Personal finance software

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Oncop53

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#67988 13-Sep-2010 00:00

Can anyone recommend some good Personal finance software? Mostly I want to track spending and see how much I spend on petrol / fastfood ect.

I used Microsoft Money 2000 for around six years, but it looks like Microsoft have dropped that product. http://www.microsoft.com/money/default.mspx I have tried GNUCash http://www.gnucash.org/ but found it a bird weird and clunky. I also tried the ASB Bank “My Money” but it was too inflexible, I want lots of custom categories (like gadgets!).

Ideally I would like something like http://www.mint.com but I need a US zip code to sign up.

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davidcole

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#379194 13-Sep-2010 08:23

I've started using MoneyManagerEx and tried HomeBank. Both free. Home bank is xml based (no proprietary MBD executable passworded thing where), and MoneyManagerEx is SQLite - the latter means you can get in there and hack around with SQL, and create your own reports.

They're definitely not as good as Money, but they're still being developed which is a plus.

Homebank also handles OFX, while MoneyManager doesnt (but does csv, qif etc). Neither of them are great for keyboard entry (something money was excellent at).

I think it's just a matter of trying.

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freitasm

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#379201 13-Sep-2010 08:43

What about Xero Personal or Heaps?

Both New Zealand made, not free...

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davidcole

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#379214 13-Sep-2010 09:15

freitasm: What about Xero Personal or Heaps?

Both New Zealand made, not free...

Xero personal is only BNZ isn't it? And I got the impression it didn't work standalone from a Bank.

freitasm

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#379216 13-Sep-2010 09:24

Not sure. I give names, you investigate ;)

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HWilkinson

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#379230 13-Sep-2010 10:12

You may like to have a look at recently developed in NZ a product called Watch My Budget. Developed for budget advisers, their clients, and for household and personal financial management. Google - Watch My Budget and download from www.rsvconsulting.co.nz Will track your spending via importing bank transactions and/or manual data entry.

Kraven

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#379232 13-Sep-2010 10:17

Acclaim put out a free version of their Cashbook software called Cashbook Home. I've used it to import all of my bank statements, do budgeting etc.

http://www.acclaim.co.nz/

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magu

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BitSignal

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#379246 13-Sep-2010 11:05

Heaps is great, but they're still working on getting custom categories up.

Tried Xero and it's quite nice, but I prefer Heaps because of the integration with my Kiwibank accounts (I have quite a few with them, and only one with BNZ).

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Ragnor

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#379596 14-Sep-2010 11:14

Manually having to export then import the statements is pretty tedious, automatically having the statements feed in is where it's at.

If you're with ASB use their track my spending
If you're with Kiwi bank use heaps
if you're with BNZ use Xero Personal

If you're with the other banks email them and ask them why they aren't providing a spending tracking system when their competitors are, suggest they integrate with Xero Personal like they do for the main Xero accounting product.

davidcole

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#379622 14-Sep-2010 12:23

That idea only works if all your banking is with one bank...

HWilkinson

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#379624 14-Sep-2010 12:28

The minimal effort required to download a banks transactions and import them into software specifically designed for personal and household tracking of spending and setting of realistic budgets for the future is worth that effort. Especially if you deal with more than one bank. Also if the software categorises those bank transactions for you then the effort again is minimal. Specifically designed software that can split a bank's transaction across different categories, cope with seasonal variations, allow for manual input of cash transactions, bank account reconciliation etc is helpful. I have been using 'Watch My Budget' over the last two years during its development to do these things and more.