Types of Budgeting Software

Budgeting software is necessary to help you keep your finances on track. It is important that it be user friendly, affordable, and accurate. Budgeting software is used to track your income, spending, bank accounts, and your credit. It can be used for business or for your personal finances.

Microsoft Excel

Excel can be excellent budgeting software all on its own. It can help you keep track of your spending, and income. You cannot import your information in from your bank account, but you can make lots of detailed spreadsheets. Excel would be for very hands-on people because it is more of a do-it-yourself budgeting system. If you like the old way of balancing your check book, you would love Excel. The good thing about Excel is that everyone has access to it, if they have a computer. You can easily take spreadsheets with you on a hard drive.

ExpenseRegister.com

ExpenseRegister.com is another free tool that will help you track your money to improve savings. Expense Register is a lot like Mint, but with fewer features. You can still upload your bank and credit accounts(qif files).  You just can’t automatically see your account details like some other sites that save your bank account details (incl passwords) with them.  That being said, it is user friendly. It is for someone who wants a simpler type of budget software.

Mint.com

Mint.com is a free service that will help you take control of your finances. You can keep track of all your income and expenses. You can put multiple checking and savings accounts in and let Mint do the bookkeeping for you. Mint can show you where you spend your money and what you spend more on. The program can upload your credit cards and bank accounts for you.

Quicken

Quicken keeps track of your bank and credit card accounts. It keeps all your finances in one place. Quicken will categorize your expenses and helps you keep track of where your money is going. It even has charts that show you what you are spending the most money on. Quicken is user friendly and has a helpful guide to show you how to use it. Quicken can download all transactions that come out and go into all of your accounts. It will balance your checkbook for you. So for just $29.99 you can stay on a budget. Another good feature of Quicken is it will help keep track of your bills. You won’t have to remember when they are due – it will let you know! A perk of paying for the Quicken software is that you have a customer service team that will help you if you do not understand certain features. To some people, that is worth paying a little extra.

Depends on the Person

Whether you go with one of the free versions or one where you spend a little extra, taking control of your budget is a piece of cake with these budgeting programs. Really it depends on the person using the software. You might not use Quicken for your basic check balancing, but if you own a business, it can be quite helpful. These are some good options to get you testing out software to see what works for you.