This Is The Time To Switch Over To Online Budgeting

In the present times, especially during recession, you simply cannot help budget your finances and find the most profitable ways for it to grow. A few years ago, when companies like Microsoft came up with Money and Dance, I literally danced with joy and anticipated to solve all my financial hang ups with these financial software which worked wonders for me.

There were loads of features that forecasted my financial health for months to come and helped me budget my present finances well. Also, I did not have to pay extra for an internet connection to access the software. The software was available for me offline and I could work on it at anytime and anywhere. I had no hassles

These days there are a lot of websites like Mint and Lending Tree that give you excellent money budgeting services. But there are certain factors owing to which I am not shifting over to the newer online versions of budgeting software. The first thing that I’m concerned about is, is the security of my data which is of prime importance to me. Day in and day out you find news of online accounts being hacked, credit card information being stolen, and large deposits of money from banks disappear. Only good budgeting sites give you full protection and security from hackers. On the other hand, desktop software is no exception. You’ve got to download the software which in turn might turn out to be infected with a malware. But you can avoid virus threat by buying a genuine copy of the software from authorized dealers. Online budgeting websites are free for use and hence the compromise with security stands a greater possibility. Also since online websites are accessible throughout the world with very few restrictions to membership, people with malicious intentions can also join and access other people’s account information by hacking. While undergoing an online transaction you need to be extra careful to see that your account information is not being transferred to unsafe sites. I do agree that hundred percent secure websites do encrypt the data while its being transferred but you cannot guarantee total security.

Online systems score over the desktop systems in that they take automatic backup of your data and any software updates are done automatically free of cost. But a desktop system is costly where you might have to pay for a new version of the software. Backup in a desktop system is automatic only if you set it. Also for desktop software you need an upgraded operating system and enough RAM. You need quite a bit of hard disk space. But even an online system requires you to have an upgraded operating system and a fast browser to respond effectively. Your online budgeting software is accessible to you from any computer in the world. But I would say that, desktop software is also portable if you load them in your laptop. While traveling you might have problem accessing the internet while passing through desolate areas that don’t have proper connectivity. Desktop software on the other hand is accessible regardless of where you are and what you’re doing. Whenever I travel I simply work on my laptop financial software without a care in the world.

Well, if you are working in a network, an online budgeting system might be more convenient because you can share files and also work on common files which are accessible to the entire network. There a desktop system will prove to be a bad choice.

A desktop budgeting software system has so many advantages over the online software system, but now it seems that with Microsoft deciding to withdraw from the desktop budgeting software business and Intuit concentrating more on its web businesses, it looks as though shifting to the online systems is imperative.

There are so many new websites now. Mint, Quicken online, Wesabe, Thrive are some of the new online websites. In fact there are so many of them that rating one as the best is quite difficult. A website that is perfectly suitable for one may not be suitable for another. It’s better for you to go through online reviews and take tour round the website itself for exploring the features yourself.  Also you never know when the people running the online websites will become less charitable and start offering only paid services.

These online websites recommend commissioned products and for that reason you might not want to believe that the reviews provided by them are hundred percent free of biases. Its always better for you to verify your information from other sources. You should also verify the tohrughness of the website. It should be able to bring in new information from financial insititutions automatically. If it cannot do that, its not worth your using that website.

Many of these online budgeting websites promise to offer you a lot of features. For example, they claim to give you good categorization and tagging facilites. But this does not seem to be good all the time. Mint and Wasabe seem to have very good support network for their users. The users can interact with each toehr and share their concerns.

Finally switching over to an online system is beneficial only if you are a regular user of the website. Otherwsie you’ll only be wasting your money. At the end I would like to vote for a desktop budgeting system. But due to the online hype and perceived obsoletion of desktop budgeting software I might have to shift over to it.