1. Financial Apps
Banking, Checkbook/Accounting, Budgeting and
Shopping/Coupon apps
Forum, 2013

2. BANKING APPS

3. Mint (free)
• Read only version of multiple accounts
• Cannot make transactions
• Designed to handle multiple accounts
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Sign in once to bank/institution, Mint takes over from there
Add cash transactions manually
Classifies transactions (90%), and is easy to reclassify
Shows all financial information, using pie charts, graphs
Easy to drill down to specifics
Suggests budget, easy to tinker with
Sends alerts for high spending, over budget, large deposits

4. Mint: iPad vs. Desktop
• Like many apps, there are two or three flavors
• Desktop/web: to manage Mint
• Add banks/ accounts
• Classify transactions
• Set budget goals
• Tablet/phone: to look at finances
• Finances at a glance
• Drill down into any category
• Today:
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https://wwws.mint.com/demoUser.event (demo acct.)
Add an account
Recatagorize multiple transactions
Change a budget goal

5. Security
• Depends on your level of paranoia
• A significant amount of paranoia is called for!
• NY Times article “Should You Trust Mint.com?”
Jay Foley, co-founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center, said he
would trust the site. “Their security level is pretty decent, all things
considered,” he said, noting it was in line with the standard at
financial institutions but the information could still be encrypted at a
higher level on par with that of the military.
• Consensus: As strong as your bank’s security
• No SSI, no name or address asked for on Mint
• Bank Username/Password/Security questions not stored on Mint
• Established a one-way connection with the bank
• Bank stores info

6. Security (con’t)
• Bigger threat is thieves getting passwords from your
tablet/computer
• Have strong password!
• Sentence: !!nd0amHM (It is not down on any map – Herman
Melville)
• Additional security:
• Notifies you of high spending, large withdrawals, over budget
items
• You can password protect your account in Settings
• Read-only: can’t make transactions from Mint

7. Check (formerly Pageonce) (free)
• App only
• Banking/bill paying app
• Better as a bill reminder
• Uses financial info from banks and institutions to see finances
at a glance
• Don’t need to use that aspect; Mint is better at it
• Useful as a bill reminder
• You can enter bills manually and have it give you reminders to pay
• NO security issues
• You can have it pull up bills automatically, and set reminders to
pay manually
• You can have it autopay your bills for you
• Sends alerts for suspicious activity
• Today: add Comcast bill (manual and auto)

8. Your Own Bank’s Apps*
Best
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Worst
RBS Citizens – 4.5 stars, 93% favorable reviews
Charter One – 4.0 stars, 91% favorable
reviews
KeyBank for iPad – 4.0 stars, 83% favorable
reviews
City National – 4.0 stars, 76% favorable
reviews
Santander – 3.5 stars, 83% favorable reviews
Associated Bank – 3.5 stars – 76% favorable
reviews
Huntington Bank for iPad – 3.5 stars, 75%
favorable reviews
US Bank – 3.5 stars, 71% favorable reviews
Utrecht Bank – 3.5 stars, 69% favorable
reviews
Bank of the West – 3.5 stars, 68% favorable
reviews
• People’s United Bank for iPad – 2.0
stars, 79% negative reviews
• PNC – 2.0 stars, 79% negative reviews
• SunTrust – 2.0 stars, 78% negative
reviews
• BB&T for iPad – 2.0 stars, 73% negative
reviews
• Chase – 2.0 stars, 70% negative reviews
• TD Bank – 2.0 stars, 70% negative
reviews
• PNC Virtual Wallet – 2.0 stars, 69%
negative reviews
• Regions – 2.0 stars, 69% negative
reviews
• Fifth Third – 2.0 stars, 69% negative
reviews
• BofA – 2.0 stars, 68% negative reviews
*Forbes, July 2013

9. CHECKBOOK AND INVOICE APPS

10. Checkbook (free) (Pro - $3)
• Manual
• Simple and intuitive to use
• Much like a checkbook ledger
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Starting amount
Income
Expenses
Recurring bills
Does not auto-categorize
Can’t delete items (difficult to reconcile account)
Doesn’t sync
Today: add an expense

11. PocketMoney ($5)
• Very simple checkbook app for withdrawals, deposits and
transfers
• Checkbook ledger with few bells or whistles
• Graphs
• Bill notification on recurring bills
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All manual, no security issues
Simple, kind of a clunky interface
Only three options: withdrawal, deposit, transfer
Recurring withdrawals can be added
Can sync with other devices

12. EXPENSES/INVOICE APPS

13. Expensify (free)
• Expense report app
• Three flavors: web, tablet, phone
• Syncs across devices
• Detail work best done on web
• Use tablet and phone to add receipts
• Create a manual report, or you can add credit card
• Expensify will match receipts to expenses
• Adding receipts
• Email in receipts
• Smartscan pictures of receipts (10 free smartscans/mo, $.20 for each
additional smartscan
• Manual entry (with or w/o pic of receipt)
• Drag and drop
• Evernote!!!
• Generate reports

14. Invoice2go Plus ($4/month)
• First three docs free in trial version
• $49 a year or more after
• Seems a bit pricey
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Simple and intuitive to use
Add basic business info, it does the rest
Create Invoices, Estimates, POs, Credit Memos
Output options: Save, Preview, Email, Print

15. BUDGETING APPS

16. Homebudget ($5)
• Tracks spending and income
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All manual , no security issues
Shows income and expenses in graph form
Family sync allows multiple users to access it
Scan or take photos of receipts
• Choose category (bills, income, accounts, etc.)
• Touch + at upper right, choose income, expense, or transfer
• Recurring expenses/income, DON’T touch +, touch R at bottom
left
• THEN touch +
• View summaries and forecasts

17. Other budgeting apps
• iAllowance ($3.99)
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For kid’s allowances
Chores are included
$1 for more than one kid
$1 for sync through Dropbox
• Ace Budget ($1)
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All manual, no security issues
Simple and intuitive
Sync through iCloud
Manually set up income and expenses
• Easy to add recurring expenses

18. SHOPPING APPS

19. Smoopa (free)
• Most of these apps are for the phone
• Phone is a great shopping tool
• These are available for both Android and
iPhone
• Forewarning: there are a lot of bad barcode
scanners out there
• Scan, Shopsavvy, BuyVia ,PriceGabber
• Smoopa
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Bar code reader
Click barcode at upper right
Take scan, type in price
Green button for best deal
Yellow button for “meh”
Suggests online options
Earns you rewards

20. Other Shopping apps
• Amazon Price Check (free)
• Scan bar code, take picture, say name, type it in
• All four work very well
• Picture best for books and CDs
• You’ll get price options on Amazon
• Caveat: specific to Amazon
• Market testing: toys and electronics at Amazon
were lowest price 100% of the time
• I use this
• Milo (free)
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Pretty good scanner
Confined to local area
Web version: type in product
The anti-Amazon!

21. Coupon Apps
• Grocery IQ
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Create shopping list
Offers savings for applicable items
Type it in, or say it
Multiple shopping lists
Pretty good bar scanner
• Coupons
• VERY simple
• In-store and on-line coupons
• Coupons.com
• NO
• Spams my printer with coupons
• Unable to turn it off in Settings