Checkbook - Account Tracker

Review by eFreeware

Checkbook is a finance app from TinyWork Apps, released in 2015 and updated since. The idea behind it is simple: it stands in for the paper register many people still keep, recording credit card charges, cash spending and the rest in one place. That framing is the main reason to consider it, because it promises the familiarity of a checkbook register without the arithmetic.

The app has been installed more than 100,000 times and holds a 3.6 average from 9,288 ratings.

What appeals to me is the scope of what it covers without pretending to be a full personal finance suite. Accounts, categories, payees and notes are the building blocks, and the developer has added reporting, search and export around them. If you want a ledger you control rather than a service that analyzes you, that combination is the pitch.

Multiple accounts, each with a starting balance

The core of the app is the account. You can create as many as you need, and each one begins with a start balance you set yourself. That is the detail that makes the register model work: rather than importing history, you tell the app where an account stood on the day you began, and it takes over from there.

From that point, every entry you add moves the balance. The developer includes fields for payee and note alongside the amount, so a transaction carries enough context to be recognizable months later. Categories sit on top of that, with a set of icons to choose from when you file an entry.

This is a manual system in the sense that you are the one entering the transactions. For some people that is a drawback and for others it is the point: the register reflects exactly what you record.

Recurring entries, transfers and reconciliation

Once the ledger is running, a few features cut down the repetitive work. Recurring transactions let you save an entry and reuse it on a daily, weekly, two-week, monthly or quarterly schedule, so a rent payment or a subscription does not have to be typed out again each time. Transfers move funds from one account to another, which matters if you track both a checking account and a card in the same place.

Reconciliation is the other bookkeeping habit the app supports. You can mark each transaction as cleared or uncleared, which lets you compare your record against a statement and spot what has not yet gone through. Anyone who has balanced a paper register will recognize the routine, and it is good to see it carried over rather than dropped.

The calendar view is the feature I would probably lean on most. Monthly transactions appear as points on the calendar, and tapping a date shows that day's entries. It is a quick way to answer the question of what happened on a particular day without scrolling a long list.

Search, reports and getting your data out

Search covers account name, payee, notes and category, and results can be edited on the same screen rather than sending you back and forth. That last part is a small thing that saves time when you are correcting a mistake or updating a note.

Reports and charts summarize income and expenses by category or by account, with a time period you set to daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. For a register-style app, this is where the numbers become useful rather than merely recorded: you can see where a month went without building a spreadsheet.

The ledger can be exported in CSV format, which means your records are not trapped in the app. That matters for anyone who keeps a yearly archive or wants to hand figures to an accountant. The app also supports multiple currencies, which is relevant if you keep accounts in more than one.

A passcode can be set to protect the information you have entered, and the developer lists storage, contacts and camera permissions for backing up files, reading a Google account when a backup goes to Google Drive, and scanning documents with the camera.

What it asks of you, and what it costs

The app is free to download and the free version is ad-supported. An ad-free version is available as an in-app purchase. It is worth knowing before you start entering a year of transactions.

The bigger commitment is your own discipline. A register only works if entries go in, and nothing here removes that step. If you are the sort of person who lets receipts pile up in a drawer, the app will faithfully record whatever you remember to add and nothing more.

The permissions are tied to specific jobs rather than the app's core function. Storage is used to keep a backup file on the device, contacts come into play when you choose to save a backup to Google Drive, and the camera is there for scanning documents. Backups matter more than usual here, because the ledger is something you have built yourself.

How I would approach setting it up

The sensible order is to create your accounts first, each with an accurate starting balance, and then add categories that match how you actually think about your spending. A category list copied from someone else's system tends to go unused. Keep it short at the beginning and add to it when a real expense does not fit.

After that, set up the recurring entries you know about, such as rent, utilities or subscriptions, so the predictable part of the month takes care of itself. Then get into the habit of adding one-off transactions as they happen, since the calendar and the reports are only as good as what has been entered.

Reconciliation is worth doing on a regular schedule rather than leaving until something looks wrong. Marking cleared and uncleared entries as you go keeps the comparison against a statement manageable. And since the app can export to CSV, a periodic export gives you a copy of your records outside the app.

The passcode is worth setting early if the device is shared or left unattended, since the ledger contains a fairly complete picture of your finances.

A register for people who like keeping one

Checkbook is a good fit for anyone who already keeps a register and wants it in digital form, with the arithmetic handled and the records searchable. The combination of multiple accounts, recurring entries, transfers, reconciliation and reports covers the working parts of a checkbook without adding a budgeting philosophy on top.

The 3.6 average from a large number of ratings suggests the app has satisfied plenty of users without delighting all of them, which is a fair reflection of a tool that depends on the person using it. The free version carries ads, and removing them means an in-app purchase.

If you want a straightforward ledger you fill in yourself, this is built for exactly that. If you would rather an app gathered transactions automatically and told you what to do with them, the manual model here will feel like work. The app is a register, and it is honest about being one.

What's new in version 2.1.2

Thanks for using Checkbook! In this update： - Minor Bug fixes We'd love to hear your feedback! If you have any ideas or feature requests for future versions of the app, feel free to let us know. Please reach out to us at [email protected]