Trackspends in New UI...

Trackspends now in new UI - We are improving our site look and feel, released the first very basic version, please provide your feedback: www.trackspends.com

Track your expenses via Email.....

Introduction

This feature makes it easy to add expenses  to Trackspends by sending an email to a special address ( track@trackspends.com ). Read this page to learn all the details, and if you have any questions or run into any problems, be sure to Contact Us.

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How to add a expense via email

By Sending Emails from your registered Email ID in Trackspends.com you can Track your Expenses.You can find your registered Email ID in the "Settings" section when logged into the site, it will look like:

Each email sent to track@trackspends.com is automatically converted into a expenses, and added to your Trackspends.com account.

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Email Format

Format of Email is defined below, for Email Subject you can use any text for your reference. Expenses should be mentioned in the Email Body as comma separated single line.

 

Email subject:

There are no restrictions on Subject. You can type in any subject you want, for example you can put "Expenses" as Subject for your reference. As shown below.

 

Email body:

Body can have any number of expenses comma separated in single line, for example:

100 rs in lunch, 40 rs in parking

 

Example:

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Note: We process the emails received every hour, hence Email Expenses will appear in your account in minimum one hour.

Keep tracking your expenses....

Forward your Bank SMS to Trackspends and track your expenses

Now tracking your expenses is much simpler, all you have to do is forward your Bank SMS which you get whenever you use your debit/card for shopping, bill payments and withdrawals etc. Just forward this SMS to Trackspends (@09901100022) and we will track your expenses. Here is how it works:

While using your debit/card for any expenses, All the Banks now alerts you of any transaction that has happened, for example i recently paid my electricity bill online and got this alert from CitiBank:

"NOV11 BESCOM-S7 bill for XXXXXXX of Rs.1047.00 has been processed successfully on your Citibank card/account XXXXXX1010. Thank you."

Another example, when i used my HDFC card to pay shopping bills, i got this message:

"An amount of rs.1,464.03 has been debited from your account number XXXXXXXX for an online payment txn done using HDFC Bank NetBanking."

Now just forward this SMS to Trackspends, and we will extract the bill amount paid, categorize it and update in your account, here is how it will look in your account:

Date of Expense	Message(Click to update details)	Category	Spends
Sunday, November 6, 2011	NOV11 BESCOM-S7 bill for XXXXXXXX of Rs.1047.00 has been processed successfully on your Citibank card/account XXXXXX1010. Thank you.	Utility Bills	Rs. 1047

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

An amount of rs.1,464.03 has been debited from your account number XXXXXXXX for an  payment txn done using HDFC Bank NetBanking.

Clothes

Rs. 1464

Now tracking your expenses is much more easier, keep tracking!!!, This feature has been added based on user feedback, please keep sending your feedback/features to improve Trackspends

Trackspends Android App...

For our android mobile users we have now launched a simple Trackspends Mobile App: Click here to download .

Its a simple App for updating your expenses, and it works in both GPRS and SMS mode. So if you do not have GPRS connection, please change the settings in App and use SMS for sending your expenses.

Keep tracking your expenses and keep saving more money!!!

Happy & Prosperous Deepavali to you and your family.

Fixed or Recurring expenses...

How to track your fixed/recurring expenses in Trackspends without worrying about sending SMS or adding it on site..


What is Fixed or Recurring expenses?

A fixed/recurring expense is a cost that does not change from period to period or that changes only very slightly. Fixed expenses are usually paid on a regular basis, such as week to week, month to month, quarter to quarter or year to year. Some of the typical Fixed expenses are Home Loan EMI or rent payments, Car EMI payments, insurance premiums.

Also 80% of our expenses are fixed or recurring expenses, hence if we can track these we will be able to track 80% of our expenses easily.

For example if you have bought a home and taken a home loan for 20 years, every month you will have to pay the bank monthly EMI of x Rs to bank which comes under monthly expense.

Typical Household Fixed expenses are telephone/mobile bills, Servant/Maid salary and grocery costs etc.

For example every month you have to pay mobile bill, which should be added in monthly expenses.

Typical Travel Fixed expenses are daily bus fares, or auto fares for going to office.

How can trackspends help in tracking these expenses?

1) Add your Fixed / Recurring expenses after login to your account with the Message/Amount and frequency for the particular fixed expense.

For example below I have added for my Home Loan EMI, which is deducted every 15th of month, hence the date 15th is selected.



2) Review your Message/Amount/Frequency in the List of Fixed expenses by clicking on "Fixed Expenses" tab, will be as below:




3) Add more fixed / recurring expenses by clicking on the corresponding frequency link in the List of Fixed expenses.

For example we have added weekly expenses for bus fare:



4) Based on the message/amount/frequency/date selected Trackspends will add the corresponding expense amount to your overall expenses, for example every saturday 250 rs in below account:




Once the rule is created trackspends will process the rule at corresponding date and add the expense in your account as shown above in My Expenses.

Add/Modify/Delete categories thru SMS

Now you can add/modify/delete categories by sending SMS to 09901100022 :

1) Add a new category:

SMS "Add cat cat_name" to 09901100022

Example:

SMS "Add cat beauty_products" to 09901100022

2) Modify an existing category:

SMS "Mod cat existing_cat_name,new_cat_name" to 09901100022

Example:

SMS "Mod cat travel,holiday" to 09901100022

3) Delete an existing category:

SMS "Del cat existing_cat_name" to 09901100022

Example:

SMS "Del cat beauty_products" to 09901100022

Add/Modify/Delete keywords to an existing category name.

1) Add a new keyword(s) to existing category:

SMS "Add keyword_name,keyword_name1 existing_cat_name"

Example:

SMS "Add milk household"

Or add comma separated keywords:

SMS "Add keyword_name,keyword_name1 existing_cat_name "

Example:

SMS "Add milk,cooking gas household"

1) Delete keyword(s) to existing category:

SMS "Del keyword_name existing_cat_name"

Example:

SMS "Del milk household"

Or add comma separated keywords:

SMS "Del keyword_name,keyword_name1 existing_cat_name "

Example:

SMS "Del milk,cooking gas household"

Please email to us @ info@trackspends.com for any queries.

Ban on SMS till 30th September

Indian government has banned all bulk SMS and MMS services across India till September 30th 2010 in view of the impending verdict on Ayodhya.

The ban affects Trackspends’s services partially as the SMS Weekly reports can no longer be sent to our subscribers. However, trackspends can continue to receive SMS from its users and this part of the service is not affected. So, if you have been tracking your expenses using SMS, just continue to do so and we will send you the summary reports once the ban is lifted.

Also, registrations using mobile number alone are affected. We recommend that new users register online.

More information on the SMS ban can be found here