Top Budgeting Apps for Canadians

October 31, 2018 Budgeting Advice

In this day and age, we’re used to lightning speed technology and getting answers with a swipe of our smartphones. With so many resources at our fingertips, people are moving away from traditional methods of managing finances.

Although the do-it-yourself trend is huge right now (think Pinterest), you’ll need some solid help to ensure you’re on the right track. A Pinterest home décor fail is minor, but a DIY financial planning fail is major. Luckily, there are many great, user-friendly budgeting apps out there.

If you have bad credit and are looking to buy a car, budgeting apps are a great resource to plan, monitor, and improve your finances. Based on your income, expenses–and potentially debt repayments–you can determine how much you have available for car loan instalments. Once you’ve got a plan in place, managing your finances with a budgeting app is a simple way to get on the right track and take your credit from bad to better.

The 10 best budgeting apps for Canadians:

1. Debt Manager
2. Debts Monitor
3. Spendee
4. You Need a Budget
5. Wally
6. Expensify
7. Mint
8. Receipts
9. iXpenseIt
10. Personal banking app

Debt Manager

This app is designed to help you get out of debt using the Snowball Method to track
and pay off everything you owe efficiently. This is a tried and tested method of debt
management and elimination. All you have to do is enter your loans and payment
information, set priorities, and get ready to get out of the red. Some of the notable features include bar graphs to visually illustrate your progress, helpful hints and tips tailored to your debt situation, along with the ability to sync the app to additional devices. A feature that is unique to Debt Minder is creating hypothetical scenarios, for example, seeing how increasing your payments or rising interest rates will affect your end goal. Debt Manager is the number one ranked finance app in the US and UK, and at only $1.39, it’s definitely worth a shot.

Debts Monitor

This app also focuses on the Snowball Method. Debts Monitor provides an overview of your total debt status, tracks payments and transactions, as well as notifies you about upcoming due dates. Within the app there are three calculators: Payoff Date, Loan, and Mortgage. As you make payments to various loans, the app visually highlights the remaining balance. What is particularly motivating about using this app is the debt free date. Additionally, Debts Monitor will calculate the total amount of interest you’ll pay, while also showing you how much you could save if you pay your debts off sooner.

Spendee

Spendee is an expense tracking app with a heavy design focus. It’s a good choice for someone who wants to easily track daily, weekly, monthly expenses and stick within a budget. You can enter your transactions by syncing to your online banking institution and credit cards, recording them manually, or a combination of these options. Spendee does a great job illustrating different categories for your expenses and it has the ability to enter in different currencies, which is convenient for frequent travellers.

You Need a Budget

This dynamic app is not only beautifully designed but really packs a punch in its overall strategy. It was built on the principle that “every dollar has a job,” but also allows the flexibility to rearrange your budget if anything unexpected comes up. You Need a Budget (YNAB) gives users the tough love approach, not letting money that doesn’t exist be spent. If you stray from your budget, YNAB will show you what steps are needed to get you back on track to live within your actual income. Given how easy-to-use and flexible YNAB is, it’s worth the small monthly fee. In addition to allowing you to set up weekly or monthly budgets, with YNAB you can set up budgets for specific events or projects.

Wally

If you’re someone who loves organization, but hates manually putting in data or crunching numbers, this app is for you. Simply take a photo of your receipts, and voilà they’re entered into the app! If you travel, turn on the geo-location on your smartphone, and Wally will track that information for you. This app is straightforward, convenient, and a great choice if you’d like to see the bigger picture of how you’re spending your money. And the best part: Wally is totally free.

Expensify

Are you an entrepreneur or business owner? If so, this app might be a great fit for managing your finances. It’s extremely helpful with expense report management and tracking daily receipts. Expensify features the patented SmartScan, eliminating the need to manually enter in receipts, making it super simple to track things on the. The app integrates flight and travel notifications, converts currency, tracks mileage, and more. All your information can be uploaded to a web account, so it’s saved in more than one spot.

Mint

Mint is one of the most prominent fan favourites in the budgeting app market. With the app, you’re able to connect your bank accounts, live tracking all withdrawals and deposits. Mint’s landing page features a pie chart with an at-a-glance view of your weekly expenditures. There’s also the ability to pay bills directly through the app. You can enable notifications for upcoming payments or in the event that account balance falls below a certain threshold. Mint is completely free and easy to connect with your bank account, credit cards, and bills, putting all you finances in one convenient place. The ability to check out your real-time credit score is a great bonus feature of Mint.

Receipts

This app helps manage and track spending by filing all of your receipts. Similar to some of the more comprehensive budgeting apps available, there’s no need to waste time manually entering transactions–just scan and go. Receipts records the amount, date, and location of each purchase as well as categorize entries. Receipts is essentially a digital filing cabinet that will help you manage your budget. Just search and then print or email whatever information you need.

iXpenseIt

This budgeting app is one of the paid options available, but has a small price tag of $5. It’s primarily geared towards business expenses, but can also be used outside of these parameters. iXpenseIt is a fairly easy-to-use app with a simple, clean dashboard. It’s highly customizable, so you can create specific expense categories and subcategories. Its beneficial features include using a variety of currencies, tracking your spending trends, and the ability to export your data to a CSV or HTML file.

Personal Banking app

This last recommendation isn’t per say a budgeting app, but it has some great functions that can help along your financial journey. If available, download the app from your personal banking institution. Most major banks, including RBC Royal Bank, TD Canada Trust, and Scotiabank, have user-friendly apps. Downloading your bank’s app is a good first step to manage your accounts, monitor your transactions, and pay your monthly bills. Some banking apps even include the functionality to set and track your budget. At the very least, the app will make paying bills and transferring money a breeze.

With so many helpful budgeting apps available, managing your money has never been so simple or convenient. Whether you’re looking to learn more about your finances or clear your debts, it’s worth checking out some of these apps. By taking the first step on your financial improvement journey, you’re one step closer to your next Birchwood vehicle.

Related blog posts:

Written by

Rebecca Lake