Time for new finance app

I have been a die hard loyalist of (iBank( Banktivity since it’s inception. Oh, those single row registers were magical.

IGG leadership would continue its path of copying quicken, ignoring (for the most part) iOS and mobile platforms and then (the final straw) jumping on the subscription bandwagon.

Banktivity, love you but gotsta go.

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Seeking an iOS centric finance app with the following:

Centralized in Server
Data file on server (self server, 3rd party servers except iCloud)

Photos
Accommodates a minimum of one photo per register entry. (see, if stored locally on an iOS device data file size gets too large quick.)

Categories/Reporting
Basic category management and reports for tax time.

Auto-fill & Repeats
Most payments are the same and repeat…autofull maintaining the categories needed.

Nice-to-have
No subscription

NOT IMPORTANT
Lot of finance apps with their own take on thins…care not for social angles, budgeting, currencies, downloading/connecting to banks etc, graphs, charts, anaysis

Posting here because research so far is not rendering decent options. Found one or two iOS apps, yet days file stored locally and photo send the file size into orbit.

I expect a few people here might have spent time in similar evaluations and needs. Quicken and others seem to fall short. Thank you for any direction.

I am using app called Money Manager (with red icon). Free version available, with ‘Pro’ version as separated app with one time purchase. It does not fulfill your ‘centralized in server’ part, but the free version might worth to try.

The application has UI and UX that fits most of my needs. It has tracking by payroll period, and by far the only app that has option to advance payroll date if it’s weekend.

Pros:

  • best autofill I found so far
  • concise and fast UX
  • balance difference feature (for when I am too lazy to track the details)

Cons:

  • the app use ‘backup’ system and not ‘sync’ system that make multi device usage inconvenient
  • no dedicated desktop app. the Pro version provides web app accessible with ip address

I’ve tried Money Pro, Money Lover, Money Manager (yellow icon) and Monefy. Money Manager (red icon) still bests them all for me.

Autofill - or course totally forgot that one added to list.

If all the cool things finance software can handle, all I need is a centralized way to keep track of income and expenditures with categories and photos.

None of the transactions are detailed by any stretch. Do not even need to track details of a W2.

Thank you the mention of the apps.

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There is this amateurish app called MoneyMonitor which surprising could meet the needs if it can run the data file from a server .
Mind you, ux if the app is really rough. It does support a photo for each transaction (likely excluding splits.)

Question on your original post. Didn’t you always have to pay for “direct access” (or whatever the name was) with Banktivity? If it meets all of your needs is the subscription that big of a deal?

FYI - I’m definitely anti-subscription, but in some cases it can be justified…

I’ve actually just come to Banktivity after 15+ years on Quicken

I was a Quicken PC user but they never released a localised Australian Mac version that worked for local shares and other rules etc so I used to use Parallels just to continue using Quicken. They never really added new features and the interface never improved - I tried Banktivity as a trial but was suitably impressed enough to go all in.

There’s a few things I’m still trying to work out but its going well. I’ve not yet tried the iOS version though

For the most part, mobile finance apps since to be about simplicity and minimalism - budgets, graphics, gamification of savings etc.

Will be interested to see what apps you find

How about MoneyWiz? Been using it to keep a consolidated view and it works well

No value in the subscription itself - syncing and such. My processes do not involve benefits of the subscription.

Banktivity mobile app is, at best, a misguided and poor mobile finance app. When it first launched I was hopeful it would be a desktop companion, allowing customers to use their mobile device to capture transactions and then sync to desktop. Turns out not to have been the case, forcing a full two-way sync and, well, goes into a downward spiral from here.

At this stage I am looking for a mobile solution - manage finances from the iPhone and iPad…and use desktop at tax time.

UPDATE:

Tried a bunch of iOS finance apps…long list. The apps that are still on the iPhone for consideration are (in no particular order:)

• MoneyWiz
• Debit & Credit
• Money Mngr
• MoneyBoard
• MoneyStats

It has been a while since looking at iOS apps for full finance solutions and have to say color me impressed. Everything a desktop finance app can do is BETTER as iOS apps. Gestures, actions…parity with all primary functions of desktop apps.

Some of the apps do not let you test premium upgrades. Wish you got 30 days at full and revert back to freemium mode after 30 days (rather then buy, give payment info and cancel within 7 days)

Key sticking points:

Storage - while all above support photos with each transaction, none accommodate nor support storage for data file size. Add a photo to each transaction and now you have one large data file a few months in. Some support iCloud or Dropbox, so add on a second subscription just to maintain historical data. None support a variety of cloud services, self hosted cloud nor webdav. You can back up to anywhere, but not run a data file from anywhere except the local device or iCloud (Dropbox in one case)

Sub-accounts and sub-categories tbd

Templates. None seem to do transaction templates…a few touch upon them but no real templates. Hope this is a misunderstanding on my part and it exists.

The top contender for my situation is MoneyStats. There is an ‘under consideration’ flag for supporting additional servers and hopeful that will accommodate self hosted solutions.

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Thanks for this, I am also looking for the greatest expense tracker (not budget planner) app. Like I said I tried few apps, but insights from other testers are always nice.


Not sure what you meant by template, but in Realbyte’s Money Mgr. you can start adding new item from an account (Bank or Cash) and it will assume you want to add item for that account. You can also press “Continue” to persist previous item’s Type, Date and Account

Tried Moneyspire? 20 chars

Of the apps that add a photos, none of them seem to actually attach photos to the transaction. They do, but the apps store the photos elsewhere and appear to have no way to actually restore … sort of pseudo links and fragile so that starts breaking the hopes of going 100% iOS for finances.

Moneyspire - didn’t try that one (must have been screened out for some reason.) Trying it now - update - companion ap to desktop and requires account - and ratings on most versions seem low.

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Posting related topic back to related to Banktivity.