Programs to Help Me Budget
Making a budget is an important part of financial responsibility and well being. A budget is a detailed list of income and expenses that covers a given period of time. Many people make monthly budgets to keep track of their finances. Keeping track of paper receipts and financial forms can be difficult but there are a variety of computer programs that can help users organize and keep track of data.
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Microsoft Excel
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Microsoft Excel is a computer spreadsheet program that allows users to enter data into a grid of cells. Excel is not designed specifically for budgeting, but it is a multipurpose program that is often used in business for accounting and budgeting purposes. MS Excel is bundled with Microsoft's Office software package which is included on many new PCs and is also common on business PCs. Excel offers several useful features such as column totaling and graphing.
OpenOffice Calc
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OpenOffice Calc is another computer spreadsheet program that looks similar to Excel and has many of the same functions. OpenOffice Calc is free to download and use, which makes it an attractive alternative for those who don't want to buy Microsoft Office. Calc is able to open and edit MS Excel workbooks files and save in the Excel format. This allows Calc users to work with others who might use MS Excel.
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Quicken
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Quicken is a financial planning and budgeting program produced by Intuit which runs on Windows and Mac computers. Quicken is a dedicated budgeting program with many advanced features such as the ability to upload financial data directly from your banks and credit card companies. Quicken allows users to pull up charges of expenses to figure out where their money is going and how much money they have to spend. Quicken comes in several different versions; advanced versions have tools for tracking investments, business finances and rental income.
Mint
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Mint is a web-based budgeting application that is free for consumers to use. Mint was created by Intuit, the company that produces Quicken and TurboTax. Mint is able to download and categorize financial information and transactions automatically, which helps reduce the hassle of manually entering data. Similar to Quicken, with Mint you can pull up graphs showing important information on spending habits, income and net worth.
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