There are so many apps out there, it's such a b*tch to have to test and troll through apps just to figure out which is the best for what... Undoubtedly this is because people are just different and what works for one may not necessarily work for everyone.

I tried a couple of expense tracking apps and then stumbled upon iXpenseIt Lite. I now plan on buying the full version for $4.99 because it quite simply gives me EVERYTHING I ever wanted and needed in an "EXPENSE TRACKING" app. Sure a lot of haters will yap about how it doesn't rack income... but that's because it's an EXPENSE TRACKING app =)

Anyway, enough rambling... here's why I think this is the best expense tracking app:
1. You can customize EVERYTHING. Everything?? EVERY-DAMN-THING.
2. You can backtrack and edit old entries.
3. You can create custom reports on ANYTHING you've put in.
4. You can differentiate between Business expenses and Personal Expenses and even create your own categories
5. You can set budgets and adjust them
6. You can rename pre-existing categories and sub-categories
7. It's got a really sick vendor list and you can add MORE vendors...
8. The reporting is sick. If you want to go OCD on your monthly expenses... this is the app for you. You can pull reports from any time period, on any category, sub-category or even vendor. Want to know how much you spend on McDonald's in a quarter?? This will tell you.
9. Has a backup/export function
10. You can set default entries -- i.e. if you have a set expense like Parking... you can have your new entry default to a parking entry with a pre-set vendor. No need to keep typing in your bookie's name every time you place a bet on the game.
11. It lets you take a photo of the receipt of your purchase and saves it. So you can literally track EVERYTHING.
12. Handles mileage rates.
13. Supports a ton of currencies and lets me do my entries in different currencies (I don't believe it's got a conversion tool though but that's alright).
14. Payment types can be customized so you can distinguished between credit cards/payment methods.
15. Lets you put in notes and details
16. Has a search function built in.
17. Reports in pie charts and bar graphs lol
18. Summary view of expenses
19. Sub-categories have icons that you can change around

Dude, if those aren't enough reasons to buy it...

I bought Pennies and found it pretty retarded. Couldn't customize anything, couldn't backtrack -- only lets me set entries for the current day. So on the days I got wasted, I couldn't account for my expenses... which f's up my daily spending averages and my credit card reconciliations.

Only problems:
- it crashed on me once since I got it 2 weeks ago.
- it takes 6 sets of taps to log an entry, depending on how OC you want to be. You basically have to plug in:
>> Price
>> Type (you can customize these or set a default)
>> Category
>> Sub-Category
>> Payment type
>> Vendor (optional)
>> Notes (optional)

So yes, this is THE ULTIMATE expense tracker. Buy it now. $4.99 or test out the Lite version (free)

Tags

budget, cash manager, expense, finance