Account Tracker for iPhone

Earlier this month I decided it was time to review my account tracking software as Pocket Money (previously reviewed) seemed to be off when ever I compared it to my account and wallet balance. I had been putting this down to human error on my part. However, I went through my account balance half way through this month, accounted for every transaction showing yet it was showing the total as almost £20.00 out. At the start of the month it was about £2 out so I was expecting it to be the same at the end of the month. This indifference caused me to look on the app store at some other options and also check out the pocket money reviews which mentioned transactions randomly disappearing.
So I decided to give Account Tracker a go. It's not the most pretty looking app. It's not that it's ugly, it's just very simplistic in its graphical appearance. This isn't a bad thing as it is very clear to read what's on screen as a result.
Account Tracker has all the standard transaction recording functions except for Payee and Tags. The tags missing isnt really an issue as you can put these in the notes. Notes are included in the search so if you just want to see your business transactions for the month so far, as long as you put the word business in the notes you can easily filter these. It doesn't have an auto complete option like some apps do but it's quite quick to use once you have the category's and details setup.
Account Tracker doesn't come with any predefined category or detail lists like some apps but I think I prefer this as they are all setup exactly to my needs now. This does mean the first time you enter a certain transaction type (I.e Car -> Fuel) you have to manually type the words in but after that, each time you pick the Car category, it automatically lists the Detail choices you have previously used with that Category making future transactions very quick. It's a shame that it doesn't automatically add the notes normally associated with the Details.
The graphs on Account Tracker are excellent for tracking you spending vs income and seeing where your money is going and coming from. You can drill into these too. These are the best graphs I've seen in an account tracking app and they were all included in the app as standard unlike some others that charge extra.
The budgeting side of Account Tracker is good too. It offers a simple total budget for expense, income and transfers. For me personally this is all I need and I use it to track my personal and business expenses. I'm self employed so don't have complex transactions to budget and again, each budget is drill into-able so easy to see where the money has gone and come from. Other app budgeting systems I have used have been overly complicated when all I want to know is if I'm under or over the budget total for the month and don't want to have to manually add and remove each transaction type.
Backup of data is easy, there are a couple of option but personally I like using Dropbox as its easy to sync on the go and can be easily recovered.
It can do reoccurring transactions as you would expect and will even look ahead to the next month or further I you wish to see how your accounts are doing based on current balance. If you are going to go below the balance waning threshold it tells you based on the future and reoccurring transactions on the account list screen. Ie 3days!!! Comes up as a warning below that account name.

This month Account Tracker has been bang on for accuracy so it gets my recommendation as my account tracking app of choice for tracking multiple accounts.


- Veiledbunneh

Due iPhone app review

Ok, for the last week and a half I have been using the simple to do/reminder app Due. If like me you are forgetful and need an app that won't just remind you to do what you your to do list items but continue to nag you until you give it attention then this is for you. I'll be honest, I have ended up swearing at my phone when it starts bugging me every minute on the minute from the start of the reminder time I set but I've got so much more stuff done as a result of it and that's why I got the app and why it made its way to my home screen in under 24hrs of use.
I should mention at this point that if you can't do the task right then you can go into the app and either use the quick edit buttons to delay the reminder in 10min, 60 min or 24hr intervals per press of the button or just double tap and edit the date and time. Of course the ideal way to stop it nagging is the tick box when done.
Ok so to reiterate an earlier point mentioned, this is a quick or simple task reminder so it doesn't do check lists or projects but it doesn't set out to do these and the devs are clear that they don't want to do this with the app either. This app is designs to create simple nagging reminders and to create the quickly.
Leading on to my next point is the speed you can create the reminders. Its the fastest I've found for this sort of thing. This is partly aided by some clever text recognition so if you set a reminder to "take the trash out at 07:00 tomorrow" it will offer to remove the date and time reference from the description and auto create the reminder for 7am the next morning.
The ui for Due is simple, clean and good looking. It's not going to blow you away but it's a simple to do app not a game.
The only negative comment I have is the reminder options in setting for the nag gap. You have a choice of 1min or 1hr. It would be nice to have a few more options like 5min, 10min etc but other than that it does exactly what I want.

In summary, Due definitely gets my recommendation. If I could give it 4.5 stars out of 5 on the app store I would and the only reason it hasn't got 5 from me is because I would like a 5 min auto snooze instead of 1. If you're forgetful or easily distracted from your to do list, then in my opinion this is the app to get.


- Veiledbunneh