Money Forecaster

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on December 11, 2009

Money Forecaster makes predictions about your financial future based on your current fiscal condition. Although we like the idea of this program and think it could be quite useful, we found it confusing and frustrating to use.

First impressions count, and Money Forecaster's interface is nice enough to look at and seems fairly intuitive. According to the Quick Start guide, the program is quite simple to use: just configure your accounts, add your income and expenses, and set your money goals. However, it turned out to be more complicated than it sounds. Money Forecaster allows you to set up multiple scenarios--a local vacation versus overseas travel, for example. You can then view the forecasts and see how each scenario could affect your finances. It's a pretty cool feature, but there's not a lot of guidance for setting it up. We also had questions about interest rates; when entering income and expenses, users can specify a compound interest rate, but it's not clear where it's applied or even how it's calculated. Importing transactions also proved a mysterious process. Many of these problems could have been solved with detailed instructions, but unfortunately, the built-in Help file is brief and vague.

Money Forecaster has a 30-day trial period. It installs desktop icons without asking but uninstalls without issues. We recommend this program with reservations; there's nothing functionally wrong with it, but it's definitely not easy to use.

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Publisher's Description

From Clickwise Software:

Whether you're looking at buying a new house, going on holidays, or would like a better idea of your financial position, Money Forecaster can estimate your future cash balance, enabling you to make informed decisions today. Money Forecaster generates a snapshot of your possible financial future using your current account balances, compound interest and recurring and one-off income and expense items. With Money Forecaster your can: Manage your day to day account transactions and import account transactions in a batch format; Make 'what if' decisions comparing one scenario with another. Through scenarios your can compare the impact of one decision with another, and see how it changes your potential future financial position; Track your financial goals. Keep track of your goals and see if you are achieving them; Transfer money between your accounts.

Money Forecaster can: Keep track of your historical cash balance; enabling you to compare your past cash balances with your future forecasted cash balances. Cater for recurring income or expense items that change over time. You can setup the amount of an income or expense item to increase or decrease by percentage overtime; Automatically calculate compound interest and include this in your forecast. Money Forecaster is multiple-user compatible. Be up and running your own Money Forecast in no time at all. By using your cash balances, compound interest together with your income and expenses, Money Forecaster can forecast your financial future allowing you to make informed decisions today.

What's new in this version: Version 1.4 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.