PocketMoney, Check Please, and MPG are a Useful Suite of Finance Apps

Want to keep track of your finances? If you don’t use an online application that stores your data like Mint, PocketMoney ($4.99) is a solid alternative. PocketMoney is a personal finance manager, allowing you to keep track of your credit card debts, checkbooks, and bank accounts. Here are some features:

  • Expenses are categorized into multiple categories, including Auto (which works together with application MPG, $3.99, Computer, Entertainment, Food/Dining, which works with CheckPlease $0.99, Food/Groceries, and Home).
  • On the Transaction Register screen, you can also see your expenses by outlet (grocery stores, drug stores, restaurants, etc.) and see how the cost at the store deducted from the money in your account.
  • Visualize your costs by looking at the pie charts to see what you’re spending.
  • Set budgets.  In the bar graphs, showing your spending, if the colors are green, you’re in the clear.  If you’re red, you overspent.
  • Budgets can be broken down into weekly budgets, monthly budgets, quarterly budgets, and yearly budgets, making it easy to see your spending habits at a glance.

As mentioned PocketMoney works with Check Please and MPG, two other applications I was able to try.  MPG is great for a car owner who wants to keep track of car maintenance.  With MPG, keep track of oil changes, maintenance, car washes, and length of trips.  Fill up the gas tank often?  Use the data to keep track of the deals you have at the gas stations you’ve visited (or to see how your car is handling gas mileage).  Once you input the your charges into MPG, it can be posted to PocketMoney.

Check Please is an easy-to-use tip calculator for when you’re dining out.  Unlike other tip apps out there, it deals with discounts and coupons, which makes this more appealing, and it also works in different currencies.  Of course, having Check Please post the cost to Pocket Money isn’t too shabby either.  If you’re going to be keeping track of your expenses on your iPhone, you might as well do it in one application, not several.

PocketMoney is also available in a free version (and Check Please has a free version as well) so that you can try it before you are ready to dive in.  The free version of PocketMoney is limited to two accounts. But if you’re someone who wants to keep an eye on all your accounts in the palm of your hand, the paid version is definitely worth the money.

Tamar Weinberg is a blogger and author of The New Community Rules (July 2009), a book on social media marketing and how to leverage existing communities for awareness and profit. She is also a new mom.