CalendarBudget

Author: Kaitlyn Short

Are you missing payments on your bills, overlooking account balances that render a negative number on your financial statements? Or, are you considering hiring a financial planner to help you get financially on track and stay there? CalendarBudget’s web-based software may be just what you’re looking for. It’s a simple and completely free way to help you organize and take control of your hard earned money online by making it easily viewable on a personalized money calendar. 

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The Good

• Introduction video
• Simple, free software
• Member forums

Many people don't like to face budgeting on their own and, in fact, find the process daunting, to say the least. With CalendarBudget, we like how they have a short introduction video that shows how their 21 day Budget Habit Installer program can work for consumers. It gives a 21 day outline with tips and exercises on how to use the program and ways to manage and save money for the future. This course costs $9.00 with a 30 day money back guarantee, and unlimited access. Upon initial sign up and email verification, you'll be directed to enter your banking information. Spending amounts will fall into various categories which are completely customizable to suit your needs. Once that's done, a budgeting plan will be set up under each of the categories such as food, car, clothes, children, grooming, etc. CalendarBudget's web-based software is a simple and completely free way to help you organize and take control of your money online on a personalized money calendar. The following are a few things we like:

• Free
• Intro video
• 21 day budget education program
• Calendar format
• Bill reminders
• Forecasting

Another great aspect is that it's completely free to use. Yes, there are courses that cost money, but they are inexpensive compared to the price of competitor's software programs. Alerts are set up in the form of yellow sticky notes at the bottom of the main page, and also sent out in emails reminding users of upcoming bills and budget updates. Members are able to enter in each of their recurring income expenses on a simple, easy to manage, calendar-based format. By using this software, you are able to plan for big upcoming expenses like car insurance premiums and plan for retirement. Forecasting tools are available to look into the future at your potential account balances. There are Member Forums which allow them to ask questions or raise concerns. An administrator answers these questions via video tutorials, which is a effective method for those who are more visual in their learning and planning. While this feature is a good one to utilize, there are limited forum categories and the ones displayed skim the surface of the program.

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The Bad

• Minimal FAQ
• No automation

They have a knowledge base section similar to an FAQ page, but the information found in it is very minimal. Another potentially negative aspect is their forum search engine. There is a field which asks what you want to search for, then you'll enter a captcha code, which is easy to depict. Next, they have a field where you enter in "what product is this forum about?" Only one word must be entered. After several attempts, we discovered that the word they are looking for is "CalendarBudget." With that said, we never were able to get the answer to our questions in the member forums. While it can be a great informational tool, the content is very limited. A few concerns include:

• No automation option
• Limited help information

There is also no option to automatically transfer your transactions from your bank or credit card account into the system. You may manually enter the information, or import a file that you have already exported from your accounts. While this is a fairly simple process, it could prove to be inconvenient to potential customers looking for more automation.

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The Bottom Line

Overall, we found that this web-based software is simple. It doesn't take much more time than writing your financial due dates and events on your personal calendar. It seems the only added benefit to using this program is that it automatically calculates the totals for you. If you're looking for something basic, give this program a try. Those that use CalendarBudget can expect the following from the service include:

1. Free software download
2. Step-by-step help for set-up
3. No automation