I visit a lot of Mac software websites, multiple times daily, trying to find new software, both for myself and to write about. Recently I found a listing for a finance application I’d never heard of. Available for free, the name of the program is Mini$, and I have to say I’m impressed.
The first thing I noticed upon starting up Mini$ is how minimalist it is in appearance. I don’t mean that as a bad thing, either! With today’s operating system technology, especially with Mac’s newest version – Leopard – as well as Microsoft’s Vista, there is a tendency to throw every bit of transparency, shadow, wizbang effects and more at an application… whether the application’s function warrants it or not.
In my opinion, a financial application really shouldn’t be like that. This doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate the beauty of, for instance, a program like Cha-Ching, because I think Cha-Ching is gorgeous. It’s just that in a certain way, the spartan appearance of Mini$ makes it easy for me to get down to the “business” of organizing my finances.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I open a new financial application, one of the first things I need to know is if it plays well with others. While an application that only reads its own private format might be great, it’s likely not going to be one I’ll use. This is simply because if I can’t share my data, or import data from different sources, then I’m going to have to type everything in by hand, and that’s no good.
For instance, one of the first things I did with Mini$ was import all the transactions from my checking account, from January 1, 2008, until today. I don’t write a lot of checks, but I have money coming in from Paypal, paychecks deposited from a couple different sources, and of course I use my check card an awful lot, as well as make payments online. If I had needed to type these all in one after the other, I’d probably still be typing.
Fortunately, Mini$ is able to read some of the more common financial data formats around – those used by Quicken and Microsoft Money, to be exact – QIF and OFX. It can also import the common denominator of all financial apps… CSV, or comma separated values. In this way – since my bank actually exports to all those, plus a couple more, I was able to import all my checking account transactions with only a couple clicks of the mouse. And if you want to share with others, Mini$ can export to either QIF or CSV, although not OFX.
From now on, of course, I can type in my own information, or just update Mini$ every so often by importing new, updated info.
In addition to allowing me to keep track of my accounts, Mini$ also supports watching a budget. To use it, simply pick from one of the existing categories, or add your own, and fill in an amount you expect to spend during a month. Then, as you enter or import transactions, select one of the categories, and immediately that money will appear in the budget area. And when you’re ready to see how you’re doing, you can either view the pie chart built into the program, or use Mini$ to create a report in HTML form. This report shows your overall budget groups, then breaks down each group to show individual expenditures. This is a nice way to see exactly what you’d planned on spending, and then where the money was actually spent.
You can also use Mini$ to keep track of things such as bills and other important financial events, such as when money is to be automatically withdrawn or deposited into an account, As well, you can set up Mini$ to automatically add certain events into your accounts at certain times of the month. This is handy, for instance, if you always pay rent on a certain day. To save the time of having to manually input this transaction each month, you can set a new Schedule event so that the transaction is automatically entered, even without user input. Of course, you’ll still have to remember to mail in the rent money, but at least Mini$ will edit your account information for you.
Mini$ also has a couple other features worth mentioning. It is able to do a simple Income/Expense comparison, showing exactly how much money has come in, and how much has gone out. It can show you this difference for the last two weeks, last 30 days, this month, last month, this year, last year, this month or this year to date, or for all time. There is also a currency converter, able to convert between a dozen or so common currencies.
All in all, I found Mini$ to be one of the few financial applications I’ve looked at that didn’t immediately make me want to go hunting for an owner’s manual. It’s well laid-out, the options are named in a sane fashion, and tools do what you’d logically expect them to do. Mini$ has a nice, simple interface that in my mind just makes sense. Honestly, I think the program’s website says it best, describing Mini$ as “A miniature sized money manager that features simplicity and power in a small package. So check it out. It’s completely free, and available for either Mac or Windows. A Universal version is also available.
