It’s always important to manage your finances, whether by setting a budget or tracking daily expenses. While we often tend to track expenses well in the short term, it’s also equally important to remember to think about our finances long-term.
Balance Forecasting App is a web application that helps you focus on your finances in the long-term by keeping track of recurring monthly income and bills and then using that data to forecast your financial well-being in many different time periods. It wouldn’t be an app to manage your finances down to the last detail, but it’s a great way to get an idea of how much money and expenses you’ll have in the near future.
Your First Accounts
The first step to use Balance Forecasting App, as always, is to register. You are given a premium account for the first two weeks for free, and can keep using a premium account for a small fee or just downgrade to their standard free account. Once you’ve registered, you’re taken to the main screen where you’re given the option to set up your first finance “account.” This account will be the primary account, used for adding bills & income, and will be the default view in the calendar. To get the account started, you simply have to enter the beginning balance.
Setting up the first account is a breeze.
This account is, by default, the checking account. If you navigate to the accounts tab at the top of the screen, you’re able to explore a few other options regarding the applications. The accounts page gives you a few different options. First, you can rename any existing accounts so if, for example, you didn’t want to call your default account “checking” you can change the name here. You can also add additional accounts, or change which account is the primary account for default views, bills and sources of income. I chose to add my savings account so that the money saved is reflected in my forecast.
Viewing the different accounts.
Remember that the primary account is the default to display on the bills/income page, and the default for entering such information. However, the forecast, calendar and history will all reflect the balances, income and bills of all accounts that you’ve entered.
Bills and Income
After getting the accounts set up, you have to add your estimated monthly bills and income to make sure that your forecast will be as accurate as possible. To add bills and income, navigate to the appropriate tab. Clicking on “add a new item” will bring up a menu to add either a bill or income. There you can enter the amount, select the date to be billed/paid, and select whether it will be a monthly occurrence or a one time occasion. If it’s a repeating item, you can set an end date if you choose. You can also select “skip weekends” and choose to be paid/billed on either the earlier Friday or following Monday if the item falls on a weekend date.
The details needed when entering a bill or payment.
Once you’ve entered all of the information, it’s good to go back and double check to make sure that everything is correct. If you miss a zero or accidentally enter a bill as income, it can totally ruin the forecast for you. Luckily, by clicking on the bills and income page, you’re first taken to an overview of all of the items that you’ve entered for a simple overview.
An overview of bills and income.
Forecast, Calendar and History
After setting up accounts and all income/expense information, it’s time to check out the most important part of the application and the reason that it has its name. The forecast page can be found at the top of the screen. This screen will default to a monthly view, with all upcoming bills and expenses for the month. This allows you to easily see what’s coming up and to get a grasp on your financial status for the current month. The exciting part, however, comes at the bottom of the screen. There, you can select to view a financial projection, or forecast. You can view the forecast for three months, six months or even an entire year.
My three month forecast.
If you’re curious about seeing exactly when your billing and income dates fall in a particular month, then you need to check out the calendar view. In this view you’ll see an entry on each date that any bills or income take place. The entry on that date will also include an updated total balance, so you can get a grasp on your projected finances at any point during the month.
Calendar view for March, showing all accounts.
Finally, to get an idea of past payments, you should check out the History page. Here you’ll see a list of all payments and incomes that have been made/received. It’s a straight-forward section, but allows you to easily glance through past payments and salary amounts for reference.
The history section showing all past transactions.
Account Settings and Premium Functions
At this point at least, under the account settings there isn’t too much that you can change around. You’re able to change the color theme to one of eight selections, and you can switch the layout from fixed to liquid. This allows the app to take advantage of whatever screen space your computer has to offer. You are also able to delete all of your information under account management. If you have a question, complaint or compliment, you’re able to utilize the contact form to contact the site’s creator.
Changing the account settings.
Importantly, under the account settings, you’re able to upgrade to a premium account. There are a few major benefits to making the decision to upgrade to a premium account. It’s not a very pricey upgrade, at only $6/year or $15 for a lifetime upgrade. The limitations of the free account are:
- Only one account
- No access to the calendar
- Only one of the 7 awesome color themes
- No backup and restore
- Only one forecast month at a time
- No forecast filtering
I personally think that while I could get away without the themes and the calendar, I’d find the application sorely lacking with only one account and without the ability to forecast farther ahead than one month. The strongest point of this application is the ability to do long-term forecasting simply, and the premium upgrade is worth it just for that capability.
The premium account upgrades.
Final Thoughts
This application sets out to do one thing particularly well, and if you keep that in mind when using the application, you won’t be let down. The main point of the Balance Forecasting App is to do just that .. forecast. It can be difficult at times to remember that at times when trying out the application, as it’s easy to get frustrated when things that you might assume would be part of a forecasting application would be present. I struggled with that at times, but even with that factor working against the application, I thought it was pretty solid and well designed.As I used the app and tried out the different features, I went from feeling pretty “meh” about it to really appreciating it for what it is. I’d love to see a way to distinguish “credit” accounts from “bank” accounts, but that’s not a huge deal.
In the grand scheme of things, if you’re looking for an application that does one thing well, then you should check out this application. If you’re looking for a more comprehensive personal finance application, then you’ll need a more advanced app like Quicken Online or Mint, or a native finance app.