Take control of your finances
Manage your money with the help of your PC and a fabulous free personal finance tool.
So you constantly struggle to stay on top of your finances? Can’t ever seem to work out exactly where your money goes or how much is currently in your bank accounts? What you need is a personal finance tool – and if you’ve been relying on Quicken or Money for the task, then it’s high time you switched to something more modern (and guaranteed to remain compatible with Windows 10).
There are two basic options for you going forward. If you’re happy to restrict your management to desktop and laptop computers, then HomeBank (http://homebank.free.fr/ en/index.php) is the perfect choice. You can import data from Quicken or Money, then use it to record, track and analyse your financial ins and outs, giving you everything you need to get on top of your money and stay in control of your spending.
HomeBank supports multiple accounts within a single file, allowing you to separate your current account from your credit card and savings. Once set up, click the Add button to enter your first transaction – it’s all pretty self-explanatory except make sure any payments out are recorded as negative values under Amount, and deposits into your account as positive ones.
Make good use of the Category field – this will enable you to track your spending to see where your money’s going – a handy pie chart in the main screen provides a breakdown.
As you build up incomings and outgoings you’ll be able to make use of auto-fill to speed up data entry, but check the step-by-step guide below for a handy way to have all your regular incomings and outgoings entered automatically on the date they are due.
A CROSS-PLATFORM SOLUTION
The biggest drawback of HomeBank is the fact you need to be at your computer to check and update your current financial state. If you’re willing to pay for the privilege, however, you’ll find plenty of tools that work across desktop, laptop and mobile, keeping everything in sync and allowing you to quickly record spending. We’ve been using Moneywiz (http://homebank.free.fr/ en/index.php).