Although BillReminder, an application that will track your bills, isn’t free of charge, it does offer consumers a free 30 day trial version, which will help them to decide whether or not it would come in handy.  Although this application does get many things right, it does have some nonsensical elements to its design that will frustrate users.

Let’s begin with what elements the application gets right.

The process of setting bills up is an straightforward, easy one, users simply enter the name of the payee; the amount that is to be paid; the category the payment fall under, such as household expenses, or taxes; the day the bill is due; any information connected to it by way of notes; and the number of days that will elapse before it is due, which will serve as a setting for a reminder.  An option is available that sets the bill up as a recurring payment that needs to be made, a feature that is useful for things like rent and other types of expenses that are fixed each month.  Users are also able to take a photograph and associate it with a specific bill, although why this would be necessary remains a mystery.

Users can also set up an income log, as opposed to one that deals only with expenses, and this can be used to balance checkbooks and such.

The principal screen lists bills chronologically, from due dates, and includes information on the date that each one is due to be paid; the number of days remaining until that date; and the total amount due.  You are able to adjust the default settings for triggering reminders based on the days remaining before payment is due, and you are also able to adjust the currency that the app will use.  Users can also determine the categories that the bills are placed in in a number of different ways, by either determining parent categories, or assigning colors to each.  It is also possible to create individualised categories, should some of your expenses not be featured in those provided.

There are a number of snags, however, one being that you are required to select a bill and navigate to its screen in order to pay or remove it, an extra step that seems unnecessary and becomes burdensome when handling large amounts of bills; you are not able to work with multiple bills at one time.  Another problem is that the app crashed often during testing, and, since you are paying for it, this flaw is unforgivable.