Chronicle 6
Take the stress out of paying your bills
$9.99 Developer LittleFin, littlefin.com
Requirements OS X 10.9 or later, 64-bit processor As long as personal computers have existed in the home, consumers have relied upon financial software to keep tabs on which bills are due and when. Chronicle 6 (a free upgrade for owners of the previous version) is laser-focused on bill management. This isn’t a replacement for money management apps such as Quicken, but is used to log expenses and alert users before they come due. Chronicle doesn’t hook into payment services, although each bill can include web links to make payments within the integrated browser.
The main window displays a list of active bills, payment amounts, balances, and due dates, along with a preview of what’s coming up. Logging payments is as easy as entering a few details; the clean layout visualizes what’s owed at a glance, while the search field provides quick access to specific bills.
Bills can be assigned a due date (with optional reminder), fixed or variable amount, repeat interval, payment method, and tags. Each is assigned to categories with corresponding custom icons, making them easier to spot in the list. Chronicle 6 adds new categories such as music subscription and cleaning services, but all of the icons have been desaturated in the process. They’re a better fit in the modern OS X aesthetic, but are harder to differentiate with everything now the same shade of drab gray. A more welcome new addition is vacation mode, which temporarily adjusts due dates for bills that need to be paid in your absence. Click the airplane icon, enter start and end dates, and you’ll be reminded to pay those bills prior to your departure – without affecting future payments.
Chronicle users can also track monthly income against expenses with the optional balance sheet feature, which has been redesigned to include sources alongside bills. It’s a bit buggy, with repeat entries showing up even when the interval is set to Never. We preferred the less cluttered approach from previous versions, which worked better for freelancers whose income is spread out all across the calendar.
the bottom line. A fresh coat of paint to Mac bill management, but drab category icons and revamped income functionality are a step back.