Expense Manager
Make sure you keep the receipt for this app somewhere safe
£7.99 Developer iLifeTouch, iLifeTouch.com
Requires OS X 10.7 or higher
In theory, Expense Manager has the makings of great financial software: multiple user support, password protection, attractive graphs and pie charts, auto backup and iCloud sync.
The problem is, the user interface seems to have been an afterthought and gets in the way at nearly every turn. Non-standard buttons make it hard to know what they do until clicked. For example, the right-hand Tag icon doesn’t tag anything, and instead displays options to filter graph and bar chart data.
More annoyingly, you can’t use all the adjacent space next to that button to grab and move the window, as with other Mac apps, even though this method works on the left-hand side above the search field. The layout appears to have been awkwardly ported from iOS, where these decisions make more sense. The lack of a Help menu or user manual adds to the confusion.
Expense Manager can also attach receipts to entries, but only from existing files on the Mac. The inability to use a built-in FaceTime camera to grab a snapshot is a lost opportunity. There’s no scanner support either.
Data export is also hit and miss: Expense Manager offers a range of print, CSV, text and PDF output choices, but with no option to see individual entries alongside their visual equivalent – PDF and printed data winds up being little more than a low-res screenshot of the app itself.
Expense Manager also commits the cardinal sin of pimping another app every time it launches – the more expensive Daily Expenses. This alone will have you regretting the decision to spend £7.99 in the first place. J.R. Bookwalter Blatant adware aside, it has the potential to be a handy finance app, if the questionable UI and usability issues are addressed.
Wide range of features
Cumbersome user interface
Subpar print and PDF export options
No Help menu or user manual