Saving money is tough work, even when you’re working towards something you really want, like a new car or a vacation. First, there’s the business of actually finding someone to write you a paycheck each month, and then you have to look at that pile of cash sitting in your bank account, just begging to be spent on the latest DVD, book, or gadget that suits your fancy. And there’s always the predictable but expensive costs like rent and insurance that keep eating away at those savings, not to mention the issues you can’t plan for.
PocketSmith is a new startup that’s looking to help. The site offers a range of tools for managing your financials both now and in the future, hopefully helping you reach your financial goals in the process. This week it’s leaving beta, and is offering the first 50 TechCrunch readers to Email contact@pocketsmith.com a free premium account for six months.
There are a number of well known financial services already on the web, including Wesabe and Mint, which won the to prize at 2007’s TechCrunch 40 conference. But whereas Mint is really about looking at your spending habits and figuring out ways to save, PocketSmith is more of a calendar for finances that lets you set financial goals and track your progress over time.
The other big difference from Mint is that you don’t directly connect your bank accounts to the service. Instead, you can download your transaction history from your bank’s website and upload it, or you can manually enter your transactions. If you’re used these other services and are okay with allowing a startup to access your banking data, this is a bit of an inconvenience, but the upload method really only takes a minute.
The site iself is very well done, sporting a polished interface and nifty effects that make otherwise mundane tasks a bit more fun. There are also videos for many of the site’s common functions, explaining how you should be using them. And because many of the service’s functions are calendar-based, you can import them into iCal and Outlook, as well as Google Calendar.
Most of the features are broken into one of four sections: Forecast, which lets you create a calendar of your financial activity, updating with regular costs (like rent) and other major expenses that you know are coming up. This section also projects how much money you’ll have months (or a year) down the line. The Accounts section lets you can either manually input or upload your transaction history, while ‘Compares’ lets you visually contrast how your projected financials are matching up with what you actually have. Finally, there’s Goals, where you can list off things that you’re saving for (say, a new car).
It’s the last section that will probably be the most useful for people, as it determines how many days you’ll have to maintain your current savings plan until you can meet a goal. There’s something about being able to watch that countdown tick downwards that can really become a powerful psychological tool, which can help you resist those financial splurges.
PocketSmith offers three different pricing plans: a free option, which allows you to maintain two calendars and track six events; a premium version for around $5 a month that allows for unlimited events and five calendars, and finally a $12 version that allows for unlimited events and ten calendars (Note: the prices on the site are in New Zealand Dollars, so I’ve converted them to US).
All in all the site seems solid, but it’s probably going to appeal to a somewhat different audience than Mint does. This is primarily because using Mint can be a passive experience — you enter your account data once, and it does the rest for you. With PocketSmith, you need to proactively set your goals and make sure that you’re entering any upcoming expenses, which requires a bit more effort. Still, the use case for the sites are pretty different, and there may well be a significant market for PocketSmith.
Don’t really have need for this but, one thing that is pissing me off is they sites theme, every times you scroll over one of the articles the images keep moving and is really annoying. (maybe if one of the pocketsmith managers is reading this could do something about it.)
On the homepage?
They aren’t articles that you’re hovering over. They are features of their product.
The images that move when you hover over are showcasing each feature.
I don’t get what you are on about, if you’ve got a problem with the interface get over it, it’s a decent budgeting tool not a movie site? Plus how many times are you putting your mouse over the only 3 paragraphs which scroll? (some people)
I love the interfaces that they have employed. I bet there is some decent code in the back to run this baby. I just don’t get what your beef is with this. I LOVE the simple and well implemented use of rollovers etc. It’s an effective way of displaying a heck of a lot of information on a page without having to do the laborious task of having to refresh the page, as we used to have to do in the past. So to the designers and developers, well done guys.
Back to the package itself. I’ve been dying to find just this type of tool. Being able to project one’s budget beyond the traditional 1 month period, being able to tweak and refine, it’s simply amazing. I can’t believe it hasn’t been done so effectively before.
Note that Wesabe allows you to NOT give them your password and do a completely manual upload or a semi-automatic upload through a FireFox browser add-on. You can also do it like Mint and hand over all of your credentials if you want, and its fully automatic. I am not seeing where the pocketsmith is much different from Wesabe.
The key difference is that Mint and Wesabe specialise in spend analysis and history – and they do it very well.
PocketSmith forecasts your future finances – which means that in practical terms, you use it to figure out how much money you’ll have at any date in the coming year. You plan better when you can see you future.
Also, you don’t need to upload anything at all to use PocketSmith.
What Saving?
We Americans are not used to savings, we just use cards. No need to save, just pay the minimum, that too if you desire.
but does it iphone
Hi!
A tailored web layout is in progress for the iPhone (using the standard iPhone-esque cues), which will be the functional basis for a possible dedicated iPhone app in the future.
However, you can subscribe to your PocketSmith calendar on the iPhone using CalDAV, which has your forecast account balances and events etc out of the box.
Thanks!
James
Does it iPhone what? Do you live by the iPhone exclusively? If you live by the iPhone exclusively then sorry, the rest of the world is yet to catch up, and I’m still happy to live with those antiquated things computers.
How about asking nicely, or even suggesting an iPhone compatible solution. Even tell them what about making it available for the iPhone would be good for you. Are they meant to read your mind? Are you just looking for balances, then tell them that, or if you are looking for the whole budgeting shebang, then suggest that too.
A tailored web layout is in progress for the iPhone (using the standard iPhone-esque cues), which will be the functional basis for a possible dedicated iPhone app in the future.
However, you can subscribe to your PocketSmith calendar on the iPhone using CalDAV if you are using iPhone OS 3.0, which has your forecast account balances and events etc out of the box.
We are open to suggestions about the most useful functions in an iPhone app and/or web interface – drop us a line with any ideas.
Thanks!
James
This could be something. But I do agree with abc, is it compatible with the iphone?
http://appuseful.com
cool
This is perfect for me as I live outside USA, so Mint.com and other popular apps dont work to well. The forecasting features look awesome.
Thanks for the great writeup, Jason. We’re the fortune-tellers of the personal finance applications!
For what it’s worth guys, if you’re running iPhone 3.0 you’ll be able to subscribe to your PocketSmith calendar over CalDAV.
It’s awesome, I do it – and it syncs automatically and sits there alongside all your other calendars, and will serve as reminders of your upcoming transactions, as well as where your predicted bank balances ought to be.
Thanks also to all of you who have written in for the 50 accounts! They went in a flash, and we’ll be responding shortly. Do remember though, base accounts are free, so hop on in and make one
We do bill in USD if you’re outside NZ btw, and Jason’s prices are spot-on
dont really have too much of a need for this when I have to disclose confidential information to a startup
We understand your concerns – however no confidential information is required (aside from email address to sign up) – you can just use the forecasting / goals side of things, meaning no bank transactions need to be uploaded if you don’t want to utilize those features.
No need to email, they’re accepting free account signups on their site.
Most of these dont work for all over the world bank websites!
Hi Amit. Many of them don’t, however we are aiming to be the most international personal finance app available. Currently we have users from 71 countries, and we support bank files from all over the world successfully, in a variety of formats.
Also, we are constantly making PocketSmith work with new banks our customers introduce to us, so international bank coverage is constantly growing.
So give it a shot, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Thanks!
James
I like it that they do not access your bank accounts, then I have more control.
Hi Pocket smith is currently dollar denominated or can it support multi currency for eg Indian Rupees
Hey Sumeet, you can change the currency to whatever you like, Indian Rupees included!
I know it’s asking a lot, but at some point multiple currencies would be nice. Many of us in Europe have to deal with euros, pounds sterling, and dollars.
That PocketSmith is internationally focused — unlike Mint which asks for a US postal code and only does dollars — is a huge differentiator.
It is always amazing how many of these Silicon Valley start-ups are ignorant regarding international users, like requiring a state as a mandatory field in an address outside of the US.
Or at least let users set up subaccounts or assign item categories in different currencies.
If you can somehow sort out multiple currencies, you will have people planet-wide flocking to PocketSmith.
It’s a challenge we’re certainly up for! It would be interesting to see ones’ consolidated accounts in different currencies, and we’ve had a couple of users bring this to our attention – however we still wonder whether or not multi-currency is still a bit of a niche requirement.
I can imagine that it would be frustrating to manage budgets in multiple currencies. Would the fact that we’d approximate conversions be an issue?
Great, another budgeting software. I like the fact it supports currencies other than US dollars.
Great bunch of guys with a great product, awesome to see them featured here.
I agree that multiple currencies will broaden your product’s appeal. I would love to suggest this to a few of my friends that are constantly traveling and dealing with multiple currencies.
Thanks for chipping in, that’s really good to know!
Huh? Who needs this. Us Americans dont do dis stuff! Crazy kiwis
Which is why the US economy is even more in the toilet than the NZ one! Maybe it’s about time more people used pocketsmith to help them quickly discover what manageable debt actually is – then we might just get out of this global recession that little bit quicker.
This looks like a cool service. Thanks for reviewing it, techcrunch!
I think this is cool. We can maintain a calendar
6 budget events? That’s patently ridiculous. I can’t even put in one month’s events to test out the software and I will not pay for something I can’t test.
Budget events should be unlimited for all users.
Hi Doug, you are able to repeat forecast events, meaning you can categorize and test the software pretty extensively with 6 budget events.
For example, you can have your events as Income, Groceries, Internet, Telephone / utilities, Entertainment and one to spare. Events are limited by title – you can edit your ‘Groceries’ event as you like, adjusting amounts and dates and repeating as required over the coming months.
I’m sure you’ll find that 6 budget events are enough to thoroughly test the application. Thanks!