The iPhone Mom

This review is for all of you hardworking moms and dads who work outside the home. ProOnGo Expense is an app that will help you keep track of your receipts for work expenses. I’m a stay at home mom so business expenses aren’t something I deal with. Mine would all fall under the category of mental health and probably involve large purchases of chocolate and cherry cokes from Sonic. I went ahead and made up some expenses and I’m going to do my best to explain the app.

Expenses can be added for regular expenses, mileage or time. You can manually enter in your receipt data or take a picture and use the app’s receipt reader. The receipt reader is supposed to take the data from your receipt and enter it into the app for you. Once you’ve entered in expenses you can export them. Exports can be done as an excel spreadsheet, xml file or fax. You can also export the data directly into a QuickBooks online account.

I was able to do the basics with the app without creating a ProOnGo account. I couldn’t get the receipt reader to work so I’m assuming you’d need an account to use that feature. It does seem like a great time saver. I liked how the app lets you edit out your personal information before you upload the receipt to the ProOnGo server. The features that I was able to try out were successful in keeping my pseudo receipts organized. I also really liked the fact that you can export your receipts. I tried it out with an excel worksheet and it worked like a charm.

I was unable to find the specific details about what’s required for a ProOnGo subscription. I do believe that there’s a limit on the number of receipts you can send off to the Receipt Reader.  The app is available for both individuals and businesses. I’m sure it’d be revolutionary for those who are using paper forms right now. One app quirk that I noticed involved the “headers” and buttons on the top of the screen. When I would switch between screens they’d often overlap and become unreadable. I’m sure it’s just a bug and hopefully something that can be fixed in an update.

Has anyone out there had real world experience using this app? You know…with actual business expenses?

**Update 2/18 – Max from ProOnGo has given me some additional details. Thanks!

• Receipt Reader is a monthly subscription. Prices found here.
• Receipt Reader can take from 1-4 minutes to upload a receipt and you have to keep the app open for about 5 seconds. After that you can shut the app down and when you come back your receipt should be there.  When you join you get 10 free receipt uploads. My conclusion, I probably wasn’t patient enough in waiting for my upload. Typical me.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: ProOnGo, LLC

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

I use Quicken Online Mobile in combination with the Quicken Online website. We’ve used Quicken software for our personal finances for many moons. It works but I was somehow always off in my register. Not off by pennies or dimes but more. Much more. Don’t ask me how I did this but every time I’d start over again and within a couple of months I was off. Which meant that when I reconciled things with the bank I had to do all the subtraction myself anyway. Kind of defeats the purpose of using software doesn’t it?  My husband upgraded my OS a few months ago and I couldn’t find my Quicken CD to reinstall the software on my PC. While I was searching for help online I discovered that Quicken offers a free online tool. It’s basically Quicken on the internet and you record all of your transactions there. It automatically reconciles with the accounts you setup so you are always up to date. There are some quirks to using it and it’s taken some getting used to but it’s working fairly well for me. I’m hoping as they continue to upgrade and rework things it’ll become even more user friendly. What I really like about using the mobile version of Quicken is the fact that there’s an app that syncs with my online account. I open up the app and there’s my account information, all the good, bad and ugly right there on my phone. I can see the projected outlook for my account (ugly), the activity (bad) and I’ve got the ability to add in transactions using the app (good if I remember to do this!). Whatever I add in the app shows up in my account online and whatever I do online shows up in my app. No excuse for not knowing what’s what. Which I suppose is a good thing!

I’ve also tried out Mint.com (a similar online money management tool) and they too have an iPhone app. I didn’t like it as well as Quicken but I know people who absolutely rave about it. It’s a very thorough experience but I, personally, preferred the simpler Quicken, even with it’s quirks.  Interestingly, Quicken recently purchased Mint so I wonder if they’ll eventually merge together. It’d be great if they took the best of both websites and created something financially spectacular. As spectacular as my bank account always being reconciled now!

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Intuit, Inc.

I really like the concept behind Bank of Mom and it’s a very nice looking app. I think with a couple tweaks it could be a very useful app for my family. Bank of Mom is designed to help you keep track of your child’s “virtual bank account”. In it you can record money that is earned and money that is spent. This is a great thing for us because we are absolutely sporadic about paying allowance. I never carry cash and am always forgetting to go to the bank to get ones and quarters for allowances. With this app I can record what they earn without really paying out the cash. I keep the money but the app tells me what they’ve got in their accounts. If they want to spend their money I can provide the funds, then note a withdrawal. For example, if we’re at Target and my daughter sees a Littlest Pet Shop she wants to add to her menagerie I’d check to see how much money she had in her account. If she had enough I’d pay for the toy but mark down a withdrawal in her account. Bank of Mom is also designed to let you keep track of minutes earned for computer, T.V., video games, etc. There’s also a spot for you to track what your child is earning money for.

This app is very easy to navigate and it has an appealing design, but I do have a few suggestions. First, a help section within the app would be great. Something that can explain the different sections and icons. Next, it would be nice to be able to see an available account balance on the screen where you enter transactions. You can see this on the main screen but it would be helpful (to me at least) to also view it where you add withdrawals/deposits. Lastly it would be nice to have the option to view the money separate from the TV/electronics allowance.  It’s handy being able to see the running totals together on the main screen but it’d be nice to have a unique input section for that category. Just a few suggestions from a mom, not a programmer.

One last note: there’s always the worry though that by going this route your children will never know that a dollar bill is an actual thing, not just something magic inside Mom’s debit card. I wouldn’t use this app to teach your kids how to manage their money but instead as a tool for those of us who don’t (or forget to) give their kids cash. I’d use it to store totals on  my iPhone instead of in my brain. A good thing in my case because my brain is notoriously unreliable and according to my ten year old I owe her about ten months of back allowance.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Gomu Gomu

Another free money app, this time Money – Free from the iBear Soft company. This app has decent reviews on iTunes but it’s a bit much for me. Too many details, graphs and information. I need baby steps when it comes to budgeting.  The financial side of this app looks very, very thorough but again it’s a bit much for me. All of that being said, Money – Free is free so if you’re still looking for the perfect app to help you manage your financial life then it’s worth checking this one out.

Price when Reviewed: Free

See the app at iTunes

Seller: iBear Soft/Andrey Pilyugin

Full version of Money available for $4.99 (this is a sale price)

I am allergic to budgeting. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. But every once in awhile I get the urge to try and “cure” my allergy so I decide to give budgeting a try again. Now that I’ve got my iPhone I’ve been searching for a magic app that’s going to suddenly make me not spend money like it grows on trees. Let’s just say I’m still looking.

But in the meantime I’ve been trying out a couple of the free budget apps that are available and I have to say that Home Budget Lite is a decent app. It allows you to keep track of your income, expenses and set up a monthly budget. You can also enter in your accounts (savings, checking) and how much money you’ve got in each one. Once your accounts are set up and you’re keeping track of expenses you can mark which account the expenses are coming from and your balances will go down.

When you set up your budget there are plenty of categories and sub-categories to choose from. If you can’t find just the right one you can always create a custom category. On the budget screen you can watch a green line that shows you how you’re doing with your spending. As you spend money in each category the line will turn blue. If you spend more than your budgeted amount the line turns a dreaded red.

If you visit the help section before you start using Home Budget Lite you’ll find that it’s pretty easy to get started. For a free app it does a fine enough job of helping you track expenses and budgeting. I’d like to find an app that will allow my husband and I to share a budget. Something that we could both update and share using our separate phones. If anyone knows of an app that can do this please leave me a comment or send an email.

Price when Reviewed: Free

See the app at iTunes

Seller: Anishu, Inc.

A full version of Home Budget Lite is also available at iTunes for $4.99

Spend is a budgeting app and it’s a very thorough app for its $.99 price tag. It’s taken some focus for me to figure out exactly how to use it. I’d highly recommend visiting the website for the app (http://www.adamcode.com/spend/index.html). Scroll to the bottom of the webpage and you’ll see a link for the FAQ section, it’ll walk you through setting up your budgets. Once I read through that the app started to make sense. I’m not even going to try and explain how you go through all the steps to create/edit a budget because I know I’d only end up confusing everyone. So visit the FAQ for the site and hopefully the light bulbs will go off for you too.

Overall I’m happy with Spend. I’m going to have to carve out some time to get all my budgets entered and setup but once I’ve done that it’ll be easy to keep track of expenses. I really like the idea of having my budgets on my iPhone, it might help when I’m in Costco and debating back and forth whether I need something or not. I can pull up Spend and see what damage that big bag of M&Ms is going to cause. Damage to my budget that is – my thighs are a whole other story.

One nitpicky complaint – the plus sign that you use to add things to your budget is at the bottom of the screen. I’m sure there’s a design reason for this but it feels odd to me. I’m so used to that plus being in the same spot on most other apps that it’s taking some getting used to with Spend.

Lastly, something I’d like to see in future updates – a way to share your budget with another iPhone user. My husband and I both dine out somewhat frequently, but not often together. It’d be nice to be able to share a budget and both enter in expenses that’d then show up on the other’s iPhone. Something along the lines of what Grocery Gadget has done with their app.

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Available at iTunes

Seller: Adam Williams

I figured I’d give Bill Tracker Lite a try to see if it’d help me keep better track of our bills. Right now my system involves a manila folder and an excel spreadsheet that shows me when everything is due. It works but if I could find something for my iPhone, so much the better.

I’d recommend starting by entering in the accounts for your bills. Tap the “Accounts” button at the bottom of the screen. Use the plus button and add the name of your account (American Express, Electric Bill, etc.), the account number, website, phone number and any notes. After you’ve added the accounts tap the “Bills” button.  It’s pretty straightforward – just use the plus button to add the bill and then enter in the missing information. The first thing the app will ask you is to select the account for the bill. If you don’t see the right one on the list then you can always add a new account from here. Once you’ve got bills entered in you can sort the bills by “all”, “unpaid” or “paid”. After entering in bills you’ll also see them listed on the main Accounts page, along with the number of days until they are due.When you want to record a bill payment tap a bill and then touch the word “Payment” at the top of the screen. It doesn’t look like an obvious button so I missed it at first. Now Bill Tracker Lite will let you enter in any payments you’ve made for this particular bill.

The “Settings” button lets you set a passcode for the app and choose your currency. You can also choose to rollover unpaid bills and have the due dates automatically adjust when the date falls on a weekend.

Bill Tracker Lite is simple to use but it didn’t really work for me. I need one that will let me set up recurring bills. With this lite version you have to enter in the bills each month. Not exactly the time saving feature I need. According to the description on iTunes the regular version of Bill Tracker has a recurring feature and also a bill reminder feature.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Available at iTunes

Seller: Kelly Beck/Snap Tap

Full version of Bill Tracker is $3.99

Available at iTunes