Week 6: Splitwiser - An Online Financial Organizer

While looking for a free online financial organizer, I came across the beta version of Splitwise. Splitwise is a very simple app that organizes bills by groups of people. That is useful for couples and roommates who split their bills. When you add people to a group, you can name the group (i.e house expenses), and then you have the option of adding e-mail addresses for all the people you add to the group, which is good because they can get notifications of when a recurring bill is due. All the expenses need to be added manually though, but you can check the options for a recurring bill (weekly, monthly, yearly) for each bill individually. They are missing a "quarterly" option, though.

This app is also available for free on iPhone and Android. I tried both the classic and the new version. The new version seems a little cleaner than the classic one. I really like the fact that this app is pretty easy to set up and use. The drawback is that you cannot import transactions from your credit card or bank account. I hope they add that option in the final versions of the program. There is, however, a hidden option in the app to export your expenses in csv format by adding .csv to the end of the URL in any group screen. In addition, Splitwise creates a pie chart of your expenses with a table right below it showing all your expenses, your portion owed for each expense listed, and the total amount you owe. This app also comes loaded with some other cool features such as five different types of calculators -- a rent calculator, a furniture calculator, a guest calculator, a noise calculator (a funny one), and a travel calculator.