TechRadar Verdict
If you can forego the automatic downloading of statements and don’t mind lots of manual data entry, Money Manager Ex is an ideal financial tool.
Pros
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Great budgeting and cashflow forecasts
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Cross platform and open source
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Secure and highly customisable
Cons
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Doesn’t link to online banking
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Time-consuming to use
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Finance software may not be the most existing type you could install on your computer, but it's certainly one of the most useful. Money Manager Ex aims to be simple enough for just about anyone to use, while being powerful enough to keep demanding users happy.
Where to download: http://www.moneymanagerex.org/
Type: Personal finance
Developer: Money Manager Ex
Operating system: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android
Version: 1.3
If you’ve been using a spreadsheet or other financial program to manage your money until now, Money Manager Ex's import feature will get you up and running fairly quickly, but otherwise you have a lengthier manual task ahead of you.
Despite Money Manager Ex allowing for fairly in-depth analysis of your finances, the interface is approachable, and the program rarely feel intimidating – although at times you may feel as though you're building a database from scratch.
Everything in Money Manager Ex is stored in an SQLite database with AES encryption, meaning it's nice and secure, and the support for a range of currencies is useful for anyone with overseas investments.
It's a shame that Money Manager Ex is an entirely offline application. It would be nice if bank statements could be pulled in automatically, or online payment could be made through the program, but sadly this isn't possible.
As it stands, Money Manager Ex is a wonderful halfway house between managing your money in a simple spreadsheet and going all-out with a fully-fledged finance app.
User experience
To get the most out of Money Manager Ex, it's important to stick with it. Getting the initial database set up, while not particularly difficult, can be time consuming, as is the process of creating all of the categories you need to keep things organised.
Once you have this somewhat arduous task out of the way, it's really just a matter of simple maintenance, and the program provides you with a raft of tool to analyze your spending, make predictions for the future. The reporting on offer is impressive, and the ability to run the program from a USB drive means it's easy to take with you and update your finances from another computer if necessary.
Latest updates
The latest version of Money Manager Ex makes a few minor bug fixes, including resolving an issue that caused the search box to stop working in some circumstances. For a full list of changes, see the Money Manger Ex release notes.
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