It has been a long path to reviewing an entry level, basic financial, budgeting, money monitoring tool for my business & personal finances. (Note: This post is looking at a UK business but all products are available for international countries, in fact most are US based products.)

Having no need for the high products like Quicken, Tas Books, MYOB or SAGE I wanted to find something affordable that allows me to do basic accounts management, budgeting and bank statement reconciliations. Enough that I can give my accountant a summary at the end of the year and monitor my budgets and income in the process.

So to begin I started at the Apple website, in the Software downloads section for Business & Finance  which allowed me to walk through all the obvious choices for Mac OS X. Then I also used Google to find other options I may not have otherwise seen. I thought it maybe useful to provide a basic review for others wading through this process as it is tiring.

The ones I looked at and tested to review are:
kashflow (online accounting)
xero (online accounting)
freshbooks (online billing/invoicing)
iBank
Moneydance
Ascendo Money
Money 3 (My pick)

kashflow review:

kashflow is a hosted solution (SaaS - Software as a Service). This means you don't need to download software and can access your accounts from anywhere you have a browser and can get an internet connection. This is the future for a lot of accounting services in my opinion. kashflow in a nutshell is small business accounting software online.

kashflow pride themselves on creating software which makes it simple to keep your books. Focusing on the UK market originally I believe (although they are reaching out now overseas and are in over 5 countries including the USA and Canada). The sign up process is fast, the accounts addition options are obvious and there is help as you work through the site. Over all kashflow was a very appealing option. It is 'proper' accounting software so don't consider it as a personal finance tool.

It is HM Revenue & Customs recognised software you can use kashflow for preparing your VAT statements. They offer an API which may mean people might write additional software to interact with it.

kashflow is something I liked. It is simple but powerful and it does work. Sadly it is not so attractive, this is not important of course, but as a Mac user the UI always makes something more fun, I expect they will update this in time and already I have seen small changes to their website this year. The owners seem keen to make it a success and they are making a lot of progress quickly. I would be happy staying with them.

The benefit of a hosted solution is that you don't need to get updates, the system will be updated for you.

kashflow Features & Benefits:
VAT reporting and VAT tax returns reports
No jargon
No contract
Online Invoicing
Access from anywhere in the world
email reminders for invoices etc
Paypal integration for payments
Secure (as Internet Banking)
Contacts Book
browser based
Integration options with other services including payroll, e-commerce, workflow project management

kashflow offer a 60 free trial currently but you will have a good handle on it long before then. Monthly subscription is £15.99 (or $23 USD or 17 Euro) which is affordable - if you use this discount voucher code GIVEME1OFF at sign up you will get £1 off at sign up and every month after which makes it £14.99 per month.

At the moment they are also offering a 12 month free offer to people using competitors products (unsure how long this will last but good move by them!). Last report they had over 2500 users so they have enough 'kashflow' to keep them going...get it...

xero review:

xero is another hosted accounting solution (SaaS). Originating in NZ they have received a lot of venture capital to make this product work (so I am told). The website is slick and they are investing in a lot of cool features like iPhone compatibility. The set up is more complicated than kashflow but you get the feeling that xero are building a serious tool. There are a lot of help tools on the site as with kashflow and the start up video is very helpful. I was set up quite quickly. xero communicates like a financial tool, it has been simplified but from time to time I had to double check that I understood what was required. It reminded me of my early days using MYOB (but it's alot easier to set up than that).

xero is a great package and I can see them going places and possibly becoming a force in online serious accounting software. At the end of the day they don't offer alot more than kashflow.
Again, this is not for the light hearted personal finance troopers and was a little over the top for me and my small business. If you have an iPhone however this might be the decider for you to look cool on the road adding expenses and invoicing.

xero seemed to have good bank statement importing tools.

xero Features & Benefits:
flexible reporting tools
Online invoicing options (accounts receivable)
expenses (accounts payable)
bank statement importing
contacts book
sexy dashboard for quick-view summaries
browser based

xero offer you 30 day free trial. The cost is £19 per month or you can prepay your first 12 months which will save you £39.

freshbooks review:

Freshbooks is cool and doesn't try to be all inclusive accounting software. It specialises in Billing and Invoicing which I thought was still worth mentioning. It works well enough and is easy to set up, I have struggled with some aspects of usage but it's pretty straight forward. The founders are smart people and work hard to match the product to needs. They also do a lot of online community stuff which is useful for training and teaching.

I bill for services as well as other things (web development before you start guessing!). These services require me to bill by the hour from time to time. Freshbooks have an OS X widget that allows me to start the clock and stop the clock and submit the time back to freshbooks remotely which is really handy. It also integrated with Basecamp which was useful for me as my project management and accounting were integrated.

The seem to offer international options. Set up in the USA they also offer a generic services that I easily changed to be UK centric.

The only issue I have is that you pay per user/company over time. It is a tiered charging structure which didn't interest me as a small business I want to pay once and be confident I can grow and not pay for it.

Flexible payment options means when you email an invoice people can pay via Paypal or other online options which is handy. They also offer good customisation options for the look of your email invoice. Good API which alot of other online services tie into.

Freshbooks always felt like a great invoicing and billing tool but not a great holistic accounting package. It's what they do best and a lot of web styled workers like myself benefit from this. This is perfect for creative agencies or individuals focused on simple online invoicing for their clients.

freshbooks Features & Benefits:
SaaS - Hosted solution accessible from anywhere
Clients can log in and interact with invoices
Online Invoicing and Time tracking
Multiple payment gateway plug-ins for Invoice payments (people paying you)
Tiered payment structure so pay more as you grow (in theory)
Contact book

iBank review:

Personal Finance, Money Managment and Small Business Software (OS X)

iBank 3 (current at the time of posting) has taken alot of flack. iBank 2 (version 2) was popular personal - small business software for the Mac, the fans liked it and alot of people bought it. On the release of iBank 3 alot of users were put off. The word on the street was too much time spent on the look and wow effect and not enough time spent on the product and usability. This was my impression when I installed it. Lovely charts and animations but this distracted me and made my financial work space feel cluttered.

iBank are a great bunch and anyone that has used their products will tell you that. Their service is close to fanatical and they are trying very hard to correct errors and issues raised by users. Some users have abandoned them for Moneydance which I will cover further on. Had I been an iBank 2 user I would have stuck with them as any company willing to adjust for their users is worth staying with. You will notice when you install it that things like Coverflow for transactions just seems over the top...or maybe someone out there cares about having an icon and coverflow action for transactions?

One thing that is useful about iBank 3 is the smart import tool which is kind of like setting rules so that when you import a bank statement you don't have to set import rules each time.

iBank supports automatic download of statements from you bank if it supports it but currently in the UK this is not supported. It also offers iPhone sync options so you can edit expenditure and income on the go.

iBank Features & Benefits:
Smart import
Loan & Debt management
Stock graphs (input stock codes and it will graph for you - also handles Short and long puts, calls etc)
Mobile Me integration
Export options for US Tax software
Reporting
Direct Downloads - auto download bank statements from Bank
iSight integration (not sure why you want to take a photo to attach to an invoice/bill?)
iCal integration
Check printing templates
Quicken/MS Money import also supports QIF, OFX, QFX, CSV
Prepopulated with alot of UK banks built in but not all.
iPhone sync and mobile me

iBank offer a free trial download so feel free to take it for a spin.

Moneydance review:

Personal Finance Manager for Mac, Windows, Linux

Moneydance offer multi platform options. Linux, Mac OS X, PC. The first impressions for any Mac user are not positive. But that would also mean I judge a book by it's cover. Some people are really positive about this product and have switched to it from iBank after the iBank 3 upgrade.

When I installed Moneydance my first impressions didn't change and I didn't last long using it. I set up some accounts and input some expenses but I felt something wasn't right and my confidence was not high. Does it work? Seems to work fine. But I wouldn't feel happy using it daily as it doesn't offer a great workflow. I think for the price and features it would be fine but even inputing expenses I struggled to see the input form at the bottom of the screen. It does, however, have a great Cha-ching sound when you input items. Great fun, good for lots of people, not for me. I am sure with more time it could have won me over but I have a short usability fuse these days.

Moneydance Features & Benefits:
Support for OFX, QFX, or QIF files.
Direct bank statement downloads via OFX
Portfolio management - Shares (stocks), bonds, mutual funds etc etc
Full reporting options
Multi-lingual
Standards based development (that means it's developers are good geeks who plan their sofware well.)
Open API - other software will tie into it.

Moneydance offer a free trial download so get it and see how it gels for you. I respect anyone who continues to develope cross platform, hats off to the developers. However, I will never go back to PC if I have my way so this isn't a concern for me.

Acsendo Money review:
Personal Finance Manager for Blackberry and Windows

Ascendo Money? I can already hear some of you asking why I have a post for a Windows product in a Mac OS X post? I have a Blackberry Curve so I use my Blackberry to track my personal finances. As the software I am looking for is for my small business this is less relevant, but I thought it only fair to post something on it as I think it is great software. The beauty of Ascendo Money is that you always have your phone on you, so when you spend money on anything you can immediately, and conveniently put it into your phone. Ascendo Money, as with all the applications featured, allows you to set budgets. Then as you spend you can see if you have over or under spent each month at the click of a button. If I owned, or should I say when I own an iPhone then I will happily choose something that will sync with my Mac. Sadly for now I will have to run Ascendo and something else on my Mac for everything else.

Ascendo Money will allow you to manage multiple bank accounts for both personal and business in multiple currencies. I will also allow you to split transactions. Overall a great mobile app but I can't comment on the PC software the phone is meant to sync with and have no desire to run Parallels to find out.

I won't run through the Acendo Money Features & Benefits for that reason. If you have a PC and/or Blackberry I can recommend it.

Money 3 review:
Your sweetest accounting application

I found Jumsoft's Money application on Apple.com. It was in the Top 10 for Business & Finance software. I figured popular opinion must win out but after Googling a bit I couldn't find much about it compared to the above applications, this perplexed me but no biggie.

On starting Money3 up I was impressed. It's simple, it makes sense and it is a Mac looking application without too many unnecessary bells and whistles. The reporting is flexible but the MAIN REASON I think I will pay for this one and go for it is that it offers CSV export of reports. My accountant is not yet in the 21st century so sending him QIF files or anything similar will freak him out. With Money I get to control my budgets, expenditure and invoicing easily and I can simply export monthly CSV files for him to look at in Excel, or I can print them as easily.

It offers Stock (shares) monitoring as with most of the above apps. I do wish I could do more with the styling of the invoices but they do offer a few templates and again this is simple.

I would love more integration with Paypal or similar so people could pay invoices in an integrated fashion but for less than $40 USD I can live with it. It is a big step up from Excel which is all that matters to me. If you are looking for something that handles auto bank downloads and VAT reporting then it's not here (that I have found?).

Simple accounting for a simple result. I am happy with that. If I had to do my own Business tax returns or VAT returns then I would choose something more advanced as above.

Money Features & Benefits:
Plan budgets
Flexible reporting
Handles Loans
Invoicing (email direct through application which all these apps do - Account receivable)
Bills (Accounts Payable)
Shares (Stocks Management)
UPDATE - iPhone version is coming

Summary:

This financial software thing is horses for courses but let me see if I can summarise:

kashflow / xero
Really great applications, kashflow feels more mature, if you need to do more serious H&M/VAT accounting. Definitely the future of online accounting. If you have the monthly cash then I say do it but not for personal finances.

freshbooks
freshbooks is an awesome online billing and invoicing solution. They allow alot of flexibility so you can bill in different currencies and it was so nice having my clients pay me online rather than sending cheques and stuff.

iBank
iBank - Great support and more serious features than most installed apps. Once they simplify the GUI again I think a popular choice. UK bank/accounting support exists which is good.

Moneydance
I believe it is a good application, nothing missing here, but I don't think my style.

Ascendo Money
If you have a blackberry/PC then go for it - a simple choice.

Money 3
Simple and effective. Offers the CSV reporting export option which wasn't obvious on anything else I tried.

Errors and Omissions:
I have not fully tested all this software over time for this review. I have built the best assessments I could and would welcome corrections and updates from readers. Comment below, I can take it.

Systems I wanted to test but I was losing the will to live:

YNAB - You Need a Budget. Seemed to be a bit more focused on personal budgeting and not available for Mac yet - they have one coming.
Splash Money - Splash Money offers a smart phone / pda sync option so you don't need the iPhone for a change.
Fortora Fresh Finance - Fortora Fresh Finance - No idea. Cross platform and allows cross network use on up to three other computers which would be useful for a small business shared accounting set up.