The best personal finance software for desktops is a program that allows user to access their financial information and make wiser, more informed decisions. Personal finance software for desktops makes it easier to track retirement funds, investments, and debts.
Microsoft Money is one of the most famous personal finance software programs. It is used by all kinds of individuals, from those who have just started out, to veterans who are looking for an expert system. This program also comes with a web option that allows you to access your data online and see it at any time.
Personal finance software is designed to help you understand your financial situation and make better decisions. Are you trying to find the best personal finance software for desktop? Personal finance software is helpful in analyzing your current finances and creating a plan for the future.
There’s no doubt that the personal finance software space is getting crowded. There are dozens of programs available for managing your finances, and choosing one can be daunting. The biggest challenges you’ll face when choosing a personal finance program are the potential to overspend and additional fees. Many programs charge monthly or annual fees, which might make sense for some people, but not others. Others simply don’t want to pay those onerous extra fees.
What is Best Personal Finance Software?
Are you a solopreneur or individual who’s trying to manage his or her finances? Managing finances isn’t easy, even if it’s for an individual person. The best personal finance software allows you to organize and oversee all your finances, thereby helping you cut down unnecessary costs and make informed decisions.
Quicken
Having been around for several decades, Quicken is one of the most established personal finance software on the market. You can use the software to manage various aspects of your financial life from budget creation to debt tracking, savings goals, and even investment coaching. The software features Excel exporting, which allows you to manipulate and perform additional calculations on your data. One of the more advanced features includes bill paying, which allows you to set up payments for your bills right from the software. You can even use it to track the value of your assets to have an accurate calculation of your total net worth. The app is robust enough to manage both your personal and business expenses and even handles property management functions like rental payments from tenants. Quicken offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. The software starts at $35.99 per year and is available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Best for Budgeting Mint
Mint is one of the most popular budgeting and expense tracking tools. You can have the software pull in your bank and credit card information to analyze your spending and pinpoint areas where you can cut back to improve your finances. For more accountability, Mint allows you to set up alerts for things like due dates and low balances to keep you on track. These features help you avoid expensive fees on late payments and overdrafts from your bank account. If you’ve set up budget categories, Mint will give you real-time information about the amount you can spend on things like food and gas. Mint is free to download and use on iOS and Android devices, as well as desktops.
Best for Habit Building YNAB
You Need a Budget, or YNAB, is a personal finance software that’s aimed to help you improve your financial literacy as you manage your monthly budget. As you create your budget and manage your daily finances, the software provides you with tutorials that will help you tackle some of the tougher financial topics. If you’ve been struggling with bad financial habits, YNAB can help you break those through a few basic financial management rules.
The software automatically links to your bank account, integrating your spending information for analysis and budget tracking. You can keep tabs on how you’re tracking toward your monthly budget and take action if you’re overspending. It doesn’t include any investment tracking capabilities. YNAB offers a 34-day free trial that allows you to use the software while you decide whether it’s right for your personal finance goals. The full software is $14.99 monthly or $98.99 annually.
Best for Zero-Based Budgeting Mvelopes
The traditional envelope budgeting system helps you stick to a budget by using envelopes to manage your money. Once you’ve broken down your budget, you put that amount of cash into different envelopes. So, if you budget $100 for gas for the week, you place that amount in a “gas” envelope. Once you’ve spent that $100, that’s it. Mvelopes take this same approach to the budget, except that it’s done digitally on your phone and computer rather than with physical cash.
Choose the financial goals that are most important to you, then add your bank accounts and set your income. Mvelopes will help you create a budget and set up your “envelopes.” The software tracks your spending and shows you what you’ve spent from each envelope to keep you on budget throughout the month.
The basic version starts at $5.97 per month, and you can try Mvelopes for 30 days for, free when you enroll in the premier plan at $9.97 per month.
Best for Taxes TurboTax
You may not necessarily need TurboTax to manage your finances throughout the entire year, but when it’s tax time, the software can come in handy. While it’s one of the pricier tax preparation tools, it’s also consumer-friendly, walking you through your tax preparation to help you accurately file your tax return. Entering your tax information is fairly simple—you can import your W-2 information from your employer or take a picture of it and the software will transfer the information into the form.
If you’ve used TurboTax in previous years, the software will remember your personal information and ask whether there have been any major changes. The most basic version lets you file your federal and state return for free if all you use is form 1040 with no attached schedules.
On the higher end, TurboTax Live connects you with a tax expert to give you personalized advice and answer questions about your tax return. Paid versions of TurboTax include a feature to help you uncover deductions you may not have known were available to you. While you can use TurboTax on the web, you can also download the software to your device for added security.
Best for Investing FutureAdvisor
If you’re a DIY investor looking for low-cost access to a financial advisor, FutureAdvisor is a great option. The investment software provides personalized recommendations to help you diversify your portfolio, which you can follow or not follow as you see fit. You’re eligible to sign up for the software if you have at least $5,000 in investable assets. FutureAdvisor manages the assets you transfer into the account for a flat annual fee of 0.5% of the managed assets, billed quarterly at 0.125%. When you transfer your assets into the account, FutureAdvisor works to consolidate them into accounts with its partners, Fidelity or TD Ameritrade.
Best for Investment Advice Personal Capital
Personal Capital allows you to manage all your financial accounts in a single platform. You can include your bank accounts, mortgage, and other credit accounts, plus your investment accounts, to have your complete financial picture right in front of you. If you have multiple accounts—as most of us do these days—using Personal Capital can save you from having to switch between multiple screens to understand where you stand.
If you have a portfolio of more than $100,000, you can get personalized financial advice based on your goals. While you’re charged a fee for this service, financial advisors are obligated to provide you with advice that works in your best interest.1
Use the software to tell whether you’re on track with your retirement and other investment goals. Even if you’re not quite ready to take advantage of the financial advisor, you can use Personal Capital to track your finances and investments in one place. There is no monthly fee, and the annual management fee is tiered based on the investment amount.
Best for Spreadsheet Management Tiller Money
Tiller Money lets you see all your money in one place by automatically updating your checking, credit card, loan, investment, and other account data into a customizable Google Sheet or Excel template. Tiller Money lets you choose from templates that organize your data for you or you can customize your spreadsheet to suit your needs. It’ll also send you daily emails with a summary of your recent transactions and balances. The service costs $79 per year or $6.58 per month, but you can take advantage of the 30-day free trial to decide whether it’s right for you.
Quicken Starter: Best value personal finance software
(opens in new tab)
Quicken Starter
Quicken Starter is the best budget-friendly personal finance software. Today’s Best DealsVisit Site
Reasons to buy
+Low cost budget planning+Has all the budgeting features of Quicken Premier+Can use the app to save receipt information
Reasons to avoid
-No investment monitoring features-Doesn’t export to tax programs
If you’re looking for value in your personal finance software – and given it is money management products that we’re talking about, you probably are – Quicken Starter is the less expensive, scaled-down version of Quicken Premier. Indeed, the cost of $35.99 is hard to argue with on any level, particularly as it provides the same outstanding budgeting tools as its more expensive counterpart – what you don’t get is access to the investment and tax planning tools that are available on the Premier version.
Quicken Starter connects directly to your accounts and imports your balances and transactions, automatically categorizing them. You can also manually adjust the categories if the default tags don’t match your budget. Budgets are easy to create too and can be divided into categories to track how much you spend on groceries, rent, and other items. You can set up email or text alerts for when you approach or exceed your budget limit in a certain category.
For managing your finances on the go, the Quicken mobile app lets you check on your budget from your phone and take pictures of receipts so that you can add them to your records. And as with the Premier option, a web based version of the package is now available as well. All round, it’s the perfect personal software option for budgeting on a budget, particularly if investments are not on your agenda right now. And if they are, then know where to find the Quicken Premier package.
How Does Personal Finance Software Work?
Personal finance software typically works by collecting your personal data, linking the software to your financial institution, investment accounts, and credit cards, and then helping you set up your financial goals. Once it has access to your accounts, it can monitor your credit, track your spending and savings habits, help you create a budget, offer tips and investment advice, and send out bill pay and savings goal reminders.
How Much Does Personal Finance Software Cost?
Personal finance software varies in features, functions, and costs. Some software offers basic features with free and paid versions. Other software helps you meet more complex financial goals and charges monthly fees. Personal finance software typically costs between $5.97 and $12 per month, or you can pay annually for a discounted rate. Other software charges an annual $35 fee and software that focuses on investing charges a flat rate of 0.5% of managed assets.
Is Personal Finance Software Worth the Cost?
Personal finance software is worth the cost if it helps you meet your personal financial goals. It may help you stick to a budget and save money or manage and track your investments and gain money. If you use it and it’s helping, then it’s typically worth the relatively low cost.
How We Chose the Best Personal Finance Software
We researched and reviewed many personal finance applications and chose our top eight personal finance software options based on price, variety of features, the types of financial goals they help you meet, company reputation, and more.
Conclusion
Checking online banking through a smartphone is convenient, but it doesn’t always give reports that are detailed enough. If you have to analyze your spending, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with your money while you’re on the go. That’s why desktop personal finance software is the best way to stay organized.
Personal finance software is an important tool for your money management, as it helps you organize your finances and keep track of where your money is going. With personal finance software for desktop, you’ll always know about every single penny that goes in and out of your account.