I’ve used quite a few expense trackers on different platforms. Many have been reviewed here as well. There are a few good looking apps that get the job done on Android but none of them wowed me like this one. Expense Manager by Markus Hintersteiner is one of the best looking expense trackers on any platform. With the Nexus 7, Android finally started getting tablet apps. Almost every good app on the platform has a nice tablet UI now. Expense Manager isn’t just a Holo themed app. It is an elegant app with great animations utilizing google’s modern card themed interface. Each view in the app has smooth animations. The typography is crisp and the app looks plain awesome on my Nexus 4 and Nexus 7.
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The app has 5 main sections. On launch you are greeted with an overview where you see how much you have spent this month in the various categories. The categories can be defined in the settings. You can also add a daily reminder for entry which is absolutely essential for an app like this for me. It is something I miss with MoneyWell Express on iOS and even Saver when I used to use it. You can set your monthly limit as well and there’s a small piggy bank on the overview that tells you how much you have left to spend. I love subtle things like this in apps. Navigation within the app can be done by swiping to the right. The history section lets you see all your entries across all the categories in descending order. You can edit any entry by tapping on it. The distribution section has a nice circular chart that appears on the top colour coded category wise showing you how much you spent in each category. The statistics section has the lovely cards UI. You can see your monthly and daily performance in addition to a graph of your running versus overhead charges. Adding an expense is very simple and can be done at any time by tapping the plus symbol on the top right. Each entry needs to have a category set and you can set any date and add a note to the entry as well. If you choose to cancel the entry, the entire entry page falls down like a card that has been swiped away allowing the app to slide in.
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On Android, every app needs to have a widget and Expense Manager has a nice dark widget that lets you see your total expenditure this month and quickly add an expense. Another thing all modern Android apps need to have is Dash Clock support. I absolutely love Dash Clock and it is something that should be built into the next version of Android that will be revealed within a few weeks hopefully. You can see your total expense this month in Dash Clock through the build in extension. A startup pattern lock is also available. The app has a boat load of features but one area it lets everyone down is in syncing. As of now you can only backup and restore data across devices and there is no sync available. The developer has informed me that he is going to add sync to the app in the next release.
Expense Manager for Android is the best expense app on the platform complete with a great tablet UI and features modern apps have. It is available without ads for free on Google Play but the Distribution, Statistics and Income recording sections are available via a one time in app purchase of $3. Once the app gets cross device syncing, it may even the best mobile expense tracking app out there.