2017 RANKING & REVIEWS
TOP RANKING BEST EXPENSE MANAGEMENT APPS
2017 Guide: Top 6 Best Expense Manager Apps
Budgeting your money is very important. We live in a time when expense management software is common to track expenses, and there is no shame in needing expense management software to manage your finances.
Maintaining a balanced budget can help you stay on course and sleep better at night, but if your means to manage expenses requires checking receipts and flipping through your checkbook constantly, it might be time to reconsider your approach and switch to a good expense management app. We can help you find the best expense manager app for your device.
With the variety of credit cards and accounts that most consumers have today, spending trackers are a good way to get organized. If you are a student looking to save, there are also expense management apps that can help you easily set up a budget and manage expenses.
Award Emblem: Top 6 Best Expense Manager Apps
With the variety of expense managements applications available, it can be difficult to find the best expense manager apps. Before expense management software was available, tracking expenses involved keeping receipts, opening paper bills, and writing your expenditures down in your checkbook.
Fortunately, with these best expense manager apps, you can set aside paperwork and gain a better understanding of your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly spending habits. We all feel good when we plan a budget, but without discipline, impulse control, and diligent tracking of your income and expenses, you can find yourself in the red in no time.
The best expense manager apps are focused on helping you find and maintain a balanced budget. You can connect most of these expense managers to a bank account automatically to see where you are spending money, get account alerts, and see how much money you have left for a specific item or area of your budget.
Once you have established your budget with the best expense management app, you can track notifications and utilize dashboards that show how much money you have in your accounts.
The best expense management apps use the same security as banks, so you are not jeopardizing your security by connecting to an app to manage expenses either.
Having quality expense manager apps can make it easy to keep track of your budget and finances. With these daily expense managers, you can optimize your budget to identify if you are losing money and gain a better understanding of how to achieve your financial goals.
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AdvisoryHQ’s List of the Top 6 Best Expense Manager Apps
List is sorted alphabetically (click any of the best expense manager apps below to go directly to the detailed review section for that expense manager site):
Top 6 Best Expense Management Software | Brief Comparison & Ranking
Expense Management Software | Compatibility (iOS/Windows/Android) | Link to Accounts |
| BillGuard | iOS & Android | Yes |
| Dollarbird | iOS & Android | No |
| Goodbudget | iOS & Android | No |
| Level Money | iOS & Android | Yes |
| Mint | iOS, Android, & Kindle | Yes |
| Wally | iOS & Android | No |
Detailed Overview: What to Look for in Expense Manager Apps
Expense management software help us remember to pay bills, keep an eye on account balances and stay within our budgets. These spending trackers are key to maintaining a healthy financial situation and the automation available in the best expense tracking apps today is incredible.
Some expense management apps can even consolidate all your transactions from multiple credit cards and bank accounts into one dashboard.
Image source: Crunch Base
However, with so many different apps available, it can be tough to choose the right one. That is why the following factors need to be considered before choosing an app:
- Cost: Cost is a major factor that should be considered when choosing your expense manager app. One should not spend a fortune on an expense manager that is meant to help manage expenses, especially when there are free options available.
- Basic vs. Premium Paid App: Most expense management providers have both basic and premium options. You might have to pay more to have access to the premium, but there will be extra features.
- Compatibility (iOS vs Android): You should obviously do a background check on the compatibility of the app with your device. An app to manage expenses on iOS devices would not function on an Android phone.
- Link to Accounts: The best expense manager apps extract instantaneous data from your financial accounts, including savings and checking accounts, credit cards, lenders, and investment services. The information they extract is then consolidated in one app to give the most precise details of your account.
- Manual Input: As you put together a set of the best expense tracking apps that meet your needs, keep in mind what kind of authorization you want from the app. Some daily expense managers automatically extract details from your account while you need to manually input information into others.
With the above-mentioned factors, you can easily select the best expense manager app to keep your finances afloat.
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Advisory HQ’s Selection Methodology
What methodology does AdvisoryHQ use in selecting and finalizing the credit cards, financial products, firms, services, and products that are ranked on its various top-rated lists?
Please click here “AdvisoryHQ’s Ranking Methodologies” for a detailed review of AdvisoryHQ’s selection methodologies for ranking top-rated credit cards, financial accounts, firms, products, and services.
Detailed Review – Top Ranking Best Expense Management Apps
Below, please find the detailed review of each expense manager app on our list of expense manager apps. We have highlighted some of the factors that allowed these spending trackers to score so highly in our selection ranking.
BillGuard Review
BillGuard is free and designed for both iOS and Android devices. BillGuard is a very good app to manage expenses. It has two goals: to ensure that you understand your consumer habits and to protect your cards against fraud and unauthorized transactions.
This expense manager uses a slider type action for each transaction. Your inbox displays a list of all transactions. If you slide to the right that you really did it, it stays on your list. If you have not made the transaction, slide to the left and a screen with easy-to-understand options appears.
If you select the follow-up option, it will continuously display a small red dot until you solve the problem. After you slide your decisions, you can go back to the “All” tab and see all trades, the type of purchase, the amount spent, and the date. The Analysis button on this reduces expenses by category.
There is also a news center showing safety breaches. This is a helpful expense manager feature for those worried about security.
Bottom Line
This expense management software synchronizes your bank account first, then quickly shows your total balance and the amount you have spent this month.
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Dollarbird Review
Dollarbird is one of the best daily expense managers, and it is also free. It is designed for iOS and Android devices. This expense management software requires manual input and does not link accounts, which can be a drawback.
Dollarbird adopts a time-based approach to tracking expenses. This expense manager software makes it very easy to add expenses with features such as recurring transactions, reminders, budgets, etc. There is also a 5-year financial projection, which is very useful.
You will not find a shortage of excellent expense management apps out there, but if you are looking for something a little different, Dollarbird is expense management software that allows you to track your finances using a calendar instead of spreadsheets.
You have different color-coded categories to track your expenses directly from the calendar view. You can also set reminders on the main screen and even set recurring transactions to register.
At the end of the month, you can see different graphs that show how and where your money was spent. If you have had trouble getting into your expense manager in the past because they are boring and difficult to use, Dollarbird is worth a look.
Bottom Line
As one of the best expense management apps, Dollarbird adds income and expenses for the past and future in a calendar that calculates the impact by category. This expense management app is free and available for iOS and Android devices.
Goodbudget Review
Goodbudget is free and designed for both iOS and Android devices. GoodBudget is one of the best expense manager apps that helps you manage your finances using the envelope budgeting method, without the stack of envelopes.
This is an expense manager app for people who are ready to start creating a budget based on their cash flow. Use the Envelopes section to scroll through and gain a better understanding of your budget and spending habits in each area of your life.
For items that are in your recurring budget, select the monthly, weekly, semi-annual, or biweekly option, and then choose a start date.
This expense management app is also optimal for freelancers because the “irregular” option allows you to track non-routine expenses. For example, if you have irregular payments or income streams, you can manually enter and track them.
Goodbudget also helps you manage your accounts and finances while synchronizing devices with family members. The expense management software facilitates registration and can consolidate goals, which gives you the tools to plan your expenses and create a budget.
Bottom Line
Goodbudget is free, but subscribers for the premium package get additional benefits that are helpful.
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Level Money Review
Level Money is definitely worth a trial. This low-budget expense manager software synchronizes with your bank accounts and credit cards so you can see your balances. After you link the application to your accounts, Level Money considers your income, identifies the expense, and then asks you to set a percentage of your income as savings.
After that, the expense manager displays the amount of money you can spend. For those who have complicated financial situations, the Level Money application shows how much you can afford to spend on a daily basis and how much money you can spend overall.
The app subtracts expenses and recurring savings from your income before dividing what’s left to tell you what you can spend each month, day, and week. This application does not use manual input, but it does provide automation to your accounts.
Bottom Line
This free expense management application is easy to use and available in Android and iOS. For those who are worried about their spending habits, it can be a great tool.
Mint Review
This expense management application is free and is available on iOS, Android, and Windows. Mint gives you all the tools you need to manage your income, expenses, savings and budget. All your accounts, bank accounts, and mutual funds are synched to the app, which puts all your expenses in one easy-to-access place.
The updates section shows all transactions and how they flow into your accounts. In general, you can get total account, monthly budget, credit score (free if you subscribe), alerts for when you have exceeded the budget, and a listing of expenses broken down by category.
This format is excellent, especially if you are using your debit card or credit card for all purchases, but it also works with cash after you enter each purchase.
In addition to adding all your accounts and describing budgetary goals, Mint analyzes spending habits, helping you locate areas where you can save.
Bottom Line
Mint shows the real-time cash flow, including deposits, expenses, credit card debts, and other investments in and out of your accounts. This makes it one of the best expense manager apps to use.
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Wally Review
Wally is an expense manager that offers spending control for individuals. You can keep track of the expenses of a work trip or your personal budget. This expense manager is completely free and allows you to record your expenses or manually input a photo of your receipt.
You can set notifications to occur when a bill is due or when a savings goal is achieved. Wally can adapt to your habits and goals, and it is free for both iPhone and Android users.
Wally aims to provide all the financial information you need in an Easy View so you can quickly take control of your finances. Users can set a goal of saving, budget spending, or revenue, and they can reference everything quickly on the main screen.
Bottom Line
Interesting features include allowing you to record not only how much you spend, but also where and with whom, plus detailed infographics of your expenses.
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Conclusion – Top 6 Best Expense Manager Apps
If you can keep track of your expenses conscientiously, you can reduce your expenses and start saving, but it is very difficult to do so. This is where spending trackers come in handy. Expense management software works best when the user is diligent, and you must take the initiative to not only install the application, but also to use it regularly.
Download these best expense manager apps to help you save money, budget for future expenses, and avoid costs that come from overdraft or late fees. Maintaining your budget is not an easy task, but with these applications for iPhone and Android, you can keep your finances under control in 2017.
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You can use these best expense manager apps to turn your iPhone or Android into an expense management advisor that can help you track spending, identify where you are wasting money, and show you how to start saving properly. You do not need to spend an hour every day working on a budget when the best expense tracking apps automate much of it for you.
If you prefer to make more money or maximize your budget, the best expense managers listed here might help you take control of your finances.
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