What are some great online financial tools?

May 16, 2009 3:49 PM

What are your favorite single-task iPhone and web financial tools? I already know about comprehensive stuff like Wesabe and Mint, but I'm interested in finding more specialized financial apps like Fuelly (lets you track vehicle fuel economy) or WhiteFence (lets you compare costs on certain utilities) or Zillow (lets you survey housing prices). Which ones should I know about? (Please note: I'm not talking about mortgage calculators, etc. I want actual web apps.)
posted by jdroth to computers & internet (7 comments total)

iPhone: XpenseTracker, which I use to record travel expenses. Lets you switch currencies on the fly, email your data, photograph your receipts, and categorize expenses easily.
posted by PatoPata at 4:37 PM on May 16

I use iXpenseIt for tracking my daily spending.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:44 PM on May 16

My husband, an iPhone lover and small business owner, recommends http://www.freshbooks.com/ and its corresponding iPhone app for anybody who is tracking time and billing for it. The iPhone app lets you track time, and the Freshbooks web application (which has free and pay versions) lets you manage projects, send invoices, etc. For example, he'll take a business call with his iPhone, then go right to the Freshbooks app and track the time.
posted by shirobara at 5:08 PM on May 16 [1 favorite]

Currency, by Jeff Grossman. Currency exchange rates for a wide variety of cross rates.

Gold Live! by Kitco. Spot and historical Gold, Silver and other precious metals prices.

I realise you said single function, but I also depend upon Bloomberg's iphone app, as well as MorningStar's. Both offer news as well as portfolio views.

Also Google Docs now allows mobile updating of spreadsheets! I've got a large number of spreadsheets I've crafted myself over the years (originally implemented on Palm, moved to WinCE then back to Palm, they now live in the Google Cloud) which do single things e., g., one calculates buy to let yield on possible rental properties based on estate agent window prices and how much it would cost me to borrow £100K, another calculates accretive monthly cash flow should I purchase a given security, etc.

So don't discount the value of building your own single purpose tools, and hosting them on Google Docs. I've found that perhaps the most effective source of free tools.
posted by Mutant at 5:20 PM on May 16 [1 favorite]

Rudder.
As someone with a fairly low income, this is a great way for me to see how much discretionary income I have after bills are paid until my next paycheck. I use it to control my spending and to know how much extra I can add to my savings every month.
posted by emilyd22222 at 7:24 PM on May 16

I'm sorry, I totally misread your question. Rudder is not single function. Still a great tool though.
posted by emilyd22222 at 7:26 PM on May 16

Trulia is a real estate site similar to zillow. They have a really cool iphone app where you can open it up, let it grab your location, then it'll show you every open house within a couple miles. It will also show you every house for sale within a mile or two of where you are standing.

It's a very handy app to have when on vacation and you're wondering "just how much does a house in Hawaii go for?"
posted by mathowie at 8:29 PM on May 16