Budget tracking software is nothing more than a tool to help you manage your budget and monthly spending. As a Money Map Coach I always encourage people to create their first budget with pencil and paper. This is because the budget is going to change quite a bit until you get it where it needs to be for your situation. Creating a budget manually, as well as tracking spending manually helps insure you understand how the process works. But once you are comfortable with the process and are diligent about following it I always recommend moving to good budget tracking software. My current favorite budget tracking software is Mvelopes Personal. It provides all of the below benefits to automate the budgeting and expense tracking process for me each month.
- Transactions are downloaded from your bank or credit card company so you don’t have to write them down.
- Deposits can be allocated to different spending categories.
- Balances are automatically calculated. You don’t have to do all the adding and subtracting yourself.
- Software keeps tracking of budget category balances, but also maintains an online account register (as you would keep in your checkbook).
- Run reports to see spending per category for different time periods. This is helpful if you want to see how much you’ve spent on food monthly for the last year.
- Set up bill pay to pay from any account. No more writing checks!
- Mobile view of budget and spending. As with tracking your spending in a pocket book, mobile access allows you to view your balances on your cell phone or mobile device such as an iPhone.
- Auto assignment rules. To save even more time you can set up rules to automatically assign transactions for certain payees to an appropriate category.
- Net worth calculation allows you to see at a glance your net worth considering each of your accounts and other liabilities.
- Automatically fund envelopes or categories by setting up funding plans. Once you set up your spending plan you simply auto-fund each spending category when your paycheck deposit is downloaded from the bank.
There are a lot of personal budget tracking software products available today. I haven’t come across any so far I like as well as how Mvelopes Personal helps with the budgeting aspect of personal finance. However, I’m a believer of finding software that fits your needs and preferences the best. In fact, I’ll also take this opportunity to mention Mint which is the most popular personal finance software available. While I don’t use Mint right today, I have heard many great things about it. For one, it’s free. It also has an appealing and easy to use interface. I prefer the online envelope style to maintaining our personal budget and tracking spending, but Mint also has a budget feature that is worth reviewing if you’re considering multiple products.
No matter your choice, budget tracking software helps save time, improve accuracy and can help you learn more about your spending characteristics (good or bad) to became a better steward of your finances.
What budget tracking software do you use? What do you think are some of the benefits of budgeting tracking software?
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