Program for personal accounting

[Zimonya]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone would be able to help direct me to a program to keep track of personal finances. I currently do it manually and know of MYOB but, I was wondering if there was a program better suited to keeping track of personal finances and investments, including shares and property.

I am keen to hear peoples opinions and suggestions, thanks in advance.

Regards

Anthony

P.S. Once you have decided on an investment structure and set it up is it difficult to do the maintain the accounting yourself. I do realise that ones time is extremely valuable.

[simonjulie]

Hi Anthony
There are countless programs out there that all have merits.
But in my opinion one can not beat the simple Excel spreadsheet.
I understand it, my accountant understands it and my broker understands it.
When it comes to tracking investment portfolios it is important to keep it simple because I have better things to do with my time than spend it sitting down trying how to figure out the latest bit of U-Beaut software or the added updates that often follow.
Depending on the size of your portfolio I would also recomend Paperport software(do a google search) in conjunction with a good scanner which helps organise the files on your computer more effectively helping to create a paperless office.
Kind regards
Simon

[duncan_m]

P.S. Once you have decided on an investment structure and set it up is it difficult to do the maintain the accounting yourself.

I find my record-keeping takes me less than an hour an week for all my properties and my personal finance. It pays to get into the habit of record-keeping "as you go", once it gets on top of you it can really get out of control..

[Zimonya]

Thanks very much for the help guys, I had a sneaking suspicion that Excel would be a good way to go. A paperless office, that appeals!

I thought that if you had a system and as long as you kept up to date with it that it would not be that hard, I just wonder if it makes economical sense. I will just have to work that one out when I get there.

Thanks again

Anthony

[Paulo]

I have gone done the paperless route also. You can insert hyperlinks (under insert menu) in an excel spreadsheet to scanned invoices, which means you can simply click on the link and go to an image of the invoice. Effectively it means that all your expenses/income attached to one job can be found in one place, which I think in the long run saves time when trying to track down discrepancies, or in comparing how much a job was last time. Reiterate that it is worth getting a good scanner, mine is a multipurpose one which is too slow, time to upgrade soon. Also will need to think about electronic back up (as well as still keeping paper invoices in a basic filing system). You can fit a fair amount of information on a DVD , $3 for 5Gs is as cheap as it will get, and has the advantage of offsite dependable storage and duplication, so a DVD-RW is probably a good idea.