farmerwrx

nice easy one to manage your finances,anybody know one?

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Microsoft Excel.

farmerwrx

looks hard not used it before i need something easy to use

Markus

Microsoft Money?

RMA26

Excel is the easiest thing in the world! & very useful in any environment

Access is also good, but a little more complex

If you learn excel you can build and design your own template?

PM me if you need help?

Iain Young

Why would you use Access to manage your finances? It's a lightweight "database", not a financial tool.

Anyway, I'd recommend MS money over Excel if you just want something simple to manage your finances. Sure you can do it in Excel, (and if you know what you are doing it can be very good), but I suspect it will be over-complicated for what you need.

Other nice things about MS Money are that most banks let you download statements from their internet banking sites, straight into the program, (so you don't even have to manually enter any information), you can analyse buying trends (see where you've spent the money using graphs etc). It's really quite a nice program for what it does...

darlodge

Money is good, but it takes a lot of setting up, well it did when i used it last. Granted most of it is wizards but half its features are not worth the effort.

What are you trying to achieve? I use Excel for keeping track of purchases and receipts and then mark them off against my bank statement when it arrives. With Internet Banking, keeping track of my money is so easy. I just need some money in my accounts now

Darren

Iain Young

I must admit I don't use it much these days, but when I last used Money, it took me about 10 minutes to set it up and get everything running nicely, (and that included installing the program).

RMA26

It's all down to personal prefference at the end of the day

One suggestion would be to get someone who knows what they are doing with either of the program suggestions & get them so design the model

Maybe I share a biased opinion here as i use Excel in my daily job as an Analyst, including SQL, Access, Crystal Reporting etc. etc.

M

Iain Young

I just think Excel is overkill for managing your bank account. Once you are at the level of managing a small business or higher, then I'd switch over.

I too use Excel at work as well as proper databases like Oracle, DB2, MSSQL etc (I write software which uses / interfaces with them), so perhaps my opinions are biased as well. If you buy Excel solely for managing your home bank account, you will be wasting much of the product. Not to mention, that Money is a LOT cheaper than Excel. (You can get the standard version of MS Money for about £25, whereas Excel is getting on for £200).

At the end of the day, the bloke asked for a "nice easy one". MS Money is that, Excel isn't for a novice user.

RMA26

Fair point - I may call on you (if i may) for future SQL help....?

I thought Excel comes with XP (etc.) as standard?

Iain Young

Sure no problem

Nope. You can buy it on it's own (dabs.com have it for £170), or as part of Microsoft Office.

RMA26

Thanks, SQL can be a little confusing at times, more so to a relatively new(ish) user (8 months)

Mark

www.mrexcel.com/board2

olliecampbell

iTrader: (3)

Have a look here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

Loads of good finance bits and pieces including a pre-built excel spreadsheet for budgets etc.