Cash Trails

Developer: Vasyl Smyrnov
Category: Finance
Version: 1.3
Release Date: August 14, 2009
Size: 0.9 MB
Price: $4.99
Rating: 10/10

In the past I've read a lot of budgeting books, used desktop applications and tried out lots of advice. For one reason or another I always start to slowly slip on my record keeping and get to a point where I ask "What's the point?" and revert back to just using my checkbook to make sure I don't overspend every month. In this economy I've realized that keeping accurate records on my spending and sticking to a budget are not only good things to do, but they are necessity. One of the reasons that I have given up in the past is that the tool for keeping records was never right at hand. Now I have one thing that is almost always with me- my iPhone, so it makes perfect sense to use it to balance my budget and keep track of spending.

Another reason for bailing was the complexity of keeping a budget. Cash Trails is a well designed budget tracking app that goes everywhere with you. It has a simple, clean interface and makes the breakdown of your spending habits easy to understand. The app has all the features that you need to keep track of your spending. You simple enter each expenditure as it occurs under New Entry. You can tag the entry with all pertinent information. Then add it to the saved data. You can view the expenditures in the Report section of the app. It gives you a tally from the start and end of the month of groups used, all the tags, plus the types of currencies you have made transactions in; obviously helpful for travelers or Europeans who don't always use the euro. The History section gives you a complete history of all transactions made. There is a section called Recurring, which tracks your recurring expenses, like rent, groceries and App Store purchases.

Under the hood Cash Trails offers some bells and whistles. There is a custom keyboard designed to make the use of the app faster. I found this to be a huge bonus. The app covers over 160 international currencies. If I can save enough maybe I can use this feature someday. There is an easy to read bar graph that gives reports for days, weeks and months and is fully customizable. The app also offers the ability to analyze your spending in spreadsheets using CSV export, and you can back up your data via WiFi or email.

This is a very crisp, straightforward budgeting app, and I've already settled into the routine of using it. The wad of receipts I carry around in my wallet is a total mess, but Cash Trails has made filtering them out and arranging them in a sensible way pretty much painless. It is already exposing glaring wastes in my spending habits, like $3.00 coffees and pecan rolls at the shop around the corner. "I'm just going to go over and use the Wifi and get one cup". Yeah, right- I can save like $30.00 a month right there. Which is $360.00 a year, which is a lot to put towards the travel fund. Cash Trails may just get me to sunny foreign climes if I stick with it.

There is a free version of Cash Trails that allows you 30 entries. If you can stick with it for the 30, you will find that it is worth it to spend the $4.99 on the full version of the app. Put it this way, you can spend 5 bucks to save hundreds. Cash Trails is a high quality app that will make a difference in your spending habits.