Budget Software Review: Splash Money by SplashData

Implementing a budget is a difficult task. Besides the difficulty of mastering spending habits, keeping track of expenditures, paychecks, and savings can be time-consuming. The best advantage of using budget software on your PDA is that it is portable. You will have access to your budget wherever you are. Say you're out shopping, and see a product that you like but you're not sure if your budget will allow the purchase. You can just pull out your PDA, open your budget software, and immediately check to see if the product is affordable. You can also enter your data as soon as you make a purchase, so that your budget is always up to date.

Splash Money by SplashData

Splash Money is one of the leading budget software programs for PDAs. It has a variety of features, including budget creation, reports and charts, and the ability to connect online to your financial institution and download statements. Following are more detailed aspects of the budget software.

Security

You can choose to password protect the software at any time. The password protection uses Blowfish encryption, one of the most powerful protective block ciphers.

Usability and Customer Support

Splash Money is very user-friendly. It takes very little effort to understand how to enter transactions, create budgets, and create new accounts. The interface is colorful and clean, making it easy to pick out different parts of the screen. If you are experiencing a problem, the SplashData website has FAQs, and also has a support system set up where you can ask questions. The website also features a user guide.

One of the best features of Splash Money is its simplicity. For people who like to keep track of their money without having to spend a lot of time on budgeting, Splash Money is an excellent resource. Many budget software programs end up being so complex that they become confusing and time-consuming, and only complicate the budget process. Splash Money makes budgeting very simple.

Splash Money is available for Palm Pilots (Palm OS), Pocket PCs, and Smartphones.

Creating and Editing Accounts

There are multiple types of accounts you can choose from in the Splash Money budget software, including checking, saving, credit, money market, cash, asset, and more. Adding and editing accounts is easy, and you can keep track of all the accounts that you have if you'd like. Or to keep it simple, you can just use the one account that it is most important to keep track of on a daily basis.

Creating and Editing Transactions

Entering and editing transactions on Splash Money is intuitive. There are several transaction types to choose from, such as check, deposit, withdrawal, etc. A nice feature of this budgeting software is the ability to add scheduled transactions, such as automatic withdrawals. It can record the transaction automatically or simply remind you when to record it. Splash Money also features a transaction search, so that you can find something you entered simply by entering a phrase in the search field.

Budgets

The budget feature is certainly one of the most useful features of Splash Money's budget software. While the program features built-in categories, you can create and edit your own categories. In each category, you cans set a withdrawal or deposit limit. When entering a transaction, simply label each transaction with the correct category. Then, you can enter the Budget screen, and see how much you've spent in each category. This is an excellent feature for anyone who is trying to control spending, is on a tight budget, or just wants to see where their money is going.

Splash Money supports Split Transactions, so that if you make a several purchases at one store, you can divide up the total amount into different categories.

Charts and Reports

At any time you can enter the Charts and Reports screen. This will show you a variety of statistics. You can choose to show a chart specifying how much you spent in different categories and how much you gave to individual payees. You can also change the time period for the reports, per quarter, per month, etc. An excellent feature of the reports is the "drill-down report." For example, if you see you've spent $48 on recreation, you can click on the $48, and it will show you each transaction you categorized as "Recreation."

All charts and reports are printable. Splash Money comes with desktop software for your PC/Mac, and synchronizing your PDA with your computer will sync the reports and charts with your desktop software for easy printing.

Weaknesses

One small problem with Splash Money is found in the budget features. If you like to budget using the envelope method, Splash Money does not support transferring money from one category to another. This is simple to work around, really, by simply changing your budget amounts for the month. However, if you change your budgets for one month, those changes will be reflected in the next month. Splash Money does not support different budgets for each month (or whatever time period you prefer). Another work-around for this is to be sure to print your budget reports each month, and then reset budget amounts.

Price

Splash Money budget software sells for $29.95, and is available for download at www.splashdata.com. They also offer a 30-day trial version, which is excellent for judging the software for yourself. If you use Palm OS, the Palm Software store often has a two for one deal. You can buy two SplashData programs for the price of one.

Conclusion

If you're looking for easy-to-use, comprehensive budgeting software for your PDA, try Splash Money. There's nothing to lose with the free trial, and you'll probably find that you end up saving time and money.