
Once you import a batch of transactions, you will probably spend some time cleaning up the data. For example, transactions need to be correctly categorized as income (salary, freelance payment, and interest, for example) and expenses (food, mortgage, utilities, and so on). Most personal finance apps guess the appropriate categories, but you can always change it-and you can split transactions among different categories. If you're conscientious about this, you'll see charts and reports that accurately tell you where you're earning and spending your money. This information can also be helpful when tax preparation time rolls around.ĭepending on the service, you might be able to add transaction tags. That way, you can search for transactions that are related in ways other than category assignments. If you bought something with cash, though, your bank won't have a record of it. In those circumstances, you can manually create a transaction. Moneydance, too, is good at transaction management, but Quicken Deluxe tops all rivals.ĬountAbout and others go a step further, providing additional tools that let you designate selected transactions as recurring, for example.

Quicken's dashboard lets you see your income and expenses. A Different Kind of DashboardĮvery service reviewed here has a dashboard, or home page, that you see when you first log in.

Sometimes, the dashboard is the only screen you need to see, because it displays the most pertinent information about your financial situation, such as your account balances and pending bills. You see charts and graphs that tell you, for example, what your income is versus your spending, and how you're doing on your budget. You may be able to set goals and gauge your progress at meeting them, as well as see live updates on your investment portfolio if markets are open.īasically, this overview shows you snippets and highlights of the data analysis these services do behind the scenes (with options to dive deeper). Click a checking account balance in Mint, for example, to go to the account's register.
