At BudgetEase, we spend our days helping small businesses and nonprofits stay financially fabulous. But here’s the thing—small business owners also need to keep their personal finances in check, especially when it comes to financing and taxes. So what do our bookkeepers use to stay on top of their own money matters? We’re spilling the beans.
- 1. Quicken: Old Reliable and our favorite, still
- Easy export options for tax season.
- Ideal for categorizing personal and real estate finances.
- Automatically links to your bank feed and many investment accounts for real-time updates.
- Allows reconciliation and uploading of bank statements—your CPA will thank you.
- Reporting can be clunky if you're used to QuickBooks, and separating real estate or hobby-business holdings requires exporting.
- 2. Excel: The Classic That Won’t Quit
- Total control over categories and formulas.
- Perfect for tracking expenses and spotting spending patterns.
- Build your own spreadsheet from scratch, use a template or download transactions from the bank.
- Pro Tip: Why You Need A Budget (WYNAB) offers a spreadsheet template that connects to your bank feed and encourages proactive budgeting.
- Manual entry can be time-consuming.
- Limited when it comes to visualizing investment accounts.
- 3. Bank Budgeting Tools: Surprisingly Handy
- Major banks like Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Capital One offer built-in budgeting tools.
- Auto-categorizes spending directly from your bank feed.
- Bonus: Chase provides a printable budget worksheet you can download here.
- 4. Fidelity & Schwab: The Investment Gurus
- Consolidate accounts and IRAs in one place.
- Offers retirement projections and goal tracking.
- Excellent for long-term planning—not so much for daily budgeting.
- Newcomers We’re Curious About
- Tools like Monarch and Origin are gaining buzz for modern budgeting.
- They might be solid replacements for Mint (QuickBooks Online’s former personal budgeting tool that some of us still miss).
Why Contact BudgetEase Today?
Because your books deserve better than a panic attack every April. Whether you need QuickBooks catch-up, full-service bookkeeping, or want to outsource your accounting altogether—we’ve got your back.
BudgetEase: We balance books, budgets, and occasionally, our own caffeine intake.