How to choose the best expense tracker app for you
The best expense tracker app is the one you are still using six months from now. Almost all of them draw good charts. What sets them apart is the work they ask of you each week, and that is where most people give up. These seven questions will help you choose before you install anything.
Seven questions to ask first
1. How do your transactions get in?
This matters most. An app only knows what you tell it, so look at how much effort telling it takes. The usual options are typing each expense, scanning the receipt, dictating it, or importing the file you download from your bank.
Typing in every coffee works for the first few weeks. If you know you won't keep that up, look for an app that lets you combine methods: note cash as you spend it, then import everything else once a week.
2. Will you categorise the same things every time?
The weekly food shop should sort itself. Check whether you can create rules, for example that anything containing your energy supplier's name goes under utilities. Check what happens to the things you have corrected by hand as well: a rule shouldn't overwrite your decision.
3. Does all your money fit?
If you have a bank account, a card and some cash, you need to see them together. Pay particular attention to transfers. Moving 200 from your everyday account to your savings account isn't an expense, and an app that counts it as one will give you false totals every month.
4. Does it work on your phone and your computer?
A phone is ideal for noting an expense on the spot. For reviewing the month, comparing categories or correcting fifty transactions, a big screen helps a lot. If you plan to do both, check that the app covers both and that the data is the same on each.
5. Are you sharing it with anyone?
If you manage money as a couple or as a family, check whether two people can work on the same data. Sharing a file or a password isn't the same thing, and it tends to end in two versions of the truth. Check which plan includes it too, because it is often a paid feature.
6. How does it make money?
An app has to pay for itself somehow: through a subscription, through advertising, or by earning commission for recommending loans, insurance or other products. None of these is illegitimate, but it's worth knowing, because it decides who the app is working for. Read what it does with your data as well.
7. Can you leave with your data?
Years of history are the most valuable thing you will build up. Before you start, check that you can export it to a file you can open without the app, such as a spreadsheet. If there's no way out, changing your mind will cost you your history.
App, spreadsheet or your bank's app
| Option | Works well if | Falls short when |
|---|---|---|
| Your bank's app | Everything is with that bank and you just want a summary | You have accounts in several places or want your own categories |
| Spreadsheet | You have few accounts and enjoy adjusting things | You repeat the same work every month or share the file |
| Expense tracker app | You have several accounts or want to record things on your phone | You only want an occasional overview and won't give it any time |
If you're not sure, starting with an expense tracker in a spreadsheet is free and shows you what you really need.
The one-month test
A list of features won't tell you whether an app suits you. A month of real use will:
- Start on the free plan, if there is one.
- Enter all of one month's transactions, not just a sample.
- Create eight to ten categories and rules for whatever repeats.
- Set aside ten minutes a week to review it.
- At the end of the month, compare what you see with your bank statement.
If the totals match and it didn't feel like a chore, you've found it. If you stopped opening it by the third week, you've learned what you needed to know without paying anything.
How abacova answers these questions
abacova is our app, so judge it by the same questions:
- Transactions: type them, scan a receipt, dictate them or import your bank's file with a preview before anything is saved.
- Categories: rules work on all of those entries and never replace a category you chose.
- All your money: transfers between your own accounts don't count as expenses, because the books are kept with double-entry bookkeeping.
- Phone and computer: there's an app for iPhone and Android for everyday use. Reports and reconciliation open in the browser.
- Sharing: you can invite other people on the paid plans. The free plan is for one person.
- How we make money: from the paid plans. There are no ads, no trackers and no resale of data.
- Leaving: every table can be exported to Excel.
It has limits too: it records money but never moves it, and it needs a connection to record a transaction.
The free plan needs no card and includes two accounts and 200 transactions a month, which is enough for the test. The pricing page shows what each plan includes.