PocketSmith Sidekick Reviews

The whole point (for me) of wanting to have a mobile app is so that I can manually enter transactions while I'm on the go so I can snap a picture of the receipt and know that I have it logged and an covered. I hate carrying receipts and without being able to manually enter transactions on the go, I'm entirely left up to automated bank transactions to populate. And actually, I opted to turn off automatic uploading. It is more convenient to do it automatically but one of the biggest personal benefits of using a service like this is for me to be actively, consistently engaged and aware of each transaction and to see how that's effecting my cash flow forecast. I've really enjoyed manually entering my transactions each morning.

But DESPERATELY waiting for the mobile app to allow me to do this in the fly. The mobile version of the website is responsive and is pretty much impossible to navigate efficiently on a phone. But....I do LOVE the website on a computer!

To be a reliable app Two things are urgently needed
1. The ability to input All transactions on all accounts from the mobile ap . Right now you can do this only from cash
2. The ability to transfer from one account to another account. Right now, if you transfer from one account to another you have to add an Expense ( transfer) to the account moving from and an income(transfer) to the account moving to.
Also, you need to FIX HELP I sent in two questions AND NEVER GOT A RESPONSE :(

Pocketsmith is a great website, but PocketSmithSidekick is absolutely useless. Even a basic feature like the ability to manually add a transaction is not possible. Don't waste your time.

The whole point of an app is to offer convenience and a contained experience. PocketSmithSidekick just redirects to the website constantly; which isn’t configured to be accessed via a mobile device.

I read about PocketSmithSidekick in an article. However, it gives me an option to log in or use google sign in. Then it tells me the information does not match in their system. There's no spot where it says new user, etc.

UPDATE
my frustration got the best of me. Yes the company was responsive in emails. They haven’t been able to fix the problem but at least they are trying. Thanks

I actually fell for the free trial they offer, but it doesn’t let you download your bank info unless you purchase the package. So I did. Now none of my bank and credit accounts work to download due to errors in the transfer system. I have sent multiple emails to PocketSmith and they seem to be enjoyingThe surf and cookies in New Zealand.

Good for them. Bad for me. Asked for a refund haven’t heard a word multiple emails, don’t make the same mistake.

UPDATE
my frustration got the best of me. Yes the company was responsive in emails. They haven’t been able to fix the problem but at least they are trying. Thanks

Been a PocketSmith user for several years. Desktop website is good, a bit of a learning curve to the UI but has all the functionality needed for good budgeting and cash flow management. But it’s 2021 and life is mobile. The mobile app is severely lacking. Needs all the functionality of the desktop site. Cash flow forecast is one of the key selling points of PocketSmith vs. competitors, but is missing from the mobile app. This is a big mistake IMHO.

I rate as one star because the functionality of PocketSmithSidekick is so basic/minimal that I never even use it.

Been testing this for a few months. PocketSmithSidekick is super basic and limited. I think this will be the last month I pay for the monthly fee.

If you have a family, multiple accounts/ mortgages/ liabilities etc, then don’t bother with PocketSmithSidekick/software. Great idea, but just a pretty budgeting app at present.

There’s no way for transactions from your bank for liabilities to actually be linked to the liability. It uses old-school Quicken 2005 thinking. It doesn’t matter how much you actually pay, you have to manually go change it.... Which totally defeats the purpose of paying a fortune for their downloading of automatic transaction records.

Great for singles or people with basic financial lives only.

The main reason I signed up with Pocketsmith was for the cash flow forecast. I tried almost every finance app and created my own spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was too time consuming and other finance software didn’t have what I needed. The online website has a great display for the cash flow forecast. The iPhone app, not so much. I would give 5 stars if they displayed the cash flow forecast on PocketSmithSidekick . It would be great if I was in a store and was deciding on a purchase to determine if I had enough cash in my budget by using the forecasting tool. Please update PocketSmithSidekick to include the cash forecast.

Some super simple things on PocketSmithSidekick are flat out broken, which makes a great service feel a bit neglected on PocketSmithSidekick front.

When I try to categorize a transaction, one of the most fundamental aspects of what PocketSmithSidekick needs to be able to do, half the time it literally does nothing and pretends I never clicked a button.

What gives? How can the site work so well but PocketSmithSidekick feel half-finished?

I love how the desktop app is so clean and yet also so powerful, focused on intelligent transaction rules -- filters, splitting, the works.

But on mobile I can't split a transaction, select the "Make This a Category Rule" checkbox, or even easily see what transactions are in a given category at the moment.

So I basically can't use the mobile app to do anything useful, just view totals and summaries - but automating and splitting transactions is what I need to do on the go day-to-day.

I'm glad the PocketSmith team has a laser-focus on the platform foundation (even offering an API!! Wow!!), but would love to see the mobile app be my day-to-day transaction home rather than the report-centric approach it has now, which I only need to see every now and then.

But thank you PocketSmith for being DIFFERENT in an ecosystem full of bloated / outdated personal finance apps with LIVE feeds!! I am a paid subscriber and can't wait to see where you take PocketSmithSidekick next. This is truly a 1-of-a-kind, best-in-class platform.

Love the website, have been a premium user for a while, and use the forecast calendar functionality on a daily basis - so disappointing to see that PocketSmithSidekick still doesn’t have that feature. Is it coming soon?!

Website is great and it’s nice to see the mobile app coming along. I really want to attach my paper receipts to my transactions. Can we please add this so we can take pictures of the receipts? I would also love to view my calendar in PocketSmithSidekick, that’s the biggest feature on the web.

I think people are giving PocketSmithSidekick a hard time because they’re used to or looking for a phone app that can completely manage your finances, which is next to impossible. Yes, it’s annoyingly still missing the Split Transaction function, but the main way of using PocketSmith is through its desktop web app. As a fully featured personal finance management powerhouse, it’s the best alternative I’ve found to Quickbooks, and I’ve tried them all, including Mint and Personal Capital. What’s their secret? I mean, their apps are programmed well, so that helps. But the main reason I chose PocketSmith was that it’s the only personal finance solution out there that lets you to manually confirm each transaction as they come in from your bank. This way, it behaves much more like a business application. Coming from Quickbooks and Xero, I realized that this function is crucial. All other applications out there either automatically feed in and categorize your transactions without confirmation, which is super easy to ignore and lose track of, or there aren’t bank feeds at all and you have to manually enter everything, which is time consuming for small budgets and impossible if you have 10+ accounts you want to track. PocketSmith strikes the balance. Xero did once upon a time have a personal finance app, which they discontinued. That’s how I found PocketSmith. Xero recommended PocketSmith to its personal finance customers when it decided to focus only on business. Maybe it’s a coincidence that Xero is Australian and PocketSmith is based in New Zealand, or maybe they’re friends, but the fact is that PocketSmith is the closest solution I found to applying business accounting practices to your personal finances. Everyone else is either missing functionality or is constantly trying to sell you something. I’d much rather pay for good service.

Before this iteration, I didn’t use PocketSmithSidekick for anything except categorizing expenses on the fly. Now, PocketSmithSidekick is a whole lot better. There’s actually a dashboard. There are a few features I’d still like to see added (search your transactions, edit your budget, click on an expense category and see what all has counted against it), but this was a step in the right direction.

Love the website, been using it for years with a premium account. Love the forecasting feature to see what I’ll have at any given moment.

However, PocketSmithSidekick seems to be missing this feature. Would be absolutely fantastic and willing to go 5 stars if/when this is implemented.

PocketSmithSidekick development team at PocketSmith doesn’t deserve the mediocre reviews! They’ve kept working on PocketSmithSidekick over the years and it’s a perfect companion (or sidekick as they like to call it) to the extremely powerful and feature rich web app! It has everything you need. Keeping tabs on your budget and adding expenses on the go was never so easy, all the while benefiting from the powerful category organization that comes with PocketSmith. Great app and great service!

Not sure why all the low ratings except maybe folks just don’t know that there’s a website that does a ton more and PocketSmithSidekick is just a companion. For what I use it for; categorization of transactions on the go, reviewing budgets and checking balances; PocketSmithSidekick is faster than using the site. If I want to take time and get into the details then I obviously have the time to go to the site and dive in. Not everyone needs this companion to the site, not everyone realizes PocketSmithSidekick is just the tip of the iceberg to the site.

I don’t know why but it seems all the reviews for PocketSmithSidekick at least in my version of PocketSmithSidekick Store are old. 1-2 years old. I have been using PocketSmith for the last few days and can say most of the complaints from those reviews are no longer valid! I actually refused to download PocketSmithSidekick because the website is so amazing! I didn’t want it to ruin how I felt about it.

You can see your transactions, you can see the calendar, you can see your forecast, you can even filter your forecast, you can see your budgets and you can add transactions on the go!

PocketSmithSidekick is like everything you want! I’ve moved to PocketSmith after playing with just about ever other finance app on here and this by far is the most amazing! The website and customer support are top notch!

Thank you for listening to your previous reviews and adding what they requested. PocketSmithSidekick is truly amazing! I can’t wait to keep using it!