Track It: Expense Edition version 3.4 $24.95
Javatek Media

I've seen references to Track It: Expense Edition, but I hadn't seen a full review, so I'd thought I'd try my hand. Perhaps, someone will PM me instructions on how to make screenshots of the BlackBerry to post specific examples, but until then, I'll use what is on their website.

First, let me tell you about myself as a BlackBerry user. I am not a business professional power user. I am a writer. One, who hopes that there won't be any glaring grammatical errors in this post. Anyway, my original intent for buying a BlackBerry was to simply have something that I could jot notes down on, no matter where I was. I was going to get the 7730, but I couldn't wait and I bought the 7100. I didn't have a problem with SureType. It didn't faze me. Obviously, with something like a BlackBerry, once you get used to it for one thing, you find other ways to use it.

One of the things that I wanted to use it for, was to track my expenses. Not manage my money, because I know how much I have and I know when I don't have it. I don't need any program for that. I needed something to help me see and remember where it went. Years ago, I bought a Sharp YO-370. It had the perfect expense tracker. I could customize my payment methods and then I'd just input what I spent and what I spent it on. The reports were sufficient and after a period of time, I stop spending as much on stupid stuff.

I have been looking for something to replace that aspect of the Sharp ever since. I haven't been able to find it, so I still have that Sharp, and despite the broken battery door, I use it for tracking. I thought I would try a new search this week for my new 8700g. I thought I had found a less expensive program, but it wanted to lock me into certain payment methods and that just wasn't good enough. I was very close to just going back to the Sharp, when I came across Track It on a software website.

This is not only the equivalent to my Sharp, but about 30x better and that's where I'm coming from for this review.

I downloaded the trial version, which lasts for five days. The opening screenshot is of a desk with various items on top.

They are really icons, much in the vein of the icons on a BlackBerry. Now, this is one thing that I don't like about the program and maybe when I get the full version, I'll find out that I can delete some of the items. But, they are as follows: a cell phone for FEATURES, an open address book for GROUPS, an open wallet for ACCOUNTS, a Rolodex for MERCHANTS, a stack of bills for CURRENCY, an alarm clock for SCHEDULED EXPENSES, a file folder for CATEGORIES and a stack of receipts for EXPENSES.

I didn't start with FEATURES, as I like to see if I can figure out the basics of a program prior to reading the manual. I started with EXPENSES and while initially, it looked like it would be more than and not exactly what I wanted, as I dug a little deeper into the program, I quickly found out that it was everything I needed.

So, I'll tell you to back out of EXPENSES and start with ACCOUNTS. It should be empty, so go ahead and hit the trackwheel to enter a new one. It asks for information that I would never put on a BlackBerry, like the account number and things that I don't find necessary, but since this is for business and personal use, a business owner would probably fill out the entire screen. Anyway, type in the credit card name, for example "Chase," identify it as a credit card, hit 'U' for US Dollar and save it. You do that for all of your other cards and methods of payment to establish that little database. When you come out of ACCOUNTS, you will see all of your payment methods listed. You can decide how you want it, ascending or descending.

Then, your best bet is to move to the CATEGORIES and depending on your usage, you may have to delete many of the already supplied entries. But, this is where Track It really shows how great it is. You have supplied categories like auto, household, taxes, computer, office and stuff like that. But, you can edit or delete any of them, as well as add your own. Even better, you can add sub-categories!!! So, a woman like myself can add a new category like "shoes" and then add sub-categories like "dress" and "tennis." That way I know exactly how overboard I've gone in a particular time period. The entertainment category can have movies, books, magazines and bowling in it. You get the idea.



Now that you have gone through to customize the categories, I would tell you to move to MERCHANTS. This is absolutely genius and helps make Track It, probably the fastest finance program you'll ever use as you move about your busy day. In MERCHANTS, you are now going to add in the places that you usually shop in. So, you go to Starbucks every morning to order the exact same size coffee and scone? Well, add in Starbucks, then go to the default category section and hit whatever you have to represent food. My category is "food," so I hit 'F' and it pops up. Now, if you order the same thing every day, you can go ahead and put in the total in the default cost line. If you don't, leave it blank. Now, scroll down to default account and if you always pay cash, hit 'C,' so "cash" can pop up and save it. Do this, in as much detail as you can for all of your stores and food joints. When you come out of MERCHANTS, you will see all of them listed, as well as the CATEGORY you placed them in.

Now, let's go to EXPENSES and make an entry. Today, we're going to Borders. It automatically pulls up the current date, so scroll down to the description line and type: BlackBerry for Dummies. Scroll down to the merchant line and hit the trackwheel, you can now select a merchant from the list that you previously made. You select Borders and the category and account information automatically fill in, depending on what you previously entered. Scroll down to the cost line, fill it in and save it. There are three other things on the screen that you may need to click: business, tax deductible and receipt, at the bottom of the screen, depending on what your usage is, but other than that, you are done! When you come out of that entry, you will see it listed amongst your other expenses for that month. Once again, you can choose how the information is laid out on the screen.



Do you see the minimum of what this program can do for you? I'm probably telling you about the bare basics because of my needs, but I can't imagine anyone that is looking to track expenses needing any more. But, wait! There's more!

When you're in the EXPENSE section, you can pull up various reports: expense graph, income graph and summary report.



For my needs, I only need the summary report, because from there, I can change the reporting date to: a custom date, current month, current year, yesterday, last month, last year or all. I can also choose from a particular category or multiples ones to cull the report. Once I've chosen those things, the report will tell me things such as: minimum expense, average expense, maximum expense, expense total. It also tells me at the bottom of the report what was the most expensive thing I purchased and what was the most frequent thing I purchased.

Is this not a great program? I love it. I've had it for about two days.

In the FEATURES section, you have a list of all the other thngs you can do, like set passwords, pick color schemes, export and import data and there are a few more reports that you can access. The account summary will show you on one screen how much you've spent from all of your listed accounts. The same thing for the category, group and merchant summaries.



Now, here are the things that I could do without and would love to delete from my desk. First, the CURRENCY section. It basically has the rates of about 10,000 countries. I don't need that, but I'm sure a business man would.



I also don't really need or have yet to need the SCHEDULED EXPENSES section. If I haven't spent the money, then there is no need to track the money, but considering that certain bills are recurring, it is a nice feature. When I was tinkering with it, I found that you can schedule the payment and then add it to your calendar. I thought that was pretty cute when I went into the calendar and saw the icon, opened it up and saw all the notes I had in the entry. The only thing that I don't like about this feature is that on the list, the date is written in, I believe, the European format. You know, date, month, year instead of month, date, year.



I guess the GROUP section is for someone that has many different things they would need to track expenses for. So far, it's just me, so I haven't done much in that one, but if you have a Girl Scout, Boy Scout and are the treasurer for the Rotary Club, you'd use this. You can list which group an expense or merchant goes in.

Well, this is probably longer than it should be, but I really wanted to give this product a specific shout out, since so many people are looking for a finance program. Make no mistake, this is different from Ascendo Money, as that looks like an electronic checkbook to me. I didn't like, nor could I figure out WiseSpent. Expense Manager was the one I thought I wanted, until it wanted to tell me what payment methods I had to use. I don't write checks, I don't have an American Express and I have more than one type of Visa and MasterCard, so that was very limiting. Although, I did like the little, cute icons that it used for the categories. Kexpense was absolutely ridiculous, unnecessarily diffiicult and even if I had figured out how to use it in less than a month, the color scheme would've eventually blinded me. I can't remember if I downloaded anything else, I've blacked them all out because I found Track It. So, if you are still scratching your head about what to use, you should download the trial and have at it.

I'm sure I left some things out as I play with some more, I'll probably come back and describe more. At this time, I give this five out five BlackBerries, but I don't have a little picture like Corey.

Nice review!

P.S. You can use JL_Cmder or BBScreen (links in my signature) to capture screenshots. Or if you ask oppitronic for a copy of BBScreenShooter you can use that too.

Oh wow. I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for the tip on the screen shots. I'll try to put some up in the next few days.

Now that's a review with some passion! That really sells it when you come across excited about the product. I like the detail and real world examples you provide. I will definately look into purchasing this. Thanks!

Oh wow. Now, I really have to figure out this screenshot thing. I was going to forget about it since it didn't look like anyone was interested. But, yeah, definitely download the trial. You may find more things to use it for and can explain/show some stuff to me.

Although, I have found that the GROUPS section is beneficial to me, even when I'm tracking just for myself. By breaking up a few more of the entries into groups, it is even easier to cull a report and clearly pinpoint where the money is going.