5 Best Mobile Apps for Budgeting in India

One of the most basic tenets of financial planning is Budgeting – tracking your expenses and savings on a regular basis. Check best mobile apps for budgeting in India.

Budgeting does involve work but pays off with many benefits –

• You will be aware of money coming in and money going out. This will lead to better spending habits and better management of debts and investments.
• You will plan for expected and unexpected costs. Budgeting will influence you to set aside money for emergencies.
• You will be more focused on your financial status and be mindful of saving and spending. This will take you closer to achieving your financial goals and life goals.
• You will have more control over your finances. This will enable you to make better financial decisions.

Must Read – Budgeting – The first step to Financial Planning

Different Budgeting Apps In India 

Budgeting takes some time and effort. Here is where smartphones come into play. There are numerous mobile apps available for managing daily finances and I have listed a few of the better ones available –

1) Walnut

Walnut is a money management tool that is compatible with Android and iOS (Do note that the Android version has more features as compared to the iOS version).

Key Features

• Track your spending across various categories. Charts are available for easy visualization. Expenses are tracked via SMS.
• Set reminders for bill payments.
• Check your bank balance.
• Transfer money to friends and relatives without account details or IFSC codes. You can transfer using a debit card number.
• Split money and settle accounts with friends.
• Pay VISA credit card bills via the app.

It does have some issues related to updates based on SMS notifications and ATM location accuracy. Moreover, it does not have all features in the iOS version.

Conclusion
An effective money management tool to manage your budget and pay your bills for free.

Check – 6 Steps to escape race of overconsumption

2) FinArt

FinArt is an expense management tool that focuses on digital transactions along with managing cash transactions.

Key Features

• Automatically records all digital payments made and you can record cash transactions manually.
• Sets up reminders for bill payments.
• No registration information required
• Allows for categorization of expenses
• Presents intuitive visualizations of financial data
• It has a private mode wherein no data is sent to FinArt servers.

The app is free for a 5-day trial. Post the trial period, users have to pay a subscription fee of ₹ 499 per year. The app depends on reading SMS for recording of financial transactions. There are some issues related to it missing certain SMS information and credit card transactions.

Conclusion
It is the only app that offers a private mode and works without user registration. But it is a paid app and you should install it if only if you will be committed towards budget management using the app.

3) GoodBudget

It is a money manager and expense tracker. GoodBudget is available both on Android and iOS.

Key Features

• Divide income into envelopes for different expenditure categories.
• Transfer money between envelopes.
• Track payees and split transactions.
• Insightful reports on cashflow and comparison of income and spends.

It is a simplistic app mainly for expense management. It does not have features such as bank account sync or features related to advice on saving or investment. There are free and paid versions of the app.

Conclusion
It is a simple app for users who like to categorize expenses and are not looking for more advanced features. It has some advanced features in the paid version.

Check This: Budget for Saving not Spending

4) Expense Manager

Expense Manager is a free money management app available both on iOS and Android.

Key Features

• Set up and track weekly, monthly and annual budgets.
• Set up expense categories and limits on expenditure.
• Generate reports in different formats like .xls and .pdf.
• You can backup data in SD Card, Google Drive or Dropbox.
• It has tools like currency converter and basic calculator.

You get a paid version of the app too. The paid version is ad free. There are some issues related to missing data and UI issues.

Conclusion
It is a reliable money management tool.

Read – Coupon & Deals are bad for Finance

5) Monefy

Monefy is an effective tool for expense management with a good visual interface.

Key Features

• It is easy to use. It has a journal style data entry feature wherein you can add a line item each time you spend money.
• Provides visualizations on spending distribution
• Data can be synced across devices
• Data can be stored in Google Drive and Dropbox.
• It has security features like Face ID and Touch ID.

The app is free and easy to set up but requires a Dropbox account to sync data across devices.

Also Read this: The 50 30 20 Rule

Conclusion
It is an easy-to-use and visually appealing expense management tool. There are many budgeting apps available in the market. I have tried to list the apps that are suited to Indian customers. There are many more financial management apps that take care of expenses, savings, bills, investments, etc. This post focuses only on budgeting.

Bonus: Vertex

If you are an excel lover Vertex provides the best range of budgeting sheet – check this link

Do remember to check for these pointers before downloading an app –

• Get an app that is developed by a reliable company so that your data is safe and you can expect regular feature updates and security patches.
• Check out the reviews of an app before installing it. You will know the positive and negative aspects of the app which will help you decide if the app is suitable for your requirements.
• Evaluate the security and privacy features of the app. Personal data on your phone should not be accessed by the app. The app should not share your information with third parties. It should have two-factor security authentication. If you are not sure about this information, you might want to ignore the app.
• Even the most hi-tech and comprehensive budgeting app will not help you improving your financial life if you do not use it. Choose an app that has basic budget management features and is easy-to-use so that you will be encouraged to use it and reap benefits out of it.

This post is written by Vidya.

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