6 Personal Finance Software You Can Rely on

6 Personal Finance Software You Can Use to Better Manage Money

Managing your hard-earned money is very important for your long-term prosperity and financial goals. However, due to the lack of knowledge and time to do these things, many people think of it as a burden. Well, this is where personal finance software comes in. They can assist you in a wide range of activities from budgeting and taxes to investing and accounting.

Before we look into the most viable options, let us understand the basics of personal finance software.

 

What Is Personal Finance Software?

A personal finance software refers to desktop or mobile or web applications that you can use to prepare your budget, track spending, manage spreadsheets, and investments. Typically, you will have to create a personal account that will link to your bank accounts and credit cards. In this way, the software can prepare records of spending, set reminders, offer tips and ideas, and plan for the future. Furthermore, the cost of personal finance software depends on your choices. There are a lot of free and open-source options to choose from if you do not have the money to spend on paid options.

Now, let us look at the best personal finance software in both open source and paid options. The best open source options are listed below:

 

GNUCash

GNUCash is one of the most popular personal finance software in the open-source domain. It is licensed under the GNU GPL (General Public License), which means you can run, share, and modify the software. It is available for Linux, BSD, Mac OSX, and Microsoft Windows platforms. The main features of this software are:

• Double-entry bookkeeping to ensure that your books are always balanced.
• Chequebook-style register that allows you to split transactions, mark as cleared or reconciled, display multiple accounts, summary balance, and customization of appearance.
• Automatic reminders of incomplete transactions.
• Integrated module to display charts like bar charts, pie charts, and scatter plots.
• Standard and customizable reports like balance sheets, profit and loss, portfolio valuation, and many more.
• Account reconciliation to compare transactions against a bank statement.
• Income/Expense account types to categorize cash flow.
• Small business features like customer and vendor tracking, jobs, invoicing, bill payment, tax, and billing terms.
• Multiple currencies.
• Tracking stocks individually or in a portfolio of accounts.
• Stock and mutual fund quotes from various websites.

 

KMyMoney

This is also one of the most popular cross-platform personal finance software built for desktop and notebook computers. This software is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS platforms. The most striking features of this software are:

• Easy to use, especially for non-technical users.
• Contains all the features found in commercial software.
• Frequent updates and upgrades with changing business landscape.
• Highly accurate.
• Based on double-entry accounting principles.

 

LedgerSMB

This is one of the most widely used open-source personal finance software. The main mission of this software is to allow small and medium-sized businesses to build a strong accounting basis. It is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Android, and iOS. Creating Docker images is also possible.

The major features include:

• Double-entry accounting to manage accounts and inspect transactions.
• Budget tracking by projects/department.
• Tracking of sales, invoices, orders, and customers.
• Cash flow handling.
• Writing checks and track receipts.
• Reconciliation with bank statements.
• Tracking and management of fixed assets, their depreciation and disposal.
• Reports generation.

Now, let us learn about some of the best proprietary personal finance software options.

 

Mint

Even though mint is not open source, it is free to download for desktop and mobile devices. It is one of the most widely used tools for budget planning and tracking. The main purpose of this software is to help you manage all your finances in one place. Some of the major features of this software are:

• Management of all the finance within a single dashboard.
• Budget planning with tips specially designed for your needs.
• Tracking expenses and transactions due.
• Reminders for unpaid bills so that you never miss a payment.
• Warnings on low funds and inability to pay.
• Security features like encryption and multi-factor authentication.
• Remote access from anywhere.

 

Quicken

Quicken is a paid personal finance software option that is available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS platforms. The pricing plans with their features can be defined as follows:

Starter

• Costs 35.99 USD per year
• All your accounts in one place
• Budgets and bills management
• Export data to Excel
• Automatic categorization of expenses
• Phone support

Deluxe

• Costs 46.79 USD per year
• Customized budget creation
• Tracking and management of debts, investments and retirement accounts
• Creation of savings goals
• All the features included in the Starter plan

Premier

• Costs 70.19 USD per year
• All the features included in the Deluxe plan
• Evaluation of investments and portfolios
• Comparison of buy-and-hold options with portfolio analysis
• Comparison of your returns with market averages
• Tracking of cost basis and creation of scheduled tax reports

Home and Business

• Costs 93.59 USD per year
• Everything included in the Premier plan
• Separation and categorization of home and business expenses
• Email custom invoices with payment links
• Tracking of business tax deductions for profit and loss

 

TurboTax

TurboTax is one of the best personal finance software for tax management. It is a paid software that is designed by Intuit, the makers of Mint. It also offers self-management or expert help options. The pricing plans with their features are listed below

Free Edition

• Free for self-management (no expert help)
• Easy preparation, printing and filing
• W-2 photo snap
• Costs 80 USD for expert help. Includes final review from a CPA or EA

Deluxe

• Costs 60 USD per year
• Every feature from the free edition
• 350+ tax deductions and credits search
• Maximization of mortgage and property tax deductions
• Donations to big deductions
• Costs 120 USD per year for expert-help option. Includes final review from CPA or EA

Premier

• Costs 90 USD per year
• Every feature from the Deluxe edition
• Covers stocks, bonds, ESPPs, and other investments
• Covers rental property income and tax deductions
• Auto import of investment income
• Gains and losses from cryptocurrency transactions
• Costs 170 USD per year for expert help

Self Employed

• Costs 120 USD per year
• Every feature from the Premier edition
• Guidance features for freelancers, contractors, and small business owners
• Industry-specific deductions
• One-on-one help from self-employment specialists
• Personalized audit assessments
• Easy import of 1099-MISC with a snap from a smartphone
• Costs 200 USD per year for expert help

 

Conclusion

Hence, in this blog, we talked about the best open source and proprietary personal finance software with their major features.

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