Personal Finance Software?

Discussion in 'Property Information Resources & Tools' started by TJamesX, 19th Oct, 2015.

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  1. TJamesX

    TJamesX New Member

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    I'm interested in what sort of software/app/excel solutions people generally use to manage their financial position, budgets and investments? and how much time do you spend keeping ontop of your finances every month?

    I've tried a few different products over the years but haven't really found a reasonable solution that's stood the test of time... and I find tracking every transaction becomes too time consuming

    Any ideas, hints or warstories would be great!
     
  2. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    I've been using Quicken (now known as Reckon Accounts Personal here in Australia) for over 20 years to track my personal finances.

    I don't have any property in my own name though - that's all in trusts and I use Saasu to track that stuff.
     
  3. devank

    devank Well-Known Member

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  4. HomePage

    HomePage Well-Known Member

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    I use Quicken 2004.There's a small learning curve and an initial effort to set up accounts, categories and customised reports, but thereafter the financial situation awareness it gives you far outweighs the few minutes every other day it takes to punch data into.
     
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  5. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    I just export a QIF or OFX file from my online banking and import it (not sure if 2004 can do that?) once every month or two.

    Many of the entries are recurring, so get automatically categorised, then I just have to manually categorise anything unusual from that month's statement.
     
  6. HomePage

    HomePage Well-Known Member

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    2004 does QIF, although it gets the year out by 100 years for new transactions imported ie. 2015 is imported at 1915. Easily fixed though when verifying each new transaction. Matched transactions are fine.
     
  7. TJamesX

    TJamesX New Member

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    Any reason why you use different packages, I've seen reckon before but both of them look like they pretty much do the same thing? Which one do you think is easier to use?
     
  8. TJamesX

    TJamesX New Member

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  9. D.T.

    D.T. Specialist Property Manager Business Member

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    I use excel for my personally owned properties at the moment.

    I use xero for my business accounting so am considering using that for properties too. Does anyone else here use that? Given that my rent goes into my personal offset account that has personal spending in it, how would you exclude the personal transactions?
     
  10. devank

    devank Well-Known Member

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    One of my clients runs an accounting business in Melbourne. He uses Xero and said it made his life so much easier.
     
  11. Johann_

    Johann_ Well-Known Member

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    I outsource all of my accounting for my business but in terms of personal finance, I have a spread sheet where i usually look at it twice a week :)
     
  12. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    I use Saasu for my business and trust accounting which has more specific requirements than personal stuff. Saasu is a proper bookkeeping system.

    Quicken/Reckon is fine for personal use, but completely inadequate for business use - that's what Quickbooks was for. I did use Quickbooks for my company/trust in the past, until I migrated to using Saasu.
     
  13. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    You mean using Xero for your personal property portfolio? A bit of overkill perhaps - if you had a trust and needed to prepare books for tax purposes, then fine (which is what I do), but bookkeeping systems can be a bit inflexible when it comes to tracking properties (I do it with Saasu - but it's pretty cumbersome).
     
  14. Phar Lap

    Phar Lap Well-Known Member

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    Quicken Cashbook 8 works fine for my one man business & personal finances. Reports GST etc and investments can be tracked.
    Been using since 2001. Cant upgrade without paying a whole heap of $$ but dont really need to as it still works fine.
    Punches out some very interesting data that has our whole spending and income tracked for 14 years.

    With any system though, it comes down to the proper setting up of accounts and categories used to track transactions that can be reported on correctly within the system.
     
  15. Rixter

    Rixter Well-Known Member

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    For a Property Financial Management & Accountancy Program I use Property Manager Pro to manage my investment properties, record all income and expenditures. It is also a rental management software for landlords who elect to self manage their own tenants and rent roles themselves.

    For a Financial Wealth Creation Software I use Wealth Sabotage for working out the amount of income I needed in retirement, the size portfolio I needed to provide that income, monitoring where I was in relation to attaining those wealth building goals and predicting how long it took to reach them.
     
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  16. BuyersAgent

    BuyersAgent Well-Known Member Business Member

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    I got a call from re investar yesterday trying to encourage me to use the free Xero (non gst) cashbook for personal finances and personal properties. Not sure if it is overkill except I am still learning Xero for the biz and I guess forced learning is worth something. I hate the thought of having to reconcile every single personal transaction for almost no tax benefit though. Thinking...
     
  17. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

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    I thought Xero were going to can that personal product? Seem to remember something about that from last year ??

    I don't use Xero, so I don't pay close attention to their announcements.
     
  18. jafeica

    jafeica Well-Known Member

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    GnuCash and excel
     
  19. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    I use excel and MYOB. Almost all of it is automated, so it doesn't require much work from me. Probably not a good solution for anyone setting up from scratch.
     
  20. Westminster

    Westminster Tigress at Tiger Developments Business Member

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    Just got an email from one of the software vendors I have

    Synium » iFinance 4

    I haven't used this piece of software, I use other software from them, but it has a free demo and 50% off at the moment. Available for ipad and Mac OS.

    It is american so would be interesting to see how it goes with Aussie data and if bank links work the same way. I might give it ago.
     

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