tracking

I have been looking for quite some time for a personal finance management software. I prefer to have something online because my wife and I both need to access it at any given time. I was thinking however that there are quite a lot of people who are not comfortable with having their financial data online and would much rather have it stored locally on their computer.

I have found a personal finance software that is both open source and Windows/Linux compatible. Meet Money Manager Ex. “Money Manager includes all the basic features that 90% of users would want to see in a personal finance application. The design goals are to concentrate on simplicity and user-friendliness - something one can use everyday.” They really have done what they set out to do, and that is to make a simple to use tool for everyday while still offering the most important features.

The main features include:

• Intuitive. Simple, Fast, Clean
• AES Encryption Support
• Maintain checking, credit card, savings, stock investment accounts
• Budgeting
• Maintain and Track Fixed Assets with depreciation
• Reminders for recurring Bills and Deposits
• Simple one click reporting
• Cash Flow Forecasting
• Graphs, Piecharts
• Does not require an install. Can run from a USB key.
• International language support (Available in 24 languages)
• Import data from any CSV format, QIF [ Microsoft Money ]
• Printing, Exporting to HTML, CSV
• Non-Proprietary SQLite Database

Within minutes you will have your accounts setup through the wizard and will be able to start putting in your expenses and credits. You will be amazed at how easy it is to add categories and payees while you are in the entry window. Most software I have used in the past forces you to manage your categories and lists in their own sections, but not here. Once you type in the new name, click add, then click select and it’s done!

Given that this is open source, I really suggest you check it out if you are in the market. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

I have now started to think about website stats and tracking. Mostly because I am getting more serious about thesleepygeek and need to know what kind of traffic I am generating. After some homework I have found a number of websites that track site statistics and each of them seem to have their own strengths. I often am looking for the option that “just works”. I am a firm believer that 10 features that work flawlessly is better than 20 that are only ok.

Google Analytics is the product that I chose in the end for just those reasons. It has the most popular type of information you need to know about your site and it’s traffic. Where people are accessing it from, what kind of browser they are using, what site they came from, what page they looked at, etc, etc. The site is very nicely laid out as well; a very clean looking summary of all your stats and then it offers the option of digging down to see more specific information. It has the option of sending you daily or weekly reports with all the same information you would find on the main dashboard page. To install it on my different sites was absolutely simple. I opened a single account and was able to track stats from more than one URL. This site, was the easiest because someone has made a plugin for Wordpress. I have another site that runs on Gallery2 which hosts my family pictures. It was a simple google search away and instructions with clear steps to enter the generated code on the correct line. DONE!

I have also used in the past statcounter.com. They have a great service with about the same feature set. It seems to be a little more robust but it also is more confusing to find the information you want when you need to dig. I would recommend them if Google Analytics is not your cup of tea.

I did a search for “free web stats comparison” on google was amazed at how many options there are. So now I am going to turn it around. What do you use for web stats? Email me at marcus@hamaker.net.