Apps for Budgeting and Tax Readiness

With the year winding down and tax season looming, you may be finding that you’re in need of a more streamlined way to manage your finances both for budgeting and simplifying tax time. There are several apps that might work for your situation.

Personal Finance

Mint is a free app that can help you set up a budget, track spending, keep track of bills and balances, and even improve your credit score and stay on top of investments. It links to most bank accounts can send you alerts when bills are due or balances hit a certain point. By Intuit, Mint claims to be very secure, and is available from your computer, on Android, and iOS.

In a similar vein, You Need A Budget, or YNAB, is able to sync with bank accounts, helps set a budget, tracks spending, and helps users set and achieve goals. Basic steps to help gain back control of personal finances and pay down debt are based on the ‘envelope method’ of budgeting. Continuous syncing between devices makes it easy to share spending and saving with a partner. A free trial for 34 days is offered, and access is available online, for Android, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and even Alexa.

Dave Ramsey’s EveryDollar Basic is free. Budgets are easy to set up and it helps you follow the “seven baby steps” Dave Ramsey teaches. EveryDollar Plus is a paid subscription service but will connect with your bank accounts (and debt accounts) to make spending tracking less cumbersome. Available online, for Android, and iOS.

Small Business

There are also apps that can help the small business owner or self-employed individual. QuickBooks can help manage bills, income, expenses, invoicing, payments, work hours, contractors, and track mileage, many of which can be done from your phone (Android, iOS).

FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting software that can manage time tracking, payments, professional looking invoices, projects, client follow-up, and more. “Ridiculously easy to use,” FreshBooks offers a free trial. Available on iOS and Android, as well as on the web.

Wave is a free business accounting and invoicing software, with pay-per-use web payments and monthly payroll options, as well as Wave+, for accounting coaching and bookkeeping services. Available wherever you have an internet connection and web browser, an app (Android or iOS) is available for receipt scanning.

Do you use web-based or mobile apps for your budgeting and accounting needs? What features do you find most helpful?