Budget Planning Software

Do you find yourself with more month left at the end of your money, or if you're on a budget, I hope your have money left over at the end of the month. About 4 years ago, just after my wife and I bought our first house, we found ourselves running out of money at the end of nearly every month. With a pay raise at work and a written cash budget, we were able to turn that around, so that we now have money left over.

How much money is left over? Well, usually just a few hundred dollars. What do we do with this leftover cash? Usually it goes to pay down debt or we transfer it to savings. Lately, though, it has been accumulating in our checking account, in anticipation of paying for some recent medical expenses. But how does this month's daily balance actually compare to previous months?

I'm a visual learner. I like to draw diagrams at work to explain and understand programming concepts. I wanted to visualize my checking account the same way, so I wrote a piece of software, called "Budget Planner". It's a tool that graphs your checking account balance, and overlays one month on top of another. See the screenshot below:

I use this software to find how how the balance this month compares to previous months, and thus how much I have available to use to pay down my debt or put in savings.

You can download and use it for free. It requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, and credit for the graphing component goes to ZedGraph. If you need a short tutorial on installation and use, please continue reading.

Installation Instructions
The following steps will help you get this software up and running on your computer (tested on Windows XP and Vista only):

1. Download and install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
2. Download and install Budget Planner
3. Double-click on the new "Budget Planner" icon on your desktop
4. The software should open with a blank graph

Import Data
The following steps will help you download a CSV (comma separated values) file from your bank's website, and import this file into Budget Planner:

1. Log into your bank's website (I currently have a Wells Fargo checking account)
2. Select your checking account
3. Choose the option to download account activity (Wells Fargo's website has a 'Download Account Activity' link)
4. Choose an appropriate date range, and choose Comma Delimited, CSV, Spreadsheet, or something that will produce a .csv file
5. Download the file to an appropriate location on your computer (i.e. My Documents)
6. Open Budget Planner by clicking on the link on your desktop or in your Programs menu
   
7. Click File - Import (or Ctrl - I)
8. Click the file open button (...) and select the .csv file you downloaded in step 5
9. Optional: set the starting balance (this can be obtained from the account activity screen in step 2), and click Next
   
10. Set the appropriate column indexes until the grid displays the correct info in the correct columns (i.e. the dates appear in the date column, the description appears in the description column, and the amount appears in the amount column) and click Next, and Finish
    
11. The grid and graph should be populated with data
12. Optional: you can right-click on the graph and select 'Show Point Values' to view data points when your move your cursor over one of the data points
13. Optional: to zoom, you can draw a selection box (i.e. click an area on the graph, and drag to another point on the graph)

Let me know if you have any questions, encounter any issues, or have any requests for features by posting in the comments below.