I sent a message to CheckBot that looks like this: Tonight I went to Target and I had to get a few things. By sending a simple text message you can log an entry in your checkbook register. Without CheckBot, this service would be another fart in the wind. CheckBot is a tool that you can use to balance your checkbook through the use of SMS/Text Messages or Instant Messages. See this screen shot for an example.ĬheckBot – This, right here, is what sold me on this service. You know something is Jived once you see a green check mark next to it. Therefore, if you have something in Clear Check Book, that is no “Jived” you will know it has not cleared your bank. So, once you have found the $5.76 purchase from Starbucks on yoru bank, and you you’ve already entered it into Clear Check Book, you can now know that the transaction “jives” with what you see at your bank. Since you can access your bank online you can do this as soon as you’d like or just batch your tasks to save time like I do. What this means is that you’ll match your transactions with your cleared bank transactions. Reconciling AKA Jiving – Clear Check Book has something known as “Jiving” your statement. Therefore you can see that last month you spent $671.31 on restaurants alone (time to cut back on the Margaritas hombre!). You can specify which category the withdrawl/deposit is for and also review some basic reports on your data. Your balance is automatically calculated. How Does It Work? Transactions are added through a web interface or a mechanism called “checkbot” (which I’ll cover in detail in a few seconds). You can manage Checking, Savings, Credit, 401k, you name it, you can manage it. Right now I’m using it to manage my checkbook but in the future I’ll put other accounts in there. What is it? Clear Check Book is a FREE check book balancing system that allows you to manage your financial accounts. While surfing the web, looking for personal finance applications I ran across Clear Check Book.
Its a royal pain in the ass if you ask me. I still have to save my receipts, enter them into a register, and then reconcile it with my bank account once the transactions clear the bank account. Ain’t gonna happen.Ĭurrent Finance Applications: I’ve went down the Quicken/MS Money/QuickBooks bricked paved road before and honestly, its too complicated. The Good Ol’ Paper Register: Nahhhhh-son, we’ve already covered this. I’m lazy, I don’t want to write another line in my checkbook register, I don’t need to, blah blah blah.
I get bored quickly, and honestly, I believe, that like myself – programmers are lazy. As a software developer I’m enamored with figuring out ways to automate all repetitive processes. It’s not a process that I’ve really automated just yet. Ya see, my problem with balancing a checkbook is that its too time consuming.
I used to be a checkbook-balancing-fiend. I’d make a purchase, I’d mark the receipt, I’d store the receipt, I’d get home, I’d log it into the register, recalculate available balance, blah blah blah.
Unfortunately this doesn’t cut it these days when you’re trying to plan out huge vacations and income and, whatever, you get the point.
Ever since I’ve started making decent money in software development I’ve only balanced my checkbook on a semi-regular basis. Ok, that’s it… time for a confession… I hate balancing my checkbook.