Filed under: Software, iPhone, iPod touch, First Look
TUAW First Look: Cha-Ching Touch
Several years ago, I had a simple but wonderful checkbook app for my Palm. It was nothing more than money in and money out with some simple categorization (food, clothing, automotive, etc.). In other words, an electric alternative to a checkbook. Since I don't really write checks anymore, I no longer carry a register around. Plus, that old Palm is dead and gone (having accidentally spent one night in my rainy front yard), so I need an alternative.We've reviewed mobile financial apps before, like Pennies and Mint. Cory and Mike got to play with those, but I was lucky enough to nab Cha-Ching Touch for review.
The Good
First things first. It's pretty. Every screen and icon is nice to look at and easy to navigate, even the Get Smart-style vault that requires a passcode at launch (note that this is off by default).
To get started, create an account. Choose either Checking, Savings, Credit, Online, Loan or Cash. Each is represented by a unique icon which is a nice little touch. From there, enter an account number and associated URL if applicable.
Gallery: Cha-Ching Touch
You'll want to get started by depositing some cash, so click the shiny, candy-like "New Transaction" button and add a new payee. From there, you can enter that payee's name, category and location.
The location feature is great and makes it a snap to enter future transactions. Let's say I visit the same donut shop every morning and occasionally gas up on the way. I can speed up future entries by adding both to my favorites, or simply click the Locations button and let the app find all previous transactions I've made at that location (works just fine for me over EDGE with no GPS on a 1st gen iPhone, via the Skyhook WiFI locator capability).
Your transaction will be listed as pending until you click the button to reconcile it. You can also browse a history of alphabetized transactions much like you would artists on an iPod. Scheduling recurring payments is also very easy.
Finally, synchronization with the desktop version of Cha-Ching is a breeze and speedy.
The Bad
Entering a transaction is time-consuming. When I was at said donut shop this morning (you didn't think I was making that up, did you?), I feel rather conspicuous entering the transaction, as it required 7 clicks (not to mention the shop's name) and lots of jumping between screens. Future updates will be easier as I'll be able to select the shop from my list of previous vendors.
Also, there's crossover between accounts. I created a business account and a personal account. In real life, I keep those monies separated. However, the "budget" feature of Cha-Ching Mobile shows my available cash as the balance of the two. Budget lets you allocate a certain amount of cash to a given cagetory (groceries for instance) and monitor your progress towards zero. Unfortunately, it also thinks my personal account has more cash available than it actually does. This makes for a bit of budgetary confusion.
Cha-Ching Touch is $2.99US on the App Store, and the beta of Cha-Ching 2 for Mac is downloadable now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mark Ross said 4:02PM on 3-26-2009
I still say you should get the ipod app free if you own the desktop app. Just because I like free things.
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antiorario said 4:05PM on 3-26-2009
I'm not too happy about how long it takes to record transactions. The whole "payee" thing is also kinda dodgy (a payee should be someone you're giving money to, so it makes no sense to have a payee in incoming transactions).
Same for the desktop version (2 beta). I miss the separation between transaction title and payer/payee. I am afraid to make things easier they've actually made them more awkward.
The other day I posted a note on the Cha-Ching forums on the subject, and still haven't got an answer from anyone from Midnight Apps. (I got one answer, but not from one of them, AFAIK.)
This kind of app should flow easily. You shouldn't spend your day entering "payees". (Lack of Address Book support is also remarkable, considering it used to be there in Cha-Ching 1.)
Underwhelmed.
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Justin said 4:05PM on 3-26-2009
You guys review a lot of "pretty" finance applications. What about the useful ones?
SplashMoney downloads the transactions from your bank automatically. So does Mint.
So out goes the bad.
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Caitlin said 4:15PM on 3-26-2009
Your are missing the purpose of a register. That's exactly the point of an app like this.
Yeah, I can use Mint and get things downloaded automatically, but there no reconciling and keeping track of things here.
Plus, sometimes the bank or Mint runs slow. I want to see how much I have in my bank account at the point of a transaction. I shouldn't need to think, "Oh. Hm. I have to remember such and such hasn't gone through yet."
Justin said 4:22PM on 3-26-2009
SplashMoney is a register and it does reconcile. You can use it without connecting to a bank if you want, but the idea is you download data automatically, and enter manually anything that hasn't cleared yet and reconcile it with the next download.
Anyway, I will say Cha-Ching looks a lot nicer.
zoffdino said 11:03PM on 3-26-2009
I still feel that Cha-ching is woefully short in its reporting capabilities. I can't even get a basic pie chart of how much money I spent in each category.
Before switching to the Mac, I used Microsoft Money to manage my fiance. It wasn't exactly easy to use but it did what I wanted. Even since moving to the Mac, I have been having trouble finding for a replacement. All the finance apps focused on being nice but I found them to be more style than substance.
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Steve Marks said 4:14PM on 3-26-2009
If it doesn't connect directly to my bank accounts, it's too much hassle. As pretty as it might be, I just know I won't use it.
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Martin said 4:23PM on 3-26-2009
You must have a more timely and accurate bank than I do. I trust myself, not them, to manage my money.
quandmeme said 4:43PM on 3-26-2009
I use my desktop to manage all my accounts but when I am at a store, I need a way to say how much can I spend? I was holding out for Cha Ching based on the screen shots. I bought it immediately realized is wasn't the mobile register I was looking for and found Accounts and Spend which I'm evaluating now. Spend's color scheme is terrible, but I'm finding it is flexible with budgets but simple for transactions and I'm leaning that way.
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Sevenupcan said 8:10AM on 3-27-2009
I also found Cha-Ching Touch a little time consuming to enter data and a little difficult to navigate when editing accounts. There's also no way to set up a starting balance.
I use Ledger and feel it is far supirior than most of the finance apps out there because it's very simple and organic. It uses the debits and credits system which is confusing at first but very useful in the long run. Unfortunately at the moment it is missing two key feateurs that a lot of people want which is reporting and budgeting.
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sterling said 5:08PM on 3-26-2009
I hate that I haven't been able to find something better than plain old Quicken. I was hoping one of the browser based apps would work, but integrating with bank accounts always seems to be an issue. I don't like the app to edit my transactions, I just want to see what my bank says cleared so I can reconcile it. Cha-Ching seems to be getting closer, but they have a long to go yet.
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mentalsticks said 5:11PM on 3-26-2009
seriously guys... once again, how much did you get paid to write again about this app?
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johnmc said 10:42PM on 3-26-2009
Huh. I found it useful and interesting. I own Cha-Ching for the Mac and was considering purchasing Cha-Ching Touch, so reading this review has helped me work toward a decision.
Robert said 6:48PM on 3-26-2009
After reading this review I will be sticking with pennies. For the sole fact that it is so fast to punch in stuff. Every downfall pennies has is made up in the fact I can to the one thing I want it todo incredably fast...
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luckywabbit said 11:10PM on 3-26-2009
While Pennies was quick, I gave up on it after finding it so limiting, and lack of updates from the author. Cha-Ching is a breathe of fresh air to finally have a nice and quick register to use on the go. Pennies was a waste of money.
Maldaen said 7:34AM on 3-27-2009
I think the main appeal is that this is an iPhone app that interfaces with a desktop version of the same software. Mint is OK, but it's limited to the US only. And for all its faults, Cha-Ching is good at what it does: simple money tracking and budgeting.
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kreg said 9:34AM on 3-27-2009
Hmmm. I use the desktop version so the big thing for was sync. I don't want to download transactions from the bank. I want to enter them myself and then make sure they match the bank. Cha-ding works great for that. As to the speed of entering transactions, perhaps my expectations are just different but so far I haven't really found it to be difficult or take too much time.
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joelisfar said 9:59AM on 3-27-2009
I thought the coolest thing about Cha-ching was Tags because I could take care of my budget in the simple way that I want to, rather than having 50 different categories that don't actually help me budget.
But alas, Cha-ching Touch has no tags. I sycn it with the desktop 2 Beta, and Touch doesn't recognize the budgets I made in Cha-ching desktop because desktop uses tags and touch uses categories.
Categories ARE in 2 beta, but I can't remove all 50 of them I won't use, and I can't apply them to multiple transactions at once, and I can't see the point of them over tags.
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dann bohn said 2:30AM on 3-30-2009
Version 1.01 is going to fix the long time that it takes to enter a transaction..
http://www.midnightapps.com/chaching/iphone/video/15secondsorless.mp4
Also, tags are gone but categories are customizable. I see this as a non-issue. categories will help tighten your budget for example if you have a dining budget and you tag 3 transactions food, dining, and dinner but you don't have dinner set up for your 'dining out' budget it doesn't get counted.. with categories you don't have this issue.
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