Money — Budget & Finance 5.6.8

Comprehensive personal financial manager

Free (IAPs) From Jumsoft, jumsoft.com/money Needs macOS 10.12 or later

There’s more to managing money than past entries in your online bank accounts. Expenses need to be put into categories, and you must look ahead, not just back. That’s where the Money app comes in.

It gives you the choice of entering transactions manually in its paid Standard version ($24.99/year), or importing them electronically from your online banking service on subscription ($49.99/year). Importing from online works through an intermediary service, which relies on correct interaction with both that and its interface with your bank; it can’t work with a bank’s own mobile app, though. Jumsoft claims these support over 50,000 banks in 57 countries. If you can’t get online access, Money also imports suitably formatted CSV files and specialist types including OFX. It can share data in iCloud with its cheap iOS version.

Money’s interface is flexible, offering several ways of adding recurring entries, for example. Sometimes adding an entry takes a bit longer than you expect, and you might try adding that entry again. That’s no problem, as errors are easy to correct. It has nice touches, like payees having a distinctive icon, but offers only one window; you can’t see individual transactions and summaries at once.

With recent transactions in place, switch to its Reports view to see your assets change over time, with a forecast based on scheduled income and expenses. There are also detailed breakdowns of income and expenses by category, or you can look at individual payees. It offers custom tags for entries which you can use where simple categories don’t work well.

But Money doesn’t go beyond personal finance. It can’t bill others for your work, nor account for business taxation, but it does handle multiple currencies and modest investment portfolios. For small businesses and hobby income, you could use it to prepare for tax returns.

Superior to the smartest spreadsheet, even entering data manually is a breeze. Unless you have your own accountant, this is the app to keep you out of the red.

the bottom line. Quick and easy to use, best with an online subscription, it’s an excellent personal accountant. Howard Oakley

Entering regular payments and income is quick and simple in the Scheduler.

Money’s Reports view shows each month’s expenses and income by category, source, or user–defined tag.