Budgeting App

lbonga1 · August 2015

I'm in a program to learn iOS development, and for my final project, I want to design a budgeting app. I know there are already a lot of budgeting apps in the app store, so I'm trying to come up with ways to make it unique/beneficial. I was going to include a feature to choose be able to budget for various categories as a percentage of income or with dollar amounts like normal, and include categories for sinking funds. The data can be synced through iCloud, so it would be available on multiple phones/iPads. Anyone have any suggestions for what you'd like to see in a budgeting app? Things that you think might be helpful but are missing in apps you currently use?

AprilZ81 · August 2015

I use GoodBudget and for the most part I like it but the free app doesn't allow you to have scheduled expenses (mortgage for example). I would love to be able to automatically schedule transactions for things that are a fixed amount like our HELOC and Mortgage.

hoffse · August 2015

There's one reason why I've never been able to use budgeting apps: they don't account for CC purchases that are made in one month but paid in another - especially not when opening/closing dates are mid-month.

Bonus points if you could track multiple cards that have different closing dates.

Figure that one out, and you'll make a fortune

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2015

hoffse said:

There's one reason why I've never been able to use budgeting apps: they don't account for CC purchases that are made in one month but paid in another - especially not when opening/closing dates are mid-month.

Bonus points if you could track multiple cards that have different closing dates.

Figure that one out, and you'll make a fortune

agreed! honestly I've always struggled with this and have tried multiple systems...right now I'm tracking purchases in excel sheets for August, september, and october 2015 depending on if it's a check, on a card that hasn't closed yet this month, or a card that has already closed.

hoffse · August 2015

formerlyGDaisy09 said:

hoffse said:

There's one reason why I've never been able to use budgeting apps: they don't account for CC purchases that are made in one month but paid in another - especially not when opening/closing dates are mid-month.

Bonus points if you could track multiple cards that have different closing dates.

Figure that one out, and you'll make a fortune

agreed! honestly I've always struggled with this and have tried multiple systems...right now I'm tracking purchases in excel sheets for August, september, and october 2015 depending on if it's a check, on a card that hasn't closed yet this month, or a card that has already closed.

Truth. I always end up doing excel because the budgeting apps just make a huge hack of this.

The other thing that would be great is a sinking fund tracker - so you can allocate a large purchase to one of those funds. I haven't tried mint in awhile, but I remember my budget was always super out of whack on it because any given month I would have one or two sinking fund items, and it would tell me I had overspent.

brij2006 · August 2015

Definitely ditto the sinking fund option.

I use everydollar now, and love it. It does have the sinking fund option in there though, just so you know that there is already a service that provides it.

als1982 · August 2015

We don't do sinking funds and we love our Excel budget, but I wanted to wish you good luck!!

formerlyGDaisy09 · August 2015

hoffse said:

formerlyGDaisy09 said:

hoffse said:

There's one reason why I've never been able to use budgeting apps: they don't account for CC purchases that are made in one month but paid in another - especially not when opening/closing dates are mid-month.

Bonus points if you could track multiple cards that have different closing dates.

Figure that one out, and you'll make a fortune

agreed! honestly I've always struggled with this and have tried multiple systems...right now I'm tracking purchases in excel sheets for August, september, and october 2015 depending on if it's a check, on a card that hasn't closed yet this month, or a card that has already closed.

Truth. I always end up doing excel because the budgeting apps just make a huge hack of this.

The other thing that would be great is a sinking fund tracker - so you can allocate a large purchase to one of those funds. I haven't tried mint in awhile, but I remember my budget was always super out of whack on it because any given month I would have one or two sinking fund items, and it would tell me I had overspent.

in fact, I'm waiting for my amazon statement to close right now so I can purchase some larger nursury items so they end-up on October instead of September. August has been paid, just waiting for the September statement.

AprilZ81 · August 2015

Not to get off-topic but I don't bother to track purchases on the credit card by what month they will be paid, we do it in the month we make the purchase. I asked our credit card company (the one we use 99% of the time) to move our closing date so that it roughly works out that a calendar month is a billing cycle.

hoffse · August 2015

AprilZ81 said:

Not to get off-topic but I don't bother to track purchases on the credit card by what month they will be paid, we do it in the month we make the purchase. I asked our credit card company (the one we use 99% of the time) to move our closing date so that it roughly works out that a calendar month is a billing cycle.

Yeah most of our closing dates are the same day too - but when we open new cards for sign up bonuses it's not like that.

We also pay in the grace period, so H and I are really in the midst of spending money we will actually earn in September. I like to match purchases with the month in which they are actually paid.

lbonga1 · August 2015

Thanks for the ideas! I'm brainstorming ways to incorporate your suggestions seamlessly.

NLewis1 · August 2015

I use Mint.com and the only problems I'm having are the following:

Im having trouble getting the app to connect to some of my accounts, like my mortgage and one of my student loans.

I can't figure out a way to make my budget see that some of my bills are paid bi-weekly - like my mortgage and daycare tuition. So some months, it tells me Im way over budget and some months Im way under budget! The perfectionist in me is irritated by this.

MissKittyDanger · August 2015

As someone who works in the financial industry, I personally use excel. I'm trying to use the David Ramsay one in September, but idk how that will work.

Budget wise I just type up on excel per month/pay, print out and put on fridge. I'm a visual person so it helps when I can see it daily and keep it up to date.

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