ok but I agree, missing some critical things

so far its okay. I am hoping that this program will do what the iPhone/ipad app does not, show categories across all accounts and not just one account at a time. I was deeply disappointed in the iphone version because it doesnt matter to me what I spend in each catagory per account, it matters across all accounts. I bought the desktop version on sale figuring at least it syncs via an import/export function via icloud so that alone puts in a good light. Hopefully the developers will see the light. I will update once I am using for a month or two to let you know its true usability. Plus if I recall setting up the iphone app correctly, you need to add your catagories individually into each account. It is not a master database of catagories, which implies that a major coding rewrite would be needed to view catagories across all accounts collectively. So I doubt it will happen. Reading other reviews of the iphone app, others feel the same disappointment.

I have tried about every other app in the app store for finances and budgeting. When not even MINT can handle a transfer correctly between accounts (though they claim since it shows up as both a debit and a credit it washes, but that is not true and the balances are not accurate) I leaves me with little hope but I keep trying. It seems I can get one feature but not another. Envelope style budgeting is OLD FASHIONED, its not complicated. Our grandparents during the war used a actual envelopes, ask them…it seems that the budgeting skill was not handed down as it should have been. And so far every developer gets it close but not hitting the mark. I am looking for the best of the bunch and hoping they figure it out.

UPDATE June 3, 2013
I cannot upload csv files from my banking website. The software says you can but it has not worked. I have emailed customer support but my past experience with customer support has been anything but pleasant so I have little hope. I was actually "yelled" at because they didnt like my question. They were extremely rude and I called them on it. Anyway, I am glad I bought this on sale. I am not impressed, though I keep trying. I have decided to solve my budgeting problems to use my credit card for ALL PURCHASES and then use the budget catagory feature only on that one account. Since it wll not view budgets across accts collectively. Makes set up easier, I dont have to do each account. just one.

further update June 3, 2013

After much searching (though I could have found it sooner, it wasnt really hidden, it was just me) I found the format for uploading a CSV file. Its completely useless. The field for the date is impossible to easily fix. the format accepts only five columns, nothing like what the software exports as a CSV file. Here are the file columns (pasted from the help section) :

1. Create an “transactions.csv” file formatted as follows (one row for each transaction, 5 different fields per row):

category name (if this category doesnt exist, it will be automatically created)

date (YYYYMMDD format)

short description

amount of money, signed (negative for an expense, positive for an income)

means of payment (cash, check, etc., will be automatically created if doesnt exist)

Check out the DATE (YYYYMMDD) No one in the USA that I have dealt with personally or professional writes the date like that and Excel does not have that as a formula that could be run to update each date. So if you download a CSV file from your bank, be prepared to do a lot of heavy editing. If you are gettng this hoping to download your bank info, its not probably the app you desire.

Cleopatra peanut about Visual Budget: Expense Tracking & Finance