by cppwood » Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:56 pm
Sure that's easy!
1) AceMoney - PC
2) Moneydance - PC
3) Mint - Online
AceMoney, Moneydance and Mint they all work, as in they provide clear (budget vs. actuals = difference) per sub-cat. Total produced overall for Budgeted column, Actuals column and Difference. These sub-totals were produced for the income, expense and overall so that you could see where you stood financially whether it be by month or year, whatever date parameters you set.
AceMoney in particular, offers the ability to select any given month(s) for special budgeted items e.g., Lawn care which only occurs between March and September that you may include an expense which will show up in it's entirety say 35.00 per month without it affecting any other months budget limit, i.e., it is not divided evenly into say 12 months it's limited to the month(s) you choose - which is good. Moneydance can do this but you need a separate line entry for every month you require and I believe they call it "non-pro-rated" so the system would not take the budgeted amount and spread it out mathematically throughout the entire year. I don't want to see Lawn Care outside of the months specified above!
I am currently looking at Mint and I find their budgeting tool pretty good their graphic representation of how much I'm spending as the month goes by is actually very revealing and for example if my grocery/gas bills start to climb higher than I would expect mid month I can take action on this and be much more aggressive in my spending cuts. This works for me as I haven't been over budget on these categories in 2 years - before it was money out the door and before you know it you've redlined!
The one software package for windows I didn't mention was Fortora Fresh simply because their support is simply not there - to bad as the program actually has the best laid out budget reporting but it does only show items that contain a budgeted amount, it doesn't also show non-budgeted items like Ace or Moneydance - I prefer to be shown non-budgeted items as well.
The combination of your good looking reporting and a good budget would give me the best of both worlds, 1) I don't have to be online like Mint, 2) I don't like grid style reporting especially when having to print off a budget report - sometimes that's required, it's like using a hammer to drive a point across.
I hope I've given you some helpful information but now I have a couple of questions for you.
You say quote:
"When we studied the issue we couldn't find something that was practical enough to use, most of the examples we have seen to date were borderline useless"!
Question 1: What examples did you look at?
Question 2: How did you determine what was practical enough to use, definition of "practical", would be helpful so I know what it is that you think is borderline useless?
I am not asking for envelope budgeting and I know there are many that like that but I am fine with standard budgeting tools that the above mentioned provide.
I would be more than happy to look at and provide feedback at anything you could do here, I've got lots of data and I run a couple of different packages that I can compare it with once there is a report to look at. I can assist you when designing the input side I'm assuming you do it in the categories section or provide a separate interface no big deal here, I've seen them all.
What's important to me is that I get the quality reporting you are known for, your reports look fantastic!
Anyways thanks for listening and yes I will give your online app another go when it goes live.
Kindest regards
Christopher