Top Finance App for the iPhone

Two weeks ago I decided to start blogging about iBearMoney, our first and best app for the iPhone.

It’s been one year since we started iBearMoney project. It is a result of work by a group of smart and talented people. The first unit of iBearMoney v.1.0 was sold on 09/09/2008. Up to this day we have released 33 updates and, I want to believe, made it a very advanced app for personal finance management.

During this year we have walked the way mostly by ourselves. We have our own vision how the app should look like and how it should work. Even though we have received great feedback especially from the very first users, I want to feel more connected with the current and future users of iBearMoney. I want you to feel our passion to make the app the best. I want to discuss advantages and disadvantages of iBearMoney, to describe how it works, and to show where it is heading.
That’s why I want to blog.

HOW THE PROJECT STARTED

The idea to build an iPhone app for counting money appeared in August 2008 during the brainstorming along with other iPhone app ideas. In fact, during those times almost any project with proper efforts was deemed a great success. The developers around the globe were writing their first iPhone applications, and the public was eager to buy almost any new iPhone app.

So, why iBearMoney? I had a team of several greatly talented people. Our only disadvantage was a lack of experience in developing for the iPhone. With several ideas we selected to give a try, I was particularly in love with iBearMoney. By that time I had read several books by Robert Kiyosaki including “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. Here is a good review of the book. Despite of some criticism I strongly advise everyone to read this book. It gives you a fairly simple overview of how finances work. If you want to make your money work for you, that’s what it teaches you about. Even though I have a solid background in the field of finances, I am amazed with the simplicity of the ideas.

During the university years I acquired good knowledge in various fields, including IT and Business. I have been always eager to learn. A lot of what I’ve learned, I’ve learned from the books I read by my own. I have been especially interested in finance and management. In 2005-2008 I led the IT and development department of one local mortgage company in Russia. We developed our own software for mortgage service providers. Russian mortgage market was booming. Our success was recognized by the main State mortgage agency on the first IT conference for mortgage companies in 2006. Today several mortgage companies use our software. We estimate the total value of mortgages managed by the software to be at least $300 million US dollars. We are the very same team of developers, project managers, and system analysts. Today we develop iBearMoney app for the iPhone.

PASSION ABOUT FINANCES

So I was serious about finances, and I wanted to organize my own finances, to limit spending, and to build eventually a strong assets column, which would provide me with solid cashflow. No software I knew of was about that. It was all built either for accountants or for the very starters. I would split all the personal finance software in three groups. The first group has a lot of these stupid “debit” and “credit” terms. The second group consists of solutions, each of which was initially developed to satisfy one particular need from tracking only expenses to credit unions (i.e. not quite a personal finance management here). And, oh yes, finally there is a third group, “free” online websites.

The first group is all about accounting, not about effective money management. I didn’t like it. The second group, I would say, has a shortcut attitude. You’ve got that feeling too? Like “Track your expenses with this tool. Use the chart. Now you can record expenses anywhere”, Or “Need to borrow some money? Use this perfect website where people can do this and this”.. I didn’t like it either. I wanted to manage my entire finances with simplicity of kids’ games.
The third group – personal finance management websites… Well, these folks ask you to share your private data with them. They say it is all free. But the truth is this. There is nothing free. It is not a clear business model, I do not control the data, and I do not trust their business model. I had a feeling they would eventually either sell my data, make me pay for their service, or sell something to me.

Creating our own iPhone app for personal finance management, targeted advanced users who understand that expenses is only a part of the whole picture, an application with easy to use interface with limited number of “accounting” terms. That was our general plan.

Besides, we were about to start a small business and hit American Jackpot with a new world of opportunities of the AppStore. We needed software to keep tracking our finances. I’m proud to say that I use iBearMoney to track all our finances. Of course, I use it for personal finance management too.

THE FIRST VERSION

The first version was out on September 9, 2008. It was available in English, German, French, Spanish, and Russian languages. To tell you the truth, it cost $10 and at that moment we thought it was good, not the best but good. Now I know it was rough and pretty basic. Although some people gave the app 5-star reviews…

Well, I would say, by that time the app was merely an idea. Here are some screenshots of iBearMoney v.1.0.

Few basic reports, poor graphics, nothing pretty much to be proud of. At that time all the apps in the Finance category were characterized as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.

FINANCIAL INNOVATION CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA

After long months of work on the app, countless emails from our users, we finally got something nice and useful. Money 2.0. The version had a new platform with many small improvements in it. Find here the detailed info about the versions history.

Right after that we got a proposal to participate in FinovateStartup09 conference, San Francisco. That was a huge event for our startup. One thing is to visit a great conference, another thing is to present your product during the conference. Great experience and valuable feedback from financial guru including Jim Bruene, Editor & Founder of Online Financial Innovations (his blog: netbanker.com).

MONEY v.3 – BETTER INTERFACE, MORE FUNCTIONS

More sophisticated budgeting, quick transactions, default settings. Of course a lot of small improvements. New backup, budget planner, QIF/CSV export features, etc.
Many changes are internal. The app allows you to manage and control your finances in a more logical way. For instance, now your credit cards are special accounts with balances which are displayed under the liability side. You can discharge liabilities partly. The assets and liabilities can be linked with income and expenses and with each other. You can analyze cash flow from you assets. Are your assets profitable? Do they put money into your pocket?

Here are some screenshots of the last version:




Here is a link to the FAQ page of the app. You’ll find some videos there.

WHO NEEDS MONEY?

It happened to be that with iBearMoney we are mostly oriented to advanced users who really want to see the big picture. It was due to the fact that our vision was deeply influenced by our own experience of managing finances for a small business and also under the impression of Robert Kiyosaki’s teachings. The app is more expensive than other iPhone apps (PocketMoney, iXpenseIt, Checkbook and others), and we are constantly making everything possible to make it worth every cent of it. The other financial apps for iPhone are good, but they are different. I like that we are different.

Let me stop for a moment here. Building apps for the iPhone is also about earning a living. The key of success is to get to the top paid list. Here is a blog post to give you some kind of idea how the AppStore economy works. In the very beginning of the AppStore the ones who managed to get more sales went to the top and it created a momentum for even more sales. This AppStore model made many developers release a lot of $0.99 apps. The key was in the Sales growth number. Later Apple obviously made some smart changes. Then it was all about Revenues. So if we sell 10 units x $9.99 per unit it was equal to sell 100 units x $0.99 per unit.

We offer more expensive app with more functions. It is not for everyone, but those who take the train with us get the unique software with the passionate developers ready to make it better and better, every day. We are young and green, and ready to add more features, and listen to every voice that sounds.

WHAT’S NEXT?

We have a big list of new advanced features our users want to have in the app. Of course several our own new ideas are on the list too. In the coming versions you will see:
- Automatic repeating transactions (even better input than transaction templates)
- Online banking integration (uploading transactions from your bank, QIF, OFX support)
- New reports: Monthly income/expenses
- Additional languages support
- Usability improvements.
These features are currently in hand.
We also have plans for better support of assets and liabilities: automatic payment schedules, categories for assets and liabilities, etc. Also we think about adding maps (GPS support), and improving exporting features (export images and audio note via email).

We keep learning. We keep listening to our customers. Not everything we do is right. I think we will reconsider our policy regarding the in-App purchases. In the upcoming versions you will see a free backup feature. Later we will make other in-App purchases free. The reason why we have added some in-App purchases and keep them is only to support continuous development and improvement of the app.

Almost every day I start with reading iBearMoney users reviews and emails. I don’t answer them myself now, but I read almost all of them. Believe me it is not that easy to monitor all the AppStores for each country (77 countries), especially if to consider that users write reviews in their own native languages.. Feel free to email us with your ideas of what is good, what is bad, and what should be changed.

Here is iBearMoney on the App Store, or you can give a try to the free version first.

Andrey Pilyugin

Founder of iBear Com.Ltd.