That way, you can search for transactions that are related in ways other than category assignments. This information can also be helpful when tax preparation time rolls around and when you run reports.ĭepending on the service, you might be able to add tags to transactions, too.

If you're conscientious about categorizing your income and spending, you'll get charts and reports that accurately summarize where your money comes from and where it goes. Most apps guess the categories, but you can always change them, and you can split transactions among different categories. Transactions need to be correctly categorized as income (salary, freelance payment, and interest, for example) and expenses (food, mortgage, utilities, and so on). What Can You Do With Transaction Data in Personal Finance Software?Īfter importing a batch of transactions from credit card and bank accounts into a personal finance app, most people spend some time cleaning up the data. It's never a bad idea to brush up on best practices for preventing identity theft online to protect yourself further. Keep all your personal details, such as your date and city of birth, private because they can be used as authenticators to access financial data and accounts.Enable multi-factor authentication wherever it's supported-again, meaning both for logging into the personal finance app and for any connected bank accounts.A password manager is the tool you'll want to use here. Use a unique username and password for not only your financial logins but also for the personal finance app.However, you must also do your part to make the experience safe. The ones that connect to your financial accounts, like Mint, use encryption and other safety measures on their side to keep your login information protected. The personal finance apps we reviewed are all safe to use. Is Personal Finance Software Safe to Use? To connect, you typically enter your login credentials for those financial sites, though you usually have to provide additional security information-which is, of course, a good thing. That is, you can download cleared transactions and other account data from your bank accounts, credit card accounts, brokerages, and other financial institutions, and see all of the data neatly displayed in the applications' registers. For example, most of them support online connections to your financial institutions. How to Connect Your Bank Account to Personal Finance SoftwareĪll the personal finance apps and services we review have a variety of features and functions, but they share common characteristics.

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