Tracking expenses is no longer just for the traveling businessman, people everywhere are starting to pay more attention to their finances, and what they are spending their money on. Budgeting and expense tracking can become overwhelming, especially when it comes to organizing. Now there is an app that helps manage your expenses, generate reports, archive, and more!
Overview
Piikki ($1.99 in the App Store) is an app that allows users to scan receipts, classify their expense type, archive, and even chart spending. The best part about Piikki is being able to see what money is being spent on, how much, and how often. The application allows users to tag locations, categorize expenses, and even share the data with a Dropbox, Evernote or Google account.
So how does Piikki work? Users simply open the app, hover the camera over a receipt, and allow Piikki to auto detect the edges of the receipt, saving just the image of the receipt. Once the receipt is scanned in, users can then enter information about the scanned receipt, such as document title, total cost, currency type, date of purchase, and select a category. Piikki then takes the entered information to chart the expense category so users can see how much they are spending on certain expenses like dining, entertainment, gas, equipment, and more.
Piikki would be an excellent app for anyone who needs to generate expense reports and track expenses, but it is also a nice pocket reference for anyone who is simply looking to understand where their money is being spent. Being able to archive the receipts also allows users to go back and reference how much money was spent in a given month. Another excellent use for the Piikki app would be for a vacation, users can enter the information by category and see how much money was spent on dining, entertainment, etc. This could be especially helpful to know how much money to budget for a vacation in the future.
While Piikki is an excellent resource, it could be slightly more intuitive. Initially, when scanning a receipt, I thought the app might be able to pull items from the receipt, such as the name of the store our purchase, along with the total cost on the receipt. All information on the receipt must be entered manually, which really isn’t too much of a trouble, because there are only a few items that need to be entered. The expense tracking, charting and archive of receipts makes the minimal data entry worth it.
Verdict [rating:4.5]
If you are looking for an application that allows you to see a basic outline of your expenses and spending, Piikki is an excellent choice. The app is an excellent resource for basic expense tracking and anyone who tends to keep all of their receipts. Piikki’s organizational structure and archiving allows even the most basic of user to track and understand their spending habits.
Pros:
- Auto detects edges of receipt when scanning
- Allows location-based tagging
- Receipts can be scanned as .jpg or .pdf format
- Data can be shared with a variety of accounts for personal archiving
- Generates charts from data entry
Cons:
- Requires users to populate their own data
Download Piikki now for just $1.99 in the App Store!
