With software for personal budgeting you can easily keep track of your expenses and ensure there is a safe amount set aside for savings. The best software for personal budgeting helps you to stay on track and make decisions for your finances such as paying off the credit card each month or deciding that a certain amount should go into your savings account each month.
When you try to find “free personal budget software,” “best free budgeting software,” or “budgeting software free” — what will you find? A whole bunch of bad stuff. I decided to take action when I stumbled upon pages that said they had such software, but they didn’t really have it — they were just using some download links to deceive people into thinking it was a working personal finance program.
I have had many clients and friends asking me, what is the best money management software? Everyone wants to know the answer to this question. And, perhaps it is you who has asked it. You see, budgeting can be made easier with software for personal budgeting but which is that software?
Do you need personal budget software? It is something that will absolve you from bothering about your daily expenses, especially when you misplace receipts, which is the last thing that you want. Below are some of the best personal budget software. Are you intrigued? Click battle on to have a closer look at their amazing features and functionalities.
What does a budgeting tool do?
Budgeting gets a bad rap for being a monotonous and tedious task, but it can also be a helpful way to understanding your spending habits. And a budgeting tool can make the process a lot easier if you find the right one for your needs.
That tool might be an already-formatted spreadsheet where you just plug in your transactions, or an app that auto-categorizes your spending for you.
Because different budgeting tools offer slightly different approaches to tracking your money, first decide how intentional you want to be. Hands-on methods, such as manually enter your transactions into a spreadsheet, may take more time, but the process can help you be more thoughtful about your spending.
You’ll also want to decide if you want to pay for a budgeting tool. While the top-rated tools on this list come no cost to users, those who don’t mind paying a premium have options for budgeting tools with more robust features. A popular choice is budgeting app You Need A Budget (YNAB), which offers a 34-day free trial then costs $84 per year, or $11.99 per month. Users can set goals, customize spending categories, plus get access to 100+ free educational workshops offered every week. (Learn more in the app’s review.)
Dave Ramsey Budget Planner
Dave Ramsey Budget Planner is a personal financial management tool that allows you to track your spending, establish a budget, and stay on track with your debt. You can also use this software to plan for future expenses like vacations or home repairs.
Dave Ramsey’s program is free but there are premium features available if you choose the paid version of Dave Ramsey Budget Planner.
YNAB (You Need a Budget)
YNAB is a great option for beginners. It’s easy to understand, and it can be helpful even for those who have never used financial software before. The program is also free for college students and available for 34 days. This means that you can use YNAB as long as you’re still in school, or if you need time to prepare your budget before starting it up full-time.
Mvelopes Personal Budgeting
- If you’re a fan of the envelope system for budgeting, Mvelopes Personal Budgeting is an online version that allows you to take your budget with you everywhere.
- It links to your bank accounts and helps you set goals and track spending.
- You can link multiple accounts, keep track of bills, see what’s coming up next month, get reminders about upcoming bills and transfers—and it’s all free for the first 30 days! After that it costs $4 a month ($48/year).
Personal Capital
Personal Capital is the most popular personal finance software on the market, with over 6 million users. Its app allows you to track your spending, organize your finances, and set up a budget. In addition to this functionality, Personal Capital offers retirement planning tools as well as investment tracking and advice from financial experts.
All of these features are available at no cost to you—the company makes its money through paid advisory services.
Buxfer
Buxfer is a personal finance management tool. It allows you to manage all your finances in one place, so you can make better decisions about how to spend and save your money. Buxfer imports bank and credit card transactions, tracks them against a budget, forecasts spending for the future and helps users set goals based on their financial situation.
Buxfer also offers powerful reports that make it easy to monitor cash flow and net worth over time.
PocketGuard – Personal Finance and Money Management
PocketGuard is a free app that connects to all your bank accounts, calculates how much you can spend for the day and finds ways to save you money.
The app pulls in the transactions on a daily basis from multiple banks like Capital One, Chase and Wells Fargo. You can also set up bill reminders so you don’t miss any payments while being able to see what bills have been paid already. PocketGuard keeps track of your expenses by scanning receipts or adding them manually if needed.
It also has features like debt elimination plans as well as alerts if there’s an unusual withdrawal from an account within 24 hours after receiving an alert that there was activity on it at another time during its use (although this feature may be limited).
Moneydance
Moneydance is a free to try personal finance software that gives you the ability to track your finances, save for goals and pay bills. The program has many different features, including graphs to show where your money goes and multiple currency support. You can also connect Moneydance directly with your financial institutions in order to import transactions automatically. It even has mobile apps available for iOS and Android devices so you can manage your budget on-the-go.
Moneydance is customizable through its user interface which allows users to change themes and customize colors as they see fit. It has password protection so no one else can access their information without permission either!
CountAbout
CountAbout is a web-based personal finance software that can help you track your expenses and income. You can use it to create budgets, manage bills, and keep track of your savings goals.
CountAbout also has a mobile app available for Android, iOS and Windows phones.
Choose personal budget software that you find easy to use.
- Choose software that is easy to use.
- You will be more likely to use it if you find it easy to navigate, understand and complete your tasks.
- It should be compatible with your computer and or mobile device.
- If possible, choose a program that allows for syncing of bank accounts so you can enter transactions quickly and easily from one place.
If you want to take advantage of mobile apps when managing your budget, make sure the software has an app as well as web-based access so that there are no restrictions on where or how often you can work on your budgeting activities.
Mint
Mint is a free budgeting app that lets you track all your accounts in one place. It provides a snapshot of your finances and helps you set goals so that the money you earn can go further. You can track your spending and set up a budget, manage your accounts, pay bills, and set up alerts for important dates such as when bills are due or when an account balance goes below a certain number. In addition to these features available through Mint’s website or mobile apps (available on iOS devices), it also has an Android app available through Google Play Store as well.
Best free personal finance software 2020
The best free personal finance software 2020 can help you track your spending and balance your budget, but they’re not all the same. The following is a list of the top free personal budget software to help you find a solution that’s right for you.
Budget software
- What is budget software used for?
- Why use budget software?
- How budget software helps with budgeting:
- Budget software features:
- Budget software pricing:
- Budget software pros and cons:
- Budget software alternatives (free and paid):
Mint budget planner
Mint is a free budgeting app that helps you track your spending, create a budget, and save money. It’s one of the most popular personal finance apps out there—and for good reason!
The first step in setting up Mint is connecting it to your bank accounts. This can be done manually or automatically with their “Budgeting” feature, which connects to all major banks and credit unions in the United States (and some in Canada). Once connected, you’ll be able to see how much money has gone into each account and what’s been spent on it since the last time you logged in.
If you don’t use an online budgeting system already and don’t want to spend any money on one, then I highly recommend checking out Mint as your first stop! You can also give YNAB or Personal Capital a try if this doesn’t work out for you after all—they both have free options as well!
App for budgeting money
The best budgeting apps all have a similar look and feel. They’re easy to use, with a simple interface and straightforward navigation. The more features an app has, the more complex it can get. That’s why we recommend sticking with the basics if you’re just getting started:
- A good budgeting app should allow you to enter your income and expenses manually or import data from a spreadsheet or bank account.
- It should be able to help you set up a budget that is right for your specific needs (e.g., monthly or weekly).
- It should help you track how much money comes in versus how much goes out so that you can see where any imbalances might be occurring (and hopefully make adjustments).
Free online budgeting tools
And some others you should consider:
- GnuCash (free) – This isn’t a web app, but it’s an open source desktop application that allows you to track your finances in great detail. It’s not very user friendly, but if you’re willing to learn how it works and set it up, this is an excellent option.
- CountAbout ($2 per month or $20 lifetime fee) – CountAbout has a lot of features including bill reminders and mobile alerts when something changes in your account balance.. The app uses artificial intelligence technology so that it can automatically categorize transactions based on their type—like food expenses or entertainment costs—and then use those categories as filters when viewing reports later on down the line.”
How do you create a budget?
Making a budget can be done in as little as five steps:
- Calculate your net income: First, find out how much money you make each month (your cash inflow). Your net income is the amount of money you earn after taxes and can be found on the pay stub you receive through your employer.
- List your monthly expenses: Next, you want to look at your monthly costs (your cash outflow). Common monthly expenses include rent or mortgage payments, utility bills, loan payments, insurance costs, transportation, child care, groceries, dining, household goods, travel, streaming subscriptions and memberships. Also include in this category your savings contributions, such as in a 401(k) or high-yield savings account.
- Label the monthly expenses as fixed or variable: Go through your list of monthly expenses and now label each as a fixed (essential items) or variable cost (nonessential items). Examples of fixed costs are rent, utility bills, transportation, insurance, food and loan payments. Your dining, travel, clothing (beyond the basics), subscriptions and memberships are variable costs. This is an important step in the process because it helps you see where you can cut back if you need to.
- Determine the average monthly costs for each expense: List how much you spend on each expense per month and add them all up. It’s easiest to do this step while looking at your bank account and credit card statements from the past month.
- Make adjustments depending on what your budget reveals: The final step in creating a budget is the most telling. This is when you compare your net income to your monthly expenses to see where you stand. If your expenses exceed your income, this means focus on finding line-items in your budget that you can remove or cut back spending on. On the other hand, if your income is higher than your expenses, reevaluate what you should be doing with those excess funds. They’ll earn more interest in a high-yield savings account than your checking account. But you might also want to consider increasing your contribution to your 401(k), making bigger payments on your debt or investing for a future expense.
Conclusion
Personal budget software serves to help you in managing your personal or household finances in a proper manner. The purpose of any software is to provide flexibility and ease of use while maintaining control over the allocated budget at the same time.
Anyone will tell you that personal financial planning is an important thing to have sorted out. If you have some debt, you need a way to understand how it can affect your financial stability. On the other hand, if you’re saving money, you will want to make sure all your spending is being tracked, so you can stay on track. And if you’re someone who likes to plan for the future, then of course you will want to be able to see where your finances stand on a weekly basis. Thankfully, there are many different ways to keep tabs on the state of your personal finances and there are also a lot of free tools and software that can help.