If you always set a budget but lost track of it along the way, you might need some help managing your finances in a smarter and more practical way.
Getting your cash flow on track isn't as easy as it sounds; it requires commitment and discipline in doing so. Keeping track of every Ringgit that comes in and goes out from your pocket and the bank can be tiring, but with help of the right budgeting app, it's possible! All of the apps listed below are mostly free, so there’s no excuse not to try them.
Related: Understanding Your Money Personality. Which One Are You?
1. Money Lover
Money Lover is an all-in-one financial management app that includes tracking, budgeting, reporting, and planning functions. It’s a simple app that allows you to categorise and keep a tab on your expenses across weeks, months, and years. The report will be presented in an easy-to-read graphical format so you can have a clear view of your spending patterns.
Read our full review of this app here.
Features:
- Available on multiple devices
- Recurring bills and transaction reminder
- All currencies available with updated exchange rates
- Scan receipt
- Reporting
- Link online banking to Money Lover
Price: Free (In-app purchases available)
2. Spendee
Spendee’s minimalistic interface makes it easy to navigate and visualize all your finances through an app. The main feature gives an overview of your weekly spending, organized from the most recent expenses or savings to the least recent. There are also options to display an overview of the month, year or any custom period of time.
Features:
- Connect Spendee with online banking, e-wallet and crypto-wallet
- Automatic categorization
- Multiple wallets for different events
- Shared finances
- Multiple currencies
- Personal finance insights
- Available on multiple platforms
Price: Free (In-app purchases available)
3. Expensify
Expensify is a favorite among startups, as accounts using the same email domain can be linked for easy submission and tracking. You can easily group your expenses under different reports or trips. The app is handy to have while traveling since it tracks distance and time spent on a particular project. One unique feature of this expense tracker app is SmartScan, which reads your receipts for all the details of an expense. It was designed so there would be “no typing needed on your end”.
Features:
- Expense management
- Multiple currency conversion
- Travel booking
- Automatic credit card import
- Receipt integrations (Uber, Lyft, Hotel Tonight, Grab)
- Accounting integrations (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and more!)
- Custom report exports
- Mileage tracking
Price: Free to use for up to 25 SmartScans of receipts per month (In-app purchases available)
4. Monny
Known for its ‘cute’ features, Monny gives you mini-challenges to make saving a bit more exciting. For example, the first challenge is to key in entries for seven days straight, which would be helpful for getting you into the habit of using the app, if you’ve never used budget tracking apps before. The app records a daily or monthly report of all your transactions and creates reports to show where your money is being spent.
Features:
- User-friendly reports and charts
- Separate account books into different categories
- Backup support
- Daily notification alert
- Passcode lock for privacy and security
Price: Free (In-app purchases available)
5. Goodbudget
Formerly known as Easy Envelope Budget Aid (EEBA), Goodbudget is a perfect option for couples that want to share their budgeting process together. It uses the familiar envelope budgeting philosophy to power your proactive budget for all of your bills and spending. An envelope system means dividing your cash into separate envelopes for different expenses like groceries, utilities, and car loans.
Features:
- Sync across multiple devices
- Scheduled transactions and account balances
- Split expense transactions
- Spending category suggestions
- Location-based widget
- Insightful reports
Price: Free to use for creating 20 envelopes (In-app purchases available)
6. You Need A Budget (YNAB)
This award-winning budgeting app allows you to manage your expenses easily when you’re not sure how to get your spending under control. With YNAB, you’ll be learning how to spend smart instead of spending less. If you share expenses with your partner, you can do the budgeting together so both of you will not accidentally overspend on shopping or groceries.
Features:
- Bank syncing
- Transaction matching
- Goal tracking
- Report and budget data
- Personal support
Price: Free for the first 34 days
7. iSaveMoney
iSaveMoney is a powerful budgeting app and expense tracker that is suitable for people of different ages to create personal or family budgets. It comes with different features and functions that will help you to plan your budget, record your transactions and forecast your budget with ease. You can create a monthly budget, track spending and get the report for free on all the recorded expenses so you have clear insights into your spending habit.
Features:
- In-speech recognition
- Autocomplete function based on previous entries
- Built-in calculator
- Budget maker template
- Budget forecast
- Daily transaction monitoring
- Export data and report in CSV format
- Auto backup data to the cloud
Price: Free (In-app purchases available)
8. Mint
Search up ‘budgeting apps’, and Mint will be on almost every list. Mint is a pretty interesting app because it creates a budget based on your past spending habits. Another cool feature is that it splits your expenses into various categories such as shopping, bills, and transportation.
Features:
- A ‘well-rounded’ app
- Shows income, expenses, savings goals, credit score, investments, net worth
- Links to bank accounts and credit cards
- Budgets are created based on past spending habits
- Budgets can be adjusted
- Security features such as Verisign scanning, multi-factor authentication, and Touch ID mobile access
Price: Free (In-app purchases available)
9. Zeta
Besides Goodbudget, Zeta is another app that’s good for couples. Here, you can combine your financial goals with your partner’s. Under Zeta, you can tag your partner on specific transactions. Or if you’re purchasing something together, you can split that amount and keep a tally.
Features:
- You can have shared or personal accounts
- Keep a tally of how much you and your partner and spending
- Assign transactions to your partner
- Spending is updated in real-time
- Provides a savings timeline
Price: Free (In-app purchases available)
10. PocketGuard
Savings and expenditures aside, PocketGuard is one app that also allows you to keep track of your investments. To make it easier for you, you can link your account to your bank account, cards and investments.
Instead of just telling you how much you’ve been saving and spending, it also tells you how much spendable money you have left with the ‘In My Pocket’ feature.
Features:
- Links to your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investments
- Gives you personalized reports on every transaction
- The ‘In My Pocket’ feature tells you how much you have left to spend
- You can create goals on how much money you’d like to spend and save
- The Premium version gives you even more features
Price: Free (In-app purchases available)
11. Household account book
Trying to train your children (12 years and below) on the importance of saving money? Download the Household account book app on their phone! The cartoon aesthetic app is easy to navigate and includes a comic book suitable for younger users! Your children can record their daily spending and will be able to track it easily with a pie chart.
Features:
- Be able to customize the app interface
- Comics
- Available in 3 languages including English, Japanese, and Chinese
Price: Free
With different types of expense tracker apps available, it can be a little daunting to choose just one to help manage your money. You can try any of the apps we listed above and consider which one gives the best features for your personal finance tracking.
Note: This post was originally published in August 2021 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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