App automates expense tracking

Setting up and sticking to a personal budget is something many want to do, but something very few have the time to do. However, Apposition Conulsting has launched the ExpenZa phone application that intercepts bank expenditure SMSs and automatically populates an expenses list with this information.
Most of us use or want to use a budget for our personal finances. But very few keep to it.

The reason is that it is just too much trouble to keep track of every expense. It takes too much time to manage all those slips, and then write them down or enter them into some software package on your PC.  Even if you do, it usually happens only at the end of the month, when it is already too late to change your spending pattern for that month.

Now imagine if your phone knew when you spent money. Imagine if it could keep track of your expenses for you.

According to Wim Morris, managing director of Apposition Consulting, their ExpenZa application does just that.

“It takes the hassle out of expense tracking by automating as much of the process as possible,” he says.

ExpenZa automates expense tracking by intercepting the expenditure SMS message sent by your bank. It uses the information contained in the SMS message to populate your expense list automatically.  ExpenZa can also be used without a bank’s SMS service by manually adding expenses, for keeping track of the cash in your wallet, for example.

The app allows the user to create a monthly budget with different expense categories and a budget amount for each category. The total spent for each category is shown to the user, which gives a continual overview of spending throughout the month. This helps you to make adjustments necessary to keep to their budget.

Currently the following South African banks are accommodated for automated expense tracking via SMS: ABSA, Capitec Bank, Discovery Card, First National Bank (FNB), Investec Bank, and Standard Bank. However, ExpenZa is not affiliated with any bank and requires the users to contribute to the success of the app by sending on the SMS messages of the banks they want included in the app.

Expenses for multiple accounts can be tracked in the app.

More banks and features will be added in the near future, and it will be deployed in other African countries as well.  ExpenZa is available on the Android Market right now as a free download (https://market.android.com/details?id=coza.apposition.finance.expenseza).  A BlackBerry version is in the pipeline.

“We are looking forward to the revolution in personal finance ExpenZa will bring to people’s lives, enhancing their lives by helping them to properly manage their personal finances,” says Morris. “The app is provided free of charge – and without ads – in South Africa because we would like to make a contribution to South Africa and all its people.”

* For more information on Apposition Consulting, visit http://www.appositionconsulting.com

* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @gadgetza