Personal finance software for untechy sorts

[xoggoth]

A recently widowed relative does not know how to look after her personal finances. She has a PC but is not very technical. Wondering what software might help her to easily track account balances, remind her when credit card payments are due or other bills need paying, let her log cheque payments etc. I use Excel but that isn't much good for her as she would probably overwrite and screw up my formula.

The free NCH software looks good but is it safe to allow access to online accounts like that? Would this bypass the bank's own safety guards like Trusteer or leave passwords hackable? I did notice on install that it uses openSSL. Any other suggestions?

Much ta.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Try YNAB. Works brilliantly for me.

Personal Budget Software - Finance Software for Windows & Mac

[woohoo]

Try YNAB. Works brilliantly for me.

Personal Budget Software - Finance Software for Windows & Mac

Seem orientated for the American market, can you change it for pounds etc?

Does it connect to your bank or do you have to export from your bank and then import?

I used to love MS Money years ago, seems similar.

[greenlake]

No experience with either of these, but maybe worth a look....

lovemoney.com - Live life richer with lovemoney.com
Money Dashboard: Personal finance and budget planner

[TheFaQQer]

MS Money?

I used to use it years ago and it was pretty good. Not sure if it even exists any more, though.

[Sysman]

Seem orientated for the American market, can you change it for pounds etc?

Does it connect to your bank or do you have to export from your bank and then import?

I used to love MS Money years ago, seems similar.

They took MS Money off the market.

Yes in YNAB you can use any currency you like.

Dunno about the banking. For the number of transactions per month I have, importing bank downloads into a spreadsheet first then copying/Pasting into YNAB does for me.

Note that YNAB doesn't display a running balance against each transaction, and for reasons known to itself orders multiple transactions for a given date by value rather than the order you entered them. This can make reconciliation tricky, but that spreadsheet gives me a means of double checking.

Where YNAB does shine is on the budget side. I've tried many accounting packages over the years and never really got the hang of budgeting with any of them.

YNAB has good support forums but they are very Yank biased. They are a bit cultish (which the Yanks seem to like) so don't let them drag you in.

Tip: Give them a throwaway email addy when registering for a trial copy to avoid getting pestered if you don't buy.

[xoggoth]

Cheers chaps/whatever. See if she likes the look of those.

[darmstadt]

MS Money?

I used to use it years ago and it was pretty good. Not sure if it even exists any more, though.

Snap, maybe this would be of use: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2118008

[Platypus]

Seem orientated for the American market, can you change it for pounds etc?

Does it connect to your bank or do you have to export from your bank and then import?

I used to love MS Money years ago, seems similar.

MS Money?

I used to use it years ago and it was pretty good. Not sure if it even exists any more, though.

I still use MS Money; I have an old Microsoft Works disc which includes Money and it still works ok. Doesn't connect to online banking services though (well, I haven't tried for about 10 years).