Mint

Setting up Mint is exceptionally simple. All you have to do is give your credentials for your various accounts, and the software will do the rest by populating itself with all your pertinent information. It monitors your financial situation at all times, and it does so without requiring you to manually log your expenses or income. Mint isn't technically accounting software since it has no way to reconcile the various transactions it records, but it acts more like an active tracker to help you optimize your spending and saving habits. One potential issue with Mint is that it can only work with accounts that are based in either Canada or the United States. By giving Mint permission to pull data from your various accounts, you can view all of that information through the Mint system, which prevents you from having to switch between various banking or financial apps. The only way that Mint can actually handle your money is if you give it permission to pay bills via the Bill Payment option. The option is completely voluntary, but it will require some more advanced information, like the accounts that will need to receive payments and the credentials for those accounts. The great thing about Mint is that it can start offering advice the moment you get it set up. Other apps will wait to record new financial data after they have been set up, but Mint actually fetches financial data from the most recent months the moment you get it started. This makes it much more efficient at helping you shape your financial goals. Other app also have issues with the budgeting aspects of the software, but Mint has no such problem. Mint curates a possible budget right away by viewing your transaction history across your various accounts. This allows you to view spending patterns and habits that other apps wouldn't be able to find until you've used them for months. As you get started with the software, it will offer a guided walkthrough of the various features it includes. This gives you the opportunity to learn what the software can do for you, and it makes it easy to learn the ins and outs of the Mint tools.