5 Apps To Manage Your Expenses

Written by Vidya Kumar

February 15, 2017

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Executive Summary – Expense management is a continuous process and not an easy one. Sometimes we are clueless as to how our money got spent. There are many apps available to help us managing our expenses. We review Qykly, mTrakr, Money Lover, Walnut and Expense Manager here.

            My salary got over in 15 days.
            I don’t know where all my money goes!
            How do I find out where I spend how much?

These are typical things that people talk about or think about. It is important to know how much money you spend and how it gets spent. We are all busy and cannot be bothered to write it down or even maintain a spreadsheet for it. Thankfully, there are many apps that we can install in our smartphones, which will help us understand our expenses better. Here is a comparison of 5 apps –

App Name
Main Features
What we like best
​What can be improved
Qykly
Pricing – Free on Android
  • An expense manager.
  • Integrates with SMS inbox and manages money transactions.
  • Categorizes transactions in various category heads (expense categories, mode of expense etc.).
  • Updates PNR status and flight bookings.
  • Sets monthly budgets.
  • Sets reminders on bill payments.
  • Visual representation of budget and money management.
  • It works offline most of the time
  • It encompasses different kinds of payment modes
  • It takes care of travel schedules.
  • It is available only on Android for now.
  • It depends on automation too much. There need to be options for manual editing.
  • It does not use passwords and reads all SMSes. Security might be an issue for some people.
mTrakr
Pricing – Free 
  • Budgeting App that helps plan and track your budget.
  • Classification of spends
  • Gets data from multiple bank accounts, SMSes and document uploads.
  • Reports and charts on transaction analysis available. 
  • Manage lending and borrowing with friends.
  • Gives analysis on overspending.
  • Gets data from multiple sources.
  • Helps in tax planning as it gives notifications on expenses that can be used for tax exemption.
  • It covers most of the popular banks and billing companies.
  • It reads the SMSes which can be an issue for some people.
Money Lover
Pricing – Free, Paid for premium features
  • Money management app.
  • It helps in tracking expenses.
  • Classifies expenses.
  • Input your income and get reports on how your expenses management is.
  • Budget for various categories.
  • Available in multiple currencies.
  • Gives warnings when limit set for an expense category is about to be exceeded.
  • Very user friendly. Good User Interface.
  • Data Backup feature available.
  • Available for Android, iOS and Windows.
  • There are some advertisements coming up on the screen in the free version.
Walnut Money Manager
Pricing: Free
  • An expense management app.
  • Gets transaction information from the SMS inbox.
  • Manual Input of expenses is possible.
  • Supports debit cards and credit cards of many banks and many vendors like Ola, Flipkart, Bookmyshow.
  • The Bill Split feature allows to split expenses with family and friends.
  • Intuitive app with a easy to use interface.
  • Shows details and summary of expenses
  • Search Option works very well.
  • Customization of expenses is possible via adding notes or photos.
  • It is available only on Android.
  • There have been complaints regarding the percentage and total calculations.
  • People might have privacy concerns as it reads SMSes and asks for permission to access contact list.
Expense Manager (Bishinews)
Pricing – Free and Pro (paid)
  • An expense tracker app.
  • It keeps track of expenses and travel miles.
  • Categorises expenses into different heads and different time periods.
  • Expenses and income sources can be added.
  • Generates analysis reports and snapshots.
  • Data can be downloaded in CSV files.
  • Loan, Interest and Tip calculators are available.
  • You can make your shopping list within the app.
  • You can include banking transactions too.
  • Multiple accounts can be set up.
  • Backup possible in Dropbox or Google drive.
  • Navigation through the application is not easy
  • It is available only on Android.

There are many other personal finance apps available and some provide a more holistic view of your finances including your investments and loans and financial health. The apps featured here are mainly for expense management.
Do let us know if you use any money management tool and your experience of the same.

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