Accounts 3 Checkbook Reviews

I’ve been using Accounts3Checkbook to track my spending and all my financial accounts since June 2014. I have only ONE complaint, and it’s a BIG one: has anybody else noticed that when you split categories on a transaction (like, say, at the grocery you buy toiletries AND food) that when you later run a report the total for that report or search item includes the FULL amount of a split transaction, not just the amount for the category you’ve searched? This creates inaccurate reporting, and as a result I have to enter one transaction for each category and put “(1 of 2)” or “(2 of 2)” so that I know they were really one transaction when reconciling. This is incredibly cumbersome. Can we please fix this? Also, how about customizing a report based on a category or set of categories, similar to how you can choose which accounts to include or exclude. Adding a date range was helpful, but custom categories (and accurate math!) would make this an app on par with SplashMoney from the Palm Pilot days, which I used from high school graduation in 2003 until my first iPhone in 2014.

This is a great app, I’ve bought it a few months ago and overall I’m pleased with how everything is organized, but if this couple important features would be added, this could be a really great app. It really needs to have the following: (1) when you create a new payment entry, you should be able to click on the Memo within the entry, and see it entirely in a big window if it’s a long note - this is something that bothers me a lot because many of my Memos are longer than you can see on that little window and there’s no way you can see a Memo in it’s entirety and read it from beginning to end; very difficult to edit, too; you need to slide the cursor left/right in that little box to be able to read/edit it; (2) the payment entries should be split by months and be able to collapse or expand them, this way you can skip time periods when you search a past entry, otherwise you have to keep scrolling over hundreds of entries to reach a few years back; I’ll have to take the time to save all of my entries from 2017 up to now because Accounts3Checkbook I’ve used before has been abandoned and I need to have all the history on Accounts3Checkbook, so that’s quite a few years to scroll over hundreds of entries….and it’s only getting bigger as years pass. Plz make these happen and this’ll be a 5***** app.

The Accounts 3 app works well for individual use, but I’ve struggled to sync it with my husband’s phone despite following all troubleshooting steps. I’ve deleted and reinstalled his app multiple times, but it still won’t sync, which is disappointing since we rely on having a shared view of our finances. We typically meet weekly to review our budget, but without a functioning sync, he can’t see updates, which defeats the purpose of sharing Accounts3Checkbook .

It would be helpful if Accounts3Checkbook offered at least a basic chat or email support option. The lack of direct support makes it hard to address issues like this, and while I appreciate that it’s a reasonably priced app, I still expect key features like syncing to work reliably. I previously used Accounts 2, which synced seamlessly, so I had high expectations for Accounts 3. Please address this problem—it’s frustrating to see this core feature not functioning properly despite my following all the provided instructions.

Very easy to use, very simple interface, kudos. Much easier than a spread sheet for keeping track of bank accounts, but I would like a couple of extras. As many have noted, there is no way to see future recurring transactions which will affect available balances. There could be a toggle to show them or not as we wish, a select time frame to show them, eg., the next month, etc.

Thanks to a previous reviewer, I set up an account that shows all my transaction for a month, including recurring, but they all need to be entered individually. This would not be needed if recurring charges were already there, but an alternative is to be able to use one account to be a template for a new month. I could see set up monthly accounts starting with the template account of recurring charges.

Obviously, the best would be to display all future recurring charges in one account, but being able to duplicate a template would help.

I’ve been using Accounts for years and years. I never could get Accounts 2 to share reliable data between my iPad, which is my normal accounting method and my iPhone where I like to jot on the go gas and shopping. I was extremely hopeful that Accounts 3 would solve that problem. It does seem to do a much better job. However, if I make a change to a recurring payment on my iphone (secondary device) it doesn’t make that change back to my primary iPad. Ex. I have a recurring payment that I need to add a check number to each month, if I do that via phone, it doesn’t show on iPad. Also, some entries I make on my phone won’t come across to iPad at all. Also, if things have previously been entered in and transferred to both devices, if I check it off on one it will not necessarily check it off on the other. I cannot figure out which transactions those are exactly because the time between entering and clearing is long enough that I don’t remember which device I entered it in on. These are annoying enough for someone that is OCD enough to balance down to a penny that I can only give 4 stars. I love it otherwise and if the cloud sync worked better it would definitely be a 5.

I really like Accounts3Checkbook but I was wondering why I have to keep going in to balance the check book it’s getting really old doing this the issue is it don’t do good math lol my account is always off after going in and balancing the check book it’s always the math that is off all my checks line up with what the bank has plus any outstanding checks but get this I don’t use checks I only use a debit card and after checking all transactions are there ! The math does not add up no overdrafts no returned payments. Only thing it can be is the math. This is disturbing people came under the checkbook to be correct. I went through everything to make sure it wasn’t my mistake but time and time again I have to go back and adjust my money to match the bank and I shouldn’t have to do that because I’m losing money that way so I don’t know where the map issue is with this thing, but it needs to be corrected. ASAP please🙏 I would like to suggest that when you edit in recurring that your able to move and place items in order like I can do with my iPhone mail I can move my emails around in order I want them so would like to do the same with my entries of my checks

I have several questions and suggestions that I would like pass on to you.

First of all I would like to say that this a very good financial app. I started using apps like this in 1991 so I have a lot of data accumulated. I only had a PC at the time I started and now I use a Mac, iPad, iPhone, and a second iPad and iPhone that my wife uses. We use the same iCloud account.

Questions

After entering a transaction on one device it will show up on a second device but not all four. Why do I always have to do a backup to iCloud to keep all devices in sync?

If, for example, my wife enters a transaction on one or her devices an I add a transaction to one of my devices, will a backup delete one of the transactions? This is why I would like to see auto backup to iCloud

Can I make sub categories?

Suggestions

It would be nice to see Recurring Transactions linked to the Calendar as another way to see when they are due.

It would be great to see syncing done automatically. No manual backup to mess with.

I would like to see a Mac app. Anything happening on this in the future?

It would be nice to see a way to use data from a different app via any method. Two of my accounts have over 10K transactions. It has taken me two weeks to copy two years from seven accounts of data from Accounts3Checkbook I have been using.

Thanks for your consideration from the above. Keep up the good work. You do have a beautiful app.

Wayne Andersen

I used the Accounts 2 app for years, and I loved it. My wife and I have always been able to maintain our checkbook via the email share feature. We switched to accounts 3 this year and find it just as useful, although I haven’t really noticed any significant differences between the two.
The biggest headache I have had to overcome is that Accounts 2 time stamped shared transactions when email sharing to hour and min. So, when reviewing the accounts between our two phones, all the transactions lined up in their order of occurrence. With Accounts 3, they seem to be entered in the order in which their link was clicked and only stay sorted by date. So if I send 5 transactions to my wife, she’ll open the newest one first in her email and all the transactions in her phone will be reversed from the ones in mine. This creates additional issues if she also sends transactions to me. Those transactions would be before any of the ones I sent even if I sent them hours earlier.

If this could be corrected, then I would definitely give Accounts3Checkbook 5 stars.

I’m switching over from CheckBook Pro by Plasm on my Mac as I’m moving to an iPad for all my computing. Accounts3Checkbook is really easy to set up and use. A couple of suggestions: When choosing which account to use in the dropdown, it would be helpful for the first account listed to populate. right now, you have to scroll down and back up to the first account for it to populate which is annoying. One feature I really like about my prior checkbook was the ability to schedule recurring expenses so they populate in the account register. This gives you a view of cash flow, which Accounts3Checkbook doesn’t seem to provide, unless I missed it - another option would to create a cash flow report that shows a chart AND the listing of future recurring revenue and expense transactions (with the ability to choose how far out you want to look). This is an important feature that I will cancel and seek a refund - what’s the point of having a checkbook if you can’t see what your future cash flow looks like? I’m still working through this as a new user and will come back if I learn anything else. Lastly, there should be a feature to be able to upload my prior app’s check register so all my historic transactions show up in Accounts3Checkbook so I’m not starting today as a new beginning. I’m losing all that history.

After installing accounts 3, I cannot share a transaction from my Accounts3 to my partners, newly installed accounts 3. Been using accounts 2 for many years with no problem. Now that I have the two new accounts 3, when I try to share from my Accounts3 he tried to put it on my partners old accounts 2. When she deleted her accounts 2 app, when I try to send her a transaction, it indicates there is no destinations for the transaction. I tried to send. I am regretful that I installed accounts 3, unless you can give me a solution to where I can share transactions from my Accounts3 app to her Accounts3 app. Please respond ASAP. I have a lot of data that I do not want to lose. SADLY AS A SATISFIED USER OF ACCOUNTS 2, I HAVE TO SAY WITHOUT A CUSTOMER SUPPORT REP TO TALK TO ON A FLAW ON THE ACCOUNTS 3 APP, I HAVE TO SAY I REGRET INSTALLING IT WITH NO WAY TO GO BACK TO T ACC 2 APP. I will gladly change my rating if someone will contact me and help me resolve this issue.

I’m sending this again. I really did like the Accounts 2 app, but there isn’t any advantage to Accounts 3. Since Accounts3Checkbook developer doesn’t respond, I feel that there is very poor or no customer service. I noticed that there are other reviews that have not received a response.

Possibly a decent product, terrible customer service.

Updating from Accounts 2 to 3 using “Local Data Transfer” was fast, easy and accurate (using ver. 2 of Accounts3Checkbook). I am hoping syncing with my iPad will improve over using Accounts 2. I found that to be hit or miss if all entries would transfer over.
I like the change in selecting dates in this version having a month view rather than scrolling the wheel.
I agree with another reviewer having the option of syncing via Dropbox would be on the top of my wish list. I have several accounts I use in Accounts 3 for, but my one primary checking account I share with my wife. Obviously since we have separate iCloud accounts, I cannot sync with her.
One minor annoyance… in setting the TIME for a reoccurring transaction, say for 12:05 AM, I have to choose “12” and the window closes. I have to go back to scroll to “05”, it closes, then go back a third time to select “AM”.

I’ve had Accounts3Checkbook (including past iterations) for possibly a decade. I use it “off lane” in that each month of my budget forecasting gets its own “account”. I Manage both my family’s joint account as well as my personal checking. I love being able to plug in forecasted transactions and my pay days (every two weeks) and have the ability to see how much “walking around money” I have while knowing the upcoming bills and expenses that are approaching. It’s very manual, and I’ve looked into other budgeting apps to execute this functionality but haven’t found anything as simple as my manual method. And I feel like I’ve tried all the well known apps. The method I’ve been following has helped me get a handle on my incoming and outgoing expenses and is a lifesaver.

I’d love to connect with the developer to share my use case as a suggestion for a new app. But I’m not on Facebook. Hoping I’m able to connect here. 🙂

Accounts3Checkbook has so many great features. I truly do enjoy it. And will continue to use it. But iCloud sync stopped working.

Information for the developers:
The iCloud sync worked for a few days but stopped functioning. Both my iPhone and iPad are using the same Apple ID, the same Accounts 3 app. Both devices have the latest iOS version. I restarted both devices. I waited a day. But the iPad did not display the latest changes. So I backed up to iCloud from the iPhone. And restored to the iPad. After that I made changes to the iPhone. But the changes still did not update to the iPad. I disabled iCloud sync on both the iPad & iPhone. Then enabled iCloud sync again. But it still would not update the changes. I created another iCloud backup and restored again. This time I made changes on the iPad to see if it would sync the changes to the iPhone but it did not. I still love Accounts3Checkbook , but will remove it from the iPad since sync no longer works.

I’ve been using the Accounts app for over a decade now. I love the control you have and can really budget and input future expenses you anticipate. All in all a 5 star app. For the developers, can you fix something that’s been a quirk since day 1? When you have recurring expenses, you can select the time it gets added to an account. However, once it does do that, then the time for the next ones get reset to midnight. So I had an expense load today at 3:05am eastern and when I check the next recurring, it’s the right day but 12:00am. That would be a nice fix. Additionally, when a recurring expense occurs in a different time zone, it resets the time based on that time zone. So if I’m on the west coast and a recurring expense gets added, it resets to midnight and then when I go back to the east coast the time is now not midnight but 9pm. This is why I use 3am for my times so it happens “overnight” regardless of my time zone, in the continental US anyway.

All I have to do is date all my bills for the day my paycheck comes that the bill is paid out of, and it pops into my checkbook, showing me everything that will be paid before the next paycheck comes in, and shows me how much cash I have to play with. I would suggest to allow the page I’m on to stay where it’s at on the page when I back out of Accounts3Checkbook and go back in. It even happens when I just change pages within Accounts3Checkbook . Instead I have to start over at the very top of the page every time I go back in, making me have to scroll all the way down to where I was every time. It would also be cool to have the option to highlight or change the number color on the calendar that pulls up when entering the frequency of reccuring bills. It would be nice to see the paydays and choose from that without having to back out of Accounts3Checkbook and go to my iCalendar to look up pay dates.

i loved my Accounts2 app. Have been using it since at least 2011. i’m sure i will love Accounts3 as well, but in updating from Accounts2 I LOST THE MAJORITY of my account transactions in the process. My balances all carried over, so i didn’t even notice the discrepancies until a week later when I went searching for a previous auto deposit. It wasn’t there. Found out any transaction over a month old for 2022 was gone. i have 1 transaction from 2021; 1 from 2019; 9 from 2918; then we jump to 2 from 2016; and after that it’s a crap shoot back to 2011. i did the whole iCloud transfer and then deleted my Accounts2 app. Now there’s no way to get that information back. i am beyond frustrated!

MY APOLOGIES! if this was already posted. It seems that if you make sure the “Hide Reconciled Transactions” toggle button is NOT selected, you can see all your transactions from the beginning of time : ) Again, my apologies. i LOVE Accounts3Checkbook; especially it’s new take a pic of your receipt feature; the reason i updated.

I wish to move the database from Accounts2 on my iPhone SE over to Accounts 3 on my new iPhone 12 that has a different Apple ID. I believe this prevents me from using the ‘Local’ transfer option so I have tried doing it using Mail Drop. The email arrives on the new phone just fine along with the download link and I can download the Accounts2 database file by tapping that link. Once the download is complete I can then tap the link again and my new phone gives me the option to select which app I want to open the database in. I select Accounts 3 by tapping the icon. I then see that the Accounts 3 app imports the data base (its 94MB and it seems to happen EXTREMELY fast, so I am suspicious if it actually did anything). Then Accounts3Checkbook informs me that I need to exit and restart it. When I do that, Accounts3Checkbook restarts and gives me a message that it is initializing the database. Once it is complete there is nothing shown. None of my check register transactions are shown. None of my accounts are there, nothing…. Can anyone help?

I’ve been using the Accounts app in some form since 2011. There’s rarely a day that goes by that I don’t need to use it for something. I just found out about v3 and bought the upgrade immediately. I love having all my spending history at my fingertips. Not only is it handy to figure out how much is spent, but when/where it was spent. The statistics available are comparable other finance apps, and the newer backup options definitely make it a polished app. If your looking for a simple and versatile way to track financial transactions, without being in your face or attempting an upsell, this is Accounts3Checkbook for you!

Developer question: when entering a New Entry, the Name only shows 6 previous entries. Could this be increased by a few more entries (or an option added to choose the number) to accommodate larger phone screens?

Additionally, would you be able to add a way to hide accounts on the main page? I’d like to still have access to the history, but not have them in the list for daily usage.

I’ve been using Accounts3Checkbook and the prior version Accounts 2 for 9.5 years now. I like it a lot, it’s great for managing multiple accounts, all in one place and always with you. The only two gripes I have are: 1) sync issues - I can’t seem to keep my iPhone and iPad synced up. I work around it by always using my iPhone as primary, then manually update my iPad from time to time. 2) posting recurring items - post date vs. transaction date. It would be nice to have these as two separate dates when setting up recurring items, otherwise you always have to edit a posted item to the transaction date or have the item post on the transaction date. I choose to post at various days prior (depending on the amount) the transaction date so I can see something coming due and don’t forget to transfer funds, if needed. This is especially important to me since I have multiple accounts with funds going in and out. In spite of these gripes, I still give Accounts3Checkbook 5+ stars, since these things weren’t possible with my old checkbooks and everything else is that much better.

I’ve been using Accounts2 for many years, and would not have switched to 3 except for wanting to support the dev. This is a fantastic tool. My only problems are: 1) link an email in Help to report bugs instead of going to Facebook, which I don’t use. 2) On recurring transactions, deposits are green, as they are when entered in the account itself, withdraws show up white instead of red. I would like to see red for withdraws as that’s a great visual cue. 3) Please do away with the 1,000 transaction export limit and allow for any number. That is incredibly inconvenient!

Like I said, these are small things and imo do not warrant a less than 5 star rating for the overall use and functionality of Accounts3Checkbook . I would’ve paid $20 for it. It’s probably one of the best apps on my phone. Great job!