can upload your own icons.
There are versions for all iOS devices, as well as for android phones, blackbury, windows mobile and Palm OS. You can sync with all mobile devices. A simple license for a desktop application does not allow synchronization with mobile devices; you must buy one of the mobile versions. If you already have a desktop version for Palm OS, then you can get a code for iPhone, Windows mobile or Blackberry for free. The iPad version is sold separately.
Exchange rate updates for iPhone and iPod only.
In general, despite the repulsive appearance, the program has the necessary set of functions for conducting home accounting.
Squirrel
They do not want to make the version for Windows under the pretext that the latter does not support the technologies that the application uses. After the launch, it became clear why. In the program, everything spins and turns, all kinds of 3D lotions. All this, apparently, is a cantor for the "interfaces of the future", although this is clearly excessive. Immediately after launching and creating the first account, the error “Items cannot be deleted from transactions” began to periodically fall out, apparently due to the fact that I deleted the default category at startup (although why did it even let me do this?). Categories can only be controlled from the settings (you have to guess before that).
You can create folders (pseudo-profiles) and “smart folders” based on rules (as in Money 3). After creating the folder, I couldn’t delete it.
There is no automatic reading of data in banking, although you can connect to them through the built-in browser and import the necessary data from there.
You can calculate the amount directly in the input field (you must put the = sign).
Able to predict based on available statistics.
If you turn off the whistles and farts, then it’s quite a nice and convenient program.
A few more applications
Balance is a very simple application without a client for an iPhone.iCash is an application without a client for an iPhone. Extremely clumsy and inconvenient interface. The developers seem to have decided that someone else would like their unique idea of budgeting.
Koku (formerly Cashbox ) - without an iPhone client. When buying Koku, you can use the Cashbox promo code and get a $ 5 discount.
Cha-Ching - merged with the Intuit project , offering to either use Quicken or Mint . In Quicken only desktop version costs $ 49.99, but it seems there are a few third-party clients for iPhone, including from Mint.com.Mint is cool without a doubt, when you connect it requires you to choose a bank, but since there are no Russian banks on the list, you cannot go beyond the first step of registration.
Total
I decided to stay on Money 3 (more precisely 4), I got used to it, and the new version is very cool.A little about the rating: I used to pay attention to him, because "thousands of lemmings cannot be wrong." But then I realized that in some cases he was wrong about his own feelings about using the program. Usually when buying an application (if there is no light version) I read reviews first of all, if this is not enough, I surf the Internet and read reviews and reviews there. And, in the end, an application for a buck can be bought just to test.
All rights to logos belong to the respective companies.
PS Some designers and interface developers for Mac OS amaze me. They consider the use of standard controls (buttons, fonts, etc.) a bad manners, although these standard elements are more than digestible. In an attempt to create their own beautiful, they give birth to something that you want to immediately close and never open again. Under Windows, by the way, the same story.
UPD A few words about how applications were selected for review.
The lack of synchronization with an external service (Iron Money leaked) and the presence of an iOS client I already voiced.
Next, I looked at the first 100 applications rated both in the eppstore and in the internet store. Another google search for "mac os home budget" and similar.
