With the economy slipping closer to rock bottom every day now, many of us are going to have to start cutting back on our day-to-day expenditures. Cue Voice2Insight’s The Expense Tracker, an online expense tracking system that makes entering every transaction as easy as calling a phone number and saying a few words.
Most expense trackers require users to input their daily transactions from their computers, which is time consuming and requires an impressive memory (or very organized receipts). Voice2Insight’s system allows users to call a designated number, where they’re prompted by an automated system to state the amount they’ve just spent and what category the transaction would fall under (for example, I might say “Groceries, $50″). And if you forget to leave one of the voice messages, you can manage your account from the computer as you would with a traditional system.
The service costs $15 a month ($10 if you buy six months at a time), which may be too steep for some people. I think The Expense Tracker would probably be better off adopting a model similar to Mint, offering ads for targeted financial products based on spending habits. Then again, paying for the service may make users feel obligated to use it religiously (some people swear by expensive gym memberships for this reason).
Other companies in the expense tracking space include Expensify and ShoeBoxed.
No disrespect to The Expense Tracker but I was done entering my expenses for today in Short Reckonings (www.shortreckonings.com) before the creepy guy from the Expense Tracker was done talking on their video intro…
surely the $15 a month would be the first lot of money i could save.
^ nice!
My Wells Fargo Checking and Saving had something similar to this built into my online banking. I’m not sure that my new bank does the same thing though. It was nice to know how much I was spending on gas, food, and groceries every month, but sometimes it was a little bit depressing.
Jake
NoteScribe: Premier Note Taking Software
You are likely the guy with to much time on your hands. Do you collect all your receipts? Save them – even when you use cash and add them to your tracking systems? If so, you are the rare one.
Xpenser (http://xpenser.com/) has been doing this for over a year, and it also accepts email, SMS, Twitter, IM, and probably some other things I’m forgetting. Has export too, including export to FreshBooks, and it’s free.
Buxfer (http://buxfer.com) is also a free expense management website.. it supports email smss and more and is extremely useful(also helps you keep track of money loaned to friends etc :) ).
This is so not going to work. I, like many people, hate automated phone answering systems.
It would be worthwhile to linking it bank accounts instead, but of course this becomes a security issue.
You are speaking from a logical perspective. I too do not like automated systems. But, I can put up with this one because of its proactive way – telling me what I have remaining in any catagory such as gas, food, entertainment…all by calling and asking for a balance!
It’s cool and FREE to try ( for the cheap one’s to verify) for one week. Go get it and cancel if you don’t like it – then come back and add your thoughts.
Why wouldn’t you just use a service like http://www.mint.com. You can set up “view only” login for most accounts so there wouldn’t be any risk of giving your passwords to a site like mint.
Huh?…you just stated Mint twice. Mint is awesome website. I’ll stick to it.
Will check it out always in need of cash
http://makethemoola.weebly.com
or http://cashyou.weebly.com
I’m on mint.com
Best thing ever.
Scott
VentureDig.com
or, http://www.venturedig.com
Mint rocks. I feel no need to try something else.
Also, check this ExpenseTracker. Here is 18 Competitors:
http://www.wall...ment-sites.html
Errr … expensetracker dude needs less time in the solarium and more time working on the core product
I have always said – “tanned people have too much time on their hands lying around in the sun”
Have you tried the product? Not likely…come back after you do!
Fuck that. Why spend 5 minutes yelling at a robot when I can send 20 seconds on a text message?
That guys arm gestures have got to be the funniest thing I’ve seen today, though.
I use mint.com and charge everything (debit card is perfectly fine). Mint automatically categorizes all my purchases. I can set filters/rules to categorize any transactions.
“With the economy slipping closer to rock bottom every day now, many of us are going to have to start cutting back on our day-to-day expenditures.”
Lighten up on the doom and gloom please. That negativity from mass media isn’t reality for everyone.
“Expense savings helper application, $15″
@#%!! it’s supposed to help me save damn it!
Guest has a valid point. Lol
Don’t knock it til you try it…it’s free for 1-week and only $9.95/mo after if you like it.
Expense tracker user – who can’t stand those who bash without trying!
i use MINT and i am very happy with their service. so if i use expense tracker i need to add a new category “Expense Tracker” to pay their fees
Cheap b-sterd…I want it free….stop whining….keep on typing your expenses – I’ll simply call mine in with the expense track and get my daily updates and on and on – it’s a great tool for the person who is on th go!
I have been using Jott to post expenses to Xpenser for a long time. It works perfectly…
This is Sick and looks old for people like McCain.
Obama generation uses mint.
It will be interesting to see if people will spend $15 a month to track expenses. I also have a tough time imagining that the voice to text is going to really work!
It’s free to try for 1 week – do give it a shot…I did and I love it.
I’m guessing eventually mint will charge as well. How can they possible be making enough simply by pushing those ads? How many of you mint users actually have done one of those offers?
It’s a great service, but they’re going to have to charge eventually – or get much more aggressive in how they push their ads.
Speaking form myself, the idea of a calling-in the expenses is something I would do versus taking the time to type them into another tracking system.
Most all the competition require one to sit at computer and spend time doing data entry. This is where I fall down every time!
Plus nun are proactive enought ot give me an update regarding what I have left in my budget while I’m out in the mall or out in general.
Additionally it’s non-techie…all I have to do is know how to use my cell phone and call an 800 number!
Joe
WOW! I didn’t realize it actually sets up a budget for me on what I entered that I make each month…pretty cool. Every other system I have tried takes too long to figure it out and get going…I signed up last night and have already called in 5 expenses and I received my report this morning on my balances and transactions. I have tried mint, quiken, and Excel…none of them worked for me. So far so good…I’ll keep you posted.
This service looks like a joke.
Hello everyone!
There’s a ton going on at http://Expensify.com : new API, closed a $1M round of seed funding, Salesforce application, QuickBooks integration, new iPhone app, and lots more. We’ve been working hard and people are starting to notice! Expensify’s Salesforce integration was recently picked the “audience choice” expense reporting application, AlwaysOn picked us as a “Global 250 innovator and disrupter”, we just demoed our new API at the SF New Tech meetup and we’ve got much more in store. Please check out our latest coverage below:
http://ventureb...ense-reporting/
http://www.exam...s-a-fun-factory
Thanks for your help. It’s hard work getting the word out, and I really appreciate the attention you’ve given us. (And if you would be so kind as to tweet or post us somewhere, that’d be rad!) If you have any questions at all, or if you’d like to see a live demo or learn more, please contact me or David Barrett (the CEO) directly at dbarrett@expensify.com (801-860-0540). Thanks!
- Abbas (abbas@expensify.com)
You should follow us at http://twitter.com/expensify