Personal finance apps come in two flavors; those that help manage entire portfolios, and those that support the organization of day-to-day bills. There is a difference between the two.
One of the top selling iPhone/iPod touch apps in the second category,
Bills, finally has an iPad big brother. Created by
PoweryBase,
Bills HD is an amazing little app and serves its purpose well.
Bills are bucketed into one of ten predefined categories. These include: Credit cards, Entertainment, Insurance, Invoices, Mortgages, Others, Phone bills, Rentals, Student loans, and Taxes.
Categories can be deleted and new ones can be added.
Each bill can include a due date, which can be repeated, if necessary. Other settings include: Pre-Alerts, AutoPays, and a payment log.
The true beauty of Bills HD becomes clear once bills are entered. In portrait or landscape mode,
Today’s Status shows a summary of bills according to due date. Subsequently, each falls into one of four predetermined categories. These are: Overdue, Today, Today’s Pre-Alerts, and Due Within 30 Days.
In landscape mode, bills are also listed by categories.
Finally, a
Statistics page gives an overview of which bills are due over a user-specified range of dates. This is a great tool, which makes bill finding very easy.
The folks at PoweryBase have setup a “cloud in the sky” system, so data can be synced across devices. This is based on a username and password established the first time either app is used.
Bills are synced automatically, so there is always an up to date listing of bills across devices.
Unfortunately, each app is a separate purchase. Users need to spend $4.99 for the HD version, and $3.99 for the iPhone app. The developers would have been wiser in offering one universal app, which would work across devices. They did not.
Available in the App Store,
Bills HD isn’t for everyone. It will not replace a checkbook. Its one purpose is to track upcoming bills. It offers no more, no less.
