ClearCheckbook.com - keep track of finances online
Recently I discovered ClearCheckbook, a slick, free way to track finances online. For the past year or so I’ve simply been monitoring my checking account using online banking. While handy, I never knew exactly how much money I had in checking because the transactions always take a few days before they show up.
For a while I remedied this by keeping track of my checkbook entries using a spreadsheet on Google Docs and Spreadsheets. While I liked the online accessibility, my spreadsheet was simply… well… too simple. Other people with Jedi spreadsheet skills could probably put together something slick, but I did not want to waste the time doing this.
Enter ClearCheckbook. This nifty, free site allows you to keep track of most of your financial life. While it handles checking easily, I use it to also keep track of my three high-yield savings accounts plus one of my credit cards. Keep in mind that ClearCheckbook is a standalone service - it does NOT log in to each of your accounts and automatically update balances. For this reason I use it for my more liquid accounts (checking and savings) and not my mutual funds, since the latter change daily.
With my old spreadsheet I simply monitored my checking account, but with ClearCheckbook it’s more satisfying to see a movement of funds from checking to savings appear as a transfer instead of a withdrawal. This way my total balance stays the same and doesn’t look quite as depressing. 
Some other features: update your account using a cellphone with SMS or AIM capabilities. I don’t have a cell phone, but this sounds really handy! Just like in Quicken, you can create various types of reports as well. Speaking of Quicken, you can also import or export files in various formats, including QIF and CSV. Perhaps my most oft-used feature is the Mac OS X Dashboard “widget”, which allows me to see my totals at the push of a button.
By the way, that’s not my account in the picture, so don’t jump to any conclusions just yet.
See more features and screenshots at their site. I’m happy to use ClearCheckbook for its simplicity, convenience, and online accessibility. Best of all, it’s free.
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