My Cashflow

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffSeptember 17, 2013Cash flow may be the single most important measure of your financial health, not only as it now stands but also going forward into the future. Wesley Steiner's My Cashflow is a free tool for visualizing and tracking your cash flow, both in the short term and in the days, weeks, and months ahead. It's not focused on what you've spent but what you spend going forward, so you don't need to enter stuff like receipts. By helping you visualize your paycheck and where it goes, My Cashflow can help you identify and reduce unnecessary expenses, consolidate or restructure your bills, and make other smart decisions about your current financial state and your future. My Cashflow isn't a substitute for a traditional ledger like Quicken or an old shoebox under the bed, if that's your current accounting method; it's designed to help you see where your money will go, not where it's been.My Cashflow's simple, efficient layout is tabbed for Cash Flow, Current Accounts, and Transactions; each displays sample data in easy-to-read tables in the main window and a summary graph in the lower panel. Entering data is easy: Highlight an item (such as Payday) and click Edit Selected Entry on the Edit menu, or simply click it to open the Transaction Editor. Then fill in your personal data and click Update. The program automatically updates the Cash Flow tab with new entries. The default display includes Rent/Mortgage, but we could add new Transactions and Accounts from the Edit menu with the help of easy-to-use wizards. Under the Current Accounts tab, we could manage and update all our accounts by clicking on them to call up the Account Editor. Likewise with the Transactions tab; clicking on any entry produced a wizard-like editor where we could describe the transaction, set an Insertion Date and Amount, designate Debit or Credit, and set time parameters.Of course, perhaps the best thing My Cashflow has going for it is that it's so simple to use, which in our book makes it more likely to be used. For visualizing cash flow, it's hard to beat.