It only appears magical. You can use powerful smartphone apps to get control of your household finances and begin working your way out of debt. Most people do not know precisely how to reconcile their checking accounts and use their check registers to construct family budgets; no one ever showed them how to do it, so they have improvised or neglected it since they received their first paychecks. If few people know the mysteries of balancing a checking account, then people who know the formula for calculating compound interest surely appear on the endangered species list. Now, however, smartphones perform every accounting maneuver known to humankind; and, when you can account for your money, you gain command of it. Setting and strictly following a family budget lays the foundation for all other home economics, and your smartphone puts money management at your fingertips.

Among the thousands of money management apps flooding the market, accountants and bankruptcy attorneys most often recommend…


• iReconcile 

The apps developers admit that, yes, iReconcile is the all-new and improved version of the old Checkbook app for iPhone and iPad; but they have launched it as a unique stand-alone program, because it includes all the specialized and sophisticated features regular Checkbook users demanded. Its functions reach well beyond the limits of your checkbook to every aspect of your family’s finances, and it operates so easily and intuitively that you master techniques you never would have learned in a million years of advanced accounting classes. iReconcile already knows money and math; it quickly learns you, and then it makes its knowledge work together for your benefit.

• Can I Buy? 

Use this app to plot future expenses and indulge your fantasies. You enter your salary, assets, and debt, and the app calculates whether or not you can afford a vacation, a new car, a luxury yacht or your own island.

 • PayPal 

Your favorite online money-maker now offers an app that helps you spend and manage your money. The PayPal app lets you charge eBay and amazon.com purchases to your account, and it gives you tools for donating to your favorite charities. Like the website, the app also empowers you to bill clients for your services and send money to other PayPal account holders. Most importantly, regular users testify to its safety and security…and it’s free.

• Debt Snowball Pro 

Although you may use this app only once, wondering why you spent $3, you immediately will see its value. Enter information about your consumer loans and credit card balances, and the app dictates a strategy for retiring your debts according to the interest rates and other costs of credit. The app costs less than checking your credit score, and it achieves most of the same results, because you increase your scores as you pay-off your obligations.

 • DOXO and Shoeboxed 

These apps let you photograph your bills and receipts, intelligently organizing them into categories, and preparing them for export to other financial management software. DOXO recognizes patterns in your spending and can learn to pay your bills; Shoeboxed works with tax-preparation software, capturing deductions you might otherwise miss. You will see the benefits of automated money management almost immediately. If you have doubts, ask your smartphone to prepare graphs and charts, showing your entire financial life in full color and three dimensions. You instantly will see where your budget leaks—or hemorrhages—money that could pay-down credit cards and consumer loans. After a while, your phone will learn to pay your regular monthly bills, and it will alert you when you come-up a little short. Maybe best of all, when you let your smartphone manage your money for a year, it will have all the data it needs to do your taxes with TurboTax.

Edward Pearce lives in Liverpool, where he writes reviews of useful smartphone apps and tools. You can find more financial tools, the latest mobile phones, and cheap contracts at mobilephones.org.uk.