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I'm not looking for a budgeting app so much as something that tracks my expenses. I don't know how much I'm going to be making each paycheck, so traditional bu

I'm not looking for a budgeting app so much as something that tracks my expenses. I don't know how much I'm going to be making each paycheck, so traditional budgeting doesn't work for me. What I'm looking for is: - Import bank files (ofx / qfx) - Let me flag some transactions as 'do not import' - Ability to categorize transactions, and have it auto-categorize transactions as they're imported. This should be done by name and amount. Eg - $80 from Chevron might be Auto Fuel, but $5 from Chevron might be Snack Food. - Ability to split transactions - Ability to manually enter transactions. Because sometimes I pay cash - Ability to have sub-categories. Eg: Car; Car : Fuel; Car : Maintenance; Car : Repairs; Car : Insurance; - Ability to view spending by category by month / by year. This can either be by sub-categories, or roll sub-categories into a parent category. Be able to drill-down to get more details.

Jtsummers 6y ago
This is an aside, but there are basically two ways to do budgeting: Forecasting (what most people think of as budgeting) where you assume some average inflow and calculate the average/target outflow for various categories for each month. This doesn't work with irregular income unless you set your outflow to below your average inflow (which may not be easy to predict for freelancers, part-time workers, or people who get tips). Actual budgeting where you take the existing cash on hand and designate/allocate it for spending categories. I have (made up numbers) $5k on hand, I have to pay my mortgage ($1500) leaves me with $3500. I set some aside for groceries ($400) leaves me with $3100. Repeat until this month's categories are done, put any excess into the next month. Maybe I have $1k free after budgeting so I can put $1k to next month's mortgage. Then on my next paycheck I can budget the remaining $500 to that and start on other categories. At the end of this exercise, I know my money will get me through this month (or not) and how much further it'll go. Of the two formats, the former only works if you have a regular paycheck and very little deviation in spending from month to month. The latter works very well for many more people in a variety of situations because it is based on reality. While I use YNAB and would recommend it, there are other systems out there that do the same thing. And I've used ledger-cli for it as well (but really wanted the mobile interface and something my wife would use). You can start with either as an expense tracker, and then after a month or two (once you've tracked your spending so you know your current level) you can switch to using them as budgeting tools (YNAB does that out of the box, ledger-cli takes a bit more work).

Jtsummers 6y ago

This is an aside, but there are basically two ways to do budgeting: Forecasting (what most people think of as budgeting) where you assume some average inflow and calculate the average/target outflow for various categories for each month. This doesn't work with irregular income unless you set your outflow to below your average inflow (which may not be easy to predict for freelancers, part-time workers, or people who get tips). Actual budgeting where you take the existing cash on hand and designate/allocate it for spending categories. I have (made up numbers) $5k on hand, I have to pay my mortgage ($1500) leaves me with $3500. I set some aside for groceries ($400) leaves me with $3100. Repeat until this month's categories are done, put any excess into the next month. Maybe I have $1k free after budgeting so I can put $1k to next month's mortgage. Then on my next paycheck I can budget the remaining $500 to that and start on other categories. At the end of this exercise, I know my money will get me through this month (or not) and how much further it'll go. Of the two formats, the former only works if you have a regular paycheck and very little deviation in spending from month to month. The latter works very well for many more people in a variety of situations because it is based on reality. While I use YNAB and would recommend it, there are other systems out there that do the same thing. And I've used ledger-cli for it as well (but really wanted the mobile interface and something my wife would use). You can start with either as an expense tracker, and then after a month or two (once you've tracked your spending so you know your current level) you can switch to using them as budgeting tools (YNAB does that out of the box, ledger-cli takes a bit more work).