PocketSmith Review: The Ultimate Tool for Budgeting and Forecasting

PocketSmith Overview 

PocketSmith is a comprehensive budgeting and financial management app that offers detailed reporting, full budget customization, multi-currency support and even future predictions for your overall finances. PocketSmith is based out of New Zealand and is one of the more robust financial apps on the market.

PocketSmith offers the ability to connect to more than 12,000 financial accounts across the globe. You can automatically import balances and transactions. You can then create a budget, set goals, and even see how your net worth, income, and expenses may change over time. It’s one of the most data-rich financial apps around–ideal for those looking to drill into their personal finances in detail.

Key Features 

PocketSmith offers quite a lot. It’s one of the most data-intensive financial apps around. Here are a few features that help PocketSmith stand out:

Bank Feeds

PocketSmith connects to over 12,000 financial institutions from around the world, letting you track your banks, investments and other financial accounts. Transactions are automatically imported in real-time and automatically categorize your spending.

There is also a built-in search engine that lets you quickly find any transaction in seconds. Plus, as transactions come in, you can annotate and create custom notes for each. This further lets you customize how you track your finances.

Multi-Currency Support

PocketSmith is unique for a finance app in that it now supports 49 different currencies from around the world. Multi-currency support is automatic. All you’d need to do is simply connect a bank account and PocketSmith will detect the currency being used. This is a very helpful feature for anyone that travels internationally or nomads that live in multiple countries.

Powerful Budgeting

PocketSmith is one of the most powerful budgeting apps around–with easy-to-understand visualizations, cash flow forecasting, calendar-based tracking and “what-if ” scenarios that show how your future finances will be impacted. You can quickly view your transactions, make notes on your transactions and receive alerts on your spending.

PocketSmith will also calculate how interest can impact your accounts, allowing you to input interest rates to any account and see how it can grow over time.

Forecast the Future

PocketSmith’s most powerful features are the forecasting ones. It has the ability to input potential financial moves, which will then show how it impacts your overall financial picture. You can get a better idea of how smarter decisions today can lead to better financial health in the long term.

You can also use the data visualization features to see cash flow predictions based on your earning and spending. You can see a few months into the future, up to 30 years in the future based on your inputs.

Detailed Reporting

PocketSmith offers detailed reports–from spending to cash flow planning to net worth tracking. You can drill down into each report for more financial insights, and even export reports into a CSV file for more customization.

In addition, you can create your own profit and loss statement to track how your income and expenses balance over any timeline. Plus, you can see category spending reports and account balance reports over time.

How PocketSmith Stands Out 

PocketSmith offers more than most money apps on the market–with detailed budgeting, reporting and even financial forecasting. PocketSmith’s unique approach to predicting upcoming cash flow and allowing you to create “what-if” scenarios makes it more powerful that other budget-focused apps. And the fact that you can track up to 49 world currencies makes it ideal for international travelers and nomads that regularly hold accounts in several different currencies.

Comparable Budgeting App Options 

PocketSmith offers powerful data visualization and global currnecy support–but it’s also more expensive than most money apps on the market. Here are a few alternatives to consider:

You Need A Budget

You Need A Budget, or YNAB, is a highly customizable budgeting app that is designed to give you complete control of your day-to-day spending. The app is designed around four specific rules: give every dollar a job, embrace your true expenses, roll with the punches and age your money. These four rules only let you budget for money you actually have in your accounts–and give you flexibility in your financial life.

YNAB is less expensive than PocketSmith and is hyper-focused on the day-to-day of budgeting. While it doesn’t offer the same global support as PocketSmith, there are third-party apps that link with YNAB to support multiple currencies. YNAB is $109 per year or $14.99 per month.

Empower Personal Dashboard

Empower Personal Dashboard (formerly Personal Capital) is an investment tracking and analysis app that also has basic budgeting features built-in. Empower lets you connect all of your financial accounts for free, helping you track your net worth and set up a basic budget to track your spending.

Empower is free, but also has financial services available to select clients for a fee. Empower also has powerful investing analysis tools, including the fee analyzer and retirement planner. For those who need a simple way to track their budget and investing, without paying a high cost, Empower Personal Dashboard may fit the bill.

How To Apply 

To sign up for PocketSmith, you can sign up for a free account using your email address and a password. The free account is limited; you can only set up two accounts and you won’t be able to complete automatic imports of your bank transactions. But once you are signed up, you can upgrade to a paid plan to start syncing your bank and other financial accounts.

There are three paid plans to choose from, each with different options available.

• Foundation plan. The Foundation plan is $119.88 for the annual plan, or $14.95 per month. It offers up to six connected accounts, automatic bank feeds and up to 10 years of projections.
• Flourish plan. The Flourish plan is $199.95 for the annual plan, or $24.95 per month. It offers up to 18 connected accounts, automatic bank feeds and up to 30 years of projections.
• Fortune plan. The Foundation plan is $319.95 for the annual plan, or $39.95 per month. It offers unlimited connected accounts, automatic bank feeds and up to 60 years of projections.

Who PocketSmith Is Best For 

PocketSmith is ideal for international travelers or those looking to manage their finances across multiple locations and currencies. PocketSmith is also for data nerds that love numbers, visualizations and projections to help them plan for future financial events. PocketSmith is expensive; but if you want full customization and powerful tools to take full control of your money, it may be worth it.

Final Take 

PocketSmith is a robust financial app that offers more than just budgeting. It really stands out with its future predictions and ability to create “what-if” scenarios. Plus it supports 49 international currencies for true global support. If you want a data-rich financial app for planning out your financial future, PocketSmith may fit the bill. But the cost to fully utilize the app is higher than most other apps on the market.

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