Financial App requirements
After trying several financial applications, I realised that I should formulate my requirements more formally. Several applications seemed to fit my needs, but failed after using them for a while. So with this post I will define my requirements. I might edit this post when I get more details.
- Import - this is one of the most important requirements. The applications should be able to import the files, that I get from my banks. Thus it should be able read OFX-files, which I get from Credit Agricole. It should be able to read CSV-files, which I get from the ING Bank. Latter demand seems to be a bit to much. I can convert CSV-files to QIF-format with QIF-Master, so as a third option QIF is really required. Control over number and date format is desirable (although fiddling with the international settings can help);
- Create/Edit - it should be easy to create and edit new transactions. I prefer inline editing;
- Export - the application should be able to export all data, either into OFX, QIF or CSV. As I have multiple accounts in a single set, I like to export as a single file. QIF seems to support only a single account per file. It seems that I must have control over the date and number formats, both for exporting and importing. Several apps introduced errors here;
- Document-based - I am not sure whether I use the correct terminology here. I want to save multiple sets of financial accounts as separate documents. I have to manage four different of such sets. Hiding those all those sets in a single document can be very difficult when creating reports;
- Filter - I would like to easily zoom in on a set of transactions by specifying a string. This can be to search for a certain amount or transaction made by a person. This is a like search, but then easier;
- Splits - support for splits is desirable. I do not have much experience yet with it, but I found it already useful, just for noting down some details;
- Categories - I would like to set a category (or tag) for each transaction, so that I can see what happens per category. I would also like to have subcategories, although there might be a way around it;
- Reporting - this requirement is the most difficult as it has many subsets that I need;
- Time-ranges - I would like to see what happens in certain times ranges, i.e. per month, per year (this, previous) or a range specified by me. I need the monthly reporting for a specific category for my taxes;
- Across accounts - I like to see what happens to all transactions (or in specific categories) summed over all accounts. Many applications do not support this kind of summation;
- MacOSX adherence - an application should adhere to MacOSX-standards as much as possible. Clear ports will only annoy me.
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