cheap travel packages: BUDGT for iPhone review

Monday, April 8, 2013

BUDGT for iPhone review

There are lots of finance apps available in the App Store and probably half of those deal with handling income and expenses. BUDGT for iPhone is no exception but does things a little differently than apps like PageOnce which require you to physically link your accounts for the app to pull information in. There's no need for this with BUDGT. Just enter your income and expenses and BUDGT will take care of the rest.

BUDGT will begin by asking you to add your income and expenses into the app. You can do this by entering an amount and toggling the plus and minus sign to change from income or expense. There's also another toggle so you can change expenses or income from recurring each month or one time. For example, if you get a check from mom for your birthday, you can add this in as income but just change it from recurring to one time only. This way it won't carry over to the next month.

After you've set up all your income and expenses that are fixed for the month, you're ready to start using BUDGT on a daily basis. Basically, BUDGT will take what's left over after your fixed bills and create a daily budget that is divided up between all the days of the month for you. This way you know when you're exceeding your budget and when you're under. You can also toggle an overlflow setting under options which will let BUDGT automatically carry over any money you have left at the end of the month to the new month.

You'll be able to add as many categories as you'd like for income and expenses. The nice thing about BUDGT is how easy and quick it is to add expenses on the go. Simply type in the amount and then choose a category. It'll automatically add the expense for today. If you need to go back in time, just tap the date in the top bar and you'll see a list of days you can scroll through. Tap on the date you need to add or edit something for and you'll be zipped to that date.

BUDGT uses a series of pie charts in order to show you what you have remaining for the month. Tapping on larger pie charts will give you a breakdown for the month as to what you've spent money on. If you're trying to cut back on eating out, listing all your food expenses appropriately will allow you to track exactly what you're spending on eating out and become more conscious of how often you're doing it. This would obviously be the case for any expense category.

The good

Great interface that's easy to navigate and quick to find information within
Adding expenses isn't a daunting task anymore
Support for overflow budget to automatically be added to the following month
Travel mode lets you add a factor for foreign currencies while in different countries
No need to enter personal bank account information like you have to with apps like PageOnce and Mint

The bad

Doesn't support account import, some users prefer it this way while others with many transactions may actually prefer it
Initial set up can be a little daunting if you have a lot of fixed expenses
No way to change the default budget

The bottom line

BUDGT for iPhone is one of the easiest budget apps to use that I've ever tried out. Everything from the interface to how you interact with the app is very well thought out. For users that don't feel comfortable handing over their banking information and credit card information to a third party app, BUDGT is a great option. On the flip side, if you've got a lot of transactions on a regular basis, using an app like BUDGT could become a task.

At only $0.99 and no month fees, it's a great find and one that many users could easily train themselves to get used to using on an ongoing basis. If you're trying to better monitor your expenses, BUDGT may be a great app for beginners or those who want something simpler than many of the other income and expense apps out there.