App to replace Microsoft money
Discussion
It’s my yearly look at seeing if anything yet exists to replace money in my pc.
All I want is to be able to enter all my bills, all my income and see easily a forecast as to whether my current account will go up over time or down over time......thus allowing me to be calm, or panicked.
I don’t need budgets or knowing how much goes out on food or whatever. Just bills, income, forecast.
The cash flow graph on money is so useful. Set if for a 3 year projection and I can see when I’ve got enough surplus for that holiday or if that big tax bill in 12 months wipes me out. I need that on an app.
All I want is to be able to enter all my bills, all my income and see easily a forecast as to whether my current account will go up over time or down over time......thus allowing me to be calm, or panicked.
I don’t need budgets or knowing how much goes out on food or whatever. Just bills, income, forecast.
The cash flow graph on money is so useful. Set if for a 3 year projection and I can see when I’ve got enough surplus for that holiday or if that big tax bill in 12 months wipes me out. I need that on an app.
I couldn't find anything that worked for me so ended up building my own 
There are some online ones like Money Dashboard. I tried that for a while but you have to give them your bank login details which are then stored on servers in the US somewhere. The US approach to data privacy is dubious and I couldn't really figure out whether my bank would protect me should anything happen, so I just felt too uncomfortable with it and left.
I used a spreadsheet for a few years but got fed up of the faff and time it took to edit every month so I built my own app where I can add my bank statements and put each entry into a category. It then breaks everything down into a monthly figure (e.g. car tax is divided by 12), so I know exactly how much my life costs per month and can plan accordingly.
I built it for myself but I could potentially make it available to others if anyone was interested?
There are some online ones like Money Dashboard. I tried that for a while but you have to give them your bank login details which are then stored on servers in the US somewhere. The US approach to data privacy is dubious and I couldn't really figure out whether my bank would protect me should anything happen, so I just felt too uncomfortable with it and left.
I used a spreadsheet for a few years but got fed up of the faff and time it took to edit every month so I built my own app where I can add my bank statements and put each entry into a category. It then breaks everything down into a monthly figure (e.g. car tax is divided by 12), so I know exactly how much my life costs per month and can plan accordingly.
I built it for myself but I could potentially make it available to others if anyone was interested?
durbster said:
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I built it for myself but I could potentially make it available to others if anyone was interested?
Could be! I’m in the same boat as others here....actually running Quicken2000, in a WinXP virtual machine on my Mac: desperate, eh!!I built it for myself but I could potentially make it available to others if anyone was interested?
It is bizarre....but kids these days seem wired differently when it comes to money: it’s all phone apps now!
Spent all weekend trying apps.
There seem two types - ones designed to help you lower you massive debts - and ones designed to group all your spending so you can "budget" - ie. you tell it you want to spend £500pm on eating out and it says "ohhhh, you've gone over that"
What doesnt seem to exist is a simple.....this comes in...this goes out...how much do I have in x months time!!!!!
There seem two types - ones designed to help you lower you massive debts - and ones designed to group all your spending so you can "budget" - ie. you tell it you want to spend £500pm on eating out and it says "ohhhh, you've gone over that"
What doesnt seem to exist is a simple.....this comes in...this goes out...how much do I have in x months time!!!!!
I never even made it to MS Money from Quicken, and I ended up having to lose Quicken when I no longer had a working Windows XP VM to use.
My usage is primarily tracking spending in categories, and I use bank and credit card websites to import transactions into the tool. I do this with https://www.youneedabudget.com/ , but I don't use any of the planning features. If the intro page which seems to be aimed at people who are "struggling" put you off, it might be worth giving it a try anyway, to see if it does what you need.
My usage is primarily tracking spending in categories, and I use bank and credit card websites to import transactions into the tool. I do this with https://www.youneedabudget.com/ , but I don't use any of the planning features. If the intro page which seems to be aimed at people who are "struggling" put you off, it might be worth giving it a try anyway, to see if it does what you need.
As it sounds like I wasn't the only one struggling to find a simple tool to quickly manage my money, I've made my own home budgeting app I mentioned above, available for anyone to use if they want to.
The way it works is basically:
1. You login to your online bank and download a statement
2. You then upload the statement to my app, which picks out the entries (the statement is then deleted)
3. Then you go through each entry and assign it to a category
4. Once that's done, it breaks it all down and works out how much you spend on each category per month.
e.g. an example of the kind of thing it spits out:
It'd be really interesting to get some feedback and see if it could be useful to anyone else.
Happy to answer any questions here or let me know if you fancy having a look.
I should stress this isn't a business or anything, just a hobby project, so it's very much a work-in-progress.
The way it works is basically:
1. You login to your online bank and download a statement
2. You then upload the statement to my app, which picks out the entries (the statement is then deleted)
3. Then you go through each entry and assign it to a category
4. Once that's done, it breaks it all down and works out how much you spend on each category per month.
e.g. an example of the kind of thing it spits out:
It'd be really interesting to get some feedback and see if it could be useful to anyone else.
Happy to answer any questions here or let me know if you fancy having a look.
I should stress this isn't a business or anything, just a hobby project, so it's very much a work-in-progress.
My query, and forgive me if I have misunderstood - you are importing bank statements, and using these for info. If they are in accurate, how do you know ?
I input everything into Quicken and physically reconcile to a statement - the amount of inaccuracies DO add up, lots of contactless stuff goes amiss, as does the odd DD....
I input everything into Quicken and physically reconcile to a statement - the amount of inaccuracies DO add up, lots of contactless stuff goes amiss, as does the odd DD....
Turn7 said:
My query, and forgive me if I have misunderstood - you are importing bank statements, and using these for info. If they are in accurate, how do you know ?
I input everything into Quicken and physically reconcile to a statement - the amount of inaccuracies DO add up, lots of contactless stuff goes amiss, as does the odd DD....
How you identify inaccuracies - do you mean working the other way round, i.e. populating Quicken from receipts then comparing that with the bank statement?I input everything into Quicken and physically reconcile to a statement - the amount of inaccuracies DO add up, lots of contactless stuff goes amiss, as does the odd DD....
I go through each item on the bank statement to assign it a category so, as well as getting the monthly averages, it's a way to check there's nothing on there that shouldn't be.
I'm surprised you get a lot of inaccuracies - is that common? I often check the bigger stuff against receipts but don't usually bother with the smaller things.
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