Seth’s Blog on Finance

Got an iPhone? Giving Away $2.99 App to Keep Track of Your Expenses!

There are quite a few people – friends and clients alike – I speak to who do not have an idea of how much they are spending, which translates into not knowing how much of their paycheques they are left with at the end of each month. With cash flow the basis of financial planning, such information is valuable in order for a proper financial plan or portfolio to be set up.

Even during my days as a National Serviceman I have been logging my expenses into my then non-camera smartphone. I believe that it was an important factor how I managed to finish my two-year National Service with more money than I had first entered the army despite a sub-$500 per month allowance.

Now, with smartphones – especially the iPhone – ubiquitous, it is even easier to record one’s expenses on the go.

ExpenseTracker – Spending for iPhone is an app that my friend Janice recommended. It is currently US$2.99 on the App Store. I have been using it for almost a year and I find it to be more than adequate for my use.

The app launches quickly enough and adding expenses is only a tap away, with a large numeric keypad to rapidly key in the price of the item you are buying. For its main intent and purpose, I feel that a good expense tracking software needs to minimise the time between opening the app to the entry of the item. ExpenseTracker does this well. A feature that could improve on this would be a setting to enable the app to launch straight into expense entry mode straightaway.

ExpenseTracker also allows one to analyse his spending habits by breaking down and tabulating different categories of expenses into bar and pie charts. It also offers a quick look at the monthly average spending. It also allows one to track their income, which would like one use this as a personal balance sheet instead of a mere expense tracking tool.

Amongst other features are support for multiple currencies, multiple accounts and user-defined expense categories. In my experience, it has been quite frequently updated with new features, such as the ability tag receipt photos along with the expense.

The app also allows exporting of data to Excel format for people more serious in their financial bookkeeping, and also features Dropbox backup so that your data can be safe.

I have spent quite a bit on apps, and this app persists to be one of my most used. The good news is that the good folks at AppCheer who developed this app have agreed to give me more than a few copies to give away. All you have to do is to like my Facebook page to support me in writing more. I will be picking random winners (Singapore/Malaysia residents!) amongst those who have liked my Facebook page. Even if you don’t have an iPhone or iPod touch, you could pass the app on to a friend who does to encourage him or her to start this good habit.