MoneyBook

Ok, I’ll be honest, I let me wife manage our finances.  I do so with confidence in her mathematical abilities, since I was a fairly poor school student.  Alas I had to grow up and become an adult, which is more about paying bills than it is about parties and hanging out.  So needless to say, I was extremely poor at managing my own budget at the time.  Today, I am proud to say that I have been turning that around with the graceful help of MoneyBook for the iPhone and iPod touch.

First off, I must point out that the application sports super slick graphics that look like they are right out of the pages of Apples design studio.  There is no shortage of boring or ordinary eye candy!  It oozes style and sophistication without compromising key features.  Managing your budget never looked so awesome!

When you launch MoneyBook, you’re immediately prompted with an overall month Overview of your total expenses.   From here, you are able to setup your monthly salary, which is likely not to change (unless you happen to be a freelance contractor I suppose).  Alternatively, you can turn on “Budget Mode,” which does not allow incoming transactions to affect the monthly salary/budget.  This alternate mode really drives home the app’s true purpose of limiting your spending and increasing your savings potential.
Once you set your salary up, you can then begin entering transaction right from the main screen.  A great feature when you are grabbing that latte and need to enter the cost in while the barista works on your beverage.  As your purchases rack up, and you know they will, a very humbling sliding gauge animates it’s way to the bottom.  Immediately, you regret getting that $7.00 latte, right?

You’re not limited to just capturing your purchases.  As you acquire money from any source, like a side job or the change you found in the couch cushions, you enter those as income.  This helps prevent that pretty slider from reaching the very depressing bottom.  All kidding aside, the gauge really helps put your spending in perspective in a very simple, yet effective way.  The more accurate you are in managing your spending, the more influential MoneyBook becomes.

MoneyBook has a few more tricks up its proverbial sleeves that make your investment even wiser.  While you’re on either the Transactions or History views, you can rotate your phone to obtain a beautiful graph for each.  The power of MoneyBook strikes again here giving you a visual representation of your cash flow.  Another big feature that I found useful was the ability to export my history as a CSV file and email it to my home address ”“ better yet, my wife!  Now she can keep an eye on my careless spending.

Currently, you are able to set only recurring dates for transactions, much like a bill or rent payment due date.  In addition to this feature, we are hoping to see the addition of a “Pay” date or even a “paid” function where the amount due would be deducted when the date has passed in a future update.  After a few days of usage, I was wondering if this app had any potential for a push notification feature, as to remind you about upcoming bills or expected income.  While I couldn’t see push notifications being justified, I was okay with that because what makes MoneyBook so special and effective is it’s simplicity.  Sometimes popular features just don’t fit a well crafted application, and MoneyBook proves that point.

On the surface, MoneyBook is a super sleek and very elegant money manager.  With a little effort from the user, MoneyBook’s true potential is unlocked.  If you have been looking for a great way to stay on top of your finances, or if you need to track your expenses for a company trip, MoneyBook will not disappoint.  Just remember, you’ll get out what you put in.