We need our personal finance apps to do everything related to personal finance, yet be simple and easy to learn. Expenditure is just that, bringing the very best of both worlds for a paltry $2.99. Made for iOS, its default display comes in shades of grey and green, which lends it a professional business-like missing from other finance apps. About half of the default display is taken up by a box displaying the balance (income minus expenditure) in large digits that aren’t quite black but still manage to mingle nicely with the interface.
Below is a nicely ordered list of the principal expenditures. You can order them as you like, with the option of creating new categories for them if you’re not satisfied with the existing ones. These can be created from the Settings menu, or at the time of creating a new transaction. To create a new transaction, one simply has to click the green button that lies below the list. This takes you to a new window, where you can enter the amount of transaction. If the transaction is in a foreign currency, you can use the Forex options of the app to convert the amount into any of the major (and even some of the minor) currencies of the world. You can set the default currency and if you enter an amount in any other currency, the app can convert the amount automatically. In our experience, the conversions were not always accurate, but the margin of error was never very large either (compared to the conversions that Google showed us), but if you are not a Forex trader then this margin of error is miniscule.
This done, you can add it to the existing categories, or as mentioned above, create new categories of your choice. Further, if it is a recurring transaction, you can choose the periodicity of the transaction, though the periods are preset and cannot be modified. On the other hand, you can add a small note or even a photograph to the transaction, if the heading itself is not self-explanatory.
Though the name suggests that Expenditure is made for recording spending, it is equally good for recording income. However, it does not give the option of ordering and categorizing your income to the extent that it offers for expenditure.
On the plus side, the app supports uploading of income and expenditure data to the cloud, so you can access it even if you lose you iPhone or buy a new one. However, there are risks involved in exporting such sensitive information, and one should only make use of this facility after due consideration.
Finally, the app offers three options right at the bottom of the main screen – settings, history and list of recurrent transactions. Settings allows you to change the sound options, categories and reset all changes. History shows you the transactions and earnings by month. List of recurrent transactions shows you all the transactions you’ve marked as recurrent, ordered according to the proximity of their next occurrence to the current date.
Overall, the interface is very simple and it takes an adult not more than 5 minutes to figure out most of the app. There are a few shortcomings as noted above. However, the options it does offer, when coupled with its simplicity, outweigh the cons of this app by a mile. In our opinion, therefore, Expenditure is a must-have for those who seek an app that mixes the right amounts of simplicity, utility and customizability.