As I’ve mentioned quite a few times in the past, my preferred tool for tracking spending is Expensr, largely because of its simplicity and ease of use, so I was a little disappointed when I logged on today to find that Expensr is no longer in service:
Expensr is no longer in service. Instead, we encourage you to try our NEW site, moneyStrands for your personal finance and budgeting needs. moneyStrands offers the features offered by Expensr and then some.
I’ve gone through automatic transistion wizard to get my Expensr data onto moneyStrands, and although it seems to have gone through OK, the process dumps you pretty unceremonially into an unfamiliar system.
Now, I’m sure that moneyStrands can handle tracking my spending without too much trouble, and having poked around a little, I think I’ve found where that feature is lurking. And there’s a lot more to moneyStrands than Expensr ever offered, but that’s one of the problems – Expensr allowed me to complete my spending tracking with ease and without too much distration, whereas the learning curve seems a little steeper with moneyStrands.
It also appears to be setup to take data from bank accounts – not something I’m against, but all the banks on offer appear to be US based (I should probably give that Kublax account I’ve been promising to have a go with a try).
Another couple of  gripes: the spending categories I had setup in Expensr seem to have disappeared, possibly needing setting up again. The currency has also reset to US dollars, which isn’t a massive problem, but again is something that should just work from day one.
It’s a little harsh of me to be moaning about a free product, and I guess that’s one of the drawbacks – when you’re not paying any money, you don’t really have right to expect a service to remain the same or be reliable. I think I’ll be looking for a new way to track my spending. I’ve been talking about getting an iPhone for a while, so it would probably make sense to look at relevant iPhone apps once I’ve got that.
photo credit: NOGG3R5
Hey! Would love to know what you think of Kublax. Give it a try!
Rob, I understand your frustrations with having to move over and learn a new system. I wanted to let you know that we are working on adding the features mentioned above including, custom categories and the ability to see your analysis and budgets in other currencies. Also wanted to add that we do offer the ability to manually upload data or key in your transactions, if you prefer not to auto-link your accounts. Info on how to do this can be found at https://money.strands.com/blog/2009/07/manual-file-upload-option-has-arrived
Best,
Lucia @ moneyStrands
@ Tom – I will definitely be giving Kublax a try and will post my thoughts to Money Watch
@ Lucia – Thanks for dropping by and for the info – I haven’t given up on moneyStrands just yet, was just a little frustrated as I’ve been tracking my spending to the penny for the last month, and I’ve been thrown by the new system. Will persevere though!
I have found BudgetFix via KillerStartups, and it is much similar to the old Expenser, but I like the layout and functionality better: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/budgetfix-net-manage-your-finances-online