Review: Money Story Book – A Highly Customizable Personal Finance App

Some of the first apps to be created for iOS were personal finance apps, and since then, they haven’t stopped coming, with many different types now available. Money Story Book by ReadyXtion is another app in the ‘personal finance’ category which lets you analyse your incomes and expenditures – you input the data, no need for a calculata!

Layout

One of the main problems with this app is the layout. There are too many things going on at once and most pages seem too crowded. You navigate between daily, monthly and yearly finances by swiping left and right, which is clever, but it still doesn’t take away the cramped up feel that the app has right from the beginning.

The icons at the bottom of the main screen allows you to view your different accounts created with app, add a new expense or income, view your finances as any kind of graph you want and access the settings menu.

The app is very graphical compared to other personal finance apps, which is good and makes it more colorful and fun, but at the same time this contributes to the crowded feel of the app, so it’s a double edged sword.

Functionality

There are two different issues here. First does the app actually work?  And secondly, if it does, are all the different fields you have to fill in so time consuming that you can’t even be bothered? To answer those, the app definitely does what it says on the tin, but to input an income or an expense takes way longer than it should.

Even though you do not have to fill these extra fields in – photos, name of the vendor, category of the expense/income, what account it comes from – the fact that they are there makes you want to complete them, and thus, it takes a bit of time. It doesn’t take a complete age, but it’s definitely not as simple as inputting your income/expense, noting what it was for and moving on. That would be way too straightforward for this app.

However, as I mentioned, it does technically function, so you cam’t fault it there – it’s just overly complex.

Verdict

For the average person, I don’t think this is the right personal finance app. The number of different figures and things on the screen at once are overwhelming, and I think that most would prefer a simpler, easier to use and configure app. That means less boxes to fill in when all you’re trying to do is note that you bought some food for a few bucks earlier in the day or make note of how much you spent on a new gadget.

Having said that, if you are an accountant with a gazillion different accounts, incomes and expenditures, this could be for you, even though the huge quantity of data presented at once could still be overwhelming.

This app is only made for iPhone, but if there was one device it would look good on, it would be the iPad. The iPhone’s small screen gives it an uncomfortable feel, but I can imagine on an iPad it would actually be pretty good.

Price: $1.99 (App Store link)

Rating: 2/5[rating:2]

Pros:

• If you’re an accountant or are manic about organising your expenses, the degree of customizability offered could really appeal to you.
• More graphic and colorful user interface differentiates it from other personal finance apps.

Cons:

• Layout has so much data it becomes overwhelming – a more simple, easier to read layout would be much better.
• Takes longer than it should to input an income/expense, too many boxes to fill in.
• It doesn’t really suit the iPhone’s screen size, contributes to data-packed layout.
• Sometimes all the numbers on the screen can become a bit daunting – I guess that’s personal finance, but I still think a better job could have been done to make non-math orientated people feel more comfortable.