Managing personal expenses

Hi all

I've touched on this on other thread but come here for more suggestions.

I'm after something to track my budget and expenses.
I've looked at xero but after checking out the website and calling is more for businesses
Pocket books doesn't have my banks but may be able to to be uploaded from csv uploads. Not sure how simple that will be

Is there an app or another program out there?? Myob?? I want to assign costs to categories and see where is going then reign in speeding. No ip related stuff

I have an excel sheet that I was manually entering each item from the csv sheet.
I haven't updated it for a while and it is very tedious and haven't had time lately. Plus the thought of something simpler has to be the way to go!

 

Have a look at ANZ Money Manager. Automatically imports transactions from various sources (including points programs like flybuys and QFF ), can provide monthly/yearly reports, net worth summary for those interested. Expense and income transactions are automatically categorised, or can be manually adjusted, including split between categories (eg, fuel and cashout).

 

I know you're already trying excel but is it possible to download your account transactions via csv and then set up a column alongside the transactions where you manually code each one. There shouldn't be too many categories - you'd have food, utilities, entertainment, etc - drop a filter on the top and you'll be able to breakdown your expenses easily.

 

I like the Quicken / Reckon product offerings, although it's been a while since I bought one so I can't tell you the name of the current products.

You can import transactions from Internet banking via .csv files, so no requirement for manual entries.

One of the things I particularly liked was the ability to pre-enter future *regular* transactions (be they rates, loan payments, school term fees etc) to project forward your cash flow. You can also categorise transactions, for an overview of your expenditure.

And while this may not be one of your requirements, I also found it excellent for handling/tracking direct shares portfolios - can enter DRP info, track cost averaging etc.

 

What @Jamie Moore said, but I would use pivot tables for the analysis. This is exactly how I do the tax records for the business. It is a lot easier to find specific transactions than in myob.

 

You would really want to use software such as this to track personal expenses? Overkill much?
As Jamie said, Csv file is more than sufficient.

 

@wobbycarly sounds good but is it only for ANZ customers? Can they tap into other banks?

@Jamie Moore that's probably the go, I may need to rejig my sheet or start a new one. I have more categories than that! (ANALyser) I do like to be able to go back and check expenses I have found it useful. I break it into months then fin year.
Habits from construction I like to see where it's going, then apply blunt force for spending to much! I need an accounts girl and some cost codes... and money to hide away! @Greyghost yep, im overkilling it. Mainly I think it started cause we were moving around lots and wages changed, rents changed, travel, kids (!!), and it's not a simple regular salary each month, groceries, mortgage... And whatever other normal stuff people do we're mental, adhd possibly. We started selling some craft items at markets too so I want to track that tighter. I know where it's at roughly but want to learn from the exercise with some fancy sheets!

@hobo I'll need to go back to the Quicken website, @D.T. put me onto xero and @Blacky onto pocket books.
But I would like it to know the regular transactions and then set my own categories I can flick each item to.

@Perthguy... What's a pivot table? last job we used csv files and Ms database (??) thingo and it was fairly complex for tracking work complete and then creating invoicing but I only knew how to get the info I wanted out of it! The whizz kids did give me a run through to set it up but they were to quick for me! Couldn't let them catch on so I delegated!

 

Do I get bonus points for the number of tags in one post?? I'm going for a high score

 

Quicken 04. It's free too.

 

I use this as well. free and incredibly comprehensive.

 

@Blacky had an app which tracked personal spending. I can't for the life of me remember the name but if you search on his threads or he sees this tag he'll come in and tell you about it

 

I use GnuCash, its free, its pretty easy, you can directly import tranactions from from CSV, and its teaching me about double entry accounting, which is handy for when I own a business.

And you can get it to run from a usb flash drive, then sync the saved file to dropbox (also from a usb), so its almost like a cloud based app - you just need to carry a usb, so you can do it from anywhere.

GnuCash Portable | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB, portable and cloud drives

DropboxPortableAHK

 

Yeah, Ive mentioned Pocketbook a couple of times. Good for tracking and categorising expenses and running analysis of where you are spending. You can add categories to make it easy.

I only have a small number of categories. If you have the inclination you can review the detail of each category.
I find it pretty handy to analyse how much we actually spend on what. With very little effort. It has a 'memory' so it picks up expenses and auto-categorises them for you.

I do find the budgeting tool fairly limited - but then I don't use that anyway.

I use Xero for business which is fantastic for what we do.

Blacky

 

Let me google that for you



Pivot Tables in Excel

 

Yes, you can tap into multiple banks; eg, while we have a fair bit with ANZ, I was easily able to link my 28 Degrees Mastercard and Macquarie loan/accounts. It has a whole heap of Australian institutions ready to go - just punch in your login details and they do the rest. Some people will probably balk at the thought of putting login details in like this, but I've been using it for 5+ years, and never had a problem.

While there are other plenty of free options suggested, they all seem to require downloading from your various sources, and then uploading again. And in between, you may need to change the fields around, etc. This program automatically loads in your transactions and has a guess at the category. For the ones it gets wrong, you can set up permanent rules to categorise correctly.

You can also set up alerts for upcoming payments - although I don't use that function.

 

@wobbycarly I signed up and had a quick play, it looks really good and those reports and charts you uploaded look great. They are able to tap into bank accounts from around the world which is rather impressive and it's free.... But they don't have my credit union But once I refinance I'll ditch them.

Pocket books is similar but only a few main banks in oz. Their reporting is similar but not as detailed by the brief look

 

There's a screen shot of pocket books. Fairly straight forward. They use qif to upload from your bank if it's not linked. (qif was throwing me originally)


Haven't found the reporting functions on the app. May be on the computer version

I think ANZ could be leading atm

 

@Blacky is there another instalment to come? Possibly something like "let me summarise the search results and give you a brief run down"? Or do I have to stay doing something now??
Pivot table and ANZ could now holds the lead once I get the low down

 

Cool, .csv file is more than sufficient for you.

For me, even when just tracking personal expenses I used it, as since I was already using it for investment tracking it was a small step to add my personal accounts as well, and gave me a great overview. I didn't see the point in having some separate Exel spreadsheet just to track rent, groceries & coffee.

 

Here is a screen shot.
It breaks spend down by category, and you can add/remove the categories - or drill into each one with more detail. Noting it shows $spend not %spend.

Hope this helps.

You can only pull reports off the website - not the app. The app gives a quick overview, and allows you to upload payments.

I like that you are able to highlight items as 'tax' significant, and upload receipts into the transaction. It helps at tax time rather than hunting for your receipts.

Blacky