I use either my credit card or debit card for almost everything purchase I make (curse Tim Horton’s for their cash-only policy!). It follows that somewhere, a robot (also known by its more innocuous name, ‘computer’) knows what I’ve bought, when and where I’ve bought it, and how much it cost.
This is all the information I need to really understand where my money goes every month. However, the format I get it in isn’t much use to me. Every month I get a few out-of-date account information mailings from my bank and credit card provider listing my purchases in chronological order. I could sit down with a calculator and figure out how much of my money goes to food, entertainment, utilities, etc.
Sure, I could do that, but this isn’t people work, its robot work.
Here’s what I want, a simple new feature on my web-banking. I want to be able to create categories of spending (and maybe even sub-categories) that I can use to label each of my purchases. For example, I would create a category called Groceries which I might break up into subcategories (Real Food, Junk Food, Other Stuff). Other categories would include Utilities (phone, electric, etc.), Insurance (car, other insurance I should have, etc.), Rent, Car (gas, repairs, racing stripes, etc.), Entertainment (movies, games, clowns, etc.).
I would be able to run through my purchases, labeling each of them as one of my categories. Then, I could get a simple breakdown of my monthly spending by category. Wouldn’t you love to know how much you spend a year at the Quick-E-Mart!
I could do this myself with a spreadsheet and some free time, but it would be such a simple addition for existing web-banking systems (see a simple mockup). Perhaps some already have something like this? If only the banks would compete for my petty accounts.
For more dreamy web-banking, see 37signals’ 37FAKEBANK.
Isn’t this what Quicken is for?
Carl, I’m sure there are plenty of software packages that can do this and much more (Quicken, Microsoft Money, etc.). However, I don’t want all the other features, I don’t want to install anything, I don’t want to copy and import data. I’m lazy.
What I’m asking for here is just a simple addition to exisiting web-banking systems that makes the data that’s already there more useful.
Tim’s takes Debit cards here – what crazy backwoods Timmy’s are you frequenting?!
I realize that it would be great if the banks would offer this – but I have been using Quicken for the past year or so and it obviously lets you do Categories and such BUT when I download my transactions from President’s Choice Financial (yah yah – shut up!) into it, 9 times out of 10 it tells me the store name (Tim’s, Esso, etcetera) for the debit purchase. Tres convenient!
I thought it was a flat-out rule that Tim’s don’t use debits. Unless it’s a Wendy’s-Tim’s drive through. Then you get the card.
Steven read my brain before posting this because I’m looking for a similar package. I don’t know what I’m looking for so I’m not sure what look for in a package. I’m spreading my wings and getting an apartment later this year. I’d enjoy being able to budget money for groceries, pharmaceuticals, rent, utilities, fish food, etc. on a weekly/monthly basis. Just a way to keep me from accidentally buying a toaster with this months rent. This is what those money packages do for me, right? Help me to set up a budget?
(I’m in the process of scrutenizing different Palm grocery list software to legitimize my purchase of the thing back in the day. I could have taken a spring-summer pre-Calc course instead of buying that thing. Where were my priorities? Blah.)
I hate to break the news but as anyone who has travelled with me knows, we have the cheapest Timmies on the planet in this franchise zone – home of the tiny apple fritter (take a scale along, weigh them: a crime against pastry). Of course, being PEI, it is a province wide monopoly and one owned by someone who convinced officials to refuse a Quebec Major Junior Hockey team for Charlottetown. I hold off until Cap Pele or Sackville when I hit the road. Let Freedom Reign!
What I’m asking for here is just a simple addition to existing web-banking systems that makes the data that’s already there more useful.
Right, but where does it stop? You want this one little feature, someone else wants another. Featureitis quickly ensues. I think features like this should be reserved for 3rd party applications like Quicken.
Hey Rob,
By far the best grocery list software I’ve found is HandyShop – be sure to give it a try.
Erin: I’m in the process of opening a Presidents Choice Financial account – lured by the fact that all all the services I pay $6/month for at the Royal Bank (oh, sorry, I mean, the RBC) are free at the PC bank. How do you find them? What’s the catch?
And yes, it’s true, our local tim’s don’t take debit – I assumed it had something to do with time and transaction fees for $.95 purchases – maybe not. The bank machine accross the street
from the tim’s down the street is a busy one.
Al: have you ever noticed that apple fritters look remarkably like BBQ chicken wings?
Carl: Do you work at microsoft or something? 😉
I work at a web software company and I’m well aware of the dangers of featuritis – they can kill a project. But featuritis is not an argument against any one feature – rather, it is the result of bad planning and management. A smart team of people should evaluate all the customer feedback and decide what makes the cut and what doesn’t. I get the feeling that process has never happened with many web banks.
I have to pick up my brother at Moncton airport today. I am just about to head out. Accordingly I will do a fritter test. I will pick at random a PEI fritter from a Tims randomly picked and one from an NB Tims again most randomly picked. I will even seal them at the point of purchase. I will not eat them until I return home and weigh them. While this may seem like an extremely silly thing to do, it is a silly thing which may prove my case or redeem this province’s fritter reputation so I am willing to be silly. I will judge them on size and weight. Reports tomorrow.
Do you think he’ll be able to drive the entired length of the Confederation Bridge with two tasty Apple Fritters in the car and not eat them? Good luck! (oh, and notice that they looing like BBQ Chicken!)
More features from the bank would be an excuse for more fees frankly. I would put a search on for a Palm program- there’s one for everything. Hubby got one for Xmas and now I’m coveting one, because the ladies on my knitting list are oooooooing over how easy it makes keeping track of your yarn stash and knitting paraphenalia (it seems you have to buy a different size needle for every new project you embark on).
We just moved and decided to open an account closest to our new apartment and having the best weekend hours. And they have two options for fees- no fees if you keep $1000 balance (or a per item charge after the first few transactions if you’re poor) or $24.95 for the cadillac plan with unlimited transactions and fees waived for your Gold Visa. We’re such addicts to the debit card it would probably be cheaper to go with the cadillac plan.
On Tim’s. My mother is bitter that we have left Victoria, where we lived a block away from one of the few stand-alone Tim’s we’ve seen in this province and moved back to Vancouver, land of the latte, where Tim’s can only be found at the far inferior Esso locations (yes, I know they exist out in the burbs, but who the heck wants to ride the bus for an hour to get a donut). My mother is strictly a coffee flavored coffee girl (a la Denis Leary in Lock and Load) and has a five large triple-triple a day habit. Gee Mom, maybe you could ditch the cholesterol meds if you weren’t drinking a quart of cream a day. So, we suck, but I think living within walking distance of Granville Island Public Market makes up for one week of maternal bitterness during her annual vacation visits, yes?
Findings: NB @3.75 oz; PEI 3.0 oz. As these things are standard manufacture and not some highschool kid using a spoon, I am vindicated.
Evidence: As the head of the ISU said, I received very good evidence but I cannot share it with you. They made it across the bridge and onto my melt measuring scale but no farther.
Conclusion: only in PEI could you confuse a Tim’s apple fritter for a chicken wing.
Steven: I very-much like PCF – have been with them for a few years now, actually. The ONLY time I am ever using an actual ATM is when I deposit cheques and such. Otherwise it is either online or debit/credit. There is no ‘catch’ per se – unless you LIKE dealing with actual tellers (pas moi).
All this talk about PEI and Sackville has me missing dear ol’ MTA… I *will* get back there one of these days. I love the area… if I could get a job at MTA, I’d move back in a MINUTE.
I’ve tried most of the banks and credit unions’ web banking offerings and still find the Metro Credit Union’s (uses the standard Credit Union Central interface) to be the best. It is constantly being improved, their telephone technical support is excellent (both the central call centre, and local support offered by Doug Bridges), and they have been very responsive in adding new features when requested.
I think that the feature you are looking for should be able to “learn” as well. I would say 90% of my purchases (when I’m not on the road) are at the same establishments.
At any given point your web-bank should be able to present you with a list of transactions not yet categorized. For each one you choose what category it belongs to, and you all tell it wether or not all future similar transactions belong to the same category.
So over time, you list of not yet categorized transactions dwindles. And if you want to go on vacation you can turn on a “vacation counter”. You just fill out a form that says “all transactions from x to y should go to the Hawaii vacation category.”
Once you have auto-categories working, you can do things like enter in an ideal budget and system would email you when you started approaching the limit in a given category, letting you know you should slow down.
And though it gets a little complicated, you could maybe have rules like: sales over $15 at the grocery store go into the groceries, sales under $15 go into snacks.
~Jesse
Good call Jessee. While some establishments can’t be directly linked to a category in most cases (Wal-Mart, for example – they sell everything), most can. Every trip to the local video store is obviously going to fall under Entertainment. Every trip to Tim Horton’s falls under – no, wait – Tim Horton’s doesn’t take god-damned debit cards!!!
It’s all about flexibilty with good defaults. I’m all about smart defaults.
Somebody get this man a blog.
Theoretically, you should be able to get your spending information down to the individual product. When you buy groceries, or timbits, just about anything these days, it’s itemized on the bill, and it’s itemized on the computer. Why not include that data too, send it to the bank, and allow you to access it so that you can figure out what percentage of your income you spend on marmite and large double-doubles?