You could choose how to manage personal finances by writing it manually in a personal notebook, but you will soon realize that it would not be enough if you want to do an analysis of your personal expenses and make a fairly complex personal financial statement. At that point, you will need personal accounting software.
There are many personal accounting software options available in the market, such as Quicken, YNAB, and many more. Paid software tends to have more comprehensive features and good support.
If you are a common user without any accounting knowledge, or you just want to try the software for free before buying commercial software, whatever your reason, you have several free software options.
Many free software options will help you determine the software that suits your needs, but on the other hand, it can be confusing how to choose the right software for you. I have some tips to help you choose the free software for you. However, you can also apply these tips when selecting paid software.
1. It does not require accounting knowledge.
The user is the home user who has a very diverse educational background. Therefore, the software should be understood by everyone, and the software should not use terms that only accountants understand, such as balance sheet, depreciation, amortization, accounts payable, etc. The user should only need knowledge of simple arithmetic.
two. Budget
The budget concept is very simple but very useful to control. If you compare the actual data to your budget, you will receive an early warning when your budget is exceeded. The software should have features that facilitate the implementation of budget control.
3. Scheduled transaction
The expenses of a home must have routine transactions to pay each month such as electricity, telephone, internet, etc. The delay in paying these regular bills will bring a very inconvenient impact. In this case, the software should be able to participate.
Four. Report
Your income and expenses for a month or a year can be presented in the table or graphs to help you analyze the activity of your transactions. This feature is mandatory presence.
5. Help / Manual
In paid software, this may not be a problem, but not in freeware. Good free software should have a help / manual clearly, and the user can easily understand it.
6. Password
Your financial transaction is very personal and very confidential. The software must maintain that confidentiality. The password function will keep your personal data transaction confidential.
7. Lifetime planner
Lifetime Planner is your retirement planning tool. Actually, this feature requires a bit of financial knowledge, such as the inflation rate. Not all free accounting software has this feature. However, this function is very useful for you, trust me. This feature is not required, but it is a recommended feature.
Many free accounting programs meet those criteria, such as Ace Money (Lite version), Buddi, HomeBank, and Microsoft Money Plus Sunset Deluxe.