4 Inexpensive (or free) iPad Apps to Help Balance Your Budget

by Jamie Simmerman · 3 comments

Balancing your home budget has never been easier or more enjoyable with the widespread advent of feature-packed iPad and iPhone apps. If you one of these slick devices, check out these four iPad and iPhone apps for financial management that rose to the top of the charts.
1. Home Budget with Sync- free/$4.99
Home Budget is a user-friendly iPad and iPhone app that helps you keep track of your finances on the go. With nearly instantaneous sync, the app allows spouses or partners to view information in real time, preventing financial goof ups that arise from poor communication. With this app you can track your expenses, your income, and your progress towards maintaining a balanced home budget with detailed reports that include full-color visuals such as pie charts and bar graphs. You can even scan and attach receipts directly from the app.

The developer’s website, Anishu.com, provides an in-depth user’s guide that helps reduce any learning curve for new users. This app has an average rating of four and a half out of five starts (provided by actual users of the app) and is available from the iTunes store for $4.99 for use on the iPad and iPhone. If you’re not ready to fork over five bucks for an unknown budgeting app, try out the lite version for free from the iTunes store.

2. Expensify- free
Hate creating expense reports? Expensify is a top-rated expense report app available from the iTunes store for free. According to the manufacturer’s description, Expensify is “consistently rated as the #1 app for business travelers and road warriors” With Expensify, tracking is made easy by capturing pictures of receipts directly from the app, which pulls vital info, like the merchant, date, and amount of purchase, directly from the photo. You can also opt to sync your info with your credit card and banking accounts to simplify the process.

3. Fresh Xpense Capture for Xpenser- free/ $9 per month
If you’re looking for a simple, easy to use app for tracking and storing receipts, Xpense Capture is a sure bet. Produced by Zia Consulting, this app lets you snap photos of your receipts, add pertinent notes, and file them away on the Xpenser.com website.  New users get free storage for up to 30 receipts, and continued access is only $9 per month for a single user that includes offline access through the iPad and iPhone app.

4. Money for iPad- $9.99
With color-coded tracking and an appealing interface, Money for iPad is one of the most popular money tracking apps on the market today. This personal finance app allows you to track different accounts and manage your personal finances from your iPhone or iPad. Monthly bills, credit cards, loans, bank accounts and advanced budgeting are all supported with Money for iPad. The app includes the added security of PIN access to keep your info safe from prying eyes. The manufacturer, iBearSoft, also produces an array of finance apps like Checkbook HD, Budgets for iPad, and Bills for iPad.  (Money from iBearSoft is also available in the Android Market for your Android tablet or Smartphone.)

There are a ton of other financial apps out there. Are there any in particular that you would recommend, and why?

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  • GF says:

    I like Ace Budget. It’s free and it does everything I need it to do. I get pie charts with different analyses, input my expenditures according to budget categories that I set up, also has rolling option so if I spent less than planned for the month, the balance rolls over into the following month. Pretty nice.
    This is a great site.
    Thanks

  • Jean says:

    Thanks for recommending those apps. I’m going to start with Expensify and then move on to the rest. Just got the iPad a few days ago and still not done figuring it out properly yet!

    -Jean

  • Jade says:

    This is a very helpful post, thanks Jamie. It’s a good idea to allow people to check their finances on the go.

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