Expense software

[Beccaa.]

I am looking for a program to track expesenses when I am travelling. Need to track meals, tolls, gas etc. Anyone have something that adds it all up?

[Yuupp!]

There are tons of expense tracking programs. Go to www.freewarepalm.com or www.palmgear.com and you'll find many to choose from.

[Sivvus]

But what I've found works best for me is a blank Docs2Go Spreadsheet. List the anticipated expenses on the left, 2nd column for Date, and 3rd column for $$ amount. You may want the date column first - it's completely up to you.

Go down a few rows in the $$ column (more rows than "necessary" or anticipated; leave yourself room for ADDED expenses) and hit the "summation" symbol (looks like a jagged "E"). This will obviously make that column add up automaticaly for you as amounts for gas, hotels, etc change, or you can have a separate listing for "hotel1, hotel2, etc" and they'll still add up an aggregate amount in the "final total" cell.

Then you'll have the expenses listed by date and amount, with a grand total. Depending on how familiar you are with Excel or how complicated you want to make it, you can have subtotals too, or list the $$ amounts in two different columns - even hilite cells as needed for quick reference. Having this type of flexibility will be hard to find in "stock" apps. The tradeoff is you have to construct the sheet yourself, but that's preferable to me.

That's all these expense apps do - but at a cost of 40-250k in application size and usually no configurability; by using Sheet2Go you're at around 6k and you can set it up the way YOU WANT and have the same information on your desktop! If there are things to be added at the END of the trip (after trip invoices, etc) you can simply add them either to the handheld or the PC sheet and they'll synchronize. You can then print that final sheet out as a hard copy to your accounting department for repayment, or save it for your financial records - just staple the receipts to it!!

[bEI]

And, you can save the spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel format, and after hotsyncing, print the data by retrieving the file (it will be in My Documents on your C:\ drive) in Excel on your desktop.

Or, if you will work the document away from where you hotsync, save the file to your SD card, via Docts2Go, and then (using a card reader) transfer it to your PC desktop for working/printing it in Excel.

Good luck-

[Bubbles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

As my able bodied colleagues point out - you can use DTG.

However, I've been using Expense Diary by www.adarian.com for several years. When travelling - you can easily see categories and create your own - with a little creativity and it's export functionality you can use it's templates as your actual expense report.

The same can be done with DTG, however on a Treo - you can't see but about 10 cells at a time. Expense diary allows you to see the data just about any way you want.

I'd say check it out as well.

[ganonx16]

What is wrong with the expense, which is embedded in the Tungsten? I have used it ever since I got my TT and I am quite satisfied. My only problem is, that I can not edit the expensecategories, but this is of minor importance.
I use it on every journey business or holyday, and the only person who is annoyed is my wife, because now I can demonstrate to her the true amount of money spent, and it is always more, than she expects! - and wants to know.

[Ka€ a??? [Cavs=Title]]

This was one of my pet peeves with the builtin Expense program - it doesn't show you anything that's real world.

It's not even included on the Treo or Garmin units and probably won't be on some of the future stuff because most people opt for something else. It's ok but the lack of category editing and totals on the handheld makes the program "tied" to the desktop way too much. IMHO.

[Curly Top]

You might consider using a database program such as SmartList To Go. You can create custom fields and pop up lists, which would allow you to add your own expense categories.

If you synchronize the database with Microsoft Access on your desktop, you can have Access generate expense reports.

Another advantage of using a database is that you won't need to keep inserting rows at the bottom of your spreadsheet.

I really like SmartList To Go. I have been able to create custom applications when I might otherwise have to purchase another program for that one task I want to do. It is well worth the money.

[darrell l]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Should have added in my org post that I am on a Mac. We dont use excel but I would imagine I can export it into Word?

[gcaisle]

Are you using Documents To Go 6? If you are, you should be able to save your files in a native file format on your SD card. The SD card could then be placed in a card reader on your Mac and the file could be opened up directly from the card.

If I'm not mistaken, Mac computers come with an office suite, Claris Works, I think. There should be a spreadsheet app that is Excel compatible. This could be used to open the Excel file.