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Money Management Software!

Written by FrugalTrader on Apr 5, 2007 filed under Saving Strategies

A lot of people believe that budgets just don’t work. I personally believe that budgets have their part in financial plans and that anyone who is concerned with their financial future should know exactly where their money is coming from and where it is going.

What are some ways to track your income/spending? As most of you are computer savvy (since you are reading this blog), there are 3 mainstream programs that financial geeks use:

Excel or any spreadsheet program
Quicken
Microsoft Money

Excel/Spreadsheet Program
This is a great way to start your budget and get a clearer picture of where your money is going. Simply create two columns, monthly expenses and monthly income. This is a quick and dirty way to figure out if you’re living within your means and a detailed picture of where you can cut expenses if need be.

Quicken

A very popular program for Canadians. What I like about Quicken is that it accounts for Canadian tax law and displays your net worth as soon as you open the program.

Microsoft Money

This is the program that I personally use. The reason why I use this over the others is because I can update my portfolio holdings over the web, and it automatically adjusts within the Microsoft Money program. This is helpful if I make a few trades away from my home computer and I want to update my portfolio tracking software. Even though I have the Microsoft Money Canadian edition, it just doesn’t seem as Canadian friendly as Quicken. If Quicken had a better portfolio feature, I would seriously consider switching to Quicken.

A feature that I really like about MS Money is the cash flow estimator which is great when you want to keep a minimum balance in your bank account. You can put in scenarios of “if I spend X on X date” what would my bank account look like 3 months from now?

Once you enter all of your bills and income sources into MS Money, you can create a budget separated by categories. If you enter an expense that is greater than your allocated budget for that category, you’ll get a nice popup window that tells you that you’re spending too much. I have a separate category for my wifes misc spending that I keep a close eye on .. shhh. ;)

What do you guys use to track your expenses?

21 Comments, Comment or Ping

1. Chris Spurvey

A few weeks ago I began using a free Excel spreadsheet that is available on the web for budgeting. It can be found at http://www.pearbudget.com/
I found this upon seeing it mentioned on a few other blogs.
It is decent for sure for budgeting.
However, based on your thoughts on MS Money and Quicken I am going to take a closer look at these seeing as they are more than just a budgeting tool.
Chris
PS. Keep up the great work FT. Great stuff!! You have inspired me to take all this stuff a bit more seriously.

Apr 5th, 2007 @ 9:47 am
2. Jon Lee

I haven’t started keeping track of my expenses yet but when I do, I think I’ll use Google Spreadsheets for the “work-anywhere” factor.

Apr 5th, 2007 @ 9:52 am
3. Mike

I use excel. We don’t have strict budget per se but I try to keep track of our total spending for the month and the bigger expenses.

Apr 5th, 2007 @ 10:02 am
4. Marshall Middle

I use Microsoft Money right now and am happy with it.

Apr 5th, 2007 @ 10:13 am
5. Kevin Beitel

I am using Quicken XG 2007… Just upgraded from XG 2006 and I am checking out the additional features and different interface(as you get when you upgrade any software). I use multiple methods when checking my financial status. I use a budget to gauge and focus fund allocations, I use cashflow reports to find additional surplus, and my final indicator is… Are the accounts in overdraft? Just kidding! Account status is another indicator I use to gauge if I can cheat funds to other allocations in surplus circumstances. I do not look at the big picture reports (ie net worth.) I know that it is important and helps focus your goals. I am just so busy working in the trenches that rarely do I bother to look up and see what is going on. ( (I will have to work on that…)

Anyway, take care all…

Kevin

Apr 5th, 2007 @ 10:37 am
6. Julien Nephtali

I used Money to track my finances for the last year. But I found I was always reconciling manually most of my transactions especially the transfers between different accounts (checking to credit card, checking to saving).
I switched to GNUCash(http://www.gnucash.org/), I am in the process of importing all my MS Money data into it. I like the straightforward approach of GNUCash. I believe I will enjoy this software much more than Money. It’s also free which is a big plus.

Apr 5th, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
7. Clayton

If you dont have a way to see where your money is going and you want to get a hold of your finances, the first thing you must do is begin tracking it. It’ll open your eyes. Even something as simple as an excel spreadsheet is leaps and bounds better than nothing. Another spreadsheet that you can use is available at:

http://www.fasttracktocashflow.com/freestuff.php

Scroll down to the “Financial Report Card”

Apr 5th, 2007 @ 9:16 pm
8. David

Here’s yet another free budgeting program:
http://abassis.com/abassis-finance-manager.html

David

Apr 6th, 2007 @ 12:52 am
9. rishabh

I’ve been using Money (Not the one by Microsoft) for a while now, and I like it. jumsoft.com

Apr 8th, 2007 @ 3:15 am
10. Mike

I personally use Quicken right now, however, I am evaluating YouNeedABudget (YNAB) Pro for my budgeting.

Apr 8th, 2007 @ 7:24 pm
11. pesli

I have tried a software by Parcus Group. Is a excel spreadsheet type. Does your personal budgeting, financial planning, share valuation, real estate analysis, insurance and taxation. Only for US$24.
Check it out at:
http://www.parcusgroup.com/

Apr 29th, 2007 @ 11:56 pm
12. theBadMoneyGuy

Greetings:

I would like to include my pick. I have been using http://www.mvelopes.com/ for 8 month’s now.

It is an online application and you pay a monthly fee, but it (and the Envelope Budget concept) has helped me quite a bit. I did use MSMoney, but I was not satisfied with the budget component that it had. I wanted the ability to have a budget line accumulate if it was not spent etc. There are some features from MSMoney that I wish it had but otherwise I think it is the best of it’s kind (pure budget) out there.

In addition, it promotes the “month ahead funding”. I use this approach and it works well for my wife and I where all my paycheques for this month are actually used next month.

The Envelope approach forces you be proactive and that has worked well for us.

Just my 2 cents.

Sep 11th, 2007 @ 3:21 pm
16. Sergei

I just started using GnuCash and like it so far.

Jan 24th, 2008 @ 3:16 pm
17. Rosie

I make a budget in Excel. I create major headings and estimate how much I spend each month on each. At each pay period, I then enter this amount into the column and know it is how much I have to spend and that’s it. I then track how much I spend by making withdrawals from the column each time I spend money in that category. It’s strict but it works. I always have money in my account and I always have enough money for the things I want or need most. It requires a lot of self-discipline but I was forced to do this when I was teaching budgeting to my students. Didn’t want to be a hypocrite. :) It also lets me know how much I need to be earning to meet all of my expenses. If I come up short then it tells me I need to scale back my expectations or work more hours. The choice is mine.

Feb 25th, 2008 @ 2:39 pm
18. Spider man

i prefere Microsoft money a nice software.

Mar 13th, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
19. jane

I use an excel spreadsheet, with columns: date, particulars, actual, commitment, credit, balance. When I make an actual payment, I move it from the commitment column to the actual column. The totals at the bottom of the commitment, actual and credit let me know what the totals are for each column. In theory, by the end of the month, all the commited money should have been moved to the actual. The balance account lets me know how much money to carry over (loss if there is a overdraft feature) for the next month. Works well for me.

Apr 11th, 2008 @ 4:25 pm