Best PPC Personal Finance Package

[Toad]

Hi People:

This is my first post here. I have been using PDAs (Psion, PALM) for about 15 years, but have just bought my first PPC (Dell Axim X51V).

One of the applications that I require in the very short term is a personal finance manager. On Palm I used PMT, which is a fine application, but does not have a PPC version and does not offer much in the way of export functionality (some cryptic CSV files only).

I have been doing my research. The ones that look good to me are (in no particular order):

1. Cash Organizer 05
2. SPB Finance
3. Pocket Quicken

I do not currently have a desktop finance package so compatibility is not currently an issue. I don't mind buying a desktop package, but I would rather not be totally tied to one - where I cannot use the PPC application without the desktop app.

You guys seem to know what you are talking about. Recommendations? Pros? Cons? What do you like and not like?

Thanks in advance
Toad

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I can't speak for the others, but I found Cash Organiser meets my needs very well - as a matter of fact, it's probably more a little more than I need. Even after three months, I'm still uncovering how to use it properly, in the sense of getting the absolute most out of it.

[Toad]

How do you find its export facilities? Can you alter what you export to say excel, and is the export file readble?

At end of year, can you archive a copy of you year's data so that you can later access it, or do you just let the data accumulate?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I've never done an export before - just tried it. It exports to four different formats - Quicken, Pocket Excel, Windows text, and Unicode text. There's a warning about different date fields in Quicken and MS Money that you may need to cater for.

I tried the Pocket Excel format - it took about 5 secs for about a year's worth of data. Opened up Pocket Excel, opened the file - everything there! You can of course convert to full*.xls by running it through Activesync. Any particular reason why you want to export the records? CO has some very good reporting functions (which can also be exported).

I don't see an archive option - just a delete old transactions function.

[Toad]

Any particular reason why you want to export the records? CO has some very good reporting functions (which can also be exported).

Indeed. I have migrated through a few platforms in my time, so I recognize the need to be able to get my data off the mobile device in a industry-recognized format. I understand that Intuit has dropped support for the QIF format - so if the inventor of the format no longer uses it, it doesn't meet my sniff test.

With my previous finance application on Palm, the application got slower and slower and slower as I added transactions - so I needed to purge the old transactions at least once a year to keep performance crisp. I still want the ability to look at last year's books, however, and PMT provided that by having multiple databases - I set them up to be one database per each year.

Now with CO, maybe this isn't a problem - maybe I don't have the need to purge records for performance reasons - however, if I do, I want my old records available in some quickly readable format - and frankly an Excel spreadheet that shows historic transactions would be just fine for that - so CO probably has this covered.

BTW: Thanks for your replies hishamh.

Anybody have any experience with spb? That is my other principle contender. I see an SPB developer post here once in a while. I am happy to listen to anything he has to say.

I am leaning away from Pocket Quicken because it sounds like it is pretty much unusable without the desktop version. I may be wrong about this - it is hard to get good info online sometimes. Anybody know about this?

Best regards
T

[ctmagnus]

I rely heavily on the desktop for syncing so I can't really comment on standalone usage, but Spb Finance has a cross-grade thing where if you're using any version of their app and you decide to use another version, it's a free cross-grade. I know some other apps in the past had a Quicken version, a Money version, and a standalone version and if you decided to switch desktop apps, you had to pay for the new version of the same app.

[PrincessNybor]

I have used Cash Organizer for several years, and have always been impressed, especially when paired with their Cash Reports program. It was very easy to pull reports on my spending in any one category (like fuel or groceries) right from my Pocket PC.

I liked it specifically for its complete stand-alone functionality, so I never really synced it with a desktop program. It's very feature-complete. Alas, I have just switched from a Pocket PC to a Smartphone, and they do not have any plans to make a Smartphone compatible version. :cry:

Does anyone know of a good finance program for Smartphones? It needs to be WM 5 and QVGA compatible, as I have the new T-Mobile SDA (HTC). I downloaded a 30-day trial of KeepTrack, but it's not fully WM 5 compatible just yet.

I'm not looking for anything super fancy, just something that lets me track my bank account and credit cards, enter transactions fairly quickly, and view a running total for each account.

[Denis Khitrov]

Hi Toad,

Spb Finance can export to CSV, QIF, Excel (Desktop) and can import QIF and OFX (with some restrictions). We are also thinking about adding import of custom CSV.

Spb Finance has 100% functional 15 days trial, so you may easily download it from our site and play with application.

Fill free to contact me via PM or directly via e-mail air[at]softspb[dot]com with any questions.

[Warpdrv]

I with you on that question PrincessNybor, I was looking at getting the Cing. 8125 and would be in need of some Financial soft.

I also don't need anything really all that fancy either, just for personal finance not work...


****Just checked Spb website, and they support the VX6600, so I would imagine that it wouldn't be a problem for the SDA*****

Warp....