Couples and money: is a spreadsheet enough, or do you need an app?

A lot of couples run their money on a shared spreadsheet, and many are perfectly happy with it. It costs nothing, you decide exactly how it works, and nobody needs to learn a new tool. If yours is working, keep it. This post is for the couples whose spreadsheet has started to feel like a chore.

When a spreadsheet is enough

• You both open it, and at least one of you enjoys maintaining it.
• Your bills are few and predictable, and you already remember when they renew.
• You rarely need to ask whether you can afford something new, or you are happy doing that arithmetic by hand.

When it starts to fall short

The usual story is that one person built it and one person keeps it up. When that person is busy, it goes stale, and a stale spreadsheet is worse than none because it looks trustworthy. Formulas break quietly. The car insurance renewal lives in someone's email, the warranty is in a drawer, and nothing in the sheet reminds anyone of either.

A spreadsheet also cannot tell you anything unprompted. It will never say that the vacation fund is behind where it needs to be, or that the dentist cleaning is due next week. You have to go and look.

What an app should do that a sheet cannot

• Remind both of you before something is due, not after.
• Show whether each goal is on pace without you building the formula.
• Keep documents, maintenance schedules, and renewals next to the budget (on Wasly's Household plan and up).
• Let you see what changed and who changed it, so nobody wonders where a number came from.

That is the job Wasly is built for. It does not connect to your bank, so you still enter the amounts you plan around, much as you would in a spreadsheet. What you get on top is the part a sheet lacks: reminders, goal pace, an activity history, and a place for the paperwork. Ask Wasly can answer questions like what is due next, using your own records, and it never saves a change without your confirmation.

A simple test

Look at your spreadsheet and ask when you last updated it, and whether either of you would notice a renewal date arriving. If the answers make you wince, try the demo. It uses a sample couple's household, so you can see how the same information looks when the app does the watching.