iOS App of the Month: Buddy

The first iOS App of the Month goes to Buddy – an expense tracking finance app.

As described by the developer:

Buddy helps you set up a budget and keep track of your expenses. We’ll give you a beautiful & detailed overview of your spendings, income, and savings.

Buddy is free with a paid subscription model if you want to use the “pro” features. In my case, none of the pro features are ones that I’m interested in using – so the functionality I discuss here is part of the free version.

I was looking for a “finance app” with a few features in mind. Specifically, I want to keep track of how much I’m putting on my credit card every month and have a better understanding of where my money is going. So very important features for me are:

1. The ability to quickly add a purchase/expense to the app. I don’t want to have to open an App and navigate through 3 pages of options and tap two dozen buttons to add each transaction.
2. The ability to either leave a short note or add the purchase to a ‘category’ so I can monitor what I’m spending my money on.
3. An easy to use interface where I can quickly find the information I’m looking for, which is typically the total amount I’ve spent and where I spent it.

Buddy accomplishes those things in spades.

It’s so easy to add a purchase to the App that I can usually have it done before I leave the store, often before I’ve been handed the receipt. All you have to do is open the app, click a large and obvious “plus sign” button ( + ) and then enter the amount you spent, assign the transaction a category (groceries, restaurant, entertainment etc). It takes about 15 seconds in total.

At a glance I can determine how much I’ve spent in any given day/week/month, and where that money went. I went through half a dozen finance apps before I settled on Buddy, so I can say with a high degree of confidence that if you’re looking for an expense tracker, this is where you should start.