Personal finance software can be used to track spending, create budgets, and plan for future expenses. Some software differs by feature support, software code and development transparency, mobile app features, import methods, Monetization model, privacy and data storage practices.
Risks
The use of expense tracking, budgeting, and other personal finance software carries some risk, most notably is due to the disclosure of a username, password, or other account credentials used to automatically synchronize banking information with an expense tracking application. Another significant area of risk is due to sensitive personal information that is stored anytime data is digitized. This risk may be compounded based on the security the software vendor has implemented as well as the availability of the data and where specifically it is stored (online or a local application). An often overlooked form of risk is due to the monetization model and privacy practices of the vendor or software provider, whether the application is "free" or fee based. Open source software is one way of potentially minimizing the risks of privacy and monetization related risks of data exposure.
A command-line based double-entry bookkeeping application. Data is stored in a plain text file, using a simple format, which the users prepare themselves using other tools. Ledger does not write or modify data, it parses the input data and produces reports.
Fee-based in-house financial planning. Primarily a wealth management company that provides free services to non-clients.
Offers financial advising for a fee, which establishes a client-fiduciary relationship that they claim makes them less incentivized to sell private client data as they are bound by law to act in their client's best interests.[22]