• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Financial Wellness

You are here: Home / Budgeting / Managing Your Finances With Budgeting Apps

Managing Your Finances With Budgeting Apps

September 2, 2016 by Katie Bentley

You can monitor just about everything with a mobile app these days, and your finances are no different.

From apps designed to keep track of the status of your bank balance, credit card debt and student loans, to planning and monitoring your personal budget, staying on top of your financial situation using your mobile phone is easy.

Here are some things to consider when you’re searching for the right mobile application to keep track of your money.

Suitability and Synchronization to your needs

With such a large variety of budgeting and finance apps available, deciding the best one for you depends on what you want.

Finwell - Managing Your Finances With Budgeting Apps

Some budgeting apps are designed to do one thing and do it well, while others amalgamate some or all of these features.

If you want all of your financial information in one place, an app like Mint or PocketGuard that synchronizes your bank balance, credit card debts and loans along with your daily spending would be the most suitable.

If you want to track spending within a family or household, an app allowing you to synchronize your collective budget and track household spendings, such as HomeBudget or GoodBudget may be the most useful.

You don’t want the security of your data to be jeopardized!

Putting all of your financial information in one place can be worrying, so it’s important to be sure that your choice of mobile app keeps your details secure.

Popular apps such as PocketGuard and Mint keep data in a read-only format, meaning that the app cannot transfer money or make purchases.

In addition to this, existing credit card or bank protection – such as that offered by MasterCard or Wells Fargo – should extend to the use of financial apps.

Finwell - Managing Your Finances With Budgeting Apps (2)

Tracking Spending Patterns

One of the major benefits of using a finance app is the ability to analyze your finances and track spending patterns. 

Click to tweet

Almost all budgeting apps will allow you to compare income against spending, while some such as You Need A Budget (YNAB) allow you to categorize purchases separately.

Many apps also provide a thorough analysis of the expenses with the use of charts and infographics.

This makes it easier to see where your money is going.

Here’s a chart showing the spending percentage in different categories:

Finwell - Managing Your Finances With Budgeting Apps (3)

Managing Your Finances With Budgeting Apps1

The chart above shows the spending pattern month-wise across a year

Uploading and Managing Receipts

It may seem like a simple thing, but the management of receipts can be a significant draw for one budgeting application over another.

While some apps require purchases to be entered manually, some such as Spendee and Expensify can link to the camera on your phone, allowing you to photograph receipts or bills.

If your choice of app does not have this function, it may be useful to use a mobile scanning app such as CamScanner or Genius Scan.

While you may still be required to enter data from bills and receipts manually, being able to save them quickly as a PDF file on your phone should make the process much easier, and save you the stress and annoyance of hauling receipts around.

Notifications – Help to keep a check on your spending habits

Notifications are another seemingly minor aspect of financial apps that can make a big difference.

While you might have the best of intentions by tracking your finances through an app, timely and appropriate reminders are vital to keeping on top of your spending and bills.

Finwell - Managing Your Finances With Budgeting Apps (4)

Some budget apps even allow you to customize your notifications, making it possible to select the reminders that are most useful to your financial situation and goals.

With such a variety of options to offer, choosing the right mobile app for your financial situation can be tricky.

Keeping in mind the features discussed above and considering your own personal and financial needs should allow you to select the app that’s right for you, and make managing your finances much easier. 

Filed Under: Budgeting, Personal Finances

Previous article: Do You Know About The 50/20/30 Rule?
Next Post: 4 Debts You Should Refinance Now

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us







RECENT ARTICLES

  • What is Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and How it May Protect BusinessesWhat is Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and How May It Protect Businesses?
    Chapter 11 bankruptcy isn’t uncommon, yet many fail to see its purpose. Most people have heard of Chapter 11 vs Chapter 7 liquidation, or even [...]
  • Personal Loans After Bankruptcy Discharge: Is This Possible?Personal Loans After Bankruptcy Discharge: Is This Possible?
    Applying for personal loans after a bankruptcy discharge? Getting approved may not be easy, but it still is possible. It will definitely require [...]
  • How to Stop A Student Loan Wage GarnishmentHow to Stop A Student Loan Wage Garnishment
    Student loan wage garnishment is the last thing you want to experience while paying student debts. Monthly wage deductions could ruin your spending [...]
  • Don’t Miss These Posts On Financial Wellness..
    Here’s what happened on Financial Wellness 1. How to Start Investing in Stocks Even With Debt If you’re in debt, then you might be afraid [...]
  • Credit Repair Credit Cards: Learn to Rebuild Your CreditCredit Repair Credit Cards: Learn to Rebuild Your Credit
    Trashing your credit score is so much easier than building a solid credit rating. It’s no wonder so many people seek out credit repair credit [...]
Instagram has returned invalid data.

Connect With Us On Instagram!

Footer

Financial Wellness

© 2021
FinancialWellness.org
All rights reserved

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact Us

This Copyrighted Material may not be republished without express permission. The information presented here is for general educational purposes only. Material Connection Disclosure: You should assume that this website has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the persons or businesses mentioned in or linked to/from this page and may receive commissions from purchases you make on subsequent websites. You should not rely solely on information contained on this page to evaluate the product or service being endorsed. Always exercise due diligence before purchasing any product or service. This website contains advertisements.

FOLLOW US

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram