Personal Financial Management Software Recommendation
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Looking for some recommendation for a personal financial management software product. Preferably free. I'd like it to show upcoming bills and how much they total. I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since 2005 it kept getting worse and worse. I haven't used any for a while since my wife and I have a joint account and I don't have a supercomputer to run the software on to keep up with her. I recently got a separate account to pay bills out of and looking at using the software to manage it. Thanks.
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
Hello, I am not sure how applicable my advice would be to you, but I was also looking for a "perfect" financial app. The solution I propose may sound strange and I thought so as well at first, but for the last few months I've got great use out of it. What's more is I keep using it cause it's kinda rewarding to see the moneys u spent, whereas with previous desktop apps I end up using them for a week and give up because they were too time consuming, frustrating or complicated. Anyways I remommend EasyMoney for Android. Yes it's a mobile application. But let me say that it beats any quick-shmoooks-money hands down. It has budgets, bill reminders and your transactions. Link Advantages over conventional desktop app: 1. much faster startup 2. easier user interface 3. don't have to wait to get home to enter a transaction 4. easy to check the status of your financers/balance anytime 5. allows me to set and check my budgets on the go 6. has some reporting built it Oh yah, and you get a nice chrismas present too, by gettting Android phone for it ;-) I recommend the magic, but if you like the expandable keyboard go with G1.
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Looking for some recommendation for a personal financial management software product. Preferably free. I'd like it to show upcoming bills and how much they total. I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since 2005 it kept getting worse and worse. I haven't used any for a while since my wife and I have a joint account and I don't have a supercomputer to run the software on to keep up with her. I recently got a separate account to pay bills out of and looking at using the software to manage it. Thanks.
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
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Sorry, I've not got a recommendation for you. But hey, consider yourself lucky that you've got finances that need managing. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]
I disagree, I need finances that need management. If I don't manage it, bills don't get paid in the end of the month. If I were lucky I wouldn't need to know where I should cut costs.
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Looking for some recommendation for a personal financial management software product. Preferably free. I'd like it to show upcoming bills and how much they total. I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since 2005 it kept getting worse and worse. I haven't used any for a while since my wife and I have a joint account and I don't have a supercomputer to run the software on to keep up with her. I recently got a separate account to pay bills out of and looking at using the software to manage it. Thanks.
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
I used MS Money for years and also found it lacking. Switched to MoneyDance[^] about 1.5 years ago. It isn't free but it handles sub-accounts really well which for me was a requirement. It imported the MS Money stuff without a problem. So far, so good.
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Looking for some recommendation for a personal financial management software product. Preferably free. I'd like it to show upcoming bills and how much they total. I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since 2005 it kept getting worse and worse. I haven't used any for a while since my wife and I have a joint account and I don't have a supercomputer to run the software on to keep up with her. I recently got a separate account to pay bills out of and looking at using the software to manage it. Thanks.
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
Have you tried Quicken? You can get a free copy, especially as tax season approaches. It is easy to use and tracks quite a bit of information. Plus, unlike Mint (now owned by Intuit as well) you can do transactions in the program and send them to the Bank. My wife and I have been using it for years and love it.
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I use wife 1.0 Only has a few problems. Gets all of my money. Doesn't give accurate financial reports on some all credit cards. Restricts what items may be purchased. But has a few benefits (including, but not limited to). Tracks all income and expenditure (it is only reporting that is buggy). Pays bills on time. Has a nice interface (sometimes). Biggest problem is that it fights back when it needs to be rebooted! (see reporting).
RCoate wrote:
I use wife 1.0
I hear the wife 2.0 upgrade is expensive and not guaranteed to fix the reporting issues. The upgrade costs 50% of assets, and alimony plus child support to boot. Personally, I will keep wife 1.0 even with it's reporting issues.
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I disagree, I need finances that need management. If I don't manage it, bills don't get paid in the end of the month. If I were lucky I wouldn't need to know where I should cut costs.
Like my grandpa taught me, "You either manage your money, or it will manage you." :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]
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The obvious answer is Quicken, time tested, mother approved. Just spend the money, you know it'll be around for years.
DP
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Bonjour to all, Have you ever thinking about Quicken ? I used Microsoft Money too before but this one seems better than Microsoft Money. Gnu Cash also is good as suggested sooner if you are using Linux OS. Wish this help you. Cheers :-\
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Intuit is pretty much the leader for this sort of thing. I'm all about trying the applications too... but we use Quickbooks 9 Pro, for business and home. You might be able to get the basic version... but I don't think you'd mind the extras; your call. I know Intuit used to have Quicken for home finances and they may still; if so it should be cheaper... it'll hopefully be like Microsoft Money with the exception you like it a lot more :) There is something to using Excel or just spreadsheets, in that you're not married to a particular software. In short; shop around because once you start entering data and spending time with a specific accounting software, it's not easy to switch as you probably know. --Jason
Know way too many languages... master of none!
:mad: Sorry, but Quicken has degenerated into a marginally usable random aggravation generator. I loved it back in the DOS days, but the Windows versions have progressively added features that are so buggy you're better off not even TRYING to use them. Just when you think, "Cool! It does that?" you try it and bizarre roadblocks pop up at every turn. One example: Quicken 2009 Rental Manager: if you click the search tab in the Help window... nothing happens; no search box, no list of subjects, nothing. Completely unusable. Even rudimentary QA should have caught that one. Here's another one: If you try to enable online update for an existing credit card account it gets stuck in a mode where it refuses to list the available credit card accounts so you can't do it. You have to export the data, delete the account, recreate the account and configure online update, then reimport the data. Feh! They're pinging me about upgrading to Quicken 2010, and I've heard rumors they have a hidden time limit on certain features that stop working after a particular date. If that's true, I'll drop Quicken like I did TurboTax. Using clay tablets and a pointed stick is less frustrating than Quicken. X|
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Looking for some recommendation for a personal financial management software product. Preferably free. I'd like it to show upcoming bills and how much they total. I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since 2005 it kept getting worse and worse. I haven't used any for a while since my wife and I have a joint account and I don't have a supercomputer to run the software on to keep up with her. I recently got a separate account to pay bills out of and looking at using the software to manage it. Thanks.
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
This is CodeProject. Why not write something? :)
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Looking for some recommendation for a personal financial management software product. Preferably free. I'd like it to show upcoming bills and how much they total. I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since 2005 it kept getting worse and worse. I haven't used any for a while since my wife and I have a joint account and I don't have a supercomputer to run the software on to keep up with her. I recently got a separate account to pay bills out of and looking at using the software to manage it. Thanks.
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
I personally have used Intuit's Quicken product for 18 years. I now use the Home and Business version to manage both types of accounts. I manage 9 different accounts in one file and I download transactions every day. With 13 kids, I've had to manage things pretty close over those 18 years and Quicken (especially the download bank transactions feature) has saved my bacon multiple times. It can be had for less than $50 and it pays for itself when it comes to tax time as well. Just MHO!
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Looking for some recommendation for a personal financial management software product. Preferably free. I'd like it to show upcoming bills and how much they total. I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since 2005 it kept getting worse and worse. I haven't used any for a while since my wife and I have a joint account and I don't have a supercomputer to run the software on to keep up with her. I recently got a separate account to pay bills out of and looking at using the software to manage it. Thanks.
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
I use Moneydance - it's not free, but I think it was only like $30. (Thought someone should give you an actually recommendation).
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Looking for some recommendation for a personal financial management software product. Preferably free. I'd like it to show upcoming bills and how much they total. I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since 2005 it kept getting worse and worse. I haven't used any for a while since my wife and I have a joint account and I don't have a supercomputer to run the software on to keep up with her. I recently got a separate account to pay bills out of and looking at using the software to manage it. Thanks.
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
There is quite a bunch of free home accounting tools. Go on any software download site, for example : http://download.cnet.com/windows/personal-finance-software You may try AceMoney Lite (one account only).
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I personally have used Intuit's Quicken product for 18 years. I now use the Home and Business version to manage both types of accounts. I manage 9 different accounts in one file and I download transactions every day. With 13 kids, I've had to manage things pretty close over those 18 years and Quicken (especially the download bank transactions feature) has saved my bacon multiple times. It can be had for less than $50 and it pays for itself when it comes to tax time as well. Just MHO!
Wait a minute, just one cotton picking minute. 13 kids? I thought I was the only one here in double digits (11). I, too, vote for Quicken. You *don't* need to update it at all, and you can usually get an off version for just about close to free as can be expected. It isn't perfect, but like tchris, i have data going back (checking...) many years (2001). It can get depressing seeing what you've spent your money on.
Charlie Gilley You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house. "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
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Looking for some recommendation for a personal financial management software product. Preferably free. I'd like it to show upcoming bills and how much they total. I used to use Microsoft Money, but ever since 2005 it kept getting worse and worse. I haven't used any for a while since my wife and I have a joint account and I don't have a supercomputer to run the software on to keep up with her. I recently got a separate account to pay bills out of and looking at using the software to manage it. Thanks.
Brad Deja Moo - When you feel like you've heard the same bull before.
Money Manager Ex (from Sourceforge) is OK. And of course the source is available if you want to make it better. There is also GnuCash, but I don't like it as much as Money manager Ex. Either of these will meet the requirements you cited.
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:mad: Sorry, but Quicken has degenerated into a marginally usable random aggravation generator. I loved it back in the DOS days, but the Windows versions have progressively added features that are so buggy you're better off not even TRYING to use them. Just when you think, "Cool! It does that?" you try it and bizarre roadblocks pop up at every turn. One example: Quicken 2009 Rental Manager: if you click the search tab in the Help window... nothing happens; no search box, no list of subjects, nothing. Completely unusable. Even rudimentary QA should have caught that one. Here's another one: If you try to enable online update for an existing credit card account it gets stuck in a mode where it refuses to list the available credit card accounts so you can't do it. You have to export the data, delete the account, recreate the account and configure online update, then reimport the data. Feh! They're pinging me about upgrading to Quicken 2010, and I've heard rumors they have a hidden time limit on certain features that stop working after a particular date. If that's true, I'll drop Quicken like I did TurboTax. Using clay tablets and a pointed stick is less frustrating than Quicken. X|
WOW - that sux - We personally use QuickBooks and it isn't nearly as bad as you decribe Quicken - jeesh - Junk Huh?
Know way too many languages... master of none!
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:mad: Sorry, but Quicken has degenerated into a marginally usable random aggravation generator. I loved it back in the DOS days, but the Windows versions have progressively added features that are so buggy you're better off not even TRYING to use them. Just when you think, "Cool! It does that?" you try it and bizarre roadblocks pop up at every turn. One example: Quicken 2009 Rental Manager: if you click the search tab in the Help window... nothing happens; no search box, no list of subjects, nothing. Completely unusable. Even rudimentary QA should have caught that one. Here's another one: If you try to enable online update for an existing credit card account it gets stuck in a mode where it refuses to list the available credit card accounts so you can't do it. You have to export the data, delete the account, recreate the account and configure online update, then reimport the data. Feh! They're pinging me about upgrading to Quicken 2010, and I've heard rumors they have a hidden time limit on certain features that stop working after a particular date. If that's true, I'll drop Quicken like I did TurboTax. Using clay tablets and a pointed stick is less frustrating than Quicken. X|
WOW - that sux - We personally use QuickBooks and it isn't nearly as bad as you describe Quicken - jeesh - Junk Huh?
Know way too many languages... master of none!
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WOW - that sux - We personally use QuickBooks and it isn't nearly as bad as you describe Quicken - jeesh - Junk Huh?
Know way too many languages... master of none!
It has sure annoyed me. I've sent several emails to Quicken support with specific lists of problems, but have never received a response and none of their "Updates" has addressed any of the issues I've seen. I suppose there could be something weird about my computer, but I have had *NO* problems with any other applications. I looked at GnuCash last year; I think I will look again and if it has most of the features I need, I may switch to it and donate some time developing properly functioning enhancements to make it more competitive with Quicken. If you can't join them, beat them!
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I use wife 1.0 Only has a few problems. Gets all of my money. Doesn't give accurate financial reports on some all credit cards. Restricts what items may be purchased. But has a few benefits (including, but not limited to). Tracks all income and expenditure (it is only reporting that is buggy). Pays bills on time. Has a nice interface (sometimes). Biggest problem is that it fights back when it needs to be rebooted! (see reporting).
:laugh:
-muneeb A thing of beauty is the joy forever.