Disclaimer: Anyone who has no use for modern gadgets and is going to leave a ‘I don’t have a smart phone and am proud of it’ comment, please don’t bother reading this post as it will be an eye roller for you. 😉
I was balancing the books yesterday and was frustrated by my inability to thoroughly keep track of my cash purchases. I was out a whole $25 that I couldn’t remember spending. When in town, I try to remember to input cash purchases into a note on my iPhone, but it’s clumsy, not quick to do on the fly, and then I have to put the information into my budgeting software. Since I pretty much only use cash in Mexico and want to keep better track of where I’m spending that money this winter since I know that I won’t just be spending on it primarily on food the way I was for almost four months last year, I really needed to come up with a better system.
I decided to investigate their iPhone version of the app, which promised to sync seamlessly with the desktop version through Dropbox. Now that I just about always have internet and unlimited bandwidth, syncing across the ether didn’t sound as scary as it once did, although it has always been a huge disaster with my Apple devices…
Well, I downloaded the iOS version of the budgeting app and tried it out when I was in Willow Bunch yesterday, immediately punching into the app the amounts spent at the pub and thrift store. It was much easier than creating a note in that the app could quickly pull up my payees with just a few keystrokes instead of having to type the whole name, recognize which categories they belong to, and has really big buttons to press to punch in the numbers instead of the tiny iPhone keyboard that pops up with the notes. When I got home and connected my Mac to the internet, my desktop app updated with the new purchases. Wow, cloud syncing could be wonderful!
So today, in between fits of work, I decided to figure out why I have such a hard time syncing between my Mac and my iOS devices. I’ve been trying to figure this out for five years, but never really pressed the issue because it wasn’t a critical issue for me. But now that I have an iPhone, work has really picked up, and I spend half the year out in the world and not staying cooped up at home 95% of the time, I need to be able to better use this powerful little pocket computer. If anything, I wanted to be able to have my calendar on my phone and not have to enter reminders on my Mac and then reenter them on the phone. I also go to bed with my iPad and wish that I could check my day’s to-do list and appointments before getting up, so syncing with it too would be a bonus.
I’m not quite sure how the epiphany came about this morning, but it didn’t take long for the light bulb to go on. My problem was that I have two Apple IDs (the reason for which I won’t bore you with) and have been using them pretty much interchangeably while I should have only been using one. So I took about a half hour (would have been much quicker with non-flaky internet) and made sure that all my devices were hooked up to the correct Apple ID and then I activated iCloud under that same Apple ID for each device. Bingo!
I still wound up with some duplicates and garbage information and it took me a moment to realise that the best way to clean that up is right in the cloud where everything is stored by signing in at icloud.com. But now that everything is synced and duplicates have been removed, I can update on whatever device I want and the changes appear seamlessly on each device (well, as long as my internet is cooperating).
I’ll be getting a new computer in a few weeks, so I’ll make sure to set it up properly from the get go.
Because I haven’t paid full price for an Apple device in ages (in fact, for all intents and purposes every one of my current devices was free!*) I sometimes forget how expensive they are and that I really should be maxing out their potential to get more value out of them. Cloud syncing is going to help me do just that!
Next step, when I have a lot more time to focus on the issue, will be to figure out how to link my Filemaker Pro database to the iOS app so that I can consult my invoices on the go. It happens about once a month that I get an invoice query from a client when I’m away from the desk, so it would be nice to at minimum be able to look up invoice numbers, amounts, and due dates.
I remember life with paper dayplanners and no internet at my fingertips and this is better. I can’t imagine running my little empire without these tools. I’m not a slave to them, but now that work is so much steadier and I’m expected to keep more normal business hours, it’s good to not be tethered to my desk and to feel that I can get away without announcing that I’m away.
(*My current Mac was a straight trade for my older computer, my iPad was mostly paid for with a generous work bonus, and my phone was absolutely free with a two-year contract because it’s an older model and they were clearing out stock)
I have a ‘Cash’ account in Quicken where I keep track of all cash purchases and ATM withdrawals (deposits to “cash”). It is in CAN dollars so the amount I enter is a best guess when in the US or MX. Every few days I reconcile the money in my pocket to the amount shown in Quicken and adjust a few amounts so things balance. If I am out a significant amount – like your $25, I simply make up a purchase, usually in ‘groceries’. Not the perfect solution but accurate enough for me.
When I use cash that was originally CAD but is now USD or MXN, I actually convert it properly by using the exchange rate from that withdrawal. I also do what you do, sticking the money in the food category because it was likely a meal out, but $25 is a lot of money to be pissing away. I want to know where my money is actually going so that’s not acceptable to me. Soon as I have time to breathe, I’m going to retrace my steps and where I spent it will materialize.
The only place that I allow any sizable outages is in PayPal because it deals in both USD and CAD and it can be very difficult to balance things when I pay for something half in USD and half in CAD. For PayPal, if it doesn’t balance and I’ve made sure all my transactions are in, a ‘currency adjustment’ is acceptable to me and shows up as either positive or negative income for the month.
As you can see, I keep a tight lid on my finances and I know where my money is and what it’s doing for me and that is incredibly empowering. I will have to do a writeup about the software I use. It’s not like Quicken or any other variant where you’re just entering your purchases, but a whole lifestyle and philosophy to money management that has absolutely changed my life.
Ummmmm, HUH??!
My Apple accounts are so screwed up I don’t know if I’ll ever get all the user names and passwords to match up.
Nancy, it’s actually possible to sort it out with a little patience. You have to start by doing an inventory of what’s under which ID. The one that has the most becomes the primary ID that you have to use from that moment forward and you have to associate it to all your devices. You then have to decide if you want to keep using the two or transfer iTunes and App Store purchases from one account to another. It sounds really complicated, but when I sat down yesterday and sorted it out, it all came together very quickly and was completely worth it. I remembered something as I was going to bed, made a reminder on my iPad, and this morning, my iPad synced and I got the reminder on my computer, where I was able to notice it.