SlapApp.com » Finance

Share-a-bill

Ryan Johnson — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:31:06 +0000

Sharing a bill with more than a couple of people is always a pain in the butt. Everyone makes their best attempt to divide up the check, but in reality it’s like getting algebra tutoring from a D student. Add to that the scenario where you’re the only one with a credit card, or one or two people don’t have the money and say they’ll pay you back later. Good luck remembering how much everybody owes you and who paid you back and when. Imagine how out of hand it’ll get over the course of an entire trip of vacation! Well, with the Share-a-bill finance app by Mileware you can quickly and easily divide up bills, document who paid what, and keep tabs on who still owes you cash and how much with just a few touches on your iPhone or iPod Touch!

The most impressive part of this app isn’t it’s ability to divide up a bill, but it’s ability to organize and track expenses for a period of time. For example, you can keep track of all of your bills related to a conference or a vacation, not just one trip to a restaurant. Let’s just say you were like me and went to San Francisco recently for MacWorld. You can create an event inside the app called San Francisco 2010. For that event you can add in all of the people that you’re either visiting or traveling with, and from there you can add in expenses related to the trip, who owed how much, and whether they paid in full, have partially paid, or haven’t paid at all and intend to pay you later. Once you’ve created an event, and added in people, keeping track of all related expenses and dividing up who owes what and who’s paid what is extremely easy.

Overall the Share-a-bill app offers a lot. I really could’ve used something like this back when I was in high school and college. We’ve all got ‘em. You know…those friends that bring up the idea of going out somewhere…then when you get there they pat down all of their pockets and say “ooooh…looks like I forgot my wallet”. That adds up over time. With Share-a-bill you can always know who owes you what, with relatively no effort. For that reason alone it’s a great app. Also, if you’re a frequent business traveler you’ll find this app very handy too. What’s also nice is that there’s a scaled down free version of the app, Share-a-bill Lite, so you can test drive it before you buy it.

Pros:

Rich with features
Organizes everything very well
Relatively easy to use

Cons:

Menu could be laid out better; adding people is the 1st step, but it’s second option on menu
Would be nice if it had a tutorial; new users may be confused at first

preciousVault

Rich DeBell — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:00:23 +0000

The preciousVault app, developed by Garry Runke, is a precious metal manager for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It displays real-time quotes and values of your metals, like gold, silver, platinum, palladium. It can also calculate the gain and loss they achieved since purchased.

preciousVault is a finance app built for the more advanced investor of precious metals. If you’re someone who likes to personally purchase and track your investments then this is a great app for you. In it, various charts show you the trends and values for each metal. The interface is very nice, with a 3-D view that allows the user to easily swipe their finger across to view each metal. The quotes get updated in real-time, so you know you’re always seeing the most recent data available. If your someone who buys and sells allot I don’t have to tell you how imperative and useful this feature alone can be.

preciousVault Features:

Manage your gold / silver / platinum / palladium.
Real-time quotes, 30 day chart, 1 year chart, 5 years chart.
Gain and loss calculator.
See your vaults or metals value easily.
Various currencies supported by real-time quotes.
Shiny 3D interface.
Coin inspector (closeup of coins with interactive features)

If you are an investor of precious metals then this app is without a doubt built for you. It is well built, intuitive and serves its niche function well. This app will really enable you to track your investments in real-time quickly and efficiently.

VAT and Discount

Steve — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:45:03 +0000

VAT and Discount is a handy finance app that allows you to calculate the percentage difference between two amounts. Developed by i-App.it, VAT and Discount is divided into five categories: Calculating Discount, VAT Calculator, Increase Percent, Percentage Difference, and European VAT rates. Two clicks on the iPhone gets you the calculation, making for a very quick result.

VAT and Discount has an easy-to-use menu design: You have small navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen containing the five calculation categories. Simply click on the button to access that specific category. Once the calculator is up, all you have to do is enter a top value like Amount, Gross Amount, or Initial Amount. Then a bottom value like Percentage of Discount, VAT Rate, Percentage of Increase, or Final Amount. Click the calculate button and presto! It’s that easy.

One of the good things about VAT and Discount is the fact that it can be used with no Internet connection. This is great if you are in a location with no Internet connection but need to pull some quick numbers. I was recently in a shopping mall that had ZERO Internet connection. This mall had some great After-Christmas sales going on: 50, 60, even 70% off certain products. I was able to use VAT and Discount to find out the exact sales percentage off select items in like five seconds, which really came in handy.

The app is currently FREE, making it a good selection if you are in need of accessing quick calculations, though the developer has introduced small advertisements that pop up. All in all, VAT and Discount performs as advertised. It’s one of those apps that provides a simple yet convenient service. There is also a table to see the VAT in other countries, making it a versatile ally when traveling.

moneyStrands

Rich DeBell — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:33:47 +0000

moneyStrands is a great tool to manage your personal finances. The main engine behind the app is a web based service at https://money.strands.com/. Through this web portal a user can add in all of their bank, credit card and other financial system accounts to be able to view and manage from one central location. The aspect of the service that I find to be most innovative however is the on the fly reporting and analysis that can be run to display purchase habits, and history, breaking down purchases and expenses into easy to understand categories such as shopping, bills, restaurants, etc…. It automatically gathers data for financial accounts, including savings, checking, and credit cards, providing users with an up-to-date, accurate, unified view of their finances.

The moneyStrands iPhone app allows users to access their data via their iPhone or iPod Touch. Some cool features include:

An Analysis screen that presents you with a pie chart that breaks down your spending for the current month by category. The cool part begins when you tap any slice of the pie. This action displays the amount spent along with the category name. Upon release, the pie chart digs further into that particular category and shows you the sub-categories.

You can see the total balance of your accounts in addition to the individual account balances and if you click on the total balance you can display all your transactions arranged in reverse chronological order without having to navigate account by account. This tells you in a single view exactly what has been happening recently across all your accounts right in your palm.

Another feature I really like about this app is the ability to set budgets for categories and specific items. You can then track your budget to see you’re status and how each item falls into a overall budget. Combining this feature with viewing your income and expenses provides a person with a unique perspective on their entire financial story. In times like we’re in now with economic pressures, job losses, and increasing expenses, etc… a tool like this can be priceless if used to it’s full capabilities. Given it’s free to use too it’s a no-brainer. This is a must download!

Inflation

Ryan Johnson — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:59:19 +0000

Inflation by Integrity Logic is an amusing little app that let’s you relive the good old days by comparing the prices of what things cost in the past and what they would cost if you bought them today. Using the app is simple. You select a beginning year and an ending year, and enter in a dollar amount and it instantly displays the inflated value. For example you enter in 1950 as your start year and 2008 as your ending year. Type in $100 and Inflation shows that $100 in 1950 was worth the equivalent of $893.36 in 2008. Inflation can calculate the inflation rate for the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar, British pounds, Australian dollars, and New Zealand dollars.

Overall this app does exactly what is says it does. We experienced no bugs and found it to be self explanatory and easy to use. That being said, aside from the curiosity factor, we can’t imagine this is an app that you’d use more than a couple times to show your family and friends. With that in mind, if you’re interested in knowing how much money has changed value over time, and would rather see it through an app than by searching for free tools on the Internet, then Inflation is the app for you.