Managing your financial affairs can be a real drag and, unless you’ve got piles of cash stored in your basement, it can be easy to lose track of where your cash is going and ensure that all your payments are made on time. Unless you can afford to keep paying an accountant, it’s a good idea to invest in a decent home accounting application to help you keep tabs on your cash.

AceMoney is one of a number of apps designed to make it easier to track your income and spending than using a spreadsheet (or writing it all on the back of a beermat). The software is very simple to pick up and start using, thanks to its clear icons and navigation bar. Unlike many of its peers, the program includes a facility for viewing all of your money at once through its accounts overview feature, where you can check accounts, investments and pending bills from one place.

The banking features of the program are simple-to-understand and besides allowing you to view your accounts, an online facility gives you direct access, allowing you to make transfers, deposits and consult live details through AceMoney. This sounds great in theory, but in reality there are only a few banks registered with the system and no credit unions. Besides its banking facilities, there’s a useful portfolio manager for keeping a check on your investments and nine different reporting tools to help you better chart your financial progress.

Although these features are well executed, there are areas where AceMoney is somewhat lacking. For instance, its financial planning section is very sparse and basically amounts to a calculator for working out loan repayments and savings plans, rather than tools for helping you plan all your finances ahead. There are also no tax options, so these calculations have to be done in another app and copied in, which could lead to errors.

AceMoney is a good value program that offers a simple way to track your financial transactions in order to keep your head above water. However, if you’re running a business or need to plan your finances in great detail then the software is somewhat lacking and it’ll be worth splashing out for a more powerful application.