Stay On Top of Your Budgets with Offline Money Management
Personal finance -
The worldwide computing revolution has helped optimize many of our daily tasks, from calendars and shopping lists to shopping and budgets. While these developments have saved unprecedented time and energy, they do come with a significant drawback. What happens when you no longer have access to internet?
For many people, their extensive infrastructure for organization is lost at the moment when an internet connection can’t be found. Frequent travelers will lament the fact that they’re often helpless in foreign countries; without reliable cell service or WiFi, their smartphone is useful only as a paperweight.
Avoid the Classic Offline Trap
This offline dilemma often manifests itself in some troubling behavior. Without access to online applications, it’s easy to forget about important data that needs to be entered into an appointment book or accounting program. And once your mobile tools stop reflecting an accurate picture of your life, they become a hindrance to your overall well-being. In the best-case scenario, an inaccurate budgeting app is as helpful as no app at all.
No matter how much time you spend without access to online tools, it’s critical that you keep track of important data and update it when you are back amongst the connected. Like most things in life, staying on top of your accounting requires a healthy dose of discipline. Any slippage could lead to critical missteps and lost money.
Set Yourself Up for Success
The first step for maintaining an accurate system of accounting even while offline is to set up a well-maintained budget in advance. Of course, it’s important to have an accurate financial picture at all times, but it’s absolutely critical when your offline accounting depends on the basic data established online.
If you’re planning a vacation or know that you’ll have restricted access to internet in the near future, set yourself up for success by creating the budgets you need while offline. inBudget is particularly useful for vacation planning, as you can hashtag all related expenses with #vacation or your destination: #france, #moscow, etc.
Vacations are one of the most common times for financial irresponsibility. Without access to budget information, it can be tempting to splurge and mortgage your future for present entertainment. While it may be an unfortunate reality check, inBudget’s offline accounting will help to temper these spontaneous feelings and keep you on track for your financial goals.
Use inBudget Even While “Off the Grid”
Here’s how it works:
Once your transactions have been updated and organized into budgets, your inBudget account is ready to go offline. Double-check that your money is arrayed in the budgets and categories that you’ll need for the duration of your offline accounting. Some expenses associated with vacations are not ones that we encounter in our day-to-day lives, namely transportation and lodging. Make sure that you’re entering information that you’ll be able to understand later.
As you transition to an offline existence, continue using inBudget as you would while connected to the internet. The inBudget functions are entirely self-contained within the app, and any data that you enter will immediately be factored in to your budgets, balances, and financial models. Even inBudget’s most extensive functions like photos and location tagging will work offline. For geocategories, simply enter in your location; the app will sort out the details when you’re back online.
Your inBudget functionality will only be limited in the event that you share a transaction with another person using the @ symbol. When entered offline, transactions that are meant to be shared with another inBudget user will be saved and sent when you reconnect.
Making Responsibility Easy
As most people know, the most difficult thing about financial management is maintaining dedication for recording every transaction. Once you’ve missed a day or two, it’s easy to write off the whole responsibility and fall back into a budget-less life. Unfortunately, the easy choice to stop accounting can have disastrous financial implications. One wrong move could mean a major loss of money.
inBudget’s simple interface makes it significantly easier to maintain financial responsibility. After only a few days of dedicated data entry, it becomes habit to enter your transactions and budgets into the familiar, easy-to-use app. And with useful offline accounting, you’ll never be without access to your monetary information.
It used to be that there was little excuse for not maintaining an accurate budget. Now? There’s no excuse at all. Let inBudget take care of your finances, allowing you to focus on other important things.