Filed under: iPhone, App Store
First Look: Pennies for iPhone
Pennies is a new iPhone application from the same people who brought you AppZapper and Disco. Pennies is a simple, yet beautifully designed, application to manage your monthly budget right from your iPhone or iPod touch. When you first launch the application you are presented with a "This Month" budget screen where you can set your monthly budget, see how much you've spent, see top expenses, and get some statistics. In the "Expenses" tab you can add, edit, or annotate your expenses. When you add an expense, you can select a category and enter an amount. You can choose between 10 categories including: general, food, electronics personal, and groceries. When you enter an amount and save the expense, it is automatically deducted from the budget and the "fuel gauge" moves towards the "empty" line on the month screen.
Overall, this is a very nicely designed application that offers a handy solution for managing your budget on-the-go. However, it would be nice to have a desktop application on the Mac that this app could sync with. Perhaps via a WiFi link, like 1Password for iPhone -- maybe it could connect with ChaChing? Still, for $2.99, this application is definitely worth the price. Pennies (iTunes Link) is available right now via the App Store.
Gallery: First Look: Pennies
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
massimo.berta said 12:40PM on 8-07-2008
I apsolutely need it :)
Then I could enter my first expense in eletronics for "Pennies App, 2.99$" :D
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Artem said 1:29PM on 8-07-2008
It actually does it for you. :)
(01) said 2:01PM on 8-07-2008
(laughs) Right? I just downloaded and was wondering what I had already spent $$ on. Interesting to note that it rounds dollar amounts, as my purchase is shown at $3, not $2.99. Looks good so far, and I'm pretty sure I can't go wrong as AppZapper and Disco are pretty solid.
Casey Becking said 12:58PM on 8-07-2008
Just bought my first iPhone app. I've always downloaded the free ones but this is one i needed!
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Big John said 11:10PM on 8-07-2008
@Chad: Good thing VideoLAN is on 0.8.6i for VLC.
Vince said 11:29PM on 8-07-2008
Okay?
SV said 12:58PM on 8-07-2008
"Pennies is a new iPhone application from the same people who brought you AppZapper and Disco."
That's exactly what concerns me. While they're both great looking apps, they still have many missing features and unresolved bugs. Updates are rare. You're more likely to witness a total solar eclipse than the release of an AppZapper/Disco update.
Will Pennies suffer the same fate?
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stainboy said 1:02PM on 8-07-2008
there's already been four total solar eclipses since AppZapper was last updated....
Chris G. said 1:05PM on 8-07-2008
I agree. I have a copy of Disco and I didn't even install it when I updated to Leopard. It is very buggy and hasn't seen an update in probably a year or so. Plus I haven't had a need for it.
I think I will wait and see if Pennies actually gets updates, new features, and bug fixes before I buy it.
Plus I am waiting for a budget app for the iPhone that syncs with a desktop version. I know Quicken is supposedly getting rewritten for the Mac, it would be wonderful if they did an iPhone version to that syncs.
Chad Zeluff said 3:17PM on 8-07-2008
This has never stopped countless Mac users from using VLC 0.8.6a....
Levi Figueira said 1:04PM on 8-07-2008
I'm with you on the Cha-Ching sync...
Maybe the developers of both apps could go out for a cup of coffee one of these days, or something... :p
Bottom line: I won't buy/use this one because it's not complete enough for me plus I don't like managing my finances on my phone...
Besides, I just started using Cha-Ching more intensively these last days... Won't switch now! Besides: all my financial data on my phone? (read above) eeeek
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blinkcowz182 said 1:22PM on 8-07-2008
Read the article. This is a budget app not a financial manager a la chaching or quicken
Levi Figueira said 1:33PM on 8-07-2008
Of course I read the article m8! And that's exactly my point: a budget app is not a "complete fit" for my needs! I need the budget to fit in with some "financial tracking" system... I think everyone does! (at least integrate with one, hence my point of Cha-Ching integration!) And who wants to spend countless minutes (hours!?!) entering duplicate information in 2 apps... including one of them on the iPhone???
Plus my other point is that if I'm not using 2, am I really gonna want all my financial tracking/management done on my.... phone???? :| Don't think so...
Get it? :)
quickbank said 3:14PM on 8-07-2008
Shameless plug here:
You don't have to enter all your information in two separate applications with QuickBank:
http://quickbankapp.com/
Released the same day as pennies, and for 200 pennies less, QuickBank lets your track expenses across unlimited accounts and export your data to be used in Quicken, Microsoft Money, etc...
Levi Figueira said 5:07PM on 8-07-2008
@quickbank
Don't get me wrong, but your app is kinda "miles" away in terms of UI/sweetability... :p
But that's what I'd like from Pennies... ;)
I'll look into yours anyway... :)
Bror Bojlen said 1:16PM on 8-07-2008
I downloaded this app yesterday from the Danish iPhone store. It has an awesome design, but it has a major problem: whenever I add an expense, no matter what price I enter, it always ends up as 0 danish kroners. This makes the app useless, as it doesn't register any expenses I add. I only think this is a problem when the app uses other currencies than USD, though.
I really hope to get an update soon - it looks great! I already sent a bug report to design by a knife (who made the app).
Plus, the fact that it has no desktop app to sync with might be a bit problematic.
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Daniel said 3:11PM on 8-11-2008
This is happening to me too.
I guess thats because i use brasilian currencies.
Did you get any response from the developers? I sent a bug report but im still waiting for an answer.
The Jerk said 1:20PM on 8-07-2008
Glad to see others posting the same thing I came to post about. I purchased this before I knew it was made by the Disco and AppZapp guys. Now I'm worried! Those 2 apps (and I own both, but never use them anymore) are so poorly supported. They never add features and rarely fix bugs. I really hope they redeem themselves with this one... but I highly doubt it. I'll keep using it, but I bet it wont be as good as I hoped. I fully expected plenty of feature additions, which I now find highly unlikely.
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Fritz Laurel said 1:19PM on 8-07-2008
Can you create your own categories? That's the make or break for me.
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mikel egurra said 2:30PM on 8-07-2008
you cannot. you can edit the ones the have, but you must do it everytime you add something.
i'm using budget, which allows you to do that, and add your own.
i would love to love pennies, it's really beatifull, but i really do need more categories, and i would love to be able to separate lunch from dinner, or add cigarettes, or any other thing...
it's really a shame, because it's so close to being what i needed, but falls short.
budget, on the other hand, is not as pretty, but it will get the job done.