Back in Black Budget Keeps You On Track

Editor’s Rating
Functionality
Appearance
Playable or Useful
Price

Average Ratings
Functionality	Not Rated
Appearance	Not Rated
Playable or Useful	Not Rated
Price	Not Rated

In today’s economy there is a huge need for people to keep their personal finances on track and live within their means. One of the great things about living in the smart phone era is it’s never been easier to keep track of your budget anywhere or any time. One of newest apps that handles the tracking of personal finances is “Back in Black Budget” by FissionMedia.

The Back in Black Budget allows users to create a balaced budget, track their spending habits, set spending limits as well as track the monthly progress for each month. Users can also set long term financial goals and track spending habits on a monthly basis. One of the great things is the ability to set goals. Experts will tell you that goal setting is the key to success. Setting attainable and TRACKABLE goals will help anyone achieve their goals as long as they stick with it. Tracking your spending goals is not only possible with Back in Black, it’s downright simple. Anyone using the Back in Black Budget app can instantly add an a purchase right into the app at the moment they are doing it. This means less forgetting and more accurate tracking. The fact that the user can put his or her goals into the app also means there’s a certain amount of reality to the app. Anyone spending can see the effect their spending has on their goals over time.

This app is a really simple way to avoid spending more money than you earn. In fact besides goals there are also spending limits you can set for specific categories for each month. You can prevent or limit spending on specific categories based on a certain dollar value amount. This is great because it really gives some idea how bad the problem is or the reverse how well you are doing. You can certainly see the reality of your spending habits when it’s there staring at you on your phone and you are told you’ve reached your spending limit for the month. People using the Back in Black budget app can also modify their spending limits and goals each month to suit their requirements. That way you can customize it to what you would like.

Security is another concern of mine when it comes to my financial data. If you’re like me you probably don’t like the idea of leaving your personal finance information wide open for anyone to look at. Seems the people who wrote Back in Black Budget also felt this way. They added a 4 digit pin code that is very simple to use for extra security measures. Now if someone finds your phone somewhere, your financial data is safe and can’t be accessed. Another measure of security that makes me feel good about recommending the Back in Black Budget app is the fact that you can easily backup your data with one tap of a finger. Then you can email the backup to yourself and put it in a safe place. It’s very easy to see how you can then hold on to multiple versions of your data just in case something should happen with your phone. I find this extremely comforting to know that my data is safe and backed up where I can get to it in the event of an emergency.

Update 9/11/2012 – The fine developers over at FissionMedia have updated the Back in Black Budget App and added an all new graphing engine to the mix of budgeting and money tracking goodness. Now users can visually see pie graphs to show them where all of their money is going each month. The pie charts track spending, goals, expenses, and unassigned income each month. Once a category is chosen it breaks down even further to subcategories. For example in spending if breaks down each expense into separate pie slices that are color coded based on what category as well as the level of spending for each expense. The app also provides a percentage as any good pie chart should. A user can also add a new expense right from the chart itself and see it reflected immediately after the new expense has been added. Another great feature is that touching any of the chart items takes the user to a breakdown of the item that was tapped to give users even further clarity into the item that was tapped. The addition of the pie charting engine proves once again why Back in Black Budget is a serious budgeting app and why it remains a strong 5 star application that anyone looking for a budget app should pick up right away. Put it this way if my review system goes to 5 this thing gets a 6. Plain and simple!

The Back in Black budget is also very easy to customize when it comes to the look and feel of the certain things. For instance there is over 140 different icons available to represent any of your expense categories. This allows you get somewhat of a specific look and feel based on your preferences and not on the likes / dislikes of a software developer. Oh and did I forget to mention the interface on this app looks fantastic. It’s clean, colorful, and very intuitive. It’s done extremely well and flows very easy on the iPhone’s screen. It just looks great!