• Feb 06, 2020  The 3 Best Alternatives to Quicken Software. Intuit subsequently sold its personal financial management tool to private equity firm H.I.G. Capital in 2016. A read-only budget.
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Do you know how you spend your money?

Not too long ago, your only option was to purchase similar budgeting software like Quicken.

But what if you don't have extra cash to spend on software to watch your cash? That's when getting free budget software can be very useful. They may not have all the bells and whistles as a paid package, but they work well enough so you understand where your money is going.

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Fortunately, because of advertising and other monetization methods, there are plenty of free budgeting tools worth using. Even if you are tired of paying for software that provides little value, it's possible to save money and still track your money goals.

These tools can help you make a spending plan and track expenses. You can effortlessly connect your bank accounts, investments, and credit cards from any computer or mobile device with internet access.

1. Personal Capital

Personal Capital is one of your best options if you care more about tracking your net worth and investment performance than budgeting. Their platform syncs your bank and investment accounts. To see how rich you really are, you can manually add the value of tangible assets like your house, vehicles, and collectibles.

The free investment tools include a retirement tracker and fee analyzer. If you want to retire rich, these tools are a great starting point. The only time Personal Capital costs money is if you use their optional wealth management service.

What's also nice is that Personal Capital has a suite of investing tools too. This way when you're ready to start investing, the tool can grow with you and you won't have to switch to something else.

2. YNAB

YNAB (You Need a Budget) deserves a higher spot but it's only free to college students for one year. First-time budgeters have an average $600 savings in the first two months according to YNAB. If you're serious about budgeting and knowing how you spend every dollar, YNAB can be well worth the $84 yearly fee.

YNAB adheres to four basic rules so you can pay this month's bills with last month's paycheck:

1. Give every dollar job
2. Embrace your true expenses
3. Roll with the punches
4. Age your money

You can sync U.S. or Canadian bank accounts with YNAB. For other accounts, you will need to import your accounts' QFX, OFX, or QIF files. File imports can be a hassle yet it's still quicker than manually entering every transaction.

Your accounts sync in real-time across multiple devices. This makes budgeting easy as you and your spouse see the same information. YNAB works with almost any internet-connected device including Alexa and your Apple Watch.

(read our You Need a Budget review for more)

If you like YNAB but are not ready to upgrade, try EveryDollar.

3. Mint

Mint is probably the most popular free money tool. One reason is that it's one of the oldest programs. Second, the same company (Intuit) that owns TurboTax also runs Mint. Maybe you use TurboTax to file your taxes for free.

You can sync your credit cards, bank accounts, and investments to track budgeting goals and assign budget categories to each purchase. Mint can also send your alerts for events like bill due date reminders, ATM fees, being over-budget, and large or unusual transactions.

You can also track investment performance with Mint. This is a helpful tool to let you monitor all your accounts in one dashboard. However, the main reason to use Mint is for the budget tools.

4. GnuCash

Accountants at heart will like GnuCash. You can track bank accounts, stocks, plus even small business income and expenses. Clearly see your data using reports, graphs, and a checkbook-style register. Advanced features include tracking accounts in multiple currencies, check printing, and double-entry accounting that ensures your accounts stay balanced.

This powerful software is completely free and open-sourced. GnuCash users are continually adding new features to make finance personal. It's possible to import QIF and OFX bank account documents your current accounting software may rely on.

You can use GnuCash with most PC, Apple, and Linux operating systems. An Android mobile app is also available.

5. Google Sheets

Sometimes the simplest budgeting tool is the best. You can use a premade Google Sheets template or make your own. The online sheet can be more user-friendly than still logging every income and expense on pen and paper. Although you must still manually input each event, you can customize your budget spreadsheet.

One of the best reasons to use Google Sheets is that it's accessible from any computer or laptop. Multiple people can make changes to the sheet when you grant them edit access.

If you want some automation, you can get Tiller Money to automatically pull your transactions (from your credit card, bank, etc) into your sheet for you.

6. Goodbudget

As the war on cash wages on, Goodbudget is a free digital envelope budgeting tool for those of us who use online bill pay. You can assign budget categories for up to 20 envelopes and track spending on two devices. Upgrading to the Plus plan costs $50 a year and you get unlimited envelops and can use Everydollar on up to five devices.

7. Truebill

Truebill can help you track spending, make savings goals, and reduce recurring expenses. You can sync your money accounts to get spending reports and make a basic budget. If you want to cancel subscriptions, Truebill provides free how-to instructions.

You can also use Truebill to negotiate bills for a lower cost. It's free to start the negotiation process. Truebill keeps a 40% success fee of the total savings for the first year. At least you don't have to get on the phone and do it yourself. You can save the most money if you have a cable tv bill or a contract cell phone plan.

Truebill works on any computer or mobile device. Although their iOS and Android apps offer more features to automate your finances.

8. Everydollar

Dave Ramsey fans should consider Everydollar. You assign every dollar you earn a budget category. This zero-sum budgeting strategy is similar to the money envelope system. If you don't know where to start with making a budget, you can start with the standard Everydollar budget template. Their debt snowball feature can help you make a plan to get out of debt.

The free Everydollar plan requires you to manually add each transaction. Upgrading to the Plus version costs $129.99 per year but automatically downloads your bank account and credit card transactions.

See our Everydollar review to learn more about the free and premium tools.

9. Wally

Wally is a free budgeting app although you will need to manually input transactions. Automatic bank account linking costs $1.99 per year. You can color-code your budget categories and make group budgets. Expense tracking can be easy as Wally lets you take pictures of receipts.

One reason to consider Wally is that the free version is ad-free. Like most apps, you can make in-app purchases to take budgeting to the next level. Premium tools include currency conversion, bank account linking, and other advanced budgeting and data export features.

Best Budget Software Mac 2016 Torrent

Wally is only available as an app for iOS and Android devices.

Summary

The best free budgeting tools can be as simple or advanced as you desire. In the past, most budgeting apps cost money. That's no longer the case whether you prefer to budget from your computer or phone.

Are you going to try one of the free tools? Which feature is the most exciting?

Budgeting is a discipline that’s not often met with excitement. Many assume that budgeting is something reserved for companies or, say, freelance workers. However, personal budget software is just as important as corporate one — it’s a fundamental understanding of where money is coming and going.

You may consider it to be boring, tiring, time-consuming, or difficult, but managing your finances well can help you achieve goals and stave off the stress of a rainy day. Thankfully, there are tools and apps on Mac which can help you get on top of budgeting, no matter how experienced you are.

Why Should I Use Budget Tracking Software?

If you haven’t done a budget before, you should start now. You never know when you might need a particular sum of money to solve an issue, meet a goal, or take advantage of a sudden opportunity.

Budget programs help you reduce the stress and uncertainty that comes with not knowing where you stand financially. If you don’t have a home budget software, you might be tracking towards a situation where you run out of money, without even knowing it. If you do have a budget, then you’ll have a documented plan of action to improve your situation.

Importantly, you don’t need any qualifications to do a budget, nor do you need to be good with numbers. Take advantage of the best budget software for Mac to help you take control of your finances without the hassle. Budgeting tools come in many shapes and sizes, so selecting the right one for you depends on personal preference and previous experience with managing money.

Handy tips for budgeting tools

If you’re ready to start your budget, it’s best to consider a strategic approach to ensure maximum utility. Too often, budgets sit collecting dust after being created, and sometimes the act of creating a budget could feel like enough to satisfy financial concerns — it’s not. Here are some tips for making the most out of your budget.

First of all, definitely use an app to help you manage a budget. App developers invest a lot of time and money into figuring out how their software can make your life easier and better, so rather than trying to understand all the nuances for yourself, let a dedicated app do it for you. There’s even some free budget software around, so you have very few excuses not to try!

If you run a business (or freelance on a side), a little bit of work each week means end of year taxes are a breeze. It’s not about doing a marathon of work in a few days, but making a habit to consistently do a little bit here and there. Try aiming for 10 minutes every few days. The best tax preparation software will also have reminders and notifications to help you achieve this goal.

It might sound contradictory, but budgeting isn’t always about getting the numbers 100% accurate. When it comes to tax preparation software — sure. But budgeting is mostly about understanding where your money is being spent and then using that information to make more informed decisions going forward. Therefore, make sure you categorize your transactions so that it’s easier to spot those minutiae differences and trends. The best finance apps should do this for you automatically.

In summary, you want to ensure you take advantage of the online budgeting tools available to you, aim to update your records frequently, and focus on categorization over accuracy.

Features of good personal budget software

The best personal budget software for Mac is easier to pin down when you know exactly what you’re looking for. Not all apps are the same — they vary by function and pricing. Generally speaking, there are a few key features you want to see in your budget software for Mac:

• It should be simple and easy to add new records or transactions

• Importing bank and credit card statements should be possible

• Automatically synchronizing statements will take the edge off your manual inputting

• Useful dashboards or visuals will help you understand your situation at a glance

• You should be able to categorize your transactions into groups

Out of those five key points, the ability to import is often the most essential. Importing saves you the hassle of adding each transaction into the money management software line-by-line, which adds up to a lot of time. It’s hard enough already to schedule frequent updates to your budget, so if you can remove the largest friction point of manual entry, then you’re in a good place.

The best budget software for Mac comparison

When it comes to programs to help budget money, there are countless options. It’s easy to get lost diving deep into each budget software review, but here are some of the best available, ranging from beautifully basic to powerfully advanced.

You’ve probably heard of Quicken, given that the name has been around since the early 80s. Even then, it was known as one of the best tax software companies around. That says something about the strong product, which carries all of the basic functions you’ll need to manage your budget well.

Right away though, you might notice that the interface has become somewhat dated in comparison to the newer contenders out there. But one of Quicken’s praised features is the ability to download bank statements and have the records automatically categorized, which can drastically reduce the time it takes to input your information, so you can spend more time making sense of it. Sadly, the Mac version is somewhat limited when it comes to advanced features, unless you splash out for the Home and Business edition.

MoneyDance is very similar to Quicken in terms of its basic features, including the ability to create a budget with notifications for bills and invoices. It also allows you to make your own charts and graphs to monitor spending habits over time, which can be seen on the homepage for a quick glance of your activity. Out-of-the-box integrations with online banking services also make it easy to send payments.

Unlike Quicken, Moneydance has some more advanced features including an investment monitor, which tracks your investments and their fluctuations — a useful addition, although best for the intermediate to advanced user. The app also has a developer API system in place to allow extended functions, mostly good for power users. Importantly, security is not an issue, as Moneydance utilizes end-to-end encryption for your data to give you that extra peace of mind.

You Need A Budget, also known as YNAB, is budget tracking software that runs on both Windows and Mac via web — saving automatically to the cloud, which is a bonus for multi-platform users. It also features native apps for iOS and Android, so you can literally tackle your budget from anywhere.

The app itself follows a simple design language, which is perfect for beginners, but if you find yourself needing help you can sign up for a personal instructor. YNAB doesn’t let you slack at all, and if you start to stray from your budget, the app will raise a red flag through it’s built-in Accountability Partner.

Although YNAB doesn’t support the ability to download and automatically categorize records from bank statements, it could be argued that entering them manually helps the user pay more attention to where their spending is going. Still, it’s a more time-consuming process that might be problematic for users processing hundreds or more records each month.

MoneyWiz stays true to its name — a comprehensive budget software and investment tracker that’s packed full with over 400 useful features. View your financial situation quickly by browsing accounts, groups, or searching for individual records. Speaking of records, you can enter them manually or have them automatically sync with leading banks, cryptocurrency exchanges, and financial services for an accurate real-time understanding of your accounts.

Home Budget Software For Mac

With all of this data in hand, MoneyWiz can prepare and export over 50 reports to help you gain deeper insights into your finances. Your data could be accessed from its cloud-based app or straight from the native software for Mac. All in all, MoneyWiz is extremely powerful: accessible for beginners and interesting for the most advanced users.

Receipts is yet another money management software for Mac, and is specifically well-known for its clever handling of invoicing. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, Receipts automatically reads and translates important information about your bills, such as amount, date, currency, and more (even if the text is in another language).

Besides, Receipts can issue payments for invoices directly using third-party providers, such as iFinance and BankX. The OCR technology alone makes it a strong contender against other more simple online budgeting tools. Not least, Mac users will be glad to see how this application was designed to look and feel like a macOS product. Using a familiar user interface could make life a little easier after all.

Between the five options above, you have a strong starting point for your budgeting tools depending on your experience. Remember that importing is one of the key features to look for in budget programs. Still, in order to find the best fit you might need to try a couple of different options.

Best Budget Software Mac 2016 Free

Thankfully, both MoneyWiz and Receipts have a free 7-day trial that you can take advantage of by heading over to Setapp, an app subscription service for Mac that gives you access to over 150 macOS apps, including all the necessary budget tools. Getting MoneyWiz and Receipts at once? You won’t be disappointed.